3D Printing

EC12 RC Sailboat Spreaders

These spreaders are version 12, which is a little misleading but a lot of little changes have brought us here.

My initial design was too thin at the central collar and was prone to breaking when installing them on the mast. The spreaders have been strengthed as will by making them 3mm thick and adding to the horizontal plane as well.

A further refinement is underway that will add some more to the forward profile of the collar and an innovative approach to installing the spreaders with the surrounding rigging.

Also on the drawing board is a similar approach to spreaders on the Soling 1M and a new gooseneck to work with my upgraded vang arrangement.

Hardware Upgrade

I added a Rasberry Pi 3 from Canakit running Octopi to control the Maker Select V2 3D Printer. With this configuration loading files and monitoring the printing from a web interface makes it a lot easier to work with. I am looking forward now to adding some upgrades to the printer to make levelling easier and enhance the stability of the tower.