This ridiculous contraption lets you refill a Squirrel Buster bird feeder using only two hands, without setting any parts on the ground except the bag of seed.
Features:
A small hook for hanging the tool itself
A big post for hanging the feeder's outer shell upside down
A funnel for adding bird seed
Symmetrically redundant for right/left handed use
Only 30 grams of PLA
My Squirrel Buster Legacy measures 24.9 mm outside the inner cylinder, and 92.2 mm inside the outer cylinder. If yours has the same dimensions, and U-shaped wires on the bottom, then it should be compatible.
Usage: Start with the tool hanging from the triangular wire as shown in the photo. Unhang and disassemble the feeder, holding one part in each hand. Lean the big cylinder on its side, and use it to grab the tool and unhook it. Then invert the feeder's outer shell and hang it from a post, freeing up a hand so you can hang the entire feeder for filling.
After filling, unhang the feeder and do everything backwards to reassemble. Since you can't lean the filled cylinder on its side, instead use one of the bottom U-shaped wire loops to hook and remove the tool. The whole process is a bit complicated and I'm glossing over some steps, so practice without seed until you figure it out.
Printing: Enable tree supports for the small hooks. (The flat bridge area does not need supports.) Consider adding a brim, though my bed adhesion was good enough without one.
I designed this wonky-looking funnel to fit my Squirrel Buster Legacy (and probably similar models), with hooks and posts that make it possible to refill the feeder without setting any parts on the ground.
This design of feeder needs to be located away from surfaces that a squirrel could stand on, so I assume a lot of people run into this problem. I don’t really blame the company for making it so cumbersome to operate, because there’s overlap between the smartest squirrels and the dumbest humans.
This is what 3D printing is all about. At least to me.
This doesn’t exist, but it should. Bang. Now it does.