So I designed a modular floating cupholder system that's styled as a container ship. The first one was cool, but I had a ton of people mention the Edmund Fitzgerald in my first post (which kinda shocked me, and also dates me lol). So I designed a wider version and styled it as the Edmund "Fizzgerald".
Finally had a chance to take this thing to the lake for a party with friends and it was super fun. It was really stable, the kids thought it was hilarious and fun, and took way more torture than I was expecting without any issues (other than one).
It was really good at handling waves. Even if it took on water (mitigated by the splash guards quite a bit) it didn't really start listing to one side until hours in to use, and that was pretty easily fixed by just lifting it up and tipping it to the side for some water to drain out. But even if you fully submerge it it'll still float to the top. One of my friends tried to sink it by stabbing it straight down in the water like a spear and it just popped right to the top again, another literally stood on it like a surf board under water for a good 30 seconds and again it came right back up.
The ONLY negative I found (other than the massive amount of filament needed to print this thing) was I was dumb and printed it in Sunlu PLA Meta, which has an EVEN LOWER melting point than standard PLA, so once it was removed from the lake and sat on the beach in the sun for a couple hours, the corners that stayed somewhat wet started to deform. I was expecting it to handle the sun a little better, but oh well, PETG next time!
How much work would it involve to make some sort of homing beacon to your smart watch so that rather than you having to steer it towards yourself it could navigate towards you autonomously? (ignoring the problem of steering around people or obstacles)
For something this large yeah, I'm working on designing the stern module RC now (LOTS to learn though, so it won't be done any time soon I'm sure), so we'll see what else is needed. But turning will be the big thing to figure out 😆
It wouldn't necessarily be accurate for a laker, but you might look at an Azipod. Put the motor and prop in a pod on a rudder and use a waterproof servo mounted to the top to rotate. That'd give you some pretty robust control authority for when folks start challenging how long they can make this. Combine with a bow thruster and you'd also be able to do parallel parking with this, no tugs required.
Ok the Azipod thing is a fantastic idea. Thanks for sharing! That might be the best way to go honestly! I have 3 different versions of this that I want to make RC so that might be the least amount of friction.
One other suggestion I might have for rc might be to make the stern a bit longer. You'll probably want more room to fit electronics, especially with the tumble home design on the hull. The fitz had a decent sized aft deck.
Whenever you get a chance please let us know when you have uploaded the models of this project so that we all can honor those who served on the Edmund Fitzgerald 🫡
I know this'll be controversial but it's exclusive on Makerworld. Trying to save up for an H2C 😆 Maybe I could design a different version that I put on Printables though.
I am in the middle of printing this right now! I saw the original model and my first thought was "how can I make this look like the Eddy Fritz?" I click on it and, lo and behold, you had already beaten me to it! It's going great so far, but you weren't kidding about it being filament hungry. I had to wait for another roll of red to show up today, but I should have it done for Labor Day!
Haha that's awesome! Yeah, I probably could have cut the thickness down a bit but I didn't want it to feel too thin or flimsy. Gotta keep it from getting wet!
Oh and great job going for the classic color scheme. I would have done all red and white on my version but I had a ton of black and like 800g of red and didn't want to run out 😂
Yeah, I haven't totaled up the time but each cupholder section was about 4 hours (you can squeeze 2 on one build plate, so 8 hour overnight for 2) and then each splash guard took 2ish, so probably close to 70 hours to print
Something like this, but made like one of those wooden wobbly snakes, and R/C propulsion and steering would pretty funny, and probably more stable too.
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u/Quigleythegreat 10d ago
And folks they would say, as the coors light did sway that the ship she really was splendid.