Making A Bucket Caddy Using OpenSCAD, A CNC Router, And Some Plywood

Over the past few years my wife and I have really gotten into gardening. We enjoy planting flowers and vegetables, getting outside, and rearranging our plants to enhance the aesthetic appeal of our yard. But having a garden is a lot of work and maintenance, especially when it comes to pulling weeds. On many occasions I would find myself losing track of my weeders and trowels while working a flower bed. I finally decided enough was enough and designed a small bucket caddy out of plywood that fits around any standard 5 gallon bucket.

Prep Work

Caddies for 5 gallon buckets aren’t a new thing. There are a variety of commercial cloth covers out there, but most of them have a billion pockets, which is overkill for what I need. For gardening I wanted something relatively simple that would strap onto the bucket and provide spots to hold my hand tools. A quick google of 5 gallon bucket dimensions led me to fivegallonideas.com, a site devoted to blinging out 5 gallon pails. Here I learned two things. First, the top diameter of most pails is 30cm. Second, people have figured out how to turn these things into base guitars, beehives, backpacks, and even air cannons. Why have I only just discovered this site?!

3D Modeling

There are a ton of free and commercial CAD packages out there. Some of the more popular ones for hobbyists are Funsion360 , SketchUp, TinkerCAD, and FreeCAD. Early in my prototyping phase I used SketchUp, but quickly realized that making small adjustments to shapes, spacing, etc. was absolutely painful using the free version. Then I found OpenSCAD. OpenSCAD ( Solid Computer Aided Design) is an open source project that uses scripts to define 2D and 3D geometries that can be exported as STL files for machining. It only took a small amount of tinkering to realize the power of OpenSCAD. You can parameterize whatever you want and create reusable parts (called modules), which makes tweaking dimensions in the design a lot easier than working with a GUI. I can’t say enough nice things about OpenSCAD. If you are a programmer interested in 3D CAD check it out.

CNC Routing, Finishing, and Assembly

The final design wraps a quarter of the way around the bucket and measures 198mm (~7.8 in) square x 13mm (0.51in). I used half-inch plywood and my Shapeoko for the cutout. With a bit of sanding and two coats of polyurethane here is the finished product. A 21” rubber tie down provides a snug fit with no slippage. Mounting the plywood centered and just below one side of the bucket handle keeps tools at a reasonable height and prevents the bucket from tipping during transport.

Make Your Own

If you have a CNC router you can make your own bucket caddy with the following:

• 1 x half-inch plywood sheet 8.5 x 8.5 in (large enough to clamp down and allow space for your cutter to travel)
• 1 x 21” rubber tie down
• This STL file (units are in mm)

Originally published at https://www.dabblingbadger.com on June 26, 2020.