Building a HUGE 3D Printed Hydrofoil

[@Project-Air]

Stoked you’re finally doing this! And stoked I’m actually appearing in an RCTestFlight video - the dream 😄 What a fun day that was.

[@bogganalseryd2324]

I follow all you guys, you rock 😊

[@mickeyfilmer5551]

What's your next project?

[@bender2o]

Collab on a jet powered hydrofoil when??

[@TheWebstaff]

@Project-Air I'll be stoked when I feature in one of your videos. Even if it's just driving or riding by in a drone shot!

[@FarmerFpv]

Hey, bud. You can't park here.

[@laoch33]

".. I threw them in my lathe.." 😂🤣🤣 I didn't know I owned a lathe, today just got better.

[@FarmerFpv]

You're going to poke your eye out with that thing.

[@laoch33]

@@FarmerFpv 😆

[@brannon1221]

Love'd that part! ha

[@Mister_Brown]

@@FarmerFpv i've seen people cut grooves in yoyo's that way back in the day, chuck it up on the axle on the lathe, get a carpet knife, cut the groove do not recommend, definitely gonna poke your eye out.

[@Fantic156]

@@FarmerFpv OK mum ... Doh!!!

[@NicholasRehm]

Daniel: “Hey, can you help me with some code for a hydrofoil?” Me: “Sure! You’re not thinking of riding it, right?” Daniel: …

[@rctestflight]

First manned dRehmFlight vehicle???

[@aL3891_]

He was, in fact, thinking about it

[@SailingFrolic]

Me when I've been trying to get Daniel to work on a full sized sailboat drehmflight suite that automatically trims sails according to wind conditions and steers the boat on a waypoint mission. No joke, would be game changing. My tech brain is in love with the idea.

[@rctestflight]

@@SailingFrolic That already exists in Ardupilot

[@laoch33]

@@NicholasRehm 😂🤣🤫🤫🤫 don't implicate yourself any more than necessary

[@Michaelg1108]

"The quiet hydrofoil, flys under the wateerrr, doesn't make a sound.....it's real life magic carpet riiiideeee."

[@IsaacMorton]

Reminded me of a Genesis song

[@peperoni_pepino]

Ow, magic carpet. I couldn't unhear Magikarp and was wondering what he was really singing.

[@snjert8406]

That song was so good!

[@Geerice]

@@IsaacMorton I'm getting Adventure Time vibes

[@TheFinalFrontiersman]

​@@snjert8406 Best one so far!

[@timgarrett203]

Your engineering skills are top notch! The way you anticipate problems based on everything you have done before is great. It is also impressive how you use a huge variety of materials and tools to solve the engineering needs. The very tight and concise editing of your videos is much appreciated. No wasted time here. Can’t wait to see this FLY!!!

[@TsunauticusIV]

The hydrofoil song was FIRE 🔥 WOOOO

[@Michaelg1108]

Yes insane

[@FarmerFpv]

Hey bud, you can't park here.

[@yuiro1419]

Who Wrote/Sings That?

[@MarshallWitkowski]

@@yuiro1419 Phoebe Bridgers

[@bitsRboolean]

I'd buy that for a dollar!

[@Leo99929]

That waterproof servo housing is NICE. Good work!

[@blightborn87]

Really nice.. Well thought out and nicely done :)

[@weatheranddarkness]

It does feel slightly overkill though. Like it's so much bulk I feel like it could have just been extended to be that one wing section

[@Leo99929]

@@weatheranddarkness Pretty much everything has a design life and will eventually fail. There are only so many failures you can fix before you realise that "overkill" can save you time and effort by ensuring that you don't have to worry about failure, ever. Making the product perfectly strong enough to only last as long as the design life is basically an engineers job. Whilst Management try to reduce the cost to zero and Engineers stop them at the point that the warranty claims start to outsize the cost savings. Designing something yourself enables the opportunity to ensure that each part lasts as long as possible, rather than as long as profitable.

[@weatheranddarkness]

@@Leo99929 My point is that in this instance, all the overbuild is in the waterproofing casing, enough that it actually reduces the structural effectiveness of the system as a whole. I think your point would stand a lot better if the whole system was structurally overbuilt, but here, a huge amount of weight and volume is sucked up into a non-structural element. I'm saying this component could be, especially with the benefit of 3d printing, better integrated into the structure, gaining both strength overall, and performance.

[@Leo99929]

​@@weatheranddarkness I see your point. It is in contrast to neighbouring parts of the build, and differences in things like stiffness and ductility can result in stress concentrators which lead to early failure... but they didn't break... yet. So who knows if it matters? Let me know when you build something, look back, and think "That's absolutely perfect. If I were to make another I would do it EXACTLY the same and change absolutely nothing." Seeing ways you could improve is "the creators curse." And it hasn't gone away yet for me. It's about progress, not perfection. I think he did a great job and thought of some robust and innovative solutions to common problems that I hope to take advantage of in the future. We should celebrate the good things and encourage more!

[@thomaskamp9365]

A little tip from an old aircraft mechanic: If you want the wings to be streamlined, you only need to attach the servos for the wing above the waterline. Simply run them down the legs with a pull/push rod, then lead them to a rotating rod that runs through the wing and then to the flaps again with a pull/push rod.

[@weatheranddarkness]

I was gonna suggest putting the bulge on the high pressure side of the foil, but you're right that's definitely a better way, that's what they're doing in the America's Cup.

[@drei-zwei-eins]

I'm sure he thought about that😉

[@10p6]

Nice video. On some of my large 3D printed projects, I used minimal infill, then included some tiny holes and filled the voids with minimal expanding foam (for doors and windows.) It makes a simple, lightweight and very strong part.

[@foldionepapyrus3441]

You may be better off printing a mold rather than the hollow part itself with that concept - probably quicker print time, much less chance of voids in the finished part where the foam couldn't go for trapped air, too small an opening for its state of cure, and if you make the mold right quick itteration of the whole project when you only needed to tweak one part - reuse all the old molds but that spot. Though your method does have merits as well, with the part geometry going to play a big part in which works best as well - no point making a mold that is either millions of parts or only removable destructively unless you really want/need to have the foam at the surface for other reasons. One of the best bits of the expanding foams and a mold approach is you can put threaded elements and alignment tubes the final part needs in the mould to be cast into the part. Thus you can make them whatever size/shape will spread the loads and in a better material for the job than the 3d printing plastics - just be sure to use some grease like thing to prevent the bolts holding those parts and the threading from getting gunked up.

[@ortusdux]

That was my first thought as well. I'd like to see an infill pattern that is designed for this. Something that acts like textured rebar in a sense.

[@eelcohoogendoorn8044]

@@ortusdux Gyroid could in theory fill that role; though I suppose youd want to avoid trapped air pockets. Very low infill gyroid leaves a lot of gaps though and isnt really a continuous surface; kinda like the rebar you propose.

[@foldionepapyrus3441]

@@ortusdux the gyroid is probably that pattern as far as automatically generated 3d printer infill goes. Otherwise its manually modelling it in probably. Maybe you can use modifier shapes in the slicer (in the same way folks commonly do to tune where support material will and won't generate or increase infill density where it matters). Then almost any infill pattern is only used for a few layers with a gap of 2mm where infill is not generated leaving a floating mesh interspersed through the layers (likely with a great deal of droopy mess into the gap). Though I'm not 100% that slicers won't cap off and treat each section as if it was an outer surface, but in theory that should work...

[@Lanka0Kera]

Minimal required gyroid to make the part printable, perhaps with a bit thicker surfaces / wider nozzle. You can add strength by making small holes in the model to force slicer to create solid spurs (essentially 0.1mm hole isn't really going to print at all, so it'll be solid bar of surfaces) held in place by the gyroid. Then fill the gyroid's void with foam, resin, etc. to make a sort of composite. Depending on what you use, you may need to put the part under vacuum to fill it completely although gyroid should let even pretty thick materials flow freely. Or if you really just want to reinforce the inside, pour a small amount in, close the hole and rotate the part so it'll coat the inside and leave a void at middle.

[@johncnorris]

Nice lathe! 6:41

[@unusualcomment9731]

Jumping with an hydrofoil is nuts!! The amount of pressure you put on that thing at landing is massive!

[@acomingextinction]

I'm a woodworker and that 3d-printed custom stencil is a great idea.

[@robinbennett5994]

Awesome! Also, I really hope more KZbinrs commission their own songs from this guy!

[@ryanabney5396]

Your CAD skills and engineering mind is freaking amazing! Inspiring man! Keep it up, we sure enjoy the designs and videos.

[@bigrob029]

waterproofing by overgreasing. completely fascinating and hilariously genius.

[@martindinner3621]

It's a stuffing box for servos!

[@aserta]

1:45 that, is a wicked cool hinge. Into my "brilliant ideas" folder it went.

[@dddddyyn]

I love your build videos, but I would be lying if I said I wasn't disappointed in the fact that we have to wait for the next video to see it's performance. 22:44

[@dfouraksa.k6911]

This project, or probably every one of his projects, is huge, time-consuming, and hard, so I'd probably split it up if I were him. But I totally get you. When the music started, I was so hype then left disappointed

[@michelekonakciu7052]

Yeah

[@arfyness]

hopefully won't be too long since it's all built now. 🙏🥺

[@Mouse117Inc]

The "short period" is 30 min while being sprayed at high pressure at max depth

[@OperationDarkside]

Props to the the music guy. Their songs are getting better and better and the singing improved as well.

[@cliffp73]

8:36 nice idea with waterproofing the servo!!

[@piconano]

Cotton flux and epoxy in a mayonnaise like consistency, is use a lot in home built aircraft. It's as strong, if not stronger than fiberglass. Used mostly on fillets, but also for filling irregular shapes that are structural.

[@numbthumbhero8529]

17:35 lol you are a brave man. If that test had failed it would have at least made for exciting footage

[@StarForgers]

Although he might never get excited again!

[@Migueldeservantes]

I'm seriously impress with how well you explain how you do every single step... Love the housing for the servos.. "Really I love how you did it" It would be nice if you do an inspection after all this work and time immersed under water for so many hours to see the results..."Did you fill the servos with mineral oil??"

[@patrickradcliffe3837]

2:56 I remember back a few years ago in rc sailplane world that a glider called the Jester used a unusual servo to flight surface connection. It used the rotary action of the servo to turn a shaft the had bend in the went into a pocket in the surface was a very clean and slop free system.

[@jerrymcarthur2062]

That was fun day thanks for including us!

[@vne5195]

When compromising the foil to add ports, ducts and fairings, consider placing these features on the bottom (high pressure) side of the foil to reduce cavitation on the low pressure side. Try to keep the low pressure side as pristine as possible.

[@dyhidrogenmonoxide]

There is a second reason to do this; at least in aerodynamics you can actually get more lift from the low pressure side, leading things like swan neck spoilers on cars which deliberately move the attachment point to the high pressure side

[@IvanGOrtolan]

MY plan is to print a skeleton, fill with expanding foam and remove the excess foam that comes out of the skeleton (of course covered in carbon fiber or glass). Maybe you can use that approach instead. For the hinges you can screw them in as a separate component instead

[@feha92]

That's not how you build a human _at all._ Even the FMA brothers knew how to do it better. And they failed!

[@ryananderson8511]

It’s really cool seeing prior work accumulating to this full scale project the testing of the best props and everything that’s needed

[@Peter-z5f]

For UV protection it's best to keep the part in the dark, and the easiest way to do that is include a couple coats of flat black, then a layer or 2 of gray or white as a base for the color. Some paints allow you to re-coat within an hour (like new Tremclad), so you could do the whole thing in one shot, leaving a half hour between coats. To make it even easier, use flat paint whenever possible and only use gloss for the final coat, that way you can see whether the paint is wet or dry.

[@jong2359]

6:43 - Sweet lathe! I have the same model. There is so much to unpack in this episode, it is actually insane. You could probably watch this video a dozen times and still come up with new rabbit holes to go down.

[@Deja117]

I liked the idea with the blue dye, but ye, I think there's a balance with buoyancy. The last thing you'd want is to be stopping, then thrown down off the front and for something to go wrong which causes it to move over you... I feel like some added safety features would be a good idea if you were to do that. In any case, it looked amazing! It seems to soar through the water great. :D

[@Alex__Williams]

I just love this video so much. Satisfying seeing it come together without hiccups but I know a crazy amount of effort has gone into this project. It's so natural to watch because it's so concise that you don't waste a single second.The silent hydrofoil song just ties it together at the end. 🙂❤

[@X862go]

6:40 absolutely the best 👌 lathe ever 😂!

[@testboga5991]

Hydrofoils are great - if your boat is big and stable enough to plow through everything that may be floating in the water.

[@luckyirvin]

about 14:40 and a question if silicone and heat shrink makes reliable splices? we used high temp silicone sealant and heat shrink tubing around mag wire/multi-strand splices on hundreds and hundreds of space bound solenoid valves. your splices will probably be alright and your encapsulation of the servos gave me goosebumps. sweet and smart and cool good work, Sir.

[@raymondjohnbauer]

You can inject 2 part pour foam into gyroid 3d prints to keep the water out. You have to get the amount correct and drill vents so the print doesn’t warp or explode.

[@Forakus]

Absolutely incredible. So many others are failing with most of their projects, but you always deliver!

[@testboga5991]

There is tape made from hot glue, you can wrap that around wires and then use normal heatshrink

[@kirkc9643]

You can just cut slivers of hot glue and put them in the heatshrink once it's in position, before shrinking. Works perfectly.

[@darkclasher9949]

This was not Hobbyist stuff. That was high end Engineering and the best craftsmanship and exection of said project. My man Great job👍

[@colindavis_1974]

Huge props for everything you do. Very impressive work. One suggestion - I’m an ME who has designed several watertight housings. The aluminum shaft for the servo 1) should really be steel, not AL and 2) needs to have a MUCH smoother surface finish (ideally something like Ra 0.2 - mirror polish, essentially ) to maintain a good seal). What you have will work for a while, but it won’t last. The rough AL surface will tear up the o-ring eventually. And the silicone in-fill is interesting, but probably not necessary if you had a better shaft seal.

[@Twinkles__]

where can i listen to the song at 21:25?

[@minipac2]

I'm more interested in the "PB-Bridgers hit me up" that was at the end of the song at 21:30 I'm sure that the PB-Bridgers bit is wrong, so I just have to know what was said in the song

[@RaineyPeng]

@@minipac2Phoebe Bridgers probably?

[@ventilate4267]

at 21:25

[@georgedoubleyou4098]

Love your new lathe!

[@stacyp4534]

How about trying micro balloons in expanding foam? I don’t know if that works but it works in epoxy for strength

[@onbedoeldekut1515]

Print the hinge sections slightly smaller, then paint the shell with UV resin, and cure as you're going. You could probably make a brush/spreader that a (good) UV pen can attach to, curing at a safe angle from the brush/spreader. This would give you a perfectly smooth shell that's got some added strength. And/or you could 'do' individual sections and 'glue' them together with the UV resin, using a large area UV lamp.

[@X862go]

Wow, 8:14 big brain 🧠 This is an absolutely amazing build 🙌

[@toyfreaks]

Totally legit KiwiCo segue! I love that they partner with real designers and makers to spark the next generation

[@jdalbeck]

Peak RC Test Flight right here. I love your channel. This was a huge undertaking and I appreciate that you don't get into the tedium. Also love the music at the end, captures that PNW sound in a way

[@remotecontrolaholic]

I love your solution to waterproofing the servos. So much design effort went into that.

[@joshgault61]

The waterproof servo housings were a really nice touch! So satisfying

[@oddzc]

Your manufacturing and design skills are incredible

[@lady_draguliana784]

for similar such future projects, perhaps you could thicken the walls of the parts and leave them totally hollow, which should print faster, and fill them with buoyancy foam? just model in channels and such for your steel parts with thin, perforated bulkheads to suspend them in place, tape off one end, then pour in 2-part epoxy foam (or spring for the canned stuff, which is stiffer but won't fill as completely and could leave voids). Bang: you got a buoyant, water resistant part that's fairly stiff but not TOO stiff and that (probably) took no longer to make.

[@Tulasendlesssummer]

So cool! Can't wait to see the test flights!

[@Hazdazos]

Love how the servos were encased to keep the water out. Have you thought about applying a skim coat of epoxy to the outer surface of the 3D printed parts to make them water tight? Or running a torch over the surface to melt and quickly cool the surface to eliminate (or at least reduce) the layer gaps? I've done that in the past and it actually made the parts hold water.

[@mikekerfoot8087]

RCtestflight and Hydroflyer are hanging out? Best video ever.

[@MrNoobed]

5:42. Get a small air pump and pressurize them when you want to alter their buoyancy. Could probably do it with a co2 canister or two and a pressure regulator.

[@MrNoobed]

It's not a lot of pressure to keep water put either like 3-7 psi should be fine

[@OrganicOyster]

17:36 Wow I feared it was time for Nutcracker !

[@antibrevity]

This is an amazing project. You undoubtedly know what you're doing as you see the metrics, but I was really disappointed that the video ended just when testing began. I don't mind longer videos so long as they're full of content and you do a great job of throwing away hours and hours of recording to show us the important bits.

[@acomingextinction]

the music and editing in this was just *chef's kiss*

[@Steelythestacker]

Liquid electrical tape is a good option for sealing wiring as well. You can vary the thickness and it is very pliable and resilient after it dries.

[@charlesfletcher7971]

Great project! A warning about using silicone under heat shrink to seal solder joints. We did that with an underwater robot for the tether and after about a year the acetic acid from the silicone curing reaction corroded all the way through 10 or 12 gauge wire. Those joints will fail sooner or later unfortunately.

[@tench745]

Watching that e-foil board with the handlebars is a lot like watching videos of early jet-skis. I would not be surprised if foil boards migrated into a more jet-ski form factor over the next 15 years.

[@daviniusb6798]

I love that about your videos that you include your thoughts about what could have been made in another way. Of course you can't take the time of making things three times over until they are perfekt, so this is the perfekt balance imho

[@gunnarfernqvist4896]

Here in Stockholm, Sweden, we've seen the Candela P12 Commuter Hydrofoil test flights for quite some time now and they expect to run it with real commuters any day now. We have quite a lot of water commuters in our city. The P12 can carry 30 passengers in its Shuttle configuration. Great song by the way!

[@elwindewitte]

Ofc you have a Miata, love it!

[@cambridgemart2075]

FYI, if you can't get adhesive lined heatshrink tubing, cut slivers off a gluegun stick and put the inside a piece of regular heatshrink tubing. When you shrink the tube, the gluegun slivers will melt and fill the voids.

[@zetahurley7323]

For waterproof prints you'll want to use PP(polypropylene)! It's completely nontoxic, waterproof, and REALLY strong! It's a good bit more expensive but the raw pellets are dirt cheap if you can make your own filament. Really easy to print to, you just need to put packing tape on your print bed as PP only sticks to other PP, which packing tape is made of

[@AntonKhrapov]

If you need but don't have glue-lined heatshrink, you can put a bit of hot glue over the connection first and then heatshrink over it. The heat will remelt the glue and it will flow and cover everything under heatshrink.

[@skipwalker3269]

Dude that's so awesome I'm so glad I got to see you Flying at the end! Can't wait to see the next video!

[@travisk5589]

I think that tormach needs to kick you down a mill. They did for stuff made here so I figure you need a tormach sponsorship also

[@sidravi]

Dude your channel is a treasure trove. I am building an autonomous solar powered boat and your videos have been super helpful.

[@NexGen-3D]

Some tips on the water proofing, print your parts in ABS or ASA and use Vapor smoothing, or if you want super strong water resistant parts, print in PC-CF, then coat with Loctite 406.

[@TDOBrandano]

I think you can get a good watertight FDM print by coating it with some spray-on conformal coating. I think in the US the go-to brand is plastidip, at least that's what I see from aquarium forums, that put an emphasis on it being safe for fishes, but there's several other manufacturers.

[@critical_always]

Can we just stop and appreciate how human knowledge and skills spread and becomes common. A 3D printed hydrofoil. WOW. I always call my 3D printer my super power but this is next level.

[@addohm]

You can increase the perimeters and also coat the 3d print with polyeurethane to make it water tight. I found 6 perimeters to be sufficient. You could also redesign so that you can print in vase mode. A nice slow vase mode is also water tight.

[@yoursfithfully047]

amazing , you have been putting out such amazing content . well done and thanks for all the inspiration and support

[@ericzaiz8358]

if you ever want to remove the servos from the water. I suggest going the old school aircraft way and use wire cable to connect the control surfaces to the motors. Have the servos up in thd board above water and just run the wires down to the hings. Likely cut down on the space need and you can centerize all the stuff on the center of gravity better.

[@johnravensbergen3324]

Wow, I was blown away. Super project, and very nicely captured on video. Great Job!!

[@siberx4]

I will often hot glue around a soldered joint and then slide heat shrink over that when I have a size that I don't have on-hand in the hot glue coated tubing. When you hit it with a heat gun to shrink the tube, the glue will melt and flow into the gaps, forming a pretty good seal.

[@necromental]

That hinge is *chef's kiss*

[@ericseidel4940]

Nice project. About the protuding actuators : you definitely don't need a 35% chord aileron in water. Reduce your hinge and une a 15% hinge, then you will have a reduced leverage for the same action. Also in bigger marine rudder, tab actuators are a thing. wor way less power draw you can only drive a servotab on your big ailerons for the same result.

[@MaxPowersHedgehog]

It is so great how you can incorporate a sound track by your friend to these, keep up the great teamwork!

[@jaimeortega4940]

Neat! Always enjoy your projects and content over the years and your creative work arounds for things.

[@astroflash]

Love what you’re doing. I have a LARGE model aircraft background. Servo/boost tabs are a great way to reduce loads on servos, I imagine the loads on servos in water are massively greater than in air so ‘servo/boost’ tabs could be very beneficial and enable the use of smaller, lower power and cheaper servos. I realise you may know more about these tabs than I do but just in case, thought I’d chime in. Thanks for a superb channel 👍🙂

[@Pr0HoN]

Incredible video! Also crazy that you got David Bowie to write a theme song and Art Garfunkel to perform it!

[@sjorsangevare]

Instead if hot glue heatshrink, you can also just put on hit glue first and then slide heat shrink over. Wait for it to cool down first, otherwise the heat shrink will shrink instantly. Also shrink the outer ends first, to keep the glue in

[@KevinDC5]

from the gyroid infill, to the grease packed servo enclosures, to the silicon lube instead of petrol base id say your technique is on point! Since youre thinking out every aspect of the build, may I recommend in the future Viton Orings....brown works well, but that will save some headache when deciding on lube/seal products as the Viton withstands petroleum distillates much better than normal black rubber. I learned that when working on natural gas compressors...everything including UV deteriorates rubber sealing rings, the extra cost is worth not having to tear all that down in the future. Cheers from Texas!

[@ww07ff]

Genius project! Love the song!!! Regards from Brazil!

[@Proxtor]

It would be cool if you could make a hydrofoil that worked at trolling speeds we use for salmon fishing but not sure the efficiency would make it beneficial but could make the ride smoother. I wonder if a lifting bodt hull design would also help the hydrofoil.

[@reneberthold334]

A easy way to get FDM print water tight is to put a thin layer of UV resin with a brush over all parts. If you plan this layer in your contruction than you also get the hinges water tight.To get it smooth you can also add some grease to the hinge. I used this method to print a motor housing for a RC duck and seal it to prevent the motor from geting wet.

[@rjung_ch]

Nice build. Congrats to your buddy who always adds a nice sound track as well! Cheers 👍💪✌

[@GroovyVideo2]

I started building Hydrofoil 1990 then had stop for health issues - Yours is a Great project

[@rorykorathu-larson7831]

If you're looking for a "quick & dirty" smoothing, waterproofing and reinforcement, paint UV resin on and the cure a layer or 2. I like rough resins, and clear is nice thinned with alcohol

[@jaspervandenameele4834]

Dude I am always impressed with the amount of work you put in put this has to be up there as your most impressive video!

[@wh7787]

Might be able to achieve watertight foils if you separate the hinge designs from the rest of the foil and fully glassed the non hinged sections and printed the hinges at 100% infill

[@greatkingrat]

It’s funny to see that the three channels I watch, watch (and know) each other.

[@TeeTeeNet]

Duude, well done, congrats on getting this far!

[@piconano]

Wow! What a prototype! I think this is your best build ever. I estimate you put about 400 hours on this project.

[@mozartantonio1919]

Your fabrication skills are good man!! Love it

[@chris-graham]

If you want good sealing heatshrink, buy raychem SCL. Commonly used in motorsports. Excellent quality

[@basilbrushbooshieboosh5302]

Absolute magic man. Bravo. You're so damn good at this stuff. Encore.