DIY 3D Printed Cherry Harvester

There's nothing like the feeling of eating a bunch of fresh cherries, right from the tree. Unfortunately though, it is often the case that the very sweetest and yummiest ones are hanging from the top branches, dangling right out of reach.

This happened a lot to me as a child because the trees in our garden were tall and I...wasn't. Through the years, however I gained a little bit of extra height and, more importantly, access to a 3d printer and modelling software. Which meant that I could at last design a device that could reach those tall branches and pluck out the cherries from below without having to climb onto a ladder.

It´s my pleasure to introduce to you the Cherreacher, a brand new cherry harvester that not only detaches the fruit from the branch, but also funnels it through a pipe straight into a bag.

To make the Cherreacher you will need:

• Access to a 3d printer.
• A 32mm diameter 3m PVC pipe.
• About 3m of string.
• 30 cm of 2 mm drawstring cord for the bag holder (or some thick string)
• 3 1/2 inch phillip screws.
• One elastic band.
• A pair of scissors.
• A screwdriver.

To begin making the Cherreaches, you first need to print out all of the components. You can make them out of PLA if you'd like, but I recommend usin PETg or ABS, at least for the mechanical parts, because they could otherwise warp when left outside in the sun (speaking from experience here).

For the first four files you will need two of each, and just one for the rest. Supports aren't required, though they could improve the accuracy of some areas. It really depends on the printer being used and how well can it print bridges and overhangs. I personally had no issues printing it without supports.

Another thing which is optional but that improves a lot how the device looks is adding a color change to the head and the beak of the device. This Is because when I was modelling the shape leaned a lot towards looking like a parrot, and the color change helps to accentuate the resemblance. The height for the color change should be at 12mm for the beak and at 86mm for the head.

It really isnt necessary, but it makes it so much coooler.

Once you have all of the components you can start to assemble the device.

First you have to attach the elastic band to the beam. You need to fold it once over itself before for it to pull with enough strength as to move the beak back into position after chugging each cherry.

Once attached you can insert it into de head from the back an rotate it to occupy its final position. You can then pull the other end of the elastic band over the hook located on on the top of the main body

Now its time to place one articulated at both sides of the head. Each of them has a hole which can connect itself to the central beam from the previous step.

Next comes the beak. Before placing the central hub you will need to place the pins where it joins with the arms at each side, because once the central hub is in place the corresponding holes wont be accessible anymore.

Once the pins are in place, you can finish securing the beak. You'll need to align both holes first, then put one of the ¨eyes¨ from the outside and one from the inside and join them together using one of the Phillip screws.

The final step to assemble the head is to attach the string needed to control the mechanism from the other side of the PVC pipe. For this you must thread the piece of string though both the head and the beam and make a knot so that it catches when pulling.

With this the head of the Cherreacher is done. All that its left is to prepare the bag holder to be able to catch the cherries when they fall down the pipe.

The idea for this feature took a while to take shape. While I knew what it needed to do I couldn't find a solution that could easily adapt to different sizes of bags and not tear or damage them when holding them in place . All of the options involved a lot of mechanical components and were harder to 3d print.

The final design essentially works like a tourniquet, fastening the bag to the pipe and then using the same torsion to keep it in place.

To assemble it you need to make a loop with the drawstring, making a knot so that the twister is also included.

It's advisable to slightly burn the ends of the drawstring to prevent it from fraying.

The Cherreachear is almost done. All that is left is to secure the two parts to each end of the PVC pipe. For the head you can just insert it into place, As for the Bag-holder, after inserting it to the end of the PVC pipe use the third Phillip screw to secure it in place.

And Voila! the Cherreacher is fully assembled.

But before the harvest begins we first need to attach a bag to the bottom of the Cherreacher.

To do this , cover the mouth of the bag-holder with the bag, place the drawstring loop over it, give it a couple of spins with the twister until its tight and then latch it inside the small hook on the side so that it doesn't unwind.

With everithing done is time to go pluck some cherries!

To use your Cherreacher, first select a juicy cherry to target, then maneuver the beak into position and draw from the string so that the mouth closes. The now pull backwards slightly to pluck it out and then release the string so the mouth reopens. The cherry will fall down the PVC pipe right into the bag!

You are now able to reach all those cherries from the tall branches. You can relish on the taste of sweet fresh fruit or even take the opportunity to make some delicious jam!