alloatech's first commercial 3d printed product: part 1
in june of 2024 i decided to minimize my diet soda consumption and decided to try one of those soda machines to see if that could replace my fix for something bubbly without those artificial sweeteners. for many reasons i went with the aarke carbonator pro and i just love it. however, i soon found out that i drank a lot of carbonated water and then realized it was quite expensive to exchange those teeny-tiny tanks. read on to see how i decided to leverage my newly developed 3d modeling skills to create a novel solution to fizz more for less!
now i was on a mission. i spent a decent amount of time checking out what the googs had to say about how others were dealing with this issue. i soon realized that were some options. it seemed many people bought a large co2 tank and used that to refill the manufacturer's tank with and adapter and some were successful hooking up a large co2 tank directly to their machine. the more I read about the refilling of the supplied tanks the less i liked it. first, i wasn't thrilled about directly hooking up a larger tank to the smaller one and transferring the gas myself. there were several warnings about the potential danger of this, which i assumed was more precautionary advice, but i also read about needing to freeze the smaller tanks to get a good recharge volume. that was enough to push me to option 2 - direct connection.
simple enough. i just need to get a hose and a large tank and hook it up. did some more digging and found out that the key was to ensure the hose had a standard hex 1” TR21-4 co2 connector on one side and a standard co2 tank fitting on the other. i ordered a stainless steel hose on amazon and picked up a 50lb co2 tank at airgas. i could'nt wait to get it hooked up and have my new favorite drink all the time with minimal maintenance and at a fraction of the cost.
here is where my saga begins.
within a few days i had both products in hand so i rolled up my sleeves for what i thought would be a few simple connections and endless enjoyment of my new fizzy delight. not so fast. i struggled trying to connect my aarke carbonator pro directly to a larger tank for hours on end. i tried everything to attach the hose directly to the internal co2 connector, but the tower is just too deep and skinny. i searched high and low for a custom socket, tool or wrench. i even bought a few different basin wrenches but they kept slipping off. i couldn't find anything that would work. i even attempted to disassemble the carbonator, but i got scared i'd mess something up after removing about 8 screws. i even reconsidered just refilling the smaller tanks, but i really just wanted to connect it and forget about it - for a long time.
i love my aarke, but those co2 refills were killing my wallet. so, i decided to take matters into my own hands and design a custom solution. in november, 2023 i purchased a bambu lab x1 carbon and have spent countless hours developing my 3d modeling skills in FreeCAD. i shifted into a need-it, make-it mode and within several hours i had crafted a multi-part tool that could reach all the way in that tower and apply enough torque to the TR21-4 co2 connector to attach it.
this first version was called the the CarbWrench(1). it was good enough to attach the connector that day but needed some work. i iterated over several versions of this model, but i was struggling with connecting the handle to be strong enough to apply the right amount of torque and be able to separate the handle and reconnect it mainly because the handle needed to be ~18-20" total in length but my bambu lab x1C only had a print volume of 256mm^3(2). then it hit me. i don't need the whole handle. i just need the socket part. i already have socket ratchets and extensions and most other people would too. i quickly chopped off the handle and put a extension pocket in the end and even included a internal groove so the standard, exposed ball that ratchets and extensions have could lock-in just like a normal socket.
- yes, i'm an engineer and i gravitate towards CamelCase names.
- that's ~9"x9"x9"
i'm pushing a 4-5 minute (TL;DR) quota here so i'll add several more parts in this series so we can delve into the design process, material selection, material reselection, prototyping, and the final steps that led to the successful launch of CarbSocket. whether you're a 3d printing enthusiast or just curious about product development, this blog post offers a behind-the-scenes look at our creative and technical journey. let's cut to the chase.
introducing CarbSocket
It's a simple yet effective tool that fits any standard Hex 1” TR21-4 co2 adapter. It locks onto your socket extension just like a regular socket and provides enough torque to secure the co2 fitting just like hand tightening the original tanks.