Summary

Vertical Rocket Planter

Would you like a vertical planter that looks like a rocket?
** Finally, it is here.
Want to grow your herbs or succulents in the first stage LOX tank of a Falcon 9 model?
** Now you can.
Searching for a vertically awkward and unstable-looking planter which is actually fine because of a low center of mass?
** Your search is over. Print this.

For more interesting planters, visit our Etsy store:

https://www.etsy.com/shop/PrintAPot

Print Settings

Printer Brand:

Ultimaker

Rafts:

Yes

Supports:

No

Resolution:

0.2 or 0.3

Infill:

See notes

Notes:

Engine Block Printing Notes

For the engine block, it has to be printed out of a SteelFill or other extra-dense filament material to give it around 500g's of weight for proper center of mass. More is better for stability.

To lower the cost of production further, you can change the infill material in Cura to be the second extruder and load a cheaper overstocked filament. Due to reduced density, do have to increase infill significantly, but it can save around $20 or more, depending on material cost.

Turn it upside down.
Turn on raft settings, and set them to make sense.
Set infill to around 50% or whatever you're comfortable with.
For steelfill, change flow to around 104-110%.

1st Stage Print Settings

The 1st stage and engine print strangely due to the Engine-1st stage interface, so use a good raft for this.

Other Part Print Suggestions

I suggest using a 0.8 nozzle and using a 0.2 or 0.3 layer height. The 1st and 2nd stages depend on a good layer adhesion on the elliptic window side, so stick with a high temperature and a moderate layer height. 0.4 changes the shape of the layer to be a little too elliptical and changes the surface area of the layer's material available for adhesion.

TLDR; Use 0.3 layer height and a 0.8 nozzle and two walls. Adjust other settings to your preferences. Observe layers preview before printing. Should use concentric Top/Bottom patterns always.

Scaling Not Suggested

Early on, we tried scaling this down to make a cool vertical micro-planter, and the design did not behave well at lower scales. Many of the supports are too narrow to be printed with sufficient strength at lower scales.

Fusion 360 Files

Would love to share the Fusion 360 files so that it can be remixed, but I'm honestly not sure how and don't currently have the time to figure it out.

Post-Printing

See it in action.

Assembly

To assemble it, you'll need some M3x20 set screws. There are counterbored holes passing through the receiver and adapter of each stage interface.

Obtain M3x20 set screws.
Slide one stage up into the next stage, and thread in four screws.
Rinse and repeat on next stage.

Planting Process

Plant the first stage first to maintain a low center of gravity. The landing legs help reduce chances of falling over, but plant lower first. Remember also that the stages can be taken apart by unthreading the screws and sliding the stage interfaces apart.

For succulents, I would suggest a fast-draining solution like BonsaiJack's Succulent Gritty Mix here:

https://www.bonsaijack.com/shop/premixed-bonsai-soil/succulent-soil/2-quarts-succulent-and-cactus-soil-mix/

Hazards to Your Rocket

The modular feature can help you replace individual parts when things go wrong. Here are some things you should protect your planter from:

Heavy winds
Dog tails
Hurricanes
Lightning Strikes
Small children
Tsunamis
Earthquakes above 6 on the Richter scale
Meteorites
Magnetic polar switching and the subsequent tremors and weather disturbances related to it.
Various other extinction-level events
-- Including Andromeda Galaxy collisions, local gravimetric distortions, time dilations, sky-hook collisions, runaway space elevator cables, and interstellar rogue dwarf black holes.

How I Designed This

This Vertical Rocket Planter is modelled after the dimensions of a Falcon 9 V1.2 (Block 3), and scaled down vertically by ~56% to fit into 3 stages and to fit each stage within the max vertical build space of an Ultimaker 3+.

After identifying all the dimensions and the common scale ratio required to meet the requirements, I started modelling and sketching the shapes and adapters and receivers required to mate the three stages together.

Here's a spreadsheet where I was making the required calculations for scaling the parts down:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1fof7x0JEQ6cZee-HBgqzv7Euf7DWVCN9UMnai7EFYVI/edit?usp=sharing

I also uploaded the estimated metric specification image for the Falcon 9 family and its respective blocks. Also attached is the very closely estimated engine layout for the Octaweb Falcon 9 layout. I can't claim ownership of either of the images, and thank the creators on the various Spaceflight forums for creating them.

They're now on the Falcon 9 v1.2 Full Thrust, Block 5 (3/15/2018) model, and this model will continue to be outdated and out of scale, but is still pretty awesome.

Vertical Rocket Planter - Falcon 9

Vertical Rocket Planter