Kratzblitz - heavy duty versatile ice scraper and plow pow

Always yearned for a more sturdy ice scraper and breaker? To really push with force against that freak ice? Kratzblitz is here to fill that gap.

Features

- Fist operated for maximum application of force - Two-handed use for more force or distributed force on two hands for less fatigue - The plough principle keeps cold and dirty objects away from the hands - Supportive, determined and mood-lifting eyes that cheer you up while you work - Very versatile:

At least 7 ways to use it: 1. 45° angled, >5 mm high scraper blade with flat surface 2. 90° angled, smaller scraper blades in 1cm and 2cm lengths for corners and small surfaces such as mirrors when held at 45° x-axis. 3. 35° angled, flat icebreaker teeth with "wall line scrubbers" at the tip when held "upside down" 4. 35° and 45° angled, shorter, pointed icebreaker teeth for cutting out a start. 5. 90° semi-circular scraper when turned 90° to one side 6. smaller 90° icebreaker tooth set when turned to the other side. 7. 6 and 7 can be used in either a pulling or pushing motion.

Update 20231223:

- V7 model posted. Only change is back to support utilization to offer both options. V7 and V6 have feature parity otherwise. Just decide if you want supports and a nice underside with V7. Or no supports and some sanding rework to finish the handle underside with V6 - Pictures of V7 3 color print for a bolivian friend added Update 20231210: V6 model pictures and prints updated. Lessons learned added to V7 revision

Update 20231208: V6 model posted

Update 20231206: V5 beta model and pictures of grey/green print added

Update 20231202: V4 test on -55°C chest freezer went really well. Still waiting for my car to freeze for more practical test on rounded surface, ahaha. Ice is deflected very well by the plow shovel. And it is surprisingly effortless to use. No damage at all from this test.

Update 20231201: V4 Beta posted and first 3 images (after title V3) updated to V4 print.

Update 20231130: First “Non-lossless” brute force testing session of V3 model in -32°C chest freezer.

V3 Testing aftermath:

Teeth held up perfectly, frosty stuff was nicely deflected away from my hands.

Scrape-blade not so much. Will be mitigated in V4 revision by even steeper angle. From the looks of it, mostly the elephant footing broke.

Scaling to the appropriate size of your fist is easy

1. the base model is designed for 10cm wide fists 2. measure your actual fist width in millimetres and subtract the amount of millimetres by which you would comfortably compress your fist. Use this value unchanged as a scaling percentage. Example: I personally measured 9.5cm. So I printed out a 90mm = 90% scaled version to fit my fist, with a little wiggle room to press lightly against the front to get the most pressure possible. 3. have fun with the Kratzblitz plow pow.

Two color print to offset the teeth visually

To achieve the color change for the teeth, stop the print at 48mm height and change to a different filament color. For the pictured prototype i used a 0.8mm nozzle at 0.24mm layer height. And thus changed filament at layer 200.

The name

Kratzblitz translates to “Scrape-flash” (Scrapes like a flash) or literally “Scratch-flash” and shall underline the rough but hopefully swift operation. In German, scratch and scrape is equally used to describe the ice removing task, see Eiskratzer and Eis-Schaber. “Schablitz”, which would technically better describe the tool, sounds awkward too me. (There also is a curse word in German that sounds quite similar). So i went with the more catchy and pronounceable “Kratzblitz”.

Revision History

V7: Reworking towards supports - Prints of V6 got really hard on 0.4 Nozzles. Trying to revert back to use sane supports.

V6: 15% less material over V5

- Print without supports possible again - More narrow and less concave shovel - Handle is oval again to save material and optimize print without support - Triangle cut outs on the sides can act as additional grip point

V5: Beta with mesh errors (PrusaSlicer autofixes)

- 55° Rounded handle for glove and large hand operation - Further shortened top teeth - Mirrored Logo on both orientations - Slight optimization to the eyes (One user confused them with steampunkish screws) - Center Hole in the handle got smaller to fit the rounded outer handle - Support necessary now. Due to the longer handle lifting up the rest of the model.

V4: Beta posted on Dec 2nd, 00:10 CET. Printing over night to Dec 2nd. - Shorten top teeth for less likelihood of breaking them off. They where unnecessarily long too - Narrow in the handle walls to expose 5mm of the shovel at each side, acting as additional scratch methods - Add different kind of ice breaker teeth to one vertical side for 4th option of use - Oval grip for esier print and better grip - Steeper angle on the scratch blade after brute force test of V3 - Larger font-character spacing to better reproduce the letters - Removed logo font from side - Save material by shortening blade and give even better force induction angle - Make one of the 1 cm 45° x-axis scrapers larger to 2 cm.

V3: Rushed competition entry on 20231130 after discussing the model with friends and having a blast implementing feature requests. - Found catchy name while laughing with work colleagues and added Fyodor font-type emboss - Added eyes on families suggestion - Steeper plow guides, cut down on used material - Less material between hand and shovel for better force induction angle - 1cm lower than V2, that was just too chunky, waste of filament and print time - Removed pseudo ergonomic finger cuts since those hurt - Print in PETG, for better water resistance - Slimmed the whole handle down to a 10° angle and reduced diameter from 36 to 30mm to save material and feel more comfy. Top and bottom surface now have that 10° angle. Which adds a great pattern to the top of the teeth from the wall lines falling off in 10° steps. Flat surface for the scratch blade remained. But its way more nice to hold Kratzblitz in that 10° angle to have a flat scratch-blade, since there is more clearance between hand and working surface now

V2: First physical prototype, reworked on 20231126, printed 20 hours since first print wrecked half way through due to filament knot in the night…

- Discovered scalability to different hand sizes is width-of-fist-mm = scaling percentage - 7cm height for weight and heft - Flat top and bottom surface - 80mm blade length seems to be good - 45° cut offs can act as smaller scrape blades on bottom, and short super sturdy and pointy teeth top when tool is held in 45°. - Ergonomic finger cutouts attempt - Printed in PLA, should work great

V1: Initial thoughts that lead to V1 model in blender on 20231125 - Comfy round and grippy towards the user, ultimate edgyness towards the ice - Need an additional sturdy tool to continue where flexible blade icebreakers have their limits. For thin ice and frost, i'd prefer to continue to use my brass sheet mounted on a stick which i grew to like. But as soon as that method got stuck due to thicker ice, i cried for other options in vein as of yet.

Assets license clearance

The font-type used for the logo, embossed on the model is “Fyodor”. The font "Fyodor" is licensed under SIL Open Font License and was created by Chris Hughes . Link to License.