![]() You could choose to add or remove segments to create a larger or smaller house. The houses are each split up into 5 segments, each either 140 or 190 mm tall for a total height of 660 mm or 860 mm for the 2 and 3 chamber houses respectively. The basic design is either 2 or 3 19 mm wide chambers with 1.5 mm deep horizontal groves in the wall spaced 9 mm apart. After searching around and trying several pole ideas I settled on using a 1 3/8" top rail for a chain link fence since it is readily available in 10 foot lengths and is strong enough to hold the house and cost only $13 per segment. By my calculations the 2 chamber house will weigh less than 1.5 kg (about 3 lb) and the 3 chamber house will weigh less than 2.5 kg (about 5.5 lb) so it does not need a substantial pole. Having a small square build chamber lends itself to a rocket box style house ( ), and a rocket style house can be mounted on a single pole more easily. After doing some research on it I decided that targeting an entry level printer with a 150x150x150 mm build volume would allow most users to print a small 2 chamber bat house, and going up to a 200x200x200 mm build volume would let many users with full sized machines print a more substantial 3 chamber house. Since I could not find anything else, I set out to design and build my own house with the hope that the design could be shared freely and inspire others to put up a bat house of there own.ģD printers are great, but they tend to have a relatively small build volume. This was an impressive project by a junior high school robotics club, but looking at the plans it seemed clear to me that this design would not work very well for a family of bats. Since I was already using a 3D printer as a hobby I wondered if a 3D printed bat house could be made for a low cost and with tools kids could use.Īrial]As I was researching this subject I cam across the plans for the Bat Bunker ( ). They needed power tools to cut the wood up, and a very serious pole to mount the house on. I quickly realized that while the guide was good, the plans were well beyond what a grade school club could put together. One idea was to build a bat house, so I sent off for a copy of BCI's guide to building bat houses ( ). I have been looking around for a while for a way to give her kids more hands on experiences with bats, beyond videos and books. My wife is a 2nd grade teacher and she does a whole segment on bats (she teaches them for about a month). ![]() However I need a place to talk about the design, so I'm posting it here. I did not want to post the plans until I have had time to validate the design with real bats. This is a 3D bat house I have been working on. ![]()
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