Hunter Rainbird Orbitz Sprinkler Body Cap & Insert Plug

Update 2: Added insert caps that fit inside existing sprinkler caps to seal off water flow. I found these work better as you don't need to worry about cleaning up threads. It's also using less material.

Update: After being in service for a year with the previous design I broke one. It was my fault I zinged it with he weed whacker. Maybe more than once. I was going to just reprint more of these but honestly the level of caveman-esk work I did to close up the original STL I remixed from Ivan5rov on thingiverse was always a bit embarrassing. I was always dissapointed as well that the threads were not correct for my sprinkler bodies. All the Hunter spray bodies I use have buttress threads. If your not familiar with those think saw blade /|/|/| versus a "normal" thread thats more /\/\/\. The difference is there because the body has buttress threads too and when mated with the cap both flat sides line up and give you much more resistance to pressures. Now the original design did not have these but the cap and the body are both plastic so lets face it we can make it work with strong forearms. I decided I wanted to create these from the ground up this time so I set out trying to find out what the thread specs are on those buttress threads. That was a big ya nah, it's apparently a secret only known to 3 people on earth and I'm not one of them.

If you are one of these 3 people or I'm just an idiot and you know what the thread specs are shoot me a message and I'll be super grateful and will update my design.

Without the knowledge of the 3, I pushed on as I often do and began a series of repetitive measuring, a little CAD work, more measuring, more CAD work some printing, more CAD work and so forth. All up to this design which fit rather well in my opinion. I printed them both right side up and upside down to test. So right side up in this case is flat side down because that's how the STL is. I know from experience I don't like printing threaded items with supports because it takes forever to clean them out. I was concerned this orientation would not print well without supports because the flat side of the thread faces down. The upside down one placed the flat sides of the thread facing up so I knew they'd be cleaner but I needed to add support for the roof. The right side up version had the cleanest look to it (threads weren't that bad). Threading this one on to a body was tighter for sure but after a series of thread on thread off cycles going further on (think tapping a hole) it goes on pretty well now. The upside down one isn't as clean of a print for me but the threads were spot on and went on with nearly the same ease as the factory hunter cap. I printed them in polymaker polylite yellow ABS and scaled the print up on the X & Y to 101% to compensate for the shrinkage (hey the water was cold!). You know your printer better than I do, heck I don't even know what kind of filament you got in that sucker these days. So print it how ever you know best, good luck and enjoy.

Original: I needed to cap off a couple zones no longer needed in my yard and yes I could have bought these for @$5/each but what is the fun in that. I found the cap made by ivon5rov and after tweaking with the sizes and closing the center opening off I got it working with my sprinkler bodies. I added an o-ring in there for extra security but I don't think it needs it. They've been in service on 5 bodies for about 2 months so far and only one showed signs of leaking and it was because the cap wasn't tightened down well enough. I may come back and rework these in the future to add a groove or ring on the inside to slip inside the body some to really make sure it seals well.

Print Settings

Printer:

Qidi Pro

Rafts: 

No

Supports:

No

Resolution: 

0.2

Infill:

50

Filament:

Generic PETG

Green
 

Notes:

I don't recommend using supports unless you enjoy picking tiny supports out of the threads for some time :)