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Written by Pengalu - October 15, 2023

3D Printing

10-10-23 - Ask Phase

Mostly spent today considering what I wanted to make for the project and thinking about the criteria. I figured this would be a good opportunity to make something for my s/o as a gift- thought of her flowers and since I’ve always been interested in 3D Printed plant pots (I had a couple potted plants in PETG structures) I thought it’d be fun to design my own. Looking at the criteria though, this isn’t really possible. The criteria state your 3D printed thingumabob:

Unfortunately, having to use several interlocking parts ruled out a simple vase design, but since the container can hold flowers / soil, etc. it meets the requirement of interacting with a non 3DP object. Thus, I think it’d be cool to have some sort of modular plant pot where you can remove portions (water basin, planting portion, perimiter decoration) and trade them for other ones, but they still have to be contained within 12x12 inches. Drawing inspiration from this pot on printables might be a good idea.

10-15-23 - Research/Imagine Phase

I wasn’t able to journal other days of last week because of Homecoming and Battle at the Border, so this is kind of the recap. I wanted to ask in class if it’d be possible to consider stacking or otherwise combining multiple elements in a possibly unique way but didn’t get to. Ultimately, I decided it’d be better if instead it was one pot that had multiple interchangeable features. Thinking of features I thought of my 3D printed plant pots and my ceramic ones and found that the majority of plant pots have a small dish for water to drain into. In a 3D printed plant pot, I had used this space and filled it with pebbles to create a little pond, which gave me the idea to have both an open and closed water dish. I’ve got a little brainstorm going on in the bullet points. I might update it, who knows.

Brainstorm

Today I also started thinking about CAD. I think I want it to be more organic shaped but extruded blindly outwards so that it’s not bulging out randomly as it goes up. Mostly inline or relatively similar to the base size. Once I have a sketch done I’ll have images to better represent this, but I think it’s too late for me to make any major decisions right now and I’d rather have some guidance.

10-17-23 - Plan

Today I mostly just worked on my CAD for the project- it’s not the final CAD, we have our design review tomorrow and I’ll need something to populate my slides with and get my ideas out on some actual 3D space. Here’s the images from that:

Sketch of the base

Extrusion of the base

I decided it’d probably just be easier to think about logically if I had one variant of each component for now I could model off of, so I’m starting with the simplest one I can while still being interesting. There’s a drip-tray built into the base which is something I had found was rare among 3D printed plant pots with aesthetic designs, same with proper drain holes. Considering that for my own design.

This component would slot into the smaller hole and is hollow, actually containing the soil.

Here’s where I ran into a problem though. I could either have the base have a hole that the pot slots into or the pot has a hole the base slots into. I’m not really sure which I’d prefer, but for all intents and purposes the hole shown in the image is temporary, although I do intend to keep that style of connector (friction fit).

The other thing for consideration is possible ways to drain water and get drained water to the drip tray:

I’ll probably finish deciding on these during the design review tomorrow.

10-18-23 - Plan/Research

Today we had our first round of design reviews but I didn’t present. After seeing other designs, I realised it would be easier to print the connector if the male end was on the base so that the planter-cup thingy doesnt have to use supports since it has an overhang from the connector to the actual planting area.

Seeing the EH2 design review was interesting because it was cool seeing how large of a scope we could have next year, but also somewhat concerning- I feel like the concept of forcibly actuating limbs brings up safety and ethics issues.

I decided I’d also use the fluid drainage system that goes through the connector: the plant pot slides on top of the connector male end, which has a hole through the middle that allows water through, and the plant soil drips water through a grid of holes inside the base of the planter itself (drainage holes). Once it reaches the base, it travels through a channel into the drip tray, which can then be emptied and decorated with pebbles, etc.

10-20-23 - Plan / Research

Didn’t have an entry for yesterday because it was basically the same as 10-18. I liked the bathroom item organizer from yesterday- I don’t remember who did it- but the fillets on the edges are clean and satisfying.

I ended up going today, and easily the most prominent question was how I’d get three parts onto the design. My current design connects the planting pot to the drip tray and nothing else. To clarify, the drip tray is just where excess water is stored- it’s not healthy for plants to absorb too much water, so draining excess is desired.

Some ideas I had for 3rd pieces:

I’m probably going with plant supports that snap into the top of the planter- doing the self-watering tube would be too complex for my skills and honestly just not worth it. It’s a houseplant and watering it isn’t a big deal.

I also heard the feedback that it doesn’t look that interesting yet- which is true. I think I might want to add another planter that juts out so that there’s a bit more going on. It’d be a smaller planter, but it just isn’t that interesting at the moment. I just have to be careful of the size limitation at this point, but I can always shrink what I have down already.

Other considerations/criticism:

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