WS5000 Rain Gauge Bird Spike Ring

prusaprinters

This bird spike ring is designed for the Ambient WS5000 rain gauge. I had one from the manufacturer with 16 spikes, but the birds would land in-between the spikes and deposit their droppings to plug up the gauge. This is a rather large rain gauge, so I increased the ring to 20 spikes so that there is less space to land and the birds can't land in the middle to build a nest. It is sloped on the top to allow rain to run off and not alter the measurements.I printed with PETG for UV resistance at .30 mm layer height with a .60 mm nozzle and 15% in-fill. I used 1mm stainless steel rods bent into different shapes.The 1mm printed holes were plugged and I had to drill them out manually, so it may be preferable to use lower layer height and taper the holes from 1.5mm down to 1mm at the bottom. If you use a .40mm nozzle that may help too. I superglued any of rods that were easy to turn, as I've seen where the birds can rotate the rods on the manufacturer's model so they have more space to perch.An OpenScad file is included that will let you change the number of spikes and the diameter of the rods.