Scheibe für Vivara Eichhörnchen-Futterhaus

thingiverse

It's no big deal; actually, it's more like a suggestion to create one yourself :) The squirrels and/or mice here love to gnaw through the plastic discs that come with the squirrel feeder house. So I printed one myself, let's see how long it lasts. Edit 5/2021: so far, it's working very well; the disc shows almost no signs of damage. WARNING: I tried to make the disc as transparent as possible, which was quite successful (settings below). However, the PETG from Extrudr ruined the coating on my Anycubic i3 mega Ultrabase when it cooled down without any interference from me! Anycubic warns against using PETG on the Ultrabase, but I had trouble getting a good grip with the material in previous attempts :). The Vivara feeder houses seem to be variable in size, so don't try printing one without measuring. Within certain limits, you can easily adjust the STL file in Cura or similar software. Or, even easier, create a new design on tinkercad.com. The object is just a base plate that fits into the slots, a slightly smaller and thicker plate for stability, and more material (a sloping box, a full cylinder, and a hollow cylinder combined) above. This grip at the top is for easy lifting of the disc, but it's also supposed to provide protection against moisture damage. The disc itself is high enough that only a small free edge remains under the lid (for ventilation). The original disc was shorter in the last new feeder house; probably because you can find horror stories online about eichhörnchen being decapitated by chance falling lids. I can't imagine it, but to avoid this risk, I've included a wide rim at the top of the grip :). Why didn't I just leave a broad slot like on the original disc? Because mice here get into the food within days using the original disc. What they eat wouldn't be so bad, but they spoil the food and the entire feeder house with their poop and urine! Transparency is not necessary, at least if the squirrels already know where the feeder house is. "Our" had no problem with an opaque disc, but it's very convenient to see the fill level from a distance instead of having to lift the lid all the time. To achieve good transparency, I had to experiment a bit; my settings are under Print Settings. The most important thing was probably the high resolution of 0.05 mm, even if printing takes a long time. The extra material at the top also serves as rodent protection. The PETG from Extrudr is even food-safe :). WARNING: PETG can harm the surface of your Anycubic i3 mega Ultrabase! Mine was ruined by printing this object!