Cup Holder Tree

thingiverse

<h4>What is it?</h4> It is a cup holder tree, which can hold up to 7 cups (4 on bottom, 3 on top). <h4>Core ideas behind it?</h4> Like with cities, living room is valuable and that leads to building things upwards to have more usage for each living area. As I wanted to have my cups easy to reach (not hidden in some shelf) and yet still be compact in space usage, I thought of a tree-like structure: * Possibility to store multiple cups on a visible stand. * Usage of upward building direction to safe space. * Use building volume of common 3D Printers * Allow storage of XXL cups * Like always: Only 3D printed material, lightweight, avoid support structures where possible and make it therefore cheap <h4>Why this and not others?</h4> Actually I found nothing comparable here on Thingiverse. Wanted to use a design and simply print it to save time, instead of developing my own solution, but thing didn't come even close for remixing or so. Originally I wanted to buy that hanger tree from Ikea, but it was so simple, expensive and ugly that I decided to check out 3D print possibilities. It is still maybe not the most pretty thing, but way more beautiful than the Ikea thing. ;) <h4>What is the outcome?</h4> Several iterations, as the concept of connecting multiple 3D parts for stability and low clearance was more challenging than expected. The construction itself wasn't too demanding regarding forces and loads, so avoiding screws and other components felt appropriate: * Following data based on ABS and 15% infill * Total printing time of ~22.5 hrs in average quality and speed (each part around 2.5 hrs). * Material usage: ~320g (cost around 7€ based on standard ABS material) * Quite tall stem, which may have warping if not sticking properly to printing bed. Printing with raft is recommended. * (Rock) solid stand, where I do not worry if it can hold the cups properly, when using ~15% infill * Almost no support material required, when printing in following directions: ** Leg (upwards) - no support required ** Base (upwards) - little support for the sliding area ** Stem (upwards) - little support around the hexagonal connector ** Leaf (downwards) - little flat support on holding area * Clearance and tolerances should work out for most printers: used 0.25 mm clearance between parts, which grants part sliding with a bit pressure