Making a hose spike

When putting down the watering system for the garden this year we needed something to hold the hose down. Sure, we could just use a piece of bent wire, but that idea literally did not cross my mind until I had designed, printed, and tested a solution, and only then when my wife suggested that we could just use wire.

The first batch was interesting. They were printed 100% infill. I made the hole for the hose too close to the back wall making them snap when I tried inserting them. Frustrating. Even after I glued them back together they were still too weak. Then I decided to try out some acetone smoothing to see if that would fix it and to my surprise it actually did. They were usable. They'd still snap there if they hit a rock or some clay but they worked when the non-acetone smoothed ones didn't.

The ones uploaded to thingiverse are redesigned to be better enforced and shorter to reduce stress even more, but I still recommend an acetone vapor bath for anything that needs to stand up to some pressure. Acetone, not just for looks.