3D printed Coffee Cold Brewer for Your Cup of Iced Coffee

Nowadays coffee became part of our lives. What could be better than a cup of good coffee in the morning? Probably only iced coffee in the summer afternoon. Of course, many people can choose something else, but it is not about Jonathan Odom, who has developed its own 3D printed coffee machine for iced coffee making.

Johnathan lives in San Francisco and works as a designer at the Instructables Design Studio. His main passions are film sets, animatrics and architecture. He also develops interesting projects on a regular basis. His coffee brewer is one of the projects that don’t seem to be something very complicated to make. As Johnathan mentioned on the project page: “It essentially revolves around some 3D printed fittings, some off-the-shelf laboratory glass wear and maple dowels. Sounds simple, right?”

There are many different methods of making iced coffee, but Johnathan chose a method called “Cold brewing”. This is how he explains his choice: “With this method, a small amount of coffee grounds are steeped in cold water, and drip the resulting brew at about one drop / 3 seconds. My impression is that boiling water releases caffeine and acidity much faster than cold water does. Steeping the grounds in cold water and releasing it slowly cuts the acidity significantly (you can taste that), but I’ve heard the argument that since it’s steeping for so long (2-6 hours), the caffeine content is about the same as it would be in a hot brewed cup.

In any case, this method makes incredibly smooth, nutty, floral coffee without the acidic bite. I love the bitterness of hot coffee, but for some reason it’s not as pleasant to me when it’s cold.”

The project is divided into several steps. The coffee brewer design is the first part of it. There were few iterations in the design. Initially Johnathan was thinking about something that can be hang on a wall, but his final decision was a tripod design. He created .STL files that are ready for 3D printing. All you need to do is to download them from the project page.

Not all tools and materials that are needed for the coffee machine can be 3D printed. Therefore, Johnathan provides a list of all items along with links to web stores where they can be purchased.

In next few steps Johnathan describes 3D printing and an assembly process. He used a Fusion 360 3D printer to print all needed components. Then he painted them with acrylic spray paint, but this step is optional and if you like a filament’s initial color, it can be skipped. The assembly process is also straightforward especially if you read all instructions provided by Johnathan.

Finally, the last and probably most important step is iced coffee brewing. There are few more things you need to do before starting brewing. All of them can be found on the project page. When they are completed the brewing itself can be started.

It takes about 4 hours to brew 500ml or about 2 cups of good by American standards iced coffee. You may say that it is not acceptable and too long, but if you are real coffee lover and want to try something new it definitely worth trying.