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Open Source 3D Printed Water Filter

by makerboat on September 17, 2015

Table of Contents

Open Source 3D Printed Water Filter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

Intro: Open Source 3D Printed Water Filter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

Step 1: Understand the process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

Step 2: Gather Materials and Download Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

File Downloads . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

Step 3: Print The Cap . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

Step 4: Gather and Make Activated Carbon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

Step 5: Fill The Cap . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

Step 6: Use The Cap! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

Step 7: Microfilter The Bacteria . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

Related Instructables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

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http://www.instructables.com/id/Open-Source-3D-Printed-Water-Filter/
 Author:makerboat Makerboat.com
we are an open design lab

Intro: Open Source 3D Printed Water Filter

With this project you can fill a bottle full of sludge from a pond, screw the OS3DPWF onto the top and start pouring your family clean and safe cups of drinking water!

750 million people globally don't have access to clean water and every year the problem worsens. Campers are drinking water that may be contaminated from chemical
processing, while refugees make due with any water supply they can find. Faircap is developing a variety of open source water filters to provide clean water access for
the bottom of the pyramid and to address the needs of the many.

Faircap is sharing the design files and information needed to discover and excite a global group of people to collectively work on a multifaceted global problem.
Download the files, print your own Faircap, and be a part of the solution. The more people making their own tools and learning about water purification, and the more
designers we have creating modifications and variations, the faster we'll be able to bring clean water to everyone, openly.

Step 1: Understand the process

To make your own safe drinking water, you need to understand how to filter the two main classes of contaminants:

1. Stuff: Particles and chemicals

2. Pathogens: Bacteria and viruses

First we'll learn to clear the water of floating matter and chemicals since these affect the taste and can have harmful physiological effects. This is accomplished using
activated charcoal. Activated carbon is simply charcoal (which you can gather from an extinguished campfire) that has been mixed with salt, left to soak overnight, and
rinsed. You can see the activated carbon in our cap in the center image.

Second, we need to clear pathogens. Here are a few ways to do that:

Boil the water for a full minute

Leave the filtered water in direct sunlight for four hours. The UV rays can penetrate the transparent water and break the DNA inside the little critters - killing them.
Use micropore plastic filters to block passage of pathogens.

In this project we use a micropore plastic filter with pores so small that pathogens can't penetrate, but water flows through. You can see the micropore plastic filter on the
left of the photo. We're looking for ways to make our own micropore filters to reduce the filter's cost, and to keep the entire project open source. We haven't found a great
solution yet — your suggestions are requested :)

As you can see, filtering water is a pretty simple process and doesn't require expensive equipment. You just need to understand the two basic components. There's lots
more information at the Center For Disease Control.

Lastly, as long as we're here, download the STL files on this page as we'll need them shortly.

http://www.instructables.com/id/Open-Source-3D-Printed-Water-Filter/
Step 2: Gather Materials and Download Files
Before starting a project, it's always best to gather all the materials you'll need so you don't waste lots of time dashing back and forth to the store.

Things you'll need:

1. 3D printer
2. Food grade PET plastic filament for the printer
3. Table salt
4. Charcoal from a campfire or BBQ shop (if you purchase charcoal, make sure it doesn't contain any additives like lighter fuel, or other burn agents)
5. Cotton swabs
6. A way to remove pathogens (we use micropore filter)
7. Dirty water
8. The STL's for the cap (download them from this page)
9. An empty 4-Liter water jug

File Downloads

LargeCapTube.stl (1 MB)
[NOTE: When saving, if you see .tmp as the file ext, rename it to 'LargeCapTube.stl']

bottomCap.stl (937 KB)

[NOTE: When saving, if you see .tmp as the file ext, rename it to 'bottomCap.stl']
Step 3: Print The Cap
First install your 3D printer software and open up your STL file.

If this is your first time 3D printing, check out this great introduction to 3D printing instructable. Otherwise the process is fairly simple. Open the STL in your favorite
printing software and send the file out. There are alternatives, for instance you can ask a friend to print it or send it out to a production shop like Ponoko.

http://www.instructables.com/id/Open-Source-3D-Printed-Water-Filter/
 Image Notes
1. The bottom piece screws into the top :)

Step 4: Gather and Make Activated Carbon

Activated carbon has a fancy name, but is really quite simple to make.

1. Take the charcoal you've collected and crumble it up into small pieces, you want the carbon to have lots of surface area.
2. Combine your charcoal with a similar amount of salt and mix it all together.
3. Let it sit for 24 hours to let the salt penetrate the carbon.
4. Rinse out the salt water by running the carbon under the tap through a sieve.

That's it! You now have carbon which is highly reactive and bonds with lots of different materials. It also physically filters out particles and suspended solids. This is how
an activated carbon filter works.

By the way, activated carbon is pretty much the only thing in a 25-dollar store-bought home water filter replacement.

http://www.instructables.com/id/Open-Source-3D-Printed-Water-Filter/
http://www.instructables.com/id/Open-Source-3D-Printed-Water-Filter/
Step 5: Fill The Cap
This project is great because it's easy to make, and easy to use.

You don't need to pour water into a filter tank and wait ages for it to trickle through. With Faircap, you simply fill up a bottle and put on the filter cap. Then you can either
drink out of it straightaway or pour it into a cup.

To filter out finer particles, you should place a makeup remover cotton swab in the very top of the cap with the nib. Fill it the rest of the way with the activated carbon
(don't worry if it's still a little wet). Finally, screw on the cap on the bottom! That's it. You can now screw your assembled Faircap onto a jug of water and drink away!

Remember, the activated carbon filter only takes care of the chemical and material filtration. This can be sufficient in many situations, but if you are concerned about
bacteria and viruses in your unfiltered water, refer to Step 1 for some ways to filter the critters out.

http://www.instructables.com/id/Open-Source-3D-Printed-Water-Filter/
Step 6: Use The Cap!
Thanks for making the Faircap Open Source 3D Printed Water Filter! This filter is great for replacing store-bought home filters, makes your water taste great, and also
removes potentially harmful chemicals.

Step 1: Fill a jug with water you want to filter.

Step 2: Screw the Faircap you just made onto it.

Step 3: Pour clear water out!

Hooray! Now you have a portable fresh water maker. But remember it does not remove bacteria and viruses! We're working on finding portable and cheap ways to do
that all in the same system, but really need some suggestions and help. Ideas are most welcome!

http://www.instructables.com/id/Open-Source-3D-Printed-Water-Filter/
Step 7: Microfilter The Bacteria
Faircap's goal is clean water for everyone, in that vein we are making microfiltration tools that remove bacteria and viruses. While it's still expensive to produce, we're
hoping to run a crowdfunding campaign to bring the cost down and create a single unit that can filter both chemicals and bacteria and screw onto any standard sized
bottle cap.

We hope this project inspires you and shows you how easy it is to purify water. It's insane to think that hundreds of millions of people are regularly getting sick because of
drinking dirty water. This is a preventable problem. We hope that in our own small way, we're starting to pave a path for us all to become part of the solution.

Yours in the pursuit of pure water

— Faircap team

http://www.instructables.com/id/Open-Source-3D-Printed-Water-Filter/
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