Pill Pulverizer

thingiverse

This little gadget worked like a charm for me, so I thought I'd share it with everyone.\nI take a big daily vitamin, sometimes tough to swallow, and one time it got stuck in my throat. So I break them up as best I can, and then "chew" on them. But a powder would be much better.\nSearching online, I see plastic pill crushers of this design everywhere. A close fitting mortar and pestle. Some double as pill containers.\nI quickly whipped this up in Blender but didn't think it would work well. But it does fine on these big vitamins. Pulverizes them to dust with just a quarter-turn or two.\nOverall dimensions are near 2" x 2 1/2" (50x60mm).\n50g ABS, 1 hour, 40 min. for a set, using Afinia default settings. I printed my "grinder" file upside down, as shown, to get a smooth dome on top.\nWith the first try, fresh off the printer, there were a couple bits and hairs of red plastic in the crushed powder. Second try had none. It might be best to run some spare aspirin, vitamins or something through it, to break it in, before using it on real medication.\nThere is pill dust left behind in the creases and layering. I wouldn't try to clean it beyond brushing the dust off. With meds that cannot be mixed, printing one for each medication is probably worth the effort.\nArthritic hands may have a problem turning it, but the grips can easily be modified to accommodate that. Leave a comment or message.\nMetric files included.