October 2015 Hacker of the Month

Final December, Joe Dietz and his spouse Amy wanted a technique to dispense their homebrewed beer on the go. With an incredible concept and the facility of 3D printing, they discovered their resolution: Connect-a-Faucet!

We give the Connect-a-Faucet a giant thumbs up!

Connect-a-Faucet is a conveyable draft tower that connects to your homebrew keg for simple, clear, and good wanting dishing out.  

“Being fortunate sufficient to have a 3D printer at work, we printed our prototype and did a number of ingesting… I imply testing!” Dietz mentioned playfully.

Proudly owning a LulzBot TAZ, the equipment model of the TAZ 4, Dietz was capable of make the proper prototype out of PLA. When exhibiting it off to fellow homebrewers, the couple acquired quite a few options to throw the mission on Kickstarter. The couple the heeded recommendation from their buddies and had been efficiently funded!

“We actually couldn’t have made this mission profitable with out 3D printing. The volumes we produce usually are not practically excessive sufficient to make injection molding akin to the price of printing… even when factoring in labor,” mentioned Dietz.

At one level there have been about three months straight the place the couple was printing 20 hours a day, seven days every week! He additionally talked about that they may not have fabricated the Connect-a-Faucet clamp utilizing a typical mould as a result of the piece has an extended curved cavity. It might have wanted a whole redesign – perhaps to the purpose the place it could not have been as sensible to make use of – if it weren’t for 3D printing. 

Not solely did the brew-loving couple give you a technique to print and make one thing out of their Connect-a-Faucet, however in addition they began printing faucet handles! The couple says the faucet handles are loads of enjoyable because of the quantity of colours they’ll produce them in; one thing they’d not be capable of do as simply with molding.

So, as soon as the elements have been printed, what’s subsequent? Dietz says there’s a bit of labor that must be performed to the Connect-a-Faucet clamp and the faucet handles as soon as printed. For the clamp, they add foam to assist it grip the keg. Additionally they add a Velcro strap and, after all, the cool Connect-a-Faucet sticker. 

The faucet handles have laser lower inserts which are coated with chalkboard paint. The insert, faucet deal with physique, and faucet deal with trim items are all glued along with utilized stress. A metallic insert is then added to the underside of the deal with to safe it to a typical beer faucet.

Voila! Now you can dispense your beer in 3D printed type!

The place can you discover the Dietz’s superior 3D printed merchandise? Try their firm, Pour Yours, the place they’re promoting the Connect-a-Faucet and faucets on Etsy till their on-line retailer is prepared. To study extra, it’s also possible to observe them on Fb and Twitter.

Do you assume you’ve gotten what it takes to be our subsequent Hacker of the Month? Merely observe us on Fb/Twitter or e mail media@matterhackers.com. Inform us about your mission or 3D printed creation, and you possibly can be featured in our subsequent publication. The Hacker of the Month can even win a free spool of PRO Collection PLA or ABS filament to additional their pursuit of 3D printing greatness.