Create accountLogin

Recent searches

No recent searches

Search options

Only available when logged in.
twit.social is one of the many independent Mastodon servers you can use to participate in the fediverse.
The official Mastodon of the TWiT Podcast Network

Administered by:

Server stats:

1.4K
active users

twit.social: AboutProfiles directoryPrivacy policy

Mastodon: AboutGet the appKeyboard shortcutsView source codev4.3.7

Public
cyberwolfie

[Advice wanted!] Things to consider when printing parts for a self-watering planter?

lemmy.ml/post/28258237

lemmy.ml[Advice wanted!] Things to consider when printing parts for a self-watering planter? - LemmyI am getting my first 3D-printer (a Prusa CORE One) this week! I have tons of ideas that I want to get started with, but the most time-sensitive one is to make some self-watering planters for my balcony (so I can have time to grow some greens in the season). I wanted to do this without a 3D-printer last year, but I could never find any cases close to the right dimensions in the stores, and making the separator between the water reservoir and soil from off-the-shelf parts was not so easy with the cases I did find, so I hope I am able to make something functioning with my 3D-printer this year. But I’m new to this, and I am looking for some advice to where to get started reading up on different concepts that will be relevant to this project. These are the things I am planning to dive into over the next weeks, and I am sure there are plenty of things I have not thought about at all: 1) Splitting and joining 3D-printed objects: The overall base area of the planter is too large for my 3D-printer to do in one go, and I am likely going to need four parts that I need to fuse together. I am thinking there are many “standard” ways of doing this, such as splitting with a jigsaw-puzzle pattern? I am also planning to simply glue to the parts together along the seam, and add an additional layer of glue along the boundary. Which leads to concerns about… 2) Water tightness: I know that making watertight prints is not the easiest thing in the world. The container should be able to contain water without leakage, and I am planning on reading up on all the ways to make the prints themselves as impermeable to water as possible. I am sure there are much to learn in terms of slicer settings here. In addition, I will look into different coatings I can finish it up with, such as a layer of water-proof wood glue. However, the water here will be absorbed by the soil and then by the plant’s roots, so this coating should be non-toxic. 3) Material choice: To begin with, I will only have PLA available, but I can get other filaments if needed. There are two immediate concerns I have about this: whether it is food-safe (for the same reason as above) and whether it is suitable for outdoors use. It will not be in direct sunlight, as I will build a wooden case around these 3D-printed containers, but the planters themselves will be, so it could get a little hot during Summer. Any other considerations I need to make? 4) Modelling the parts: I am already familiar with Blender, and planned on using it for the first project. I have FreeCAD installed, but zero experience. The shapes are simple, and I am sure I can draw up something in Blender in no time. But since I want to split them up, and join them ideally as flush as possible, will the models be precise enough? Dimensional precision is the main reason I’ve heard for using CAD-software over Blender for hobby basis.
#3dprinting
Public
Imgonnatrythis

Ambitious early project. I’d probably go with petg.

There are plenty of good tutorials / suggestions for general water tightness with regards to slicer settings. Water tight joints will be tricky. Consider sanding and then torching them. I’ve had good results with clearcoat spray after sanding pla. May work with petg too.

Curious why you didn’t go with xl for this? Cost?

Public
cyberwolfie

Ambitious early project.

Hehe yeah, I would have gone with something else as my first project had it not been for the fact that I want these planters soon. I had hoped to get the printer earlier, but after asking for advice on my printer purchase here end of last year, I got a compelling advice to at least wait for first reviews before deciding, and by that time Prusa had a backlog on orders.

I’d probably go with petg.

Due it to being outdoors?

There are plenty of good tutorials / suggestions for general water tightness with regards to slicer settings. Water tight joints will be tricky. Consider sanding and then torching them. I’ve had good results with clearcoat spray after sanding pla. May work with petg too.

Nice, will check that out in more details! Are clearcoats typically non-toxic? Torching the joints sounds like a good idea - what would you typically use for that, a standard crème brûlée burner? I plan on making smaller prototypes to test out any concepts out before making a huge one.

Curious why you didn’t go with xl for this? Cost?

Cost is one major reason, the Core One was at the top-end of my budget, but it is not the only one. The Core One otherwise fit my requirements very well, and the XL would also not be able to print this in one go. This is by far the largest pieces I have planned on printing, and all the other prints on my “todo”-list will fit in it just fine. I wanted one with an enclosure, and I didn’t like the look of the XL with an enclosure, as it will be quite visible where it will be placed, and I’m the kind of person who would care. And I also believe the footprint of the XL is larger? In that case, I am not so sure if it would even fit on the designated space for it.

Quiet public
ROLLER

@cyberwolfie @Imgonnatrythis agree that Freecad learning curve is steep. I balked and ended up using Fusion360 (non commercial). I found it to be more friendly and have tutorials I liked. I like the idea of using an LLM to code in something like OpenSCAD though.

Public
cyberwolfie

Did you try FreeCAD after v1.0 release? I heard it got more intuitive with the release. I would prefer to stick to FOSS tools, and Fusion360 does also not seem to have a native Linux version?

But yeah, it is the impression I have gotten that FreeCAD is not very easy to get started with and why I thought to stick with what I know (Blender) for my first project.

ROLLER

@cyberwolfie I tried with 1.0 and it really does appear to do the same things, so you will get what you need. I do need to try changing myself..... Not sure when though.
Good luck with the project. I'll hopefully see it up on Lemmy.

Apr 10, 2025, 06:10 AM·Quiet public·Tusky
0boosts·0favorites
ExploreLive feeds
About