3D Printing a RC Boat to Cleanup the Oceans?

I spent over a month designing a trash sweeping rc boat that can be 3d printed with an entry level 3d printer. This remote control boat can pick up garbage and plastic in oceans and rivers and is fun to drive around in sport mode. Full build tutorial plus my experience using this plastic cleanup boat on a couple missions. Could this help clean up the oceans? DIY RC Boat, 3d printed rc boat, cool 3d print projects, water cleanup boat, environmental builds, clean plastic out of water, ocean cleanup boat, plastic cleanup boat.
PLANS/FILES (NOW FREE!): www.drewbuildsstuff.ca/plans
Instagram: @drewbuildsstuff
Products Used: Coming Soon (In the $10 plans above for now...)

[@DrewBuildsStuff]

My videos tend to do a little better if they get more likes so I’d appreciate that very much! 👍 Also curious for the future: would you prefer 1. The current KZbin placed ads (5ish ads through the video), or 2. Less youtube ads (one at beginning and one at end) and an integrated sponsorship somewhere in the video (60-90 seconds)?

[@mortezazamani3570]

2

[@crystalpoole1560]

I use an ad blocker so I never see ads lol.

[@AyomideIruobe]

2

[@mayekarharish]

If you want to test your boat visit my city you will be able to also test how much trash your boat will be able to carry🤣🤣

[@pajamcha8244]

Whichever makes you more money so you'll keep making more videos

[@ianr2002]

Couple of things that could be improved, from a fellow RC enthusiast who also owns multiple 3D printers: 3D prints are not watertight. You WILL have water leaking into your boat if you leave it in the water long enough. It'd be ideal if you sealed the hull using resin or something similar. The net will propably tangle up into the propellers, so I'd move that to the front of the boat and have it run through the middle all the way to the end of the boat. That way your props stay clear of any possible tangles. Print this with ABS, ASA or some other high temperature filament instead of PLA. PLA gets soft at quite low temperatures, it easily deforms under direct sunlight and it's also very brittle, so your spars are quite prone to breaking. Do yourself a favor and get some heatset inserts, it's much stronger than screwing directly into plastic. Just be careful not to get the ones that have vertical ribbing, but the ones that are diagonal. The vertical ones are mainly used for wood, and they're very bad when used with 3D prints. Shift the center of mass forward. On a couple of shots it looked like your boat was super close to taking in water through the rear hatch because it was sitting so low. Move the batteries forward, or move the net forward. This way your boat won't end up being a submarine.

[@MTEXX]

collaboration in the works? !

[@ganachepanache]

i dip my 3d printed parts in melted paraffin if they need to repel or contain water.

[@stevenette4738]

These are great suggestions! I agree with ABS and putting center of gravity further up. My only suggestion would be an airboat design as the props ALWAYS get caught on weeds and stuff. Edit: Also it is all sealed up??? What! What if a component or wire breaks. How you gonna thread cables etc.? If one piece breaks you gotta really go into fixing it.

[@ianr2002]

@@stevenette4738 Oh, I didn't mean fill the hull with resin. You just need to add a layer of resin to the hull. Think painting epoxy onto the hull

[@stevenette4738]

@@ianr2002 I know, it just seems like all the parts are epoxied together so fixing a cable would be a pain to thread back through the strut channels. Maybe not, looks like a big enough hole?

[@jonas5006]

The plastic which has been collected by the boat could be used to create filament for the 3d printer

[@ronald2042]

seems like a lot of work

[@SRNAR8]

pet is weak and a very useless filament for practical work, making figurines out of it is the only use or a vase.

[@anuragneelam8527]

Invent new method of making incredibly durable plastic from recycled plastic Make 3D printed vehicles and boats with nets to capture plastic in ocean and landfills Convert captured material into printing material Print more boats and cars Capture more plastic and convert more plastic *infinite plastic cleanup glitch*

[@LateShow1]

This guy is becoming the new king of random

[@DrewBuildsStuff]

Keep you guessing on what I’ll release haha

[@WP2022]

Uhhhhhh boat mk 2?

[@G0JI]

Rip grant

[@greyfivenine7005]

I Did A Thing has some competition

[@demarcuscousinsthe65th]

@@DrewBuildsStuff poopie

[@rebeccazuckman9059]

Not only are you Talented with Building and using both sides of your brain, You’re also a good person that cares about our planet… I cannot wait to see what else YOUR CREATIVE MIND WILL COME UP WITH…. Very, wry talented in sooooooooo many ways. Love it 🥰

[@texaslonghorns2222]

that sounds like an awesome and fun solution to a bad problem

[@olafurhh03]

Awesome and fun, yes. But not a solution for anything.

[@awesomecronk7183]

Slick boat! I do have a suggestion though: Right now the flat-back hulls drag a large pocket of water around behind them in a low-pressure zone. If you make the keel of each hull narrow back around the motors you would reduce the size of the pocket and also reduce the drag and turbulence it creates.

[@reddragon771]

One more basement dwelling internet troll who thinks that he knows everything about the world because he learnt it on the internet. These keyboard master craftsmen have not made a single thing in their lives but feel like they are experts because they saw an expert doing it on some tv show.

[@BenRyherd]

If you do a V2 I think it would make a lot of sense to use 2 Liter bottles for the pontoons, probably 4 of them. They're already water tight, about the right size, lighter than PLA hulls while being less likely to break transporting the boat or being in the hot sun and you'd be recycling them which would cut down significantly on the amount of printed plastic in the hulls which would both be more eco friendly and would be less of a project for anyone looking to duplicate. Downsides would be that you'd have to make your propellers external to the bottles and you'd have to store the electronics somewhere other than the hulls. Also in the interest of doing more without wasting as much, you can get replacement nets for pool skimmers and then you wouldn't be throwing away the frame and pole to get the nets. You could probably also use mesh laundry bags for the net which would be cheaper still (they're like 2 or 3 bucks at walmart).

[@DrewBuildsStuff]

For sure that could be an option. I did mention in the video briefly that this will also be used as a toy rc speed boat once I get the propeller issue figured out. Would everyone be complaining as much of I had bought the boat from someone else? 🤷‍♂️

[@BenRyherd]

@@DrewBuildsStuff Sorry for the misunderstanding I'm not complaining, merely providing additional design thoughts. That being said I was about 30 seconds into the video and was struck by the irony of making a boat out of plastic and putting it in the water with the goal of removing plastic from the water. Besides the humor of the irony, my suggestions were simply in the thought-train of "how could we make this cheaper and more accessible so people could do this en-masse?" Maybe you're going to use it as a toy as well and that's fine, but probably most people who would replicate your project would be doing it for water-borne trash removal. If you scale the use of printed plastic to 100 more boats the savings just seem worth it to design around recycling bottles.

[@mrharvest]

This sounds like you could do your own video of a cheap no-3D print version 😉

[@theorangebaron1595]

To explain the mixes… or try to at least. Each joystick has two axis of movement, each axis represents a channel. We have two joysticks, so we have 4 channels. The switches can also function as channels. Each joystick or switch channel will directly correspond with a channel on the receiver. If we want to control two channels with the output of one channel, we use a mix. In this case, channel 2 was mixed so the receiver would output the same signal to channel 2 and channel 5. Channel 3 is commonly known as the roll(for planes) or yaw channel(boats and cars). We mix channel 3 to so when it is to the right, it outputs a signal to the right motor(the one connected to ch 5), and when the stick is to the left, it sends a signal to ch2. Not sure if this clarified a bunch, but I gave it a shot :) Also great video! Quickly becoming one of my fav creators, got hooked on the ebike trailer build! Z

[@christinechadsey6414]

Drew - I just wish I knew more about electronics to understand some of what you talks about but I absolutely love seeing your videos and seeing the unique things you come up with.

[@DrewBuildsStuff]

It’s pretty new to me as well so kind of hard to explain that part ha. Like I said in the video though, there are a lot of KZbinrs will tons of knowledge on that stuff! Thanks for watching

[@lilseel]

Amazing design dude

[@menacingvibez]

I have a science fair coming up and I'm going to make a rc boat which cleans the river, like your one! I had a lot of questions about the mechanism and rc transmitter and your video helped a lot. Thank you!

[@DrewBuildsStuff]

Great! Thanks for watching!

[@cptnfool]

I guess I'll wait for next video for the package

[@deepwoodguy2]

👍😎👍

[@jasongooden917]

You should put a solar panel on top to keep the battery charged

[@dans-designs]

Nice, for the pool skimmer you could add image recognition and pathfinding so it can find the leaves itself!

[@calijguyman]

That's so awesome dude!

[@danielalel7139]

Super inspiring project! Has me thinking about what I can do with my printer too now

[@DrewBuildsStuff]

So many options! This opened up a ton of video ideas for the future

[@ManuRomein]

Wow drew, this is amazing and it is just so satisfying to see everything fit in place

[@fiveeyedfrog]

Great job - very inspiring. Thank you for the video!

[@realworldtrekkers]

I think your video has the clearest description of a project build that I have seen in a long time. The concept is a great one and could definitely be developed further. Great stuff!

[@prpman99]

Great job and thanks for the clean up.

[@schrodingersdogjack]

Great job! Thanks for doing something to Keep America Beautiful! I saw someone on KZbin take recyclable plastic bottles, cut off the top and bottom, put the bottle through a homemade cutter of the same thickness as their 3D printer nozzle, and turning the bottle into one long strip. And finally, pass the strip through a heated tube that reshapes the strip into cord that can now be used as stock to use for more projects... like making a boat that picks up plastic bottles!

[@kamolsamol4730]

very good job with solar panel and autonomism it will have a big potencial

[@JakeBoi16yt]

look at this guy helping the environment bro build a mini version of mark rober’s team seas boats

[@_BlueCollarGamer]

this was awesome!!! the only thing id like to suggest would be... MAYBE you could 3D print some sort of basket or cage like piece to protect the props. I think this could help a ton because seeing as this boat was made to help clean... the chances of running over some improperly discarded fishing line are rather high id imagine! I think this would be a good mod to help protect your project and would also be good for folks to have who download your files and print their own to help protect THEIR project.

[@FunDumb]

This is absolutely amazing. Love all but the the cutting without clamping.

[@fernandowarrenyanson4557]

Essential for the Philippines creek.👍

[@josephraia6662]

So cool! can't wait to see an update on this.

[@pcbwaycompany9941]

That's really IMPRESSIVE!👍👍

[@crystalpoole1560]

First off, Happy Belated Birthday! I was actually checking out that exact 3D printer the other day lol. The Junk Skimmer was a great idea, now if you made a bigger one with a deeper net, you could catch fish with it lol.

[@jenspaschmann7906]

The fish will sink your boat! :D

[@arkapravamanna]

Fantastic work!

[@othnxxltv4345]

Awesome, love the engineering !

[@othnxxltv4345]

Your videos are really well made, nice footage, and well explained. For me, i really love the electronic aspect and the process to make these products!

[@DrewBuildsStuff]

Thanks for watching!

[@myspanielshuntingNZ]

You are very talented, awesome build😀😀

[@DrewBuildsStuff]

Thanks for watching!!

[@maanavtriestuff]

I love your videos, keem em up! 😝🙃

[@DrewBuildsStuff]

Thanks for watching!

[@judestewart3955]

Brilliant idea- well done.

[@Prt_3D_RC]

Thanks, this will make a great RC boat recovery boat.. I am printing one now.

[@Justeverything2k]

Thank for the idea

[@noktrnl123]

This is awesome and definitely got a like. The only things I would do differently is mount the receiver in a top spar with the antennas out, bigger extended props for enough power to go upstream with a full net and a bigger net. It's awesome and inspiring to see you try something new and make something useful.

[@huto9606]

Thank you for doing!

[@robertowens7771]

This is a wonderful invention I love it, keep the environment clean bravo thank you for showing us

[@r.h.b.4980]

Great engineering and skill keep up the good work 👏

[@rocanrul5752]

I would add a waterproof proximity sensor under the boat to avoid underwater obstacles that could jam the boat.

[@DrewBuildsStuff]

That is a good idea. Prop’s could get jammed if running in areas with heavy debris

[@mkmac9539]

Nicely done.

[@stargazer279]

well done, i am considering building one to clean the rivers around Montreal

[@williamwiese9963]

Thank you for the plans! My exact thoughts were I want this for my swimming pool, and there it was you had it in the pool👍🤓 thanks for the files on the boat build. I subscribed to ya Drew keep up the great work

[@DeanSchumacher]

The giant ocean ones are so cool cleaning up the Pacific ocean and rivers

[@FarmerFpv]

This is a sweet project. Years ago before drones were mainstream and just called quadcopters I made a mosquito-fogging drone for a school that is right along a marsh. It worked out well for the children who play outside during recess. I love building. I'm going to have to give this a go as our marina is always full of plastic bottles and can rings.

[@ladym808]

Oh wow amazing!

[@rohankatreddy3260]

Using plastic to beat plastic. The literal meaning of fighting evil with evil. Cool

[@ProtoMan137]

13:48 I feel you so hard. I planned on making a huge RC crawler, put maybe a 100h work into it. Now I'm realizing that the whole suspension is basically trash and I have to redo eveything, from the wishbone to a new chain drive. Anyways, love your video style and it's a super nice project!

[@onyinyendukalu2118]

There is a slum in Nigeria where this R/C not could be useful. There is a lot of trash there due to the government dumping their garbage around their area. It is a sad situation. Introducing this the the kids their would amaze them. I am definitely using this boat. Thanks for working on a project like this.

[@gennadyyakubovich4076]

Great idea and execution. Similar kind of boat I made for my pool to collect leaves and other debris from water surface. It is acting as a floating skimmer. Next step is autonomous boat charging from solar panel and may be, even, sort of vision system that will spot floating garbage and will pick it up,

[@NateYaquinto]

Combine this with a solar panel, autonomous mission software, and a camera with image recognition software trained to spot trash. This would also make for a cool fish finder drone if you put a sonar scanner on the bottom

[@user-ug1pu5nm5c]

Brother you are a true pro. Greenpeace will appreciate it !!!

[@areldcookie5581]

As an RC Enthusiast I really enjoyed this kind of video, you're saving planets while enjoying the hobby! Hahaha

[@davidanderson6222]

Making clean up fun! 👍🏽

[@reelreacts227]

New to the channel really enjoy your videos ! You do really nice work too !! Glad KZbin recommended your channel to me !

[@DrewBuildsStuff]

Thanks for watching 🙂

[@slimplynth]

❤love it, brilliant, I've been designing a catamaran to print on my CR30 print mill.. want a 3m pontoon but was thinking a 1m RC scale test makes sense.. collecting plastic out of the local canal is definitely happening 👌

[@user-ov7bm7hr5x]

brilliant idea, for a lake river and a pool, and some of us would have loved to see your package

[@TheRealBostonFlammer]

Incredible

[@ashjensen7054]

wow, so cool, I run racing rc boats and we run our water cooling intakes on the rudder as the prop pushes the water into it, so i would put a bit of tube that extends out just beyond the prop.

[@SUPERSHELLEYBELLY]

This is an amazing idea to a major problem!!! I've seen someone use plastic bottles as filament. Maybe that's something you can try. Just another way to use plastic waste❤❤❤

[@erinaltstadt4234]

Very cool

[@jasontheripperjohntheripper]

This video is awesome!

[@melsyoutube]

this deserves more views. i hope the algorithm gives it a boost

[@TrailRat2000]

A plastic boat to collect plastic rubbish, the very definition of fighting fire with fire.

[@helenmm89]

Great build and excellent concept. I’m a new subscriber.

[@aarongunner1711]

Great video mate 😊

[@Defianthuman]

adding a small solar panel would be very good as well as the longer props.

[@antoinelecoupeur9090]

This video is absolutely crazy, co tongue the hard work. Unfortunately I don't have a 3d printer but I would love do construct that boat

[@gunplaradar4316]

Just found you channel, really liking it 👍

[@maenqudah4232]

I really enjoy your builds keep it up Drew and maybe for the next modification if its possible consider using solar power to charge the batteries

[@stoneystone1583]

🤙

[@Boeing767DriverAA]

Hey Drew love this idea great for skimming leaves out of my pool. Imagine on a much larger scale if they had something like this for the oceans. By the way when you said Dollar Rama I thought oh Wow! you're from Canada but when you said KW what a coincidence. Thats where Im from Westmoreland area. I assume that was the Grand River? I live in both in Atlanta and Kitchener depending on the weather.

[@stk.plantation2912]

Your work is great, I like it

[@jfedermesser]

This would be super useful in Miami or South Florida in general... Maybe bigger but still small and light enough to get close to seawalls in Biscayne bay and such. Interesting build

[@user-dx1ji7cl2g]

you are a genius, greetings from Baku Azerbaijan 🤗🙏✊✊✊🎣🎣🎣🎣

[@octapustag5018]

AMAZING

[@minerwilly]

Finally a video about building an RC boat where somebody actually speaks and gives an explanation of what's going on. I was starting to think that everybody in the RC boat community was completely mute.

[@rym7493]

The vid is so well made keep up the great work love the vids

[@84ghostrider]

Really nice build, very cool. I'd be tempted to experiment with long hulls and a wider span, perhaps with a wider net. You could then potentially incorporate GPS with Arduboat/pilot to autonomously skim the surface of the water.

[@Tastewithnewdrinks]

Amazing

[@andrewtinker1802]

Ok now its time to make it self sustaning(with minor maintenance)!! Solar for power, self detected trash,self drive to pickup, self detect full, and a whole nother device to empty the trash payload into larger bin.

[@wkim3114]

Very environment friendly boat

[@lynxg4641]

Cool idea. To solve your problem with the motor and help balance the weight better, is to change your design and move the motors to a mid engine configuration, dropping the engines and props under the boat/water, completely immersed in water your problem will be gone.

[@DrewBuildsStuff]

Any solutions to make this design work better? Will the longer props help?

[@lynxg4641]

Nope. Just because I have a stethoscope, doesn't make me a doctor. Next time, do due diligence research before you come up with a quick and easy idea for a video to gets lots of views and make you your YT $$, piggybacking on the most recent trending thing. Just looking at it before it collects anything it's ass heavy with all the electronics etc in back, now add some stuff in the net and the bow is up out of the water, engines & batteries, mid way up the hull and below will help balance it and cure your problem.

[@J0ermungand]

Nicely done. I feel like a project that is made to remove plastics from bodies of water and is itself made of 3D printed plastic should emphasize how that plastic (PLA) is itself less of a problem since it's actually biodegradable.

[@DrewBuildsStuff]

I didn’t know this but looks like you are correct! Still a problem as it needs specific conditions to decompose but somewhat of an improvement over oil based plastic. Thanks for the info!

[@samgrundy8447]

Hey just a little tip for the 3d printing clean up use flush cutters to remove supports and brims/skirts it is much easier. Also instead of getting a longer drive shaft could you angle the shaft down more?

[@DrewBuildsStuff]

I’ll try that out! 3d printing was a brand new experience so definitely still some improvement on that process

[@haleywooster]

He *really* missed the opportunity to say he’s fighting fire with fire

[@DanielJAudette]

This is so awesome. Hopefully it can be scalled up for larger water ways. But way to go

[@TheRealBostonFlammer]

Come to Bluffdale, Utah US, there is an extremely polluted river full of garbage everywhere. What's sad is that there is garbage everywhere, and it could be an extremely beautiful place without it. Please come, we need the help.

[@DrewBuildsStuff]

Never been to Utah! I’ll add it to the list 👍

[@TheRealBostonFlammer]

@@DrewBuildsStuff You'd love it.

[@TheRealBostonFlammer]

@@DrewBuildsStuff I'm sure you have many requests to come, so I'm sure Utah's at the bottom of the list. But, the community and I really would appreciate it!

[@CriticalEatsJapan]

Like a roomba for a pool 👍

[@DrewBuildsStuff]

Haha yes had the automated grid and you are all set!

[@boredbrother6676]

I got some ideas for improvements like a motor to pull the net up out of the water when not in use that would decrease drag. Or a drone that find trash in head of time to save time or even flexible solar panels on the boat so it can charge if it dies in the water and how about if it were an autonomous sworn. It could clean a larger area in a very small amount of time and it would be so much more efficient. This negating the negative side effects of the boat. I’m excited for the second one

[@c.fisherfighter638]

Congrats man, I'm still at the part of designing my boat. xD I really like your design too

[@rusped3271]

try lake of the ozarks we go there every forth of july and spot a lot of garbage fromother people but you might have some fun!

[@DrewBuildsStuff]

I’ll add it to the list! Never been there. Thanks for watching

[@rusped3271]

@@DrewBuildsStuff thanks for responding

[@SGudur]

@22:00 3 is surely a good number!! Loved this project... Loads of love from India... I wish, I could do the same here!! :(

[@BigKahuna61]

Awesome build and idea. Try your local park lakes.

[@bryantfitzmorris]

Aqua Roomba? Cool. As a product, it would need autonomy. It would need computer vision to distinguish debris from an otter and stuff.

[@rhythm2620]

You should trail behind it a big black bag with holes in to let the water escape, might give you more success

[@strangerontheinternet8851]

This dudes content is underrated af Your going to blow up soon man!

[@DrewBuildsStuff]

Thanks for watching!

[@sameteuh]

Hey man, i appreciated the video and great idea for the planet!