Alright, so I got this crazy idea in my head the other day – a modern teapot warmer. Not the old-fashioned candle-under-a-metal-coaster type thing, but something slicker, maybe even a little techy. So, here’s the lowdown on how I went about making it.
First things first, planning. I spent a solid hour just sketching and brainstorming. I wanted it to be electric, with a temperature control, and look kinda minimalist. I figured I’d need some kind of heating element, a controller board, a power supply, and an enclosure. Sounds simple enough, right?
Next up, sourcing parts. This was a pain. I ended up ordering a small heating pad designed for reptiles (figured it was safe-ish), an Arduino Nano for control, a cheap temperature sensor from Amazon, and a 12V power adapter I had lying around. Oh, and a rotary encoder knob because those things are just cool. The enclosure? That’s where things got interesting.
I wanted the enclosure to be clean and modern, so I decided to try my hand at 3D printing. I fired up Tinkercad (yeah, I’m a beginner) and spent a frustrating afternoon designing a simple cylinder with a flat top and a hole for the teapot to sit in. After countless tweaks and reprints (the first one warped like crazy), I finally had something decent in white PLA.
Then came the electronics. This part was actually pretty fun. I wired up the heating pad to the power supply, ran the temperature sensor to the Arduino, and hooked up the rotary encoder. The Arduino code was surprisingly straightforward – read the temperature, adjust the heating pad’s power using a PWM signal based on the encoder input, and display the temperature (roughly) on a serial monitor. There were a few hiccups, like frying a resistor because I didn’t double-check the current draw, but nothing too major.
Assembly was next. I crammed all the electronics into the 3D printed enclosure. It was a tight fit, and the wiring was a mess, but it worked. I used some hot glue to secure everything in place (not pretty, but effective). Then, I printed a small knob for the rotary encoder to give it a more finished look.
Finally, the testing. I put a teapot filled with water on the warmer, plugged it in, and watched the temperature rise. It actually worked! Sort of. The temperature control was a bit wonky, and the heating was uneven, but it kept the water warm. Good enough for version 1.0.
Overall, it was a fun little project. I learned a lot about 3D printing, Arduino programming, and the importance of planning (and double-checking resistor values). The “modern teapot warmer” isn’t exactly ready for mass production, but it’s a decent proof of concept. Maybe next time I’ll use a PID controller for better temperature regulation and try a more elegant enclosure design. But for now, I’m enjoying my lukewarm tea in style.
