Ben's Better Paper Pot Maker

prusaprinters

<p>The idea behind a paper pot maker is that instead of using wasteful and difficult to work with plastic seed starter pots, you can use strips of newspaper to quickly form small paper pots. Then when the sprouted plant is big enough and it's warm enough outside, you can drop the whole pot right in the ground. The roots and worms will punch right through the damp newspaper, which will biodegrade in the soil.&nbsp;</p><p>The steps to craft pots using this tool are as follows (see the .gif video as well - 32 MB):</p><ol><li>cut strips of newspaper on a cutting mat using a straight edge and an exacto-knife. Divide each sheet into thirds lengthwise (so double sheets get divided into six parts). This should result in a width of 95mm or 3.75". I was able to cut five stacked sheets at once without difficulty, so I got thirty strips from one stack. If you don't have the cutting equipment, it works fairly well to carefully tear strips since you're going with the grain, but it's much slower. There's a fair amount of margin for error on the width, but if they are too wide they will be more difficult to work with.</li><li>Align the paper strip with the upper ridge on the roller part . If the strip is a bit narrower, then go with the second ridge or lower. Roll it once to trap the paper, and then you can quickly roll it up by using the roller as a wheel and your finger inserted into the cavity as an axle. It's fun once you get the hang of it. This method also prevents the paper from being wrapped too tightly onto the roller, which can make it difficult to remove later.</li><li>Now you have to fold down the paper that is sticking out on the bottom like you're wrapping a present. There should be enough overlap so that the paper will cover the bottom once it's formed, but not so much that it reaches the other side (since it would start doubling back on itself). Push the bottom center into the depression, which will cause the paper to slide down on the roller a bit.</li><li>Then it just takes a firm press on the top of the roller while it is inserted into the base. Do a quick gyration in the applied force angle to crease the paper a bit, but don't get carried away because too much will cause it to wear right through the paper.</li><li>To remove the roller from the paper pot, reinsert your finger into the cavity and use the slight lip at the top to pull it out while gently holding the paper pot with your other hand. complete! Now what?</li><li>You place the pots on a tray so that when you add a bit of water to the soil it will catch the water that soaks down and through and help maintain moisture levels. You can use soil from your garden or standard potting soil. It helps to label the side of the tray to keep track of which seeds are in which pots, or you can write on the pots themselves of course, but that may be more of a challenge. The really fancy setups involve a vented cover, which acts as a terrarium and removes the need to water them more than the initial time.</li></ol><p>&nbsp;</p><p>I looked at the commercially available products and 3D printed clones and decided that 3D printing could allow for some design improvements. I made it using less material by changing the large handle into a sunken cavity, which would be very difficult to make with subtractive manufacturing processes. This also allowed the ergonomics to be improved. A flatter, wider surface is easier to press on with your palm. After an earlier prototype, I widened the gap between the roller and base to make pressing easier, and settled on a finished pot size of 55mm wide and 50mm tall (when starting with the prescribed newspaper strips). I also went with 60 degree bends for the paper on the bottom instead of 90 to make folding and pressing easier. It may seem daunting to create dozens of paper pots like this, but once you get it down and get into the rhythm it goes surprisingly quickly (as you can see in the gif). I added ridges on the roller at 5mm intervals to help with aligning the roll, gauging the pot's height, and to add an interesting texture.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>Printing suggestions:</p><p>I used Colorfabb woodfill filament to see how it would work, but regular PLA or PETG would work fine, so I uploaded the 3mf files with PLA as the preset. .4mm nozzle, .2mm quality worked well for me, and the material turned out great. It feels a lot like real wood. I printed the roller using automatic supports which were fairly minimal and super easy to remove, so it may work fine without them—if you test that, please let me know. The base portion worked well with 10% infill, but I bumped it up to 15% for the roller to ensure that the base of the cavity would be sufficiently supported. The prints could be done slightly faster or made a bit lighter. I modeled the base in a way that would allow it to be gripped easily, but you can use the cut tool in Prusaslicer to truncate it and save about 12g of material.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>Additional notes:</p><p>I used Fusion 360 to create the model.</p><p>I used the textured build plate. On a smooth table with a smooth base, it might be more prone to sliding around, but you can just hold it in place with your other hand while pressing.</p><p>I tried using slightly thicker brown craft paper for some of the pots (like the kind used as packing material). I used 14" long strips instead of the full 22" newspaper length to prevent the pot from getting too thick.</p><p>If you want to make two to get things done faster with a partner, you can just make two rollers and share one base, since the pressing operation takes only a small portion of the time.</p><p>Now that the design contest is over, I uploaded the CAD model and changed the sharing license. Feel free to improve upon the design and let me know.</p>