Printable remotely operated underwater vehicle - RepROV?

I was tipped off about this very cool project, where a guy built an ROV (remote control submarine with camera) out of PVC pipes and a few standard pumps for propulsion, plus some electronics for controls and some bits and bobs.

I thought it would be extremely cool to make a printable ROV. As much as possible can be printed, including pumps, and it just needs to be made watertight so there's an internal space to keep motors, batteries and electronics.

This is still very much at the idea stage (ie. vaporware), but it would be fun and educational, and provides a great wy to bring your technical interest outdoors. And if you find sunken treasure, you'll be rich and famous!

RepRap parts are very not waterproof, as there are pretty large gaps between bits of filament. (ok tiny, but large to water) I imagine you could waterproof prints by filling those holes with something, perhaps some sort of epoxy?

I think the waterproof issue would be part of the development. Perhaps it is possible to make parts so that they will be waterproof on a well calibrated machine, otherwise dipping the parts in epoxy might be a good solution.

I'm in the process of designing a printable model boat hull and during the process Ive had to consider waterproofing. You could print the parts using ABS and finish with acetone but I'm not sure how the final result of this process turns out. You could also use modelling putty which would require a fair bit of sanding down. Dipping into epoxy sounds like the best solution but I'm looking for smooth results so the modelling putty may have to be my choice.

It's not that hard to print waterproof objects. If your objects have gaps between the filaments in the outer shells, those can be fixed by calibrating the plastic flow - it's a bug, not a feature.

The big problem is going to be printing waterproof seals between the parts. Pretty much any seal requires much smoother surface finish than what the printers are capable of. Only way to directly print a sealing surface, that I can think of, is to design it to be printed against the print bed, but that would limit the seal type to gasket seals which are not that good against any significant pressure. (O-rings would be normally used.)

It might be worth your while to check out the OpenROV project.

Its not 3d printed I know, but still a fantastic concept, and its open source!

why not just run silcone around the seals that should keep most of the water out

We already built a printable ROV

www.interspec.org

the seamonkey rov uses printable parts and dipped in potting compound and vacumed

Interesting! Are the drawings available? Interesting technique of dipping the printed parts in potting compound, what are you using? I guess that makes it easier to print the structure without being concerned about watertightness during the print itself.

The parts can be printed without so much gaps the parts we make were clamps and nozzles and the electronics holders etc, i believe there is a method of steaming the parts in acetone to glue them together so to speak.

We actually built some new parts on a solidoodle and they came out great