It has been over a year since I finished the hamper stool. The photograph above shows its current condition. The front has not changed much since I finished it. Only a couple of the spiral inserts have popped out on occasion. I cannot say the same for the inserts on the sides. I did not want to glue inserts into place in order to change colors whenever I change my shower curtain. I was tempted to glue them after months of trying different tapes to hold them in place. Instead, I came up with the idea of using wire to hold them in place. It is a haphazard solution, but they rarely fall out now.
The inserts were not falling out when I sat down, I could hear them falling when I was in another room. They would fall also, when I moved the stool, but not all the time. As I write this, I realize now what was causing them to fall; vibrations from trains. I live close to freight train tracks and the ground vibrates when trains travel by. I never connected the two events before now.
One other aspect about the stool was troublesome until I figured out a solution. I used plastic bumpers on the dowel tops under the lid. The two in the front were always coming off. I finally cut rings from small round cork pieces and attached them with wood glue. That has been working very well.
Would I make another one?
My answer to that is a resounding yes! I would be working on making one as a sewing stool this very minute if my 3d printer had not lost the ability to make prints wider than 3 inches. I would be finished with at least one cabinet too, if the printer was capable. Instead of trying to stress myself with replacing and configuring parts, I have decided to just get another printer next year. Plus, I would like one with a larger bed in order to make shoe soles.
Would I change anything?
Another resounding yes! I would reduce the number of screws, washers, and bolts by using wire to connect the casings and spiral inserts vertically. Instead of regular nuts, I would use nylon nuts to prevent nuts from falling loose. I would make the length of the 2″ dowels 16″.
Overall, I love my hamper stool. It has been a useful asset and I still really like the spiral inserts.
The structure of the hamper stool is almost together. I have 4 additional side casings to make and 9 pieces for the back. I ordered a roll of filament on Sunday and I expect it to arrive Friday or Monday. In the meantime, I have been printing the spiral infills.
I have never added wheels to anything from scratch, so I watched a video (see end of post) to learn how to do it. I measured the width of the wheel stem (9 mm) and bought a 3/8″ black oxide drill bit and 3/8″ t-nuts. One thing to note here is that my steel drill bit created a lot of heat when boring into the hardwood legs. The black oxide bit did not.
After I prepared the legs, I put the top 3D printed pieces together and attached the legs flush with the assembly top. Next, I turned my attention to the hinge.
The 3D pieces do not have holes in the top. I planned to drill holes here when I designed the model. I simply marked and drilled holes using a 5/32″ black oxide drill bit.
Spiral fillers – Upon attempting to fit the spiral fillers in the casings, I found that half of the spirals need to be open on the sides to accommodate nuts. I have printed a side spiral open once with supports and it works. I am working on positioning the opening in the right spot.
I still have one other item to order and that is filament for the spiral fill. It turns out that the color filament needs to be translucent in order to get the shiny, reflective, transparent effect I’m going for. Regular color filament is too opaque.
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