3D Printed Animal Bait Station: Take Two

Take Two prior to rafting removal

Challenge: To build a bait station to allow the recording of nocturnal animals.
Background: In monitoring the number of nocturnal animals at Auroa Primary School the students from class have identified Cats and Hedgehogs as two animals requiring monitoring.  As part of this the challenge has been to 3D Print bait stations (with peanut butter for the Hedgehogs and Cat busicuits for the Cats).  Both animals have shown the ability to tip over the exisitng bait stations (as illustrated in the photographs).   Students have produced bait stations but not currently one that has shown the ability to resist being tipped by a Hedgehog or Cat.

The spikes, once rafting is removed

Level of Difficulty:  Low.  This is a modification of a previous print that has not worked and students are trying to improve the ability of the bait station to avoid being tipped by the animal.
Timeframe: Ten hours with a 8mm nozzle print.
Size: 10cm across, with an 8cm cylnder and then spikes (see picture) designed to a depth of 8cm to provide more stability than the original print.
What we would do differently: The spikes, which were intended to provide additional stability, failed.  The 'spike design' was not able to be printed correctly, despite several attempts with this version of the bait station.  The student has opted to attempt to print a cylinder version of the spikes, and then to bury the entire base of the design in the ground.  The idea is that this should provide enough support to prevent the animals from tipping the bait station, allowing them to be successfully photographed.

 Left: A cat shown tiping the original designed 3D Printed bait station.
Right: A hedgehog tipping the bait station at three o'clock in the morning.