Blacksmith's Pail (no multimaterial required!)

Howdy, wonderful people!

Multimaterial printing is great, but it really does have some downsides. Excessive extra print time and unreasonable material waste are realities that make us question whether the benefits are worth it. But contrast that with simple filament swaps at specific layers - in that case there's no waste and no time overhead. The downside, though, is that everything on a given layer has to be the same colour.

So, with this bucket I decided I was going to work out a way to incorporate an articulated handle that would be coloured the same as the iron bands, despite the need for an articulated handle that connects to the upper part of the bucket.

My first attempt used a chain as a handle! The chain was connected to the lower iron band and the links printed flat on the bed. Then, they were in theory going to hook on to the upper band and form a handle above. However, it was just weird, and far from feeling like a rustic bucket of some kind.

Eventually, though, after exploring some more ideas, the handle ended up getting some mobility!

At print time, the handle is captive within a slot on the side of the bucket. It can't rotate or move out of the base, but it can be slid upwards within the slot. Naturally, it takes on the colour of the lower band, which is entirely the point of this exercise.

The handle flexes slightly as the sides are moved up, and then snaps back inwards when it reaches the top. Once the handle has moved into that socket at the top it can rotate freely, and the world is a happy place once more.

Filament Changes

As you can probably guess, you'll want to change filaments three times during the print - any time you're transitioning from wood to iron or iron to wood. If you can get your printer to pause and wait for you to make the change that's ideal, and avoids the case where you forget entirely and end up with a single-colour print after all.

Print Description

This is an articulated model, so make sure your first layer is nice and neat, and watch out for print quality issues like overextrusion or stringing that might bond moving parts together.

Print Dimensions

The full-size model (the larger ones in the photos) 193mm x 186mm on the print bed and is 153mm tall.

Supports Needed?

Not at all!  Designed for straightforward printing!

Scalability

The handle mechanism should handle a reasonable amount of scaling up or down without too many issues. In the photos you'll see a scaled-down version that was sized to fit on a 180mm print bed.

Print Orientation

The Blacksmith's Pail prints right-way-up, with the handle in its initial position flat on the print bed. The handle is guided up the outer channel after printing to pop into a socket in the upper ring.

Further Thoughts

It's amazing how impactful it can be to make such a simple colour change to a model. Hmm, now I wonder if I should resurrect that chain and attach it to the handle...

Happy printing!

xoxo

Sven.

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471 Blacksmiths Pail