Screw on Bottle Citrus Juicer (3D Printed)

Being healthy begins with eating and drinking healthy

I personally love drinking orange juice but a lot of people think it is to much of an hassle to juice the oranges themselves. Therefore they just buy it in a supermarket. But often there are a lot of added sugars in these drinks. So not so healthy anymore! I wanted to make a citrus juicer that is easy to use so people will drink healthier more often.

The idea was born! Take a regular citrus juicer and modify it so it fits on a bottle and the juice automatically flows into the bottle. By doing this you can serve the drink very easy or take it anywhere you want!

After some design iterations I came up with this fully 3D printed design. You can use it straight of the printer and it's very easy to use:
- Screw the juicer on the bottle of your choice
- Cut the oranges in half
- Juice the oranges
- ENJOY your drink

In this instructable I will go over the print settings and other important things to take into account when printing this juicer (step 1). After this you will have all the information for printing the juicer.
For the ones who are interested in my design process: This is also covered in this instructable (step 2-4).

For as far as I know the size of the plastic bottle thread is pretty much standardized. None the less the juicer is test fitted on bottles from the following countries by me or other awesome users who made it themself:
- The Netherlands
- Germany
- Norway
- Czech Republic
- Belgium
- Sweden

By being a little creative you can also fit the juicer on bottles or jars that have an opening bigger than 50 mm (or 2 inch). For instance a Mason jar.

Final notes

Please let me know in the comments if you made this juicer and if it fitted on the bottles you use in your country! You can help expand the list above and help other makers by doing this!!!

This is my first instructable; please let me know how you liked it and how I can improve! Also if you have ideas on how to improve my design I would love to hear from you!

Step 1: How to Print It (print Settings)

In this step I will go over some print settings and some other things relevant to printing this design.

Make sure the print is watertight: When printing this thing you do not need a 100% infill. This means it is partially hollow in the inside. When some juice manages to seep into the print, it will stay there. Over time it will become mouldy. Of course this is something you want to avoid when using it with foods/drinks. I used 3 shells, but it of course depends on your printer.

Remove any strings that are formed: Sometimes when the extruder doesn't retract enough plastic or not fast enough, some plastic fill flow out when not intended. This will form so called strings. These plastic strings need to be removed before you use the juicer. Otherwise you drink will contain plastic parts.

Don't use support material: This juicer is designed with 3D printing in mind. This means there are no overhangs greater than 45 degrees. In theory every printer should handle this design just fine. Of course you can still use support material but I highly recommend not to do so. Because the support material has to be removed and it is easy to forget or overlook some small parts. These parts will eventually make it in your drink.

Plastic food safe? Commercially sold kitchen hardware that will come in contact with food are thoroughly tested to be food safe. 3D printing plastics usually do not go through this process. It is often not clear if these plastics are food safe. I printed it in Pla and had no problems with it. But of course it is up to you to decide if you want to use your plastic.

Don't put it in the dishwasher: The 3D printed citrus juicer will not be dishwasher safe! The high temperatures used in the dishwasher will soften the plastic and it will not be able te retain its shape. Wash it thoroughly by hand in water that is not to hot.

My print setting (Velleman K8200 (using Slic3r)):
- no support, skirt or brim
- Infill 20% (rectilinear)
- Vertical shells/Perimeters: 3
- Horizontal shells/Solid layers: 4 (top and bottom)
- layer height: 0.18
- Material: PLA (Velleman 3D printing filament)
- Nozzle temperature: 190 C
- Bed temperature: 50 C

Don't have a 3D printer?!
No problem! There are some 3d printing websites where you can upload the .STL files and let them 3D print it. One of these websites is 3DHubs. Via this websites the design will be printed by a "hub" nearby you. You have direct contact with the creator and can pick it up locally. I highly recommend this website if you do not have a 3D printer yourself. Make sure to visit: www.3dhubs.com

Step 2: First Design

I began designing the first juicer from scratch in a program called Solidworks. I used a traditional citrus juicer I found in my parents kitchen drawer as a reference.

While designing I kept in mind it had to be 3D printed. This meant that there were no big overhangs allowed. There is only a little bridging where the stand-offs are (between the main juicer and the bowl). These bridges were small enough to be printed without support material, So I had a go with it!

The design came out great. The threaded hole fitted great on the plastic bottle and the juice flowed nicely into the bottle. But after I juiced a couple of oranges i noticed that the pulp didnt flow through properly. This caused some blockage and the juice couldn't flow through anymore.
Besides this there was also a little bit of juice leaking through the threaded hole. Also the overall design was quite bulky. So I decided to redesign my citrus juicer.

Step 3: Second Design

With the changes I wanted to make in mind, I went back to my designing software and came up with this new design. I scraped the traditional look and went with something quite different.

I tackled the problem of the pulp blocking the flow by not only making the holes wider but also taller. This mend that when some pulp would get stuck the juice could flow over it anyway. This also made the design less bulky and there was no more bridging at the holes, which is very useful when 3D printing. I also liked the overall look better.
I also modified the threaded hole by making a tab so the juice could not flow in between the threads.
As a final touch I made the bowl a touch slimmer to safe on plastic when printing

So I turned on the 3d printer again to print this new design.

Step 4: Third and Final Design

I was very happy how the juicer turned out so far. The only thing I still wanted to modify was the tab I added in the previous model.

This tab improved the flow tremendously but it introduced a overhang in the design. Altough it was only a small overhang (4mm), I still wanted to change it so every printer could print my design. This was actually the easiest change I had to make in the whole design process. I only needed to change the overhang to a 45 degree overhang. No sooner said than done. I was ready to print the new design!

This design turned out great thanks to all the changes I made in the whole process. I learned a lot from the mistakes I made while designing this. One of them: 3D printing opens a whole new world, don't stick with the traditional designs. With that said I would like to end my instructable.

ENJOY YOUR DRINK!!!