Comment on [Advice wanted!] Things to consider when printing parts for a self-watering planter?
cyberwolfie@lemmy.ml 3 weeks agoOh, that could be a much better solution. How would you design the reservoir filling system in that case? It would be difficult accessing the rear reservoirs directly, but I could maybe make something with cheap PVC-pipes. Ideally I would fill it from only one point, and I eventually plan to have some sensors measuring the water level in the reservoir(s)
wirehead@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
You can always mock some stuff up and try it out in PrusaSlicer to see how long it thinks it’ll take?
Wall thickness potentially depends on the size of the object? I guess 2mm would the the starting point, fill one with soil, see how sturdy it feels. Complexity for 3D printing is “free”, kinda. A lot of the best container designs incorporate ribs to strengthen them without using up too much material. Given that the joins are the weak part, you’d potentially want that a lot thicker.
You also want to look at “vase mode”. Some of the fastest printing objects you can get on a 3D printer are where you design around the constraints of vase mode and then you can use a fat nozzle with thick layers to print really fast.
You can always print plumbing instead of using PVC pipes? I’ve definitely seen self-watering pots such that they just have a pipe incorporated into the design such that it just sticks up along the corner. So, worse case, each module has a watering port. If you want to get fancy, you could make a manifold such that a single pipe sticks up in the middle and fills 4 reservoirs, although the fancier the plumbing the more likely you are to have one of them get dried out faster unless your filling routine tops them off.