Hello Everyone,
I hope you're all doing well today.
I recently designed a self watering planter for my indoor garden. The process took me a few days and many mistakes and failed designs along the way, but in the end I succeeded with something I'm really happy with, and even captured some cool macros that I will share in the end of the post.
I will also state (as a bit of a disclaimer) that this planter is only unique in its dimensions and pieces and not unique as a first working self watering planter, meaning there are other very similar designs and I didn't invent the idea, but this one is one of a kind because I designed it myself.
Thanks for stopping by, let's have a look at the self watering planter I designed. (In https://www.tinkercad.com)
Ok let's check out how this was made and how it works!
Here's a shot of the objects on Tinkercad.
You will notice a notch I made so that the smaller bottom will sit on top, also notice the hole in the smaller piece.
For this to work, a wick needs to go through that hole and into the bottom, which will be a water reservoir.
The concept is simple, the wick will soak up the water and disperse it into the soil evenly, giving the plant all the water it needs at a (hopefully) even and not soaking wet distribution level. I've never tried one of these before and my design was rather unscientific, as my aim was to make an acceptable planter with all the components being the right sizes and shapes to make it a functioning unit.
Let's check out a downscaled (and totally usable) version, which main purpose was to test the prints ability to both print, and fit together properly.
The pieces fit perfectly and my excitement was on the rise and I felt closer to a full sized working version of my own self watering planter design.
Here are some live shots of the printing process.
So this was the process to completion. I could scale it up and make it even larger if I wanted, or print it in different colors even, but the print does consume a great deal of filament, this one was a total of 160 grams of PLA, which has a calculated cost of $3.21 cents USD for the print you see above. It is not cheap to print, but buying one like this would most definitely cost more.
Now for some promised macro shots. These are of the hot glue I used, photographed at 165X zoom on a Kodak point and click style camera, mounted on a tripod.
Thanks for checking out my post, I hope you all have a great day! ~~@print3dpro