Tantalus Cup

thingiverse

The Tantalus cup, also known as a Pythagorean cup, functions optimally when only partially filled. If completely full, most of the liquid siphons out through the bottom due to its design. A 3D printable version of such a cup is Thing:17330 by Scooter46290, which features a simple yet sophisticated siphon composed of three concentric cones around a central tube. Another iteration conceals the siphon within the stem, allowing for an increased head and more complete emptying of the cup. Open scad and stl files are provided for this unique design. Early versions experienced leakage issues when partially filled; however, printing with 100% infill, one shell, and a layer height of 0.2mm resolved these problems. By examining print parameters in netfabb Studio, optimal settings were determined. Using these specifications on a Replicator printer, the cup takes approximately 3 hours to print. It was directly printed onto the build platform without any issues.