Pole Holder (Tiki Torch, Small Umbrella, Etc.)

I do not want to come across as an erse, so I’m sure some will think I am when I say this – but I want to clearly point out that this is a CC ATTRIBUTION – NON-COMMERCIAL – NON-DERIVATIVE license – please let’s enjoy the model, but please respect my wishes on this.

So we bought these stupid Tiki Torches that had a thin round “pipe” for the post and with our clay ground there is no way to put them in without bending the thin metal nor would they stay stable (I did try drilling a hole and using a small PVC pipe, but that was not stable). So, I designed a spiral holder that I could use a socket wrench with to twist into the ground.

The nut is 30mm. The diameter of the pole hole is 20mm. The reason I tagged it as work in progress, is I intend to make shim inserts to reduce the size of the hole so it could be used with a variety of pole diameters.

When wrenching into the ground I used a 30mm socket, however, not everyone will have that, so the immediate solution is to use an adjustable wrench and then keep downward pressure when turning it with a block of wood. I am re-designing the cap so that it will fit a 1/4″ socket drive and thus make it more friendly for more people (in other words the cap will double as a socket – I will note I used a 1/2″ drive but again, not everyone will have that). One thing I did that makes it initally easier to start into the ground, is I drilled a 3/4″ hole about 6″ into the ground then insert the auger into the hole and start wrenching – we have terribly hard clay soil so this made it easier, although I believe it should also work without doing this.

The cap is intended to put over the nut in the winter or whenever you do not have anything in the holder to keep debris out.

To print flip it 180 degrees so the nut is flat on the build plate. Enable a brim (I used 5mm). Enable support on build plate only – some slicers will build support all around the outer edge, but you don’t need this; I used an overhang threshold of 37 degrees with pattern spacing of 0.5mm and contact z-distance of 0.1mm and set XY separation at 50% of line width. Look at the picture of it sitting on my build plate to see what it looked like; the super tiny thin supports DO work believe it or not as the brim holds them in place.

The supports (other than brim) may NOT be needed, but I had problems with previous versions wobbling as it got higher, so you mileage may vary. The more I think about it, I really don’t think the supports will be needed – let me know. 🙂

VERY IMPORTANT: If you use supports do NOT allow the supports to go into the tube area or you will never get them out; I used a support blocker in PrusaSlicer (you could also say do not support bridges).

I printed with a Prusa MK3S at 0.20mm layer height, 0.45mm line width and 4 perimeters. The overall infill is 25% BUT I used 99% infill from layers 1 to 20 AND from layers 160 to top (I just use 999 for the top); the reason for this is these are the two areas that receive the most force/abuse going into the ground. You also might hit a rock and the 99% infill in the penetration point might keep it from breaking and the 99% infill at the nut would let you gently hammer it part way in to get started.

I printed with PolyMax PLA. Since it will be in the ground temperature is not going to be an issue most likely, however, I see no reason PETG would not work if you wanted to use that. Strength-wise PolyMax PLA is supposed to be stronger than run of the mill PLA, so that might have helped me too.

I have installed 4 of these and so far so good!!

Hope people find this useful – I sure did. 🙂 Happy 3D printing.