Modular Wine Bottle Post and Bracket System

prusaprinters

<p><strong>Update April 29th 2021: &nbsp;</strong></p><p>I've added a new post design (v25) to resolve multiple issues I had when printing larger numbers of posts for a larger wine rack (for 100 bottles). &nbsp; &nbsp;The original post had a cylindrical design which required a significant support raft to insure proper bed adhesion. &nbsp; This had the following outcomes:</p><ol><li>Generated a lot of waste material.</li><li>Added a lot of post processing work.</li><li>Made the print time unnecessarily long.</li><li>Bed adhesion was not consistent resulting an a number of failed prints. &nbsp;&nbsp;</li></ol><p>I redesigned the post to have a flat side that is pointed inwards which makes a smoother edge for the wine bottle. &nbsp;It also resolves these issues and allowed me to print several hundred posts in just a few days with only a little tab of support material to remove. &nbsp;</p><p><strong>Summary</strong></p><p>My family enjoys different types of wine and over the span of several years, we've somehow managed to collect quite a number of bottles…too many to drink in a weekend. &nbsp;I've typically kept them in a cheap wood wine rack but was always facing chronic frustration, as the wine rack was “rickety” and bottles would often fall out. &nbsp; I keep my wine in my basement and with the low humidity, the glue holding it together would shrink and allow the parts to come apart. &nbsp;To add more frustration, I couldn't even find replacement parts for the kit, and it has been difficult to repair. &nbsp;I had considered purchasing a better wine rack but found them to be equally “rickety”, too expensive, or require a lot of extra space.</p><p>I had wondered if I could solve this challenge by 3D printing a well-designed functional print model. &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;I had searched Thingiverse and found some interesting models that the maker community had created. &nbsp; &nbsp;So, I tried out these models :&nbsp;</p><p><a href="https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2625699">https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2625699</a><br><a href="https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3641393">https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3641393</a></p><p>While I found the design and functionality of these models very useful, I found that they all had similar issues in that they took too long to print (some took &gt; 2 days), took a lot of material, could only be printed in small batches (1 or 2 at a time on my Prusa MK3), or were too large to be printed on a Prusa Mini. &nbsp;I did find the designs to be elegant and useful, but given the size of my wine collection, I was concerned on the time and amount of filament used, and I wanted a design that I could scale with a print farm.</p><p><strong>Design</strong></p><p>With these challenges in mind, I created the “Modular Wine Bottle Post and Bracket System”. &nbsp;The design uses a series of separate components that can be printed independently and fit together to create a sturdy wine bottle rack. &nbsp; The design was modeled for the rack to be relatively light, while maintaining strength and rigidity, even as the size of the rack increased. &nbsp; Also its flexible to allow for each component to be printed by several printers in a print farm.</p><p>The components are as follows:</p><ol><li>Brackets - This is the core component which holds the bottle of wine and attaches to other brackets using a “jigsaw puzzle” type fit.<br>&nbsp;</li><li>Posts - These hold together multiple tracks to hold an entire bottle of wine and create the framework of the rack and add strength and rigidity. &nbsp;These are similar to cylindrical wood “dowels” in practice.<br>&nbsp;</li><li>Bases - These serve as footing for the rack and hold the rack flat on a floor.<br>&nbsp;</li></ol><p><strong>Materials, Settings, and Construction.&nbsp;</strong></p><p>The models use PLA since its fairly easy to print with reasonable quality and has more than adequate strength. &nbsp; I considered trying with PETG or other materials, but found the PLA has worked well. &nbsp; I've been printing with Mystic Brown PLA Prusament primary for its appearance as it has the color of a fine Burgundy wine and the “mystic” quality makes it hard to tell if its brown, purple or some shade of dark red. &nbsp; The components are printed with 4-5 perimeters for added strength especially for the posts and the holes in the brackets to resist cracking. &nbsp; 15% gyroid fill has proven to to be a good balance of strength while not using too much filament. &nbsp;&nbsp;</p><p>A single unit (e.g. holds a single bottle of wine) is comprised of 3 brackets and 12 posts. &nbsp;This will have a front, middle and rear bracket &nbsp;which are held together with the posts. &nbsp; &nbsp;The posts have reduced diameter fittings that are inserted into the brackets. &nbsp; These fittings have a long end and a shorter end. &nbsp; The long ended fittings go into the front and rear brackets, while the shorter ended fittings go into the middle bracket. &nbsp; Each bracket has a series of hexagonal extensions and spaces that are used to interconnect brackets to one another and to the base components. &nbsp; &nbsp;For a bottom unit, 3 base (aka "foot") components help to make make the unit stable and level on the floor</p><p>Here are some additional print details:</p><p>Brackets: A single bracket at a time can be printed on the Prusa Mini, or two at a time on the Prusa MK3. &nbsp; Each bracket takes about 5 ½ hours with the 0.20 mm quality setting on Prusa mini or double that for the MK3 .</p><p>Posts: From 6 up to 9 can be printed at a time on the Prusa Mini or more on the Prusa MK3. &nbsp; Note that the models are laid horizontally on the print bed for added strength to avoid any “shearing" between layers. &nbsp; It was found that printing vertically would create posts that were easy to snap without much force. &nbsp; I found the strength to be much greater when printing the parts horizontally along the print bed. &nbsp;Since the posts are cylindrical, brims and rafts are used to maintain adhesion to the bed. &nbsp; Six posts takes about 8 ½ hours with a 0.20 mm quality setting on a Prusa Mini.</p><p>Bases: &nbsp; &nbsp;The bases are too large to print on a Prusa Mini as they need to be long enough to link together multiple brackets. &nbsp; I've been able to print 2 at a time on an MK3 using the Smooth Spring Steel sheet. &nbsp;Two bases takes about 16 hours with a 0.20 mm quality setting on a Prusa MK3.</p><p>To put together the rack, the parts can be fit into each other with a little force, such as a rubber mallet. &nbsp; Try not to hit them too hard as PLA can be somewhat brittle and can crack at high levels of force. &nbsp; The parts hold to gather fairly well with the natural friction of the PLA but you can certainly use adhesives to hold the parts together. &nbsp; “Hot melt" glue works well or cyanoacrylate based glues like crazy glue also work, but are not required. &nbsp;&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>