Vertical Garden Tower parts for 100mm PVC DWV pipe.

I designed a garden tower that would side on top of my 100mm siphon shroud in an aquaponics system.

Complete 3d printed options would take too much filament and time and so I went with modifying a spare 65cm x 100mm (hole) PVC pipe instead. I used Silicone glue to secure and stop leakages on the pot holders only. It housed 15 lettuces.

Design features:

• Easy quick prints
• Easy assembly
  • Pot holders have lips as part of inserts, to assist when snapping them in. It also made gluing a lot easier.
• Internal water dispensers fit garden hoses. (12mm inner diameter).
• Requires a coupling to house and hold in the top dispenser place.
• Dispenser was designed
  • in case of too much flow by funneling excess to the center.
  • allow dedicated air passage to flow up and down the pipe via the center.
• Outer dispenser holes are pointed slightly outwards to encourage water to the pipe walls.
• Drainage 100mm PVC pipes are cheap from the hardware stores (Bunnings in Australia has 6 meters for $45 AUD).

100mm PVC cuts and parts

• Holes were made with a 64mm hole saw (I used a bi-metal).
• Cut 3 per level, staggered evenly.
• Each level of 3 was 10cm apart. Allowing a 20cm difference (measured from hole centers) between a hole directly perpendicularly up (every odd or even level pairing).
• My working model has:
  • Use a coupling to fit and house the dispenser to top
  • Use a coupling to fit the tower to a 100mm siphon shroud at the bottom.
• Other parts for my upgrade model will have:
  • Hanging from an M10 bolt and a U or S hook bolt.
  • Water fed in from closer to the top.

Print settings:

• eSun PETG grey (more heat and UV resistant than PLA).
• 3 walls
• 0.2mm layer height
• 0.4mm nozzle
• 10% for dispensers, doesn't matter for the rest.
• Supports
  • Required for the hose feed print. Also, need to place No Support areas within the tub.
  • Not required for all other parts
• Cura Slicer Tolerence
  • Exclusive for the Dispensers and Top so they can screw together more smoothly
  • Middle (default) for the other prints.
• Ender S1 Pro with Klipper firmware - Printed at 80-100mm/s - About 2hrs 45mins for a group of 3 pot holders. Managed to print everything needed for a 65cm pipe (5 levels) within 1 day.

Current Untested parts:

• I have not tested the internal water dispenser (the intermittent ones).

Works in progress:

I am planning to build 1.5m - 1.8m towers.

• A top screw in a dispenser that fits on top for hanging version of garden towers
• A way to pipe in water from the top of the tower.
• A method of pipe connection for exiting water into a pipe and/or tube.