3D Printed Wine Glass Holder
Assignment 4 (HCDE 451)
University of Washington
SCENARIO
The purpose of this assignment was to practice creating 3D models for prototyping physical objects at medium fidelity. We were asked to design something that would be useful in our everyday life (i.e. serves a function rather than just being art or for decoration).
I decided to make a wine cup holder that would not only hold stemmed cups but also stemless ones as well.
The design requirements for the product were that it must use the at least these three primitive operations: extrusion, revolution, and boolean (adding or subtracting one object from another).
PROCESS
IDEATING
Initially, I designed a native american flute for this assignment but it had failed twice before I was able to successfully print it. In case I was not going to be able to print the flute, I decided to make a wine glass holder.
I thought a wine glass holder would be useful for my family as we like to drink wine out on the beach as well as other places that don’t necessarily have a table to rest glasses on. My mom expressed that she wanted to purchase a wine glass holder to carry and set glasses more easily, which is why I decided to make it one as a gift for her.
After looking up a series of different wine glass holder designs, I remembered the Trinity (daughter-mother-grandmother) symbol which I initially wanted to design. However after looking at it the edges of the symbol seemed fairly pointy, potentially dangerous as well as more fragile, which made me decide to keep brainstorming for design ideas. I then thought of the Triskele symbol (which is fairly similar) and I liked the aesthetic look of it as well as the meaning. After sketching it out and thinking about how it could print I settled on that design.
PROTOTYPING
Before starting the CAD process of the product, I had to figure out the size and proportions of its different components. I measured the circumference of 6 different bottle of wine’s capsule (ring on the top neck) to figure out how large the extruded hole had to be. I also measured the circumference of different stemmed glasses base to make sure the glasses could also rest on the holder as a coaster. For the depth of the extrusion for stemless cups, I just held a ruler near a couple glasses and felt that 2cm would be enough height to protect the glass from sliding or tipping over. After measuring each component, I decided to add 0.2cm to each component’s largest measurement for everything to fit well (i.e. not too tight to avoid having to sand the product nor too loose as it could affect the stability of the glasses if filled with wine).
For the CAD modeling, I used Adobe Illustrator CC to trace the Triskele symbol and imported it into Rhino. I tried to model it at first using SolidWorks as I prefer that software and I believe it is easier to work with, but it was harder for me to replicate the aesthetic design of the Triskele symbol solely on SolidWorks. I therefore asked help with Rhino from the CoMotion Makerspace staff in Fluke Hall at the University of Washington as well as asked them if they thought my model would print well. In the ideation phase, I made sure not to design something that had too many webs or thin layers of filament as I knew from prior experience that it is hard to print things well that are thin and hanging even with supports.
When it came to printing, I used the Makerspace’s Ultimaker 2+ printer as it had a larger printer bed. Although it was the largest bed available, I had to scale my model down by 5% as it was originally too large. I had measured the bed prior to designing the holder, but I wasn’t aware that the printer does not print to the edge of the bed causing me to lose 1 inch off each side. I therefore ran some calculations to see if the scaled down version of my model would still enable the bottle to fit through the neck hole and realized it was at the exact diameter it had to be. Due to Rhino’s limitation of not being able to edit dimensions, I decided to print the model this way and sand it if needed. Moreover, I had to make sure to print at a higher fill density in order for the model to be sturdy and not break with the added weight on it.
After I printed it, the holder fit most bottles but was too small for one of my wine bottles, so I had to sand it a little bit in order for it to fit through the capsule. I tested a variety of glasses and they fit well on the model. Whether all glasses or just one was filled and resting on the bottle, the weight and distribution of the holder enabled it to be sturdy and not tip over.
EVALUATION
During our in-class critique session, I received a lot of feedback on my design. My peers seemed to like the design, functionality, and sturdiness of the product. One of my classmates commented on how users may want to have a wine glass holder that supports a different number of glasses (3 being an ‘odd’ number). I explained my design choice for this particular holder, but if I were to make another wine glass holder I would explore different designs to enable a different number of glasses to be held by the bottle. For example, printing one holding piece at a time and having a lego snapping mechanism around the neck hole for them to stack together effectively.
In addition, I would also test the holder across multiple different sized bottles to make sure it fits. I would also print the next one on a larger printer to avoid scaling it down and/or sanding it, as well as make sure what the printing area of the bed is not simply measure its size.
Lastly, when the bottle is nearly empty, one is not able to rest a single full glass on the bottle without it tipping over (i.e. one has to use it as a coaster). Therefore, I would try to find another design that could store the holder with a support for the bottle to enable any number of glasses to be supported even when the bottle is empty.
