Hey sorry, missed this message. Here is a link to my motor mount that has been working pretty darn well
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1_8IsM6DGIeTbIgT40DYoQuyvxMzkfSiy
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Yeah I bet it would work or be close if you print it in TPU. You might need to modify it a bit for that mast. I did share the fusion file if you want to mess with it.
Printed most materials and this is my experience.
PLA - prints great but is not good with temp, so fine under the water but will deform if left in the sun or gets any kind of heat from being in a car. Printing in lighter colors helps, white and bright colors that dont absorb heat from the surroundings with black being the worst obviously
ASA - works great but you have to print in less than about 40% humidity or you get bad adhesion and deformed prints, but has good temp stability if you can get it to print correctly
PETG - prints great and has the best of the above properties with print quality and layer adhesion. This is my current go to for printing with the only consideration to design with layer direction to cater for the loads and that fact it is slightly more brittle than the above.
PU - seems to have really good layer adhesion but you have to make sure the filament is dry. If its not dry will print with a very bubbly surface (you will hear the bubbling/crackling as it prints) and look really bad and have a rough finish and sizes will be out of spec.
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I printed my mast clamp with PETG, the front half is 100% infill and the rear piece has 100% infill on the outer shell (0.5cm outer wall 100% infill) with 80% infill on the inside which reduced print time from two days to one day 
I’m very impressed with its rigidity, it also has some weight to it! Feels durable, and has survived around 10 hours on the water so far. I can’t remember who I downloaded the file from, but the fit was amazing right off the printer. I had to dremel the hole for the wires just a little to get them through, it’s a tight fit.
Motor - Flipsky 65121 - Smaller version of the popular 65161 with all the same mounting holes and configuration.
Mast - Gong V1 Aluminum 80cm allvator m70
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There are many ways to skin a cat of course but after two years and some different clamp mounts i’ve come to this conclusion:
3d prints can be strong enough but they’re not at their best in continuous loading (like in a clamp) and crack or creep after some time so if you want to save weight and work then the design should preferrably have the load path through other materials. Today i would go this route in preferred order:
- structural clamp parts in alu or stainless steel strip, full length steel screws into motor holes, 3d-printed (cosmetic only) shell cover.
- 3d-printed clamp covered with laminated epoxy and glass fibre shell
- 3d printed clamp shell filled with epoxy plus chopped or continuous fiber. First option for the lazy
or time critical builds as it’s an easy and functional alternative, though with a weight penalty.
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where do you buy that length of stainless steel screws?
my friend did his last clamp in resin with a resin printer, and it is turning great. so far it seems very tight and sturdy. quite heavy though
I get 1m stainless steel threaded rods (available in most of the hardware stores here), cut it at the desired length and glue on a nut at the end with either loctite 638 or whatever epoxy i have at hand.
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I buy stainless metric bolts on amazon, they have a surprising selection, and I actually got them in 2 days!
There are different types of stainless steel (SS): the 304 (or A2 SS for interior use) is cheaper but rusts in salt water, 316 (or A4 SS for outside use) doesn’t…
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I am surpised there is no mention of ABS… does no one print using ABS as surely it is stronger than PLA, TPU and PETG?
Looking for advice - opinion on does anyone replace their 3D printed motor mount each season even if it shows no sign of cracking or wear as a preventative maintenance best practice?
I print with PETG, and never had issues.
No reinforcement.
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Certain properties are better in abs but others worse.
From my little experiments 3d printing with petg and PC, I recommend printing with no fan, other than bridge (or probably support). It is day and night regarding layer adhesion and thus part strength.
And I liked petg for being flexible instead of breaking fast when bending.
Thats an amazing finish- how did you achieve that? What printer settings do you use? Nozzle & bed temp, speed and retraction? Also what printer? I have a Creality Ender 3 - wondering if the stock nozzle can work with this material.
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Nice… ok sounds out of my league. Will take a look at the Bambu printers. Have just ordered a new nozzle that can handle the CF and ordered some PETG-CF. Just doing initial test prints in PLA to test fitting it all together.
The main thing I wanted to know was infill - are you using 100%? or somehow adding epoxy etc?
Thanks.
No Epoxy. 7 walls and 60% Infill
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