As not many people own their own land or have very little land vertical gardens are the perfect solution if you want to grow vegetables, fruits or flowers and use very little space. Perfect for flat with balcony or even a flat without balcony, small garden or any garden for that matter you can plant raddish, lettuce, peas, tomatoes, raspberries etc. and save a lot of space! Of course it is not limited to fruit or vegetables you can plant flowers the same way and have beautiful flower columns in your garden!
Continuing with spool upcycling theme after my Spool bird feeder and competition winning Spool winder v3 and its older versions I thought to use empty spools as vertical garden would be awesome. As I use mainly Prusament now I used empty Prusament spools.
I created two height versions:
small, 6cm tall
large, 12 cm tall
I also created two watering versions:
with self watering, has tank on the bottom
without self watering, has holes on the bottom to prevent over-watering the plant
Having in mind that the plant in the back might not get all the sunlight needed I designed a stand which allows the whole assembly to rotate freely. No bearings are needed, only screws and it is also possible to screw it in base of your choosing.
Watering is done standardly from the top for the standard planter version and from the side for the self-watering version.
You will need
(for one story)
1 x empty Prusament spool
3 x Planter
6/12 x 4x30mm self tapping screw (depending if story is in the middle of other stories)
6 x Hex pin
3 x Screw cover
Stand (optional)
3 x Stand
15 x Stand bearing
15 x M4x30mm screw
15 x M4 nut
Printing instructions
Arachne perimeter generator is recommended. All prints without supports, max overhang is 40 degrees. White color isn't the best for this as I discovered, it will get dirty easily from the mud and it gets stuck between the layer lines so avoid white. Avoid PLA, instead use PETG, ASA or ABS. Printable on Prusa Mini.
Assembly
Firstly you will need to disassemble Prusament spool. You will disassemble it by pulling the two plastic sides apart, rotate a bit and pull apart, do this until the two halfs are separated.
When you have the halfs separated take the first three planters and insert a hex pins on their bottom. Then place the first planter on first half of the spool and make sure the pins a correctly seated in the hexagonal hole of the spool. Use this holes (https://media.printables.com/media/prints/525487/rich_content/0d97a8cc-7442-4689-b32c-3efddec09b35/thumbs/cover/800x800/png/prusament-hex-pin-holes.webp) (but from the other side).
If everything is seated you can proceed with screwing a screw from the bottom. In the same way continue with other two planters. Now you can cover the screw and plant the plants but take the second half into account so it does not get in plant's way.
Next step depends if you want to put another story on top or not.
If you don't you can place the second half on the planters and screw it in. This also applies for the top story.
If you want to put another story on top, disassemble the second spool, add hex pins and this time rotate the assembly by 60 degrees. There are holes in the middle of the planter which should align with the holes on the side of planters below. Screw the planter in (make sure you don't leave out the top of the first spool), cover the screw and plant the plant. This way you can continue and build as many stories as stability lets you.
Stand
To assemble the stand drop in the nuts, place the stand bearing in the opening and push the M4 screw through. Then screw the screw in. Do this for other 4 screws and then do this for the other two stands. After that the stand just interlocks together, and if you place all the spools on top, it will rotate freely.
As always, .3MF .STEP files and this time even the .F3D (Fusion 360) file is available so you can edit the files to your liking. I will be happy to see your remixes!
Don't forget to like, share and follow me for more awesome projects like this comeptition winning Spool winder v3:
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