3D Printed Belt Mounted Water Bottle Holder Using Tinkercad

This Instructable will show you how to make a water bottle holder that you can place conveniently onto your belt. This can help you stay hydrated outside in hot weather. We will design the whole thing in Tinkercad and 3D print it. It prints out into three parts which you then superglue together. Aside from the superglue, this project is entirely 3D printed. Let's begin!

• A belt.
• A water bottle.
• A clamp.
• Superglue.
• Sandpaper (if everything goes as expected you won't need this).
• A measuring device (such as a ruler or a caliper)
• Tinkercad (and basic knowledge of how to use it).
• A 3D printer (with a minimum build size of about 150mm x 150mm x 150mm).
• PLA filament (or similar).

Take these measurements for your water bottle holder (and make sure you write them down):

• Water bottle diameter.
• Water bottle height.
• Belt thickness.
• Belt height.

Here are the measurements that I took for mine:

• Water bottle diameter: 64mm
• Water bottle height: 200mm
• Belt thickness: 3mm
• Belt height: 39mm

Create a new Tinkercad project and do the following:

• Create a box with the size 14.5mm x 30mm x (the height of your belt) as shown in the first picture.
• Create a lengthwise hole in the top of the box for the belt to go into. The hole's size should be (the thickness of your belt + 0.5mm) x 36mm x (the height of your belt - 5mm). Now group it to the box.
• Put a box at the top and to the side of the hole you made with the size of 1mm x 30mm x 3mm. This part will clutch onto the belt.
• Place a wedge underneath the part you just made. It's size should be 1mm x 30mm x 9mm. This will make it easier to 3D print.
• Extend the width of the two last parts 1mm into the side of the hole. That way there will be no gap between them and the side.
• Finally, group the whole thing together! It should look something like the last two pictures.

This is the piece that will hold the water bottle.

• First, create a cylinder as a base. Make it the diameter of your water bottle + 9mm and make the height about 3/4 the height of the water bottle. Also, make the side count of the cylinder 12 to give it a cool look.
• Then, make a space for the water bottle to fit into. The diameter of the hole should be the diameter of the water bottle + 2mm. We add 2mm just so that the hole won't be too tight. Move the hole 4mm off the ground so that there is still some material at the bottom for the water bottle to sit on. Group the hole to the base.
• (Optional) To save plastic, you can make a small hole in the bottom of the base. You don't want it to be too big or else the water bottle will fall through it. I made mine 45mm in diameter.
• (Also optional) You can cut out part of the sides to save even more plastic. I just took a box 20mm x 139mm x 130mm, put it in the center of the base, moved it off the ground 4mm, and rotated it 45 degrees. Then I duplicated it and rotated that 90 degrees, creating an X shape. I turned those into holes and grouped them to the base. This then creates four side panels.
• Lastly, to make a space for the belt clip to be glued on to, simply take a duplicate model of the belt clip, move it to the edge of the base, align it to the top of the base, move it down 2mm, and move it back as far as you can without it poking through the other side. Look at one of the last few pictures for a reference.
• Now just group it all together. Your bottle holder should look something like the one in the last picture above.

We will have a ring that will be glued to the top of the four side panels of the bottle holder. This will make them less flimsy. If you did not divide your bottle holder side into different sections, you should be OK to skip doing this.

• Make a cylinder with a side count of 12. Make sure it's diameter is the same as the water bottle holder and make the height 4mm.
• Make a hole with the same diameter as the hole you made for the water bottle in the water bottle holder. Also make it's height 5mm.
• Group the hole to the cylinder. It should now look like the last picture above.

Now that you have designed our parts, you must 3D print them! I used the Flashprint 5 as my slicer, but you use whatever slicing software you like. Make sure that everything is printed in the orientation shown in the pictures above. I just used the standard settings for the material I was using. I printed it with PLA. I have not tested this with any other material. If the material you use is similar to PLA, I think it should work. All together these parts took about 8 hours to print.

Now that you have printed out your parts it's time to put them together!

First, attach the belt clip to the bottle holder.

• Put the belt clip into the slot you made in the bottle holder just to make sure that it fits. If the slot is too tight, use some sandpaper to make it bigger.
• Apply a fair amount of superglue to the face of the slot and quickly move on to the next step.
• Place the belt clip into the slot as shown in the picture above, make sure it's centered, then clamp it down.
• Let the glue dry for about 2 hours.

After the 2 hours is over, take off the clamp and glue on the top ring.

• Apply superglue to the top surfaces of the water bottle holder and quickly move on to the next step.
• Place the ring down, align it, and hold it down to the bottle holder for only about 30 seconds. You don't have to clamp this down. Try not to touch the glue while you do this.
• Let the glue dry for about 2 hours.

When those 2 hours are up, you should be OK to handle it, but waiting 24 hours ensures that the glue is fully cured.

Congratulations! You now have your own 3D printed belt mounted water bottle holder! Put it on your belt, slap in your water bottle, and show the world what you designed completely from scratch. Enjoy!