Equator Tubes - a Tale of Two Tubes! (Patreon)

Hey there, wonderful people!

What we have here is a pair of tubes with interiors that are a little over 100mm in height and 45mm across, and have a lot of hexagons.

I had a request a little while back for a relatively secure container that could be used by someone with limited dexterity.  It needed to be usable without requiring too much grip strength or steady hands, and that chunky looking green tube is what I came up with!

Those big, concave sides are intended to be easy to manipulate and the thread for closure is quite coarse, requiring only a small revolution to tighten or loosen.  The lid also slides on before reaching the thread, avoiding the need to hold two parts steady against each other while finding the start of the thread, and making it easier to unscrew the lid without it immediately falling off.  It also just has a nice, solid look to it!

The second version has exactly the same thread and internal dimensions, but is entirely driven by style!  The lid is punched through with little hexagons all the way around, and the inner part runs taller so that the inner colour is visible through the lid all the way up.  That said, it's still an easy model to work with, and has a really appealing texture.  Especially if you like hexagons.

Oh, and since the two models share the same interior, it's entirely possible to mix and match the parts :)

Printing Tips

All the parts print with closed-end down, which means base-down for the bottom halves and top-down for the top halves: 

Print Dimensions

Easy Equator Tube parts each occupy 64mm * 74mm on the print bed.  The Base is 89mm tall and the lid is 70mm tall.

Style Equator Tube parts each occupy 61mm * 61mm on the print bed.  The base is 124mm tall and the lid is 70mm tall.

File Locations

You'll find this one on dropbox under 729 Equator Tubes

Link to dropbox post: https://www.patreon.com/posts/31697592

Further Thoughts

Being able to cater for really specific use cases like this really does show the value of 3D printing!  Maybe in some future world all our stuff will be personalised and specific to our needs, and we'll all take it for granted.  We aren't there yet, though, and it still makes me happy that we can do these kinds of things, and make life better in small ways :)

Happy printing!

xoxo

Sven.