Some years ago I installed 3 soap pumps in our house. They quite nicely help avoid goopy, slimy bars of soap lying around or falling on the floor, as well as scummy soap residue on the sink ledge. Unfortunately, they also presented e issues.
The 1st issue is that it’s awkward & inconvenient to reach into the cabinet under the sink to get at, and unscrew, the bottle that holds the liquid soap.
The 2nd issue is that the hole in the bottles is pretty small, making it difficult to fill it up (liquid soap is pretty thick & doesn’t pour very easily in a stream narrow enough to fit into the opening).
The 3rd & most important issue is that the bottles supplied with the pumps are, in my opinion, defective. The threaded necks of 2 of the 3 bottles broke off. Since I have not been able to find any replacement bottles that have the right thread I had to resort to getting longer plastic tubing and inserting it into other bottles set on the floor of the cabinet. The problem with this arrangement is that the soap drains back down into the bottle, which makes it necessary to push the pump a whole lot of times to get soap to dispense.
So, I decided to design & print holders that I could mount on the back wall of the cabinets. The idea is to get the bottles much closer to the pump so only a few pumps are required. Also, the holders are designed so that they’re very easily removed from the cabinets. And, it was also an opportunity to use bottles with bigger openings. I chose Gatorade G2 bottles.
[ATTACH=JSON]{“data-align”:“none”,“data-size”:“medium”,“data-attachmentid”:9512}[/ATTACH] In this shot, you can see the Tree Support I used to support the hook part of the cup. I did make the mistake of not selecting only on build plate so I got an extra, unneeded support. There is a small amount of warping at the near, back corner but it doesn’t affect functionality so I don’t care. The Tree Support came off pretty easily & cleanly.
[ATTACH=JSON]{“data-align”:“none”,“data-size”:“medium”,“data-attachmentid”:9513}[/ATTACH]A top view.
[ATTACH=JSON]{“data-align”:“none”,“data-size”:“medium”,“data-attachmentid”:9514}[/ATTACH]The bottle fits in the cup very nicely. I found the cap on Thingiverse.
[ATTACH=JSON]{“data-align”:“none”,“data-size”:“medium”,“data-attachmentid”:9515}[/ATTACH] This is the wall mount that holds the cup. It’s designed to fit into the slot at the top back of the cup. I sized the back wall of the mount to hold long 3M Command Strips.
The cup, wall mount, & cap are all printed in PLA @ 210C/70C.
Question: many of you most likely noticed that the sides of the cup have some unevenness/misalignment. I’ve checked the idler wheels and belts for tension so I don’t think that’s what’s causing it. I am wondering if the belts might be a little worn. Anyone?
