Tasty Strawberry Planter

This Strawberry Planter is a fun playful way to start creating 3D Printed objects with Tinkercad which actually have a purpose around your house. With the help of 3D printing, plant pots no longer have to remain plain and boring and can now contribute to representing the identity of the plant. This can be great for when the plant is not flowering or in this case fruit baring. The Idea for this planter could easily be replicated in Tinkercad for any other plant using simple similar steps which I will show you from sketching to the final Idea that was created with Tinkercad!

The First Step should always be to plan. Cheesy Quote time! "Fail to plan, Plan to fail". Your sketches don't have to be amazing just as long as you can understand them. This can help keep your Focus and Hopefully You can sketch down your changes to my design or completely create your own design.

All you need:

• Marker/Pencil or anything that can make a mark
• Post it (handy to put up on a wall or move around)
• Paper for more details (or just in a notebook)

After Planning your idea you can start thinking about how you will go about it. For this planter I wanted to begin 3d printing And use TinkerCad.

I went to a local Library and used their Prusa I3 Mk2s Which they let me use for Free (many librarys do)

Other Options Printing options:

• Colleges (especially design and art and engineering colleges)
• Online via Shapeways or 3d Hubs
• A good kind Friend
• You could approach a 3d Printing Community where there are tonnes of people that would be happy

Quite simply all that's left:

• Dust Mask
• Different grades of sand paper all the way to 2000 Grit
• Files
• Airbrush (alternatively spray paint for best finishes)

Garden tools

• Throwl
• snippers
• hand fork
• a hand shovel

Of Course a Strawberry plant as well!

To 3d print You need to create a .STL file. This file comes from a 3d modelling program, in this case I used Autodesk's Tinkercad. If you want to create my model yourself I will have a few main steps to help you but I will include the .STL to put into a slicer like CURA .Here is My thingiverse you can also find the .STL here

First of all you need to look at the main simplified shapes of what you would like to make. Don't try to add the strawberry seeds straight off the bat.

I created the simple strawberry shape using simple cones and a sphere. If you get stuck or are unsure look up tutorials on Youtube how to use Tinkercad shapes to create your own custom forms.

Using an inverted cone you should now cut out a center part in order to create a space to hold the soil and the plant.

From experience the wall of the model has to be at least 3mm thick in order to have water tight structures. So try to use a 3mm offset to ensure when watering there will not be any mess.

This part is not really that difficult but rather time consuming. You could easily just use the simple duplicate rotate revolve method used in Tinkercad (if you want everything to be linear and non-organic this is the easiest method)

I wanted a bit more of a natural look so I duplicated and rotated each seed to my hearts content. This is goo because you can resize rotate the seeds. If at the end the seeds are too extended then you can just scale up the main body.

ATTENTION!!!

I came across a problem on Tinkercad. since there are so many seeds When grouping it takes a long time for the grouping to be successful. in both pictures displaying the seeds you can see one has red outlines and one with blue. You have to wait a few minutes for all of them to be grouped. just leave it until they turn blue (they will eventually)

Once everything has been successfully grouped you can create the shape of the base that the planter sits on. I just created a simple cross (remember the measurements of the cross) then cut 4mm into the planter.

After this create drainage holes with simple cylinders.

The bottom is all that is left now. this can be whatever form you would like. I chose to try and follow the stalk on the strawberry. The important bit is that you use the cross measurements from the last step. Here you need to think about tolerance, every printer is different.

There are multiple options either cut a circle out of the cross's center under the drainage holes or you can add 1.5mm notches so the planter sits up higher. I chose to post process this part which I will go over in the Post Processing step.

Using a slicer like CURA Turn the .STL into GCODE for the printer. If you have a printer you know whats good. If your in a college or a library i'm sure people will be there to help.

On Thingiverse I put up my settings but every printer is different.

Another thing to consider is what type of material to consider. I used PLA because it is a bio degradable material and is pretty appropriate for natural projects.I keep my planter indoors. If you leave this outside you might want something that will last a bit more than PLA I advise PETG as its really nice to print with and is also recyclable

If you want you can skip to the Fill Me Up

If you want a better finish, use different grades of sandpaper to remove layer lines and make the surface nice and ready for paint.

Using a file you can also remove any stringing in the drainage holes.

I mentioned on Thingiverse that you need to file a notch on the bottom legs. If you don't add the notch digitally just create 1.5mm notches like I did on all 8 sides. This is so the drainage holes don't get blocked.

to add some color use an airbrush or a spray-can for an even coat. You can put a nice grey primer so the final color is really nice and vibrant. I just use acrylic paint in an airbrush. after priming spray the main color Red. Then add the yellow seed detail using a fine brush Personally I really liked how the planter looked plain white with the plant and soil so I didn't go ahead with the paint but this is your choice.

Pot the plant. I used an old rough looking strawberry basket. Be careful with the plant and always hold it at the base so not to rip the plant apart. Its also a chance if your re-purposing a plant to trim old bits and remove insects and weeds.

Get approval from your best-est Friend (this is very important)

It's finished now you need to water the plant everyday and look after it. Take all your pictures and share it with other plant lovers. Hopefully you will also get some tasty strawberry's.

Follow me for more Instructables hopefully soon to come.

You can also send me any questions on Instagram @jonceptiondesign

Also feel free to visit my website: jon-theo.com