Bucket Grate Thing

This was designed to keep soluble supports submerged. The idea is to place your prints with soluble supports into a standard 5-gallon bucket filled with your solution, put the Bucket Thing on top, then place something in the grate to weigh it down. I like to use silverware or for this, as I generally use PVA for my support interfaces, and circulate warm, slightly soapy water to speed up the dissolution process. Butter knives, spoons, forks, etc are happy in this environment and I just throw them in the dishwasher afterwards.

These buckets are all roughly standard dimensions, but the one I used for this project is True Value–branded, with an inside diameter of approximately 285 mm at the top, 255 mm at the bottom, and a depth of about 360 mm. It will work with any 5-gallon bucket, though the top of your Bucket Thing may not sit quite as flush with the rim as it does with mine. EDIT: Shrinkage!!!

I printed mine in PETG, but nearly any material other than PVA should work fine. You will need a print bed that is at least 285mm on both X and Y axes. You could probably get away with vase mode (or whatever your slicer calls it) for the wall, but I designed it to be 1.2 mm thick all the way around.

Category: Other