Hydroponic halo ring
Project developed by Matthew Alessi
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Abstract
In today's day and age, both hobbyist and survival horticultural practices are been becoming more of a nor within our culture. As the amount of people entering the hobby increase, there is a growing demand for better and cheaper gardening products. I have also joined in on this new growing hobby and have personally found that commercial horticultural equipment is expensive to purchase; so to combat this, I have embarked on creating a line of 3-D printable hydroponic/agricultural products (all open source of course). The first item that I have created is called a "Hydro halo drip ring", and is used to evenly water plants from a central location using a timer and a water pump.
- Picture of completed print will be provided later.
Bill of Materials
Scad and STL files available here http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:
Tools needed for fabrication of the OSAT
- MOST Delta RepRap or similar RepRap 3-D printer
Skills and Knowledge Necessary to Make the OSAT
Nothing more than basic 3D printing and altering well commented variables to get desired size required
Technical Specifications and Assembly Instructions
I used Openscad for the model, Cura for the slicer, and Pronterface for the controller
- Open the .SCAD file in Openscad, and adjust the given parameters to fit your needs. All units are in millimeters
- Compile and render the file into a new .STL file
- Open the .STL file in Cura
- It will likely be vertical, so rotate the model 90 degrees so that it is on its "back"
- In the support section of the left toolbar, select "support type" to "touching buildplate"
- In the Expert Configurations, I suggest increasing the "Distance Z" to .20-.30 to allow the supports to be disconnected easier and leave less residue on the printed model
- Choose speeds and layer thickness as ideal for your printer and desired strength
- Save the Gcode and then load it into Pronterface and print away
- When it is done printing, carefully snap off supprt structure
- Use a metal or wood file to remove excess plastic from support residue
- Fit handle over the end of your tool, and screw into place
Print Time Estimates
- With .06mm thickness, ~16 hours depending on size
- With .25mm thickness, ~4 hours depending on size
Assembly time Estimate
- 10 minutes
((Note that a handle like this would be better suited for an implement with a shorter shaft, this was just the only shovel like that we had around the house I could put a handle on))
Cost savings
- My design used $3.30 in plastic at $30/Kg
- Commercial Shovel Handle like this will cost around 10 dollars
- The benefit is not so much in cost savings, although they are there, but the fact that this can be made to easily fit any and all shovel/hoe/tools with long wooden shafts where this would be desired on the end and the ability for a village to make them themselves instead of needing them delivered from some large manufacturing facility
References
[[Category:Tools] [[Category:Garage]