April 24, 2026
Description
The silicone collar that keeps cans from falling out of my Hydro Flask 12oz Cooler Cup has gotten stretched out over time and no longer retains a can securely. I could buy a new one for ~$2 and 30 seconds of my time, or spend 10 times as much money on a spool of TPU and hours of my life learning FreeCAD. I think I made the obvious decision.
This isn't an exact duplicate of the original Hydro Flask collar, as it's got a lot of curved surfaces that seemed like they would be difficult to print well, and the original silicone material is much more flexible than anything I can print. I used Sunlu 95A TPU and printed with 2 perimeters and 10% gyroid infill, and the collar feels about right - flexible enough to slip on and off easily, yet still tight enough to hold onto a full can even if I turn the thing upside down and shake it.
I've included the FreeCAD project to allow further iteration, but this is my first attempt to design something in CAD rather than create an object by smashing together primitive shapes in the slicer, so it probably shouldn't be used as an example : )
License:
GNU General Public License v3.0