starter planter collection (vase mode)

A quick weekend project – I got these adorable little grow kits, but they came with steel planters that did not have any drainage. This is a no-no. So I thought, why not take this opportunity to design more cute little planters (as if I needed a reason to design more planter). The are quick and easy to print (1.5 to 2.5 hours each) in vase mode!

Print instructions

While these model are designed to be printed with a 0.4mm nozzle, they will also work just fine with a 0.6mm or 0.8mm, so everyone can print them!

Here are some recommended settings and information about the design, to help you get the best print:

• Spiral vase mode / Spiralize outer contour: turn this on, this is how the whole magic works
• Line Width: 0.8mm (this is important, and yes, you can do it with a 0.4mm nozzle)
• Layer Height: 0.3mm (not necessarily required, but anything more and the curves don't work as well)
• Bottom Thickness / Bottom Layers: 1.2mm (e.g. 4 layers at 0.3mm layer height) (this is important to get the best quality bottom with this model)
• Wall speed: 30mm/s (you are pushing a lot of plastic, so a slower speed is best, though if you are confident in your hot end you can go faster)
• Printing Temperature: +10 to +15 degrees hotter than your usual temperature (for example, I usually print PLA at 200, but print this model at 210)
• Flow: 110% (because why not)

Special note for Prusa Slicer: Under Print Settings > Advanced, there is a "Slice gap closing radius" setting. You need to set this to 0. This is very important.

Update: 2022-01-15

As I learn more about 3D printing, I also learn what mistakes I made. The original planters in this model were not high-fidelity enough. While meant to be circular, they were designed with a low polygon count, resulting in seeing lines along the smooth round surfaces. Now that I know how, that's an easy fix!

I have uploaded a new 3MF file with the entire collection of planters, complete with slicer settings for PrusaSlicer. When you open this 3MF file, you can delete (or just hide) 5 of the 6 models so that you can print each one.

If you use a slicer like Cura, which treats 3MF files as a single object and does not allow you to edit them… you can still open the file in PrusaSlicer (it's free to download, so why not), and export each individual planter… or just complain in the comments and I'll probably upload STL files.

Notes

The prints in the photos were printed on a largely unmodified Elegoo Neptune 2 with a 0.4mm nozzle in Overture Matte yellow PLA, purple PLA, and turquoise rock PLA.

Besides the 6 original patterns you see in the photos, there is a 7th smooth model. This model makes for a pretty boring planter, but might be useful for folks looking to create a remix using their own patterns!