ThinkFun soda bottle connector

thingiverse

My entry to the ThinkFun challenge, this part allows you to connect your projects to a soda bottle. I build this around the standard 28mm bottle cap compatible with most common soft drinks small, medium and large bottles. You could fill a bottle with water or sand and use it as a weighted stand, you could use the smaller sized bottles as extra chunky - go anywhere wheels, or you could add bottles as floats or pontoons and make your projects amphibious! I looked at several connection options but in the end decided that simply adding a 1inch rod to the cap made the most sense and was the easiest to print and use. The model prints really well with no support and no raft, it came off the build platform with a little tap. I could not find an exact measurement for the rod, but I settled on 7.4mm (easily adjusted). Enjoy! Print Settings Rafts: No Supports: No Resolution: 0.2mm layer 0.5mm nozzle Infill: 20% Notes: Needed about 5g of plastic, I printed in ABS and it came out perfect first time. Post-Printing I sanded off a few burrs but it didn't need any finishing really. How I Designed This I was already working on a bottle cap for another project, it had taken me some trial and error to get it right and I fiddled with the thread to make sure it would print well without support. The rod was simply added to the top of the bottle (simple designs are always the best), I did add a core inside the cap to remove any need for support this also adds strength to the design. The walls were originally 2mm think but I halved that it is still very strong. I did the whole thing in sketchup, all my circles have 96 facets and my designs are all in metric. I printed several prototypes so I could play with them and make sure the cap fit well.