All design files can be found here for 3d printed parts. https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4644039
So when I first started designing my project I had to think of what was available in space and what was available on earth and items we would have to each. I knew that it would have to be put together with 3d printed connected blocks to make it easy for anyone to recreate and be able to adapt and adjust the project to their needs as every environment and situation may require different approaches. This lead me to using 3/4" EMT Conduit for the frame and the 3d printed parts. I had taken the time to go through all the pictures on the International space station that I could find. Finally finding enough EMT conduit to make the project work. Ultimately having a project that could be reproduced anywhere and for a cheap price. After searching online and looking at some enclosures I was floored at the prices that it costs and knew I had to make it as cheap as possible so far for the entire frame it has cost me the following
EMT Conduit: $30 Can or $22.99 USD
3D Fillament: $23 Can or $17.63 USD
When I think about it that's not bad for just the frame of the unit. Mind you this could become cheaper if you found materials in a reuse place which might have EMT Conduit or any other tubing you wish to use. Taking the 3d prints and scaling them to what you would require with the test ring.
So I planned a few designs and followed along with what I thought would be ideal for my unit eventually settling for the 30x30x60 design this would put me just under the 1m3 so if I needed to run anything above or below the unit I would be able to have that little buffer zone. Now when I was designing this the taller one was my first design on the left above. which to me made sense but then after thinking of what I was going to be growing in the unit I soon realized I needed more floor space than I did height on the unit. Bringing us to a final design.
Now when prototyping sure its not going to be 100% as you first design. Things change as it did even while I was putting it together I found ways to use less conduit and less filament in my design. Making it more cost effective.
So far the design consists of 6 runs of 10ft 3/4 inch conduit and 3/4's of a roll of filament. Now I am not one to plan out everything to a "T" so it becomes a lot of trial and error. so for the filament that Is currently on the unit minus my over printing of parts and prototyping I think just under half a 1kg roll of filament would do the trick for the main frame. Leaving half of the roll left for the other items that will be required in the build. So many times I have had to buy 2 or 3 rolls and sometimes more for a project and to me it becomes wasteful when I see the flaws and the adjustments that could have been made either in design or print.
All of my print setting will be posted in the the design files in the link at the start of this post and I thought why not add them in here if someone else could make use of them to while making their project then great or anyone wanting to play along. We have tons of things left to do from the enclosure to setting up all the electronics to finally getting things setup for growing then finally after a bit getting to the point where we can harvest our crop.
So this is the point where I was almost done with putting the frame together, I had 4 more pieces of conduit to attach to the unit. When it comes to the base I used multiple different adapters just in case I needed to make any adjustments to the unit to allow for a more stable base once it's enclosed. But due to its size I think it will do as it sits there for what will be put on the bottom and what will be growing there as well.
The enclosure will be a completely sealed unit which to me makes the most sense but doing so means we have more things to consider when getting it up and running so lets hope we can adjust all the extra things that might go wrong early on and be able to have a wonderful crop near the end.
Another thing I wanted to do was allow for the ability to be able to add on to the unit as space does become more available you could add more chambers or adjust the height in which the unit is to make room for higher growing plants. To me this was a must because remember not all plants like each other when grown together. But we will cover all that in a future blog post regarding what we are putting in the unit and why.
below: (Prototype on left || Final design on the right)
When it comes to the tools so far I have only used the following a 3d printer and a ratcheting pipe cutter. If you have cut as much EMT conduit as me you will know how valuable the ratcheting cutter is. The cutter information can be found here https://www.brasscraft.com/product/pst011/ which after cutting so many runs of conduit over the past 4 or 5 years I have had it. With no need to replace the blade as of yet.
As far as my 3D Printer its just a cheap Anet A8 clone that works as well as you keep on top of tuning it every other print to make sure everything is level and belts are good.
Oh I may have told a fib, that's right I used one more tool to clean up my prints a bit a Dremel 7300 Minimite cordless unit. https://us.dremel.com/en_US/products/-/show-product/tools/7300-minimite-cordless for more information on it. I do have a corded unit but there is a purpose to me either using cordless or manual tools in this build.
If I needed I could have just used a chunk of sandpaper to clean the parts up but figure if we used a cordless unit in space we would have some sort of vacuum system either attached to the unit or something near it could be sucked into a vacuum system. Since keeping the small plastic particles out of the environment would be a good thing.
But with any project sometimes things happen....and that they did causing a delay in the production of my parts. As you can see I guess I should have payed more attention to the prints. Which up to this point where printing just fine and then something happened. So after the cleanup which took a bit of time and a few burnt fingers in the process I was back to printing.
Valley Forge - Project Paperinik was back on course to be completed. So for anyone having issues don't worry it happens to us all just step back and take your time and enjoy the process.
Onto the enclosure......... (see you next blog post)
All 3d printed parts can be found here:
https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4644039
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