Flower Pot With Shower and Lights

Hello all, I have designed a flower put, which could be 3D printed, this unit can house a pump to shower water and lights. I used a salvaged pump unit from a soap dispenser, you can get one such peristaltic pump, as shown in picture from Amazon or Ebay and had different types of string lights running on battery. This will also require some glass beads and select the small plant you wish to grow, ensure that it could survive purely on water, as in this design the water is pumped and showers down in to the pot.

Before starting to design, it is very necessary to plan how big you want, it could be limited to your plant, your pump & battery unit or size your printer can print. My limitation was the pump unit and printer size, I can print 8.5 inch cube.

I have used transparent PLA for the middle part, so that light could flow out of it.

1) 3D printed parts

2) Pump

3) string light

4) battery holder

5) wires

6) switch

7) water

8) glass beads

9) small plant

10) glue

I am new to Fusion 360, so I might have taken more steps than required.

As I could print 8.5 inch cube and designed within that range, still I sliced parts into half to increase speed of print and reduce material waste, as putting whole design to print would demand to much of material for producing support, plus I don't want the product surface to have marks made due to supports.

First make a torus, with center or inner diameter as 7.5 inch and 1 inch as section or torus diameter, this will lead to max outer diameter of 8.5 inch and I will have a room of 6.5 inch inner diameter

The way we need this design, the plane should be at an offset to XZ plane = diameter of torus - section diameter = 7.5 inch - 0.5 inch = 6.5 inch

Make second torus same size on the new reference plane

Sketch a square or rectangle on XZ plane to cut away a quarter from both torus

Extrude cut to remove quarter from both torus

The space between the two torus is 6.5 inch, the new reference plane should be at an offset of 6.5 / 2 = 3.25 inch from the two vertical planes (XY & YZ)

Take one plane to make vertical torus, with diameter of 6.5 inch and section diameter of 1 inch, its center should be between the center of the two torus

Split the vertical torus with other offset plane and hide the unwanted split torus body

Move the vertical torus part if required

Make a mid plane to mirror the vertical torus

Mirror the vertical torus body about the recently created plane

Combine all the bodies

Make a fillet, to remove sharp edge

Make shell with 0.0625 inch wall thickness

Make a sketch on the plane used for mirror with offset from outer edges, such that the distance between the two offset is 0.125 inch and is a closed loop geometry to extrude to form solid

Extrude to form solid, such that it extends on both sides beyond the loop body

Copy the outer surface of the loop, for that go to Surface tab, by the side of Solid tab on the top, then go to Create > Offset, select the outer faces of the torus loop and set the offset as 0 (zero) to create offset surface

Use surface to split the extruded solid body

Image shows the three split bodies

Hide the unwanted body

Make duplicate of the middle loop, this step will make more sense when you see the next step

Move the duplicate / copy away, that way it is easy for selection and we will bring this back to same place, so remember how and by what value it is moved

Split the loop made by torus with middle extruded and split solid, select the loop made by torus as target body and the middle extruded + split solid as tool body

View shows duplicate moved out while the loop is split in two

Move the duplicate inner loop back in place

Combine the two bodies of middle loop, so that we could have base to place the pot

Create plane to make sketch for pot, I made 3 inch offset from XZ plane, as my pump unit is less than 2.5 inch high

Create sketch for pot on the plane created previously, I made hex, you can use any polygon

Create sketch to make guide for sweep, I created a line on the plane which we used for mirror, such that it touches the polygon sketch created, up to the inner face of the middle loop

I wanted to have unique shape, so while sweeping solid, I added a taper and rotation

Create another sweep solid turning other direction, using same sketches

Combine the two sweep solid for the pot

Create the shell feature on the pot with wall thickness as 0.0625 inch

Select the bottom face of the pot to sketch, my pump unit is 2.875 inch diameter, so I need housing wall as 0.0625 inch, so the housing outer diameter = 2.875 inch + (0.0625 inch x 2) = 3 inch

Extrude sketch to make room for the pump unit, my pump unit is less than 2.5 inch, so I took that height

Sketch an offset circle to make room for pump unit, I need the wall thickness to be 0.0625 inch, so the diameter of the circle is 3 inch - ( 0.0625 inch x 2) = 2.875 inch, the sketch is made on the same plane selected previously

Extrude cut to make room for pump unit, I have kept the upper wall thickness of 0.0625 inch, so 2.5 inch - 0.0625 inch = 2.4375 inch

I created an offset plane from XZ plane at 1 inch, this is the minimum water level I wish to have in the pot, if you need more water height in the pot, than raise the offset distance.

Create sketch to make revolved cut for pump inlet tube, I created a rectangle with width as the pump tube outer radius, on the previous plane created.

Create revolved cut for pump inlet tube

Select the upper flat face of inner loop, to make sketch for shower holes

Create sketch for shower hole, I made a rectangle such that one of its line passes through the center of the loop circle, which will be used as axis of rotation and the thickness is equal to the radius of hole size I require. As I had already planned the number of holes require, I have dropped the rectangle at an angle, for my ease to pattern later.

Create revolve cut for shower hole

Create pattern of the holes for shower, depending on how many you have planned

Select the bottom face of middle loop body to make sketch for cut out on outer loop, this will be required to pass the pump outlet tube and the light wire

Sketch for cut out on outer loop

Extrude cut from outer loop, this will help to pass the pump outlet tube to the middle loop and to pass the light wire through outer loop.

Select the bottom face of middle loop body to make sketch for holes for tube & wire

Make the center hole bigger, to pass pump outlet tube and the wires for lights and the outer circle small enough to pass the tube coming from the middle hole.

Extrude cut to make hole for pump tube, the outlet of the pump will pass through the the center hole out and will be glue when that tube enters the next hole.

Select the top face of middle loop body for making sketch for pot alignment

As my pump unit fits into the pot and that pump has 2.5 inch diameter pocket of 0.125 inch deep, so I made a circle of 2.4375 inch and and didn't want to waste to much material and time on it, so to make it thin I made a circle at an offset of 0.625 inch inwards.

Extrude the ring with minimum thickness, as this will only help us to place the pot at the center

The model is ready, but we are further splitting the bodies to make simple for printing.

Create a mid plane for reference, using either the two outer flat faces or the two inner flat faces, at top and bottom.

Create an offset plane upwards for splitting, say by 1/4 inch (0.25) from the previous mid plane

Create an offset plane downwards for splitting, say by 1/4 inch (0.25) from the mid plane

Select the middle loop body as the body to split and a plane as splitting tool, use either the top or the bottom offset plane

Select the outer most loop body as the body to split and the plane as splitting tool, ensure that selected offset plane it is not the same plane used to split the middle loop

Select the same plane that was used to slice the outer most loop body, as splitting tool and select the inner most loop as the body to split

In the attached image you can see the different bodies created

Basically to export all bodies as individual STL files, hide all bodies except one that you wish to export, than select in UI File > Export, a "Export" window opens up with, type the file name, select the Type as STL format and the suitable location to save and click on "Export".

I tried my best to print these parts 1:1 scale, but wasted a lot of time and material due to my printer failure, so I decided to print half size. Print all with 100%, with 0.4 mm nozzle and 0.2 mm layer height, with full scale, the parts will require a day for printing. Always try to place the model such that you have flat face at the bottom and not just an edge, have the product surface up or outwards, add supports, refer the attached images for example.

Sorry, I dropped the glue and was not able to finish the project over the weekend, due to lockdown. I will try my best to upload the image for the assembly process as soon as possible.

Assembly process

1) There are total 7 printed parts, first take the pot and assemble the pump unit in it, the inlet of the pump should come out of the small hole made on cylindrical wall and the outlet should come down

2) Pull the outlet tube from the center hole from the middle loop bottom half and pull it back to next small hole, pull the wire from the battery holder for the light

3) Now stick the inner loop bottom part and stick the edges, ensure the joint is leak proof

4) Now glue the middle loop upper half to inner loop upper half

5) now join the two sub-assemblies such that the loop is complete and leak proof joints, run the pump with water and move to next step when you get successful shower of water

6) now connect the light and see if it runs

7) arrange the light on the outer surface of middle loop, such that it will fit in the outer loop, if required use hot glue gun, see that the light wire is entering from the same hole close to the pump outlet tube at the bottom

8) once printed parts are assembled, run the whole unit and if successful run then move to next

9) Now add plant in the pot, the glass beads and water close up to rim of the pot, you are ready