Designing and 3D printing feeders & accessories

[DonyaQuick]

And so the first actual feeder port test with feed begins. I was able to post-print fix the angled feeder back that had some loose filaments - fixed enough for a small test anyway. It's the port on the left and was an absolute bear to attach. The port on the right, the more recent snap-fit design, is SO much better to attach/assemble.

This is in my main flock with 2 roos and mostly hens. Haven't seen the roos use it yet, but have hens in both ports. Didn't put much feed in since it's not up high enough just on those bricks. I had a cinderlbock I set aside for it to get it up higher, but I managed to mess up my knee slipping in mud earlier today so it'll be a bit before I can get the test feeder up higher.

 

[cundare]

This is terrific! I am very impressed.

I have a technical background and am pretty handy with Windows PCs, but have never owned a 3D printer. What would you recommend I buy (hardware + software) in order to do something similar?

Did your printer ship with compatible 3D-modeling software, did you use some off-the-shelf model, or did you have to create the model yourself with a third-party application?

 

[DonyaQuick]

This is terrific! I am very impressed.

I have a technical background and am pretty handy with Windows PCs, but have never owned a 3D printer. What would you recommend I buy (hardware + software) in order to do something similar?

Did your printer ship with compatible 3D-modeling software, did you use some off-the-shelf model, or did you have to create the model yourself with a third-party application?

Everything 3d-printed thing I've shown pictures of in this thread so far is something I modeled myself. The only off-the-shelf models I've printed were to make sure the printer was working correctly when I first assembled it.

There are a lot of 3D printer brands & models with their own highlights and special features - I went with the particular make/model I did because it was the biggest I could reasonably fit for my price range, and I have had good experiences with the same brand's resin printers; most people end up in a particular brand "camp" (as I have) and I don't think there's necessarily a best choice there, it's more what fits your needs. Because I've only ever directly used the one brand and have barely been using the filmaent printer for any length of time, I don't think I'm really in a position to recommend one brand or model over another in the filament domain. I'd recommend looking at reviews on youtube that compare different brands and models to figure out which printer has what you're looking for.

All 3D printers require two pieces of software to make stuff: something to do the 3D modeling and something else called a slicer to add supports to 3D models and turn everything into print instructions. The slicer is the only thing that "comes with" the printer from the manufacturer, and a lot of people use open-source options for that instead. I'm not aware of any 3D printers that also come with 3D modeling software.

Because I'm coming from the resin side of things, I'm using Blender for the 3D modeling step. Blender is free but has a steep learning curve, requires a beefy PC, and is geared more towards sculpting and animating - and therefore honestly is probably NOT what you want to be using if you want to make things to very specific dimension specs. Most people who use filament printers to make useful items (vs purely ornamental pieces) use some kind of CAD tool, and I really don't know much about those currently. I tried a free one recently, absolutely hated it, and went right back to Blender because I'm impatient lol. I will have to learn some kind of CAD thing eventually but, not having done it yet, can't recommend one thing over another for that.

 

[cundare]

Everything 3d-printed thing I've shown pictures of in this thread so far is something I modeled myself. The only off-the-shelf models I've printed were to make sure the printer was working correctly when I first assembled it.

There are a lot of 3D printer brands & models with their own highlights and special features - I went with the particular make/model I did because it was the biggest I could reasonably fit for my price range, and I have had good experiences with the same brand's resin printers; most people end up in a particular brand "camp" (as I have) and I don't think there's necessarily a best choice there, it's more what fits your needs. Because I've only ever directly used the one brand and have barely been using the filmaent printer for any length of time, I don't think I'm really in a position to recommend one brand or model over another in the filament domain. I'd recommend looking at reviews on youtube that compare different brands and models to figure out which printer has what you're looking for.

All 3D printers require two pieces of software to make stuff: something to do the 3D modeling and something else called a slicer to add supports to 3D models and turn everything into print instructions. The slicer is the only thing that "comes with" the printer from the manufacturer, and a lot of people use open-source options for that instead. I'm not aware of any 3D printers that also come with 3D modeling software.

Because I'm coming from the resin side of things, I'm using Blender for the 3D modeling step. Blender is free but has a steep learning curve, requires a beefy PC, and is geared more towards sculpting and animating - and therefore honestly is probably NOT what you want to be using if you want to make things to very specific dimension specs. Most people who use filament printers to make useful items (vs purely ornamental pieces) use some kind of CAD tool, and I really don't know much about those currently. I tried a free one recently, absolutely hated it, and went right back to Blender because I'm impatient lol. I will have to learn some kind of CAD thing eventually but, not having done it yet, can't recommend one thing over another for that.

I wrote code for CAD systems long ago -- the 1980s! -- but have been out of 3D modeling for many years. The things that I'd want to design would be relatively simple, so relearning an application like AutoCAD isn't that attractive a proposition for me.

Having said all that, I'd be willing to simply buy feeders similar to what you made. I understand why you'd be hesitant about making specific recommendations in public, but would this be something you'd be willing to discuss in a private message?

 

[DonyaQuick]

So, interesting update on the feeder ports: distinctly more food got eaten on the left side, which is the one with the angled design. Not what I expected! The pointy design actually has less space and a smaller surface area of feed exposed. Of course, what I really need to know is which one my roos were preferring to eat out of, but those two have deliberately not been letting me watch them eat. I know they've gone over and had a nibble, but I've had to be so far away I can't tell which port they're going for.

If the pointy shape is the winner, I should be able to redesign the snap fit back-end to have a similar shape...just have to try to get something that actually prints well and doesn't leave dangling filament spindles. Nice thing about the snap-fitting is I can keep the front plate anchored and just swap out the back.

No trouble with feed spillage from the feeder ports so far, but there's time yet for them to figure out how to make a mess.

I understand why you'd be hesitant about making specific recommendations in public, but would this be something you'd be willing to discuss in a private message?

It's not a matter of public/private so much as that I'd probably just be googling stuff too with anything to do with CAD or any filament printers other than the one I have. If you were wanting to print miniatures for dioramas or tabletop games, I'd happily recommend a list of stuff for resin printing those kinds of things because I've been doing that for a couple of years now...but resin printing of course is totally unsuitable for things like chicken feeders and feed scoops. I've only had a filament printer for 3 weeks and just haven't had the time to explore CAD options properly; I'm learning with it as I go.

 

[cundare]

Well, even that is good information. Why would a resin printer be unsuitable for chicken feeders? Danger of chemical contamination of food? Or something else?

 

[DonyaQuick]

Well, even that is good information. Why would a resin printer be unsuitable for chicken feeders? Danger of chemical contamination of food? Or something else?

The types of resins that are readily available at the consumer level shouldn't be used with anything food/animal/outdoor related due to a number of things: toxicity of the uncured materials, no way to ensure complete curing of anything but the surface layers of a model (so a broken model may expose uncured material), UV sensitivity (UV is what cures it in the first place), and brittleness of the cured material. Resin-printed models basically have to be painted to protect them, kept indoors, and used relatively gently even when made from so-called "tough" resins.

Once I'm further into this and have a decent collection of simple designs that I think other people might find useful I was wondering about putting this kind of stuff in article form to have it all in one place. It'll just take me a bit.

 

[Patiocoturnix]

The types of resins that are readily available at the consumer level shouldn't be used with anything food/animal/outdoor related due to a number of things: toxicity of the uncured materials, no way to ensure complete curing of anything but the surface layers of a model (so a broken model may expose uncured material), UV sensitivity (UV is what cures it in the first place), and brittleness of the cured material. Resin-printed models basically have to be painted to protect them, kept indoors, and used relatively gently even when made from so-called "tough" resins.

Once I'm further into this and have a decent collection of simple designs that I think other people might find useful I was wondering about putting this kind of stuff in article form to have it all in one place. It'll just take me a bit.

Yeah don’t forget the mess and fumes from printing resin.

 

[DonyaQuick]

Found a way to get most of the way back to the pointed feeder port design while retaining the snaps in a support-free way. I was a little nervous that the angling of the layers due to sitting on a different face might mess with the ability of the snaps to fit into the original ports, but a mini-size test print snapped right into my previos mini-size port front with the snap groves. Still a mystery to me why they're continuing to prefer the pointed design rather than the flat-back one.

 

[DonyaQuick]

Well, not all filaments are equal...and not all PLA filaments are chicken-safe! I thought I'd give a new white reel I got a try just making a little box for tabletop game cards, and boy did it make a mess. This is a brand new reel that was vacuum sealed, so I don't believe this lack of filament-to-filament adhesion can be a wet filament issue. Temperature was in spec for the filament and this issue seemed to come and go throughout the print. What you're seeing below is actually the bottom layer, so it's not the result of a support issue either. Stray strands where it did thi were very brittle, broke in a sharp way, and one that was under tension actually flipped around and stabbed me in the finger when I picked at it! Not fun! I was going to use this stuff to make nicer looking solutions to a wooden power-cord-through-hwc bracket I have right now that's kind of ugly, but apparently not! This particular color/brand/reel is definitely not chicken-safe with the way the strands splinter.

I haven't tried very many filaments so far. This is where I'm at with that:

• Anycubic gray PLA - worked great, just too dark for feeder ports which is why I didn't use much. Great for test prints though and plan to use more of it for things where light doesn't matter (like making a feeder stand, etc.).
• Anycubic white PLA - brittle and created the issue above. Possible that I just got a bad reel somehow but won't be testing that hypothesis; I'll be trying other brands of white.
• Sunlu clear PLA - great stuff that I've been making the majority of my chicken-related test prints out of. Gone through two reels now and the only issue I've had is that when it gets down to to the last couple meters that are realy tightly wound, it's a bit more prone to breaking due to its own tension when left sitting in the printer unused for a couple days. I've had no fragility isues with the prints themselves. I've been quite rough with my clear prints and chickens have pecked those ports quite a lot with no issues. Broken strands also tend to break in a pretty blunt and therefore safe way.