Rat Sleeve-Tunnel Rings

After discovering how much my two rats are obsessed with my sleeves, playing in them, sleeping in them, and generally treating them as a playground, I decided to reuse old clothes to create tunnels made of sleeves.

Since the sleeves don't really hold open by themselves, the rats are confused and don't always see where they can enter. So I made a quick 3D design of a ring that will hold the sleeves open with minimal hand sewing.

Enjoy this super quick DIY project ! And let me know if you have any suggestions to improve on it

3d Printer

Hobby knives

Old clothes with long sleeves

A needle and some Thread

Scissors

In the files I uploaded, you can either chose to print the rings one by one or, if you download the "stacked" option, there are 6 rings stacked together.

I wanted the inside of the sleeves to have a diameter of around 10cm, but you can adapt that on your slicer depending on your desires size.

1 ring print :

layer height : 0,25mm

infill : 15%

No support needed. I use a 2mm brim around the base because my printer tends to warp on a specific point, but that depends on your machine.

6 rings stacked print :

layer height : 0,25mm

infill : 15%

Supports : Adjusted

--> I printed the stacked version because I wanted 6 rings in one print, but be aware you will have some post-processing with a hobby knife to do in order to remove the supports and separate the rings. Otherwise, if you know how to stack objects properly on Prusa Slicer without having to make a special STL file for it, I am open to learning !

1. Cut the sleeves off of some old clothe you don't use anymore
2. Place as many rings as you want through the sleeve, depending on how much tension you want, and space them evenly on the sleeve.
3. With a needle and some thread, attach the sleeves all around the ring by passing the thread through the sleeve and through the holes in the rings. Make sure the thread is under tension everywhere to avoid any risk of your rats getting tangled in it or choked by it.
4. If you want, you can even create a super long tunnel by sewing multiple sleeves together and placing rings all along them.