Building a 3D Printer Large Enough to Print a Kayak

When purchasing a 3D printer, it is usually a good idea to go for a build volume a bit larger than what you think you will need. But not many people need to go really big. Printing huge parts takes a long time and there are often more suitable fabrication techniques for such parts. However, that hasn't stopped people from building some massive printers. For example, the TAUT ONE 3D printer was built specifically for printing kayaks.

We've seen 3D printers capable of printing bridges and even entire buildings, so this isn't the largest model we've seen. But it is unique in that it is an individual project and not a machine built by some company with a huge budget. And, to be fair, the TAUT ONE doesn't print entire kayaks in one go. Instead, it prints three to four sections that come together later to form the hull of the kayak. That is still impressive, as the TAUT ONE has an incredible 1000 x 550 x 1100 mm (39.37 x 21.65 x 43.31 inch) build volume.

The TAUT ONE is a coreXY, dual-extruder 3D printer. It has a full Voron 2.4-style flying gantry, which allows for physical bed leveling. In addition, it uses mesh bed leveling. The controller is a Duet 3 Mainboard 6HC. The extruders are E3D Hemeras and the hot ends are Mosquitos. A CAN bus between the print head and the mainboard reduces cabling. The gargantuan 1500W heated bed is 10mm aluminum plate topped with 5mm glass, which reduces heat warping.

Other features include a Raspberry Pi-based webcam monitoring system, external ducting for air cooling, a filament runout sensor, and a chamber temperature sensor.

The total cost of the TAUT ONE build was around 3000€. The target accuracy was +/- 1mm in each axis, but we think it should do better than that. This printer is now on its second version and it seems to be printing well at a thick 1mm layer height. The printed kayak sections do require some finishing, but that would be necessary anyway to ensure a watertight hull.