Cat drinking pond
Derived from
Description
All corners and edges are nicely rounded so your tippy-toe doesn't hurt itself - also it looks much better.
L**** the cat: "Yay, I can haz water *purr*"
Got inspired by the "pond for small animals", my thing is a complete redesign though.
Instructions
Please make sure to use a "food safe" plastic to not put your pet's health at risk. Extruding the plastic through a brass nozzle might increase the lead content of final product. (Also see the discussion below)
I got good results with PLA, .35mm nozzle at .2mm layer height. I also used 4 perimeters and 5 top layers to make it watertight. You might get away with fewer layers and perimeters, but I didn't want to take a risk.
Then go and find some empty PET-bottle (no pun intended) that has a PCO028 thread (coke bottle, or similar thick-walled bottle). Fill the bottle with water and screw it into the socket of the pond. I would suggest the small .5l or the 1l size at max. any bigger than that and the pond will probably tip over quite easily.
I designed this thing to be massive and survive everyday use: before you print, double check the gcode so you don't waste plastic on a useless non-watertight print.
If you already have a bowl that you like to use with a bottle as a reservoir you can also print the cat-drinkpond-tower.stl, which basically is a stand for the bottle with some openings. You'd have to fix the bottle somehow to avoid that your cat tips it over, though.
I got rid of the "work in progress". The thing is massive and if I need another copy, I will probably go back and tweak the design a bit in order to save some plastic. Until then it works the way it currently is. Also I'm very satisfied with the threaded socket, it holds a 1 liter bottle very firmly.
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Pretty cool. It can be used also to water the birds outside.
They are particularly thirty in winter.
Definitively something I will print soon !!
The identity of kitties involved have been redacted to protect the innocent.
PLA will degrade alot faster when wet all the time and sunlight isnt helping on that one too.
I did some research into PLA degrading earlier this year and really couldn't find too much about. In essence the results of my research was: PLA is far from environmentally friendly (stuff is used during production! stuff!). Also degrading of small PLA chips in special reactors has a timescale of years.
If you have any more detailed information on this, I'd be really interested.
There are components of 3D printers that the PLA touches that may make it not safe for your pet to drink out of. I personally would be concerned about the long term effects it could have on a pet's health. I don't think it would be immediately harmful, but could in the long run cause health problems.
Hmm not sure about this. If I follow the path of the PLA through the hotend, it would in my case touch the following materials:
-> PLA (cold, guide) -> ABS (cold, extruder) -> Steel (cold, bearing, extruding wheel) -> ABS (cold, extruder) -> PTFE (cold to hot, liner) -> brass (hot, nozzle).
I don't think there is anything transfered to it while it is cold, except there is ABS-abrasion. The hot PTFE contact should be very comparable to your typical PTFE-coated frying pan. Also at the Temperatures below 250C PTFE is chemically stable. Afaik, brass is food safe?
Can you be more specific and elaborate what exactly you are concerned about?
is it food safe PLA?
Is there a european supplier who guarantees food safety for his PLA? To my experience the suppliers are resellers who are unable to tell you the constitution according to the relevant DIN/ISO norms... I wouldn't really trust any "food-safe label" if they can't even recite the datasheet of the original manufacturer.
BUT, this was the only PLA that I have that has zero smell while printing (this is something I learned for children plastic toys: if it smells, it's probably not healthy). Also from the stiff feel to this filament and being the natural type it shouldn't have any flexibilizers in it, which eliminates another source of unhealthy constistutents.
The main point I'm still concerned of is the color, depending on what it used to color the filament it might be slightly poisonous. In my next batch there I will use natural PLA without coloring to eliminate this risk.
LOL like the block out cat. reminds me of a Trailer Park Boys episode; they blurred the cat's identity :)
License
loving it - I will use the tower for instant water supply for my turtles.
Thank's for the idea!