Living For Sailvideo
⛵️ Can a 3D Printed Bracket Actually HOLD UP?
17 May 2026 · 22 min · 8K views
What this video covers
John restores a 1989 Liberty 458 named Antidote on a driveway, and this update focuses on transom work and fabricating new stern boarding-ladder brackets.▶ 0:44 Moisture still lingers in sections of the transom glass; washing the old laminate with soap and water is the current strategy to help the substrate dry before more work can proceed.▶ 1:26 Two additional rows of Kusa core material have been installed, with relief cut for bronze backing plates that will bolt through the hull — John debates epoxy-only bonding versus through-bolts and leans toward bolts as a fail-safe.▶ 5:05 The original stainless transom brackets are cracked and need replacement; machinist Gary at Titus Machining in Texas will fabricate new ones from John's CAD designs.▶ 11:27 To reality-check fit before committing to metal, John prints prototype brackets on a new Chidi Q2 3D printer, paired with the Chidi Box four-spool dryer and multi-filament unit.▶ 12:11 The Q2's 370-degree hotend, I-beam axis, and probe-based bed calibration outperform the Plus 4 for high-tech filaments; the Box needed customer-service troubleshooting and printed spool covers to run third-party filament reliably.▶ 13:24 The PLA prototype brackets, printed in PLA, fit the ladder and held its weight — confirming the CAD dimensions before the design goes to the machine shop.▶ 21:51
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