Mother of Thousands Planter

In my 3D Modeling and Prototyping class at IACS (Tyngsboro MA), we were prompted to create a small planter for Mother of Thousands pups (also known as an alligator plant). It had to fit within 3" by 3" by 3" and use less than 100g of filament when 3D printed. We had to research the growing conditions for mother of thousands, design and create a 3D model of our planter, and 3D print it to scale. I created an octagonal planter with drainage holes and a small pool fit for a baby mother of thousands plant.

For the design of this planter, I had to consider what conditions the plant had and what would promote plant growth. A few of these constraints were:

- Prefers full sun

- Needs good drainage and cacti soil

- They need room for root growth (as I planted a baby plant)

- Needs a place for the "babies" to fall on

With these constraints in mind, I created the design pictured. A description of this design would be an octagonal planted with a ramp. Along this ramp, there are holes going through the planter walls to promote drainage. A small pool is attached directly to the base to catch any extra water.

In order to model the design, I used Autodesk Fusion 360 to bring my design to life. In total, I had 33 sketches and seven versions of this model.

The actual shape of the model was not challenging to create. The difficult part was creating the ramp where the water could drain in to without falling off the planter. I ended up settling on a very geometric design, and the revolve tool along an angle became my best friend!

Another challenge I had to consider was the holes. I needed the holes to be big enough to let water pass through and small enough to prevent dirt from going through. When the actual model printed, the holes needed to have just enough overhang to not have the plastic be printed onto nothing. I decided to do circles with a 5 mm diameter (about 0.2 inches). Though this is very small, it would allow for water passage, not dirt passage, and would print successfully.

The next hurdle was to 3D print the planter. I had scaled my model to fit within the design constraints, but it was still going to take hours to print. My model was behind three others on one of our school 3D printers, so it was going to be a long time to have my planter be ready for use.

I printed the planter with no raft, a 0.18 mm layer height, a 0.15% infill density, and 2 shells.

Pictured above was the exact time it estimated to print my planter, the amount of filament it would use, and the time and date of the print.

Overall, I am very proud of the design of my planter. I think it is visually interesting but still has functional properties. It printed successfully and fits on the classroom windowsill wonderfully.

It only took about three and a half hours to print in total. The Mother of Thousands pup looks so happy in its' new home!

Here is the fusion 360 link: https://a360.co/3D28hdF

Feel free to print and plant your own mother of thousands in this little planter!