October 2015 Hacker of the Month

Final December, Joe Dietz and his spouse Amy wanted a option to dispense their homebrewed beer on the go. With a fantastic 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 transportable draft tower that connects to your homebrew keg for simple, clear, and good wanting shelling 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 stated playfully.

Proudly owning a LulzBot TAZ, the package model of the TAZ 4, Dietz was in a position to make the proper prototype out of PLA. When exhibiting it off to fellow homebrewers, the couple acquired quite a few recommendations to throw the undertaking on Kickstarter. The couple the heeded recommendation from their pals and have been efficiently funded!

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

At one level there have been about three months straight the place the couple was printing 20 hours a day, seven days per week! He additionally talked about that they may not have fabricated the Connect-a-Faucet clamp utilizing a typical mildew as a result of the piece has a protracted curved cavity. It will have wanted an entire redesign – possibly 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 option to print and make one thing out of their Connect-a-Faucet, however additionally they began printing faucet handles! The couple says the faucet handles are a whole lot of enjoyable because of the quantity of colours they’ll produce them in; one thing they might not have the ability to 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 achieved 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. In addition they add a Velcro strap and, in fact, the cool Connect-a-Faucet sticker. 

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

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

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, you can too comply with them on Fb and Twitter.

Do you assume you will have what it takes to be our subsequent Hacker of the Month? Merely comply with us on Fb/Twitter or electronic mail media@matterhackers.com. Inform us about your undertaking or 3D printed creation, and you would be featured in our subsequent publication. The Hacker of the Month will even win a free spool of PRO Collection PLA or ABS filament to additional their pursuit of 3D printing greatness.