Toy Tug Boat

thingiverse

This is a fun toy tugboat I designed to create as a gift for my young nephews and nieces at Christmas. Thanks to my Ultimaker, I'm able to utilize its dual extruder feature so that part 1 is one color while part 2 takes on a second color. This tiny boat measures in at 165 mm from the bow to stern, but scales down well regardless of size. I've had the opportunity to print it out at three different sizes: 30mm, 80mm, and 160mm. If you're interested in giving this design a try for yourself, please post up a photo when it's finished so we can all take a look! Since this is my first time attempting to create something from scratch, I'd really appreciate any feedback or advice on what worked well (or not at all). By the way, Version 2 features sloped sides, making for an even more interesting design. Important Update: October 20th, 2014 - I recently came across an issue where the deck walls at the boat's widest point were a tad too thin. To fix this, I updated the design and uploaded the new version to give it a bit more strength. This latest version is now available for download! October 22nd, 2014 - As a result of another successful test run, I realized that removing the gap between the cabin and the deck created a much cleaner look. So, I've updated Version 2 to reflect this change as well. Tips & Instructions: When printing with your own machine, try using 15% fill rate combined with 0.8 mm wall thickness for the body of the tugboat, as well as 1.2mm top and bottom layers for added strength. Keep in mind that while 100% fill might make it even more buoyant (and perhaps better able to "float"), I'm not sure how well this would work given my setup. And just a heads up: if you don't have access to a dual extruder printer like mine, consider downloading the complete, merged model file instead.