Spinning tray on a stand
Two bodies printed in one go, already assembled: a round stand with a post, and a ring-shaped tray that sits around the post with one millimetre of clearance everywhere — printed without supports, it turns freely straight off the printer. Ten steps: fillet, extrude up to a face, offset a face for clearance, shell.
10 steps
What it builds
- Sketch
- Extrude
- Fillet
- Offset faces
- Shell
Step 1
Sketch the base disc
Click Create sketch, then click the flat blue square lying on the grid — the XY plane. Draw a Circle centred on the origin, about 100 mm across. Click the centre first, then a point on the rim — the second click sets the radius, so pull it out to 50.
Step 2
Extrude it 10 mm to make the base
Click Finish Sketch, select the disc and Extrude it 10 mm. If it grows downwards, turn on Reverse direction, then confirm with OK (or Enter). This is the foot of the stand — everything else stands on it.
Step 3
Sketch the post on top of the base
Click the top face of the base and click New sketch on face. Draw a small circle at the centre, about 20 mm across — 10 mm from the centre to the rim: that is the post the tray will turn around.
Step 4
Extrude the post 50 mm, added to the base
Click Finish Sketch, select the small circle and Extrude it 50 mm with Combine set to Add, then confirm with OK, so the post and the base become one body. A new body here would leave you two loose parts that happen to touch.
Step 5
Round the stand
Pick Fillet and, holding Shift, click the four circular edges of the stand — the top and the bottom of the post, the top rim and the bottom rim of the base — then give them a Radius of 2 and confirm with OK. Do it now, while every edge is still in the open: once the tray is around the post, the foot of the post is inside it.
Step 6
Sketch the tray's footprint on the base's top face
Click the base's top face again and click New sketch on face. Draw two circles from the centre: one 50 mm from the centre, like the base, and one 10 mm from the centre, like the post. The ring between them is the tray's footprint — the inner circle keeps the post out of it.
Step 7
Extrude the ring: new body, up to the post, 1 mm up
Click Finish Sketch, select the ring and Extrude it with Combine set to New body. Instead of a distance, open Up to and choose To selected face (not To next face), then click the top face of the post — the tray's top is now flush with the top of the post, however tall you make the post later. Then type 1 in Offset: the tray starts one millimetre above the base, which is the gap that lets it turn. Confirm with OK.
Step 8
Open the hole in the tray by 1 mm
Right now the hole in the middle of the tray (its bore) hugs the post exactly. Hide the stand in the Bodies panel (the eye next to its name), click the inside wall of the bore, run Offset faces with a Distance of −1, confirm with OK, and show the stand again. Negative moves the wall away from the post: one millimetre of radial clearance, and only that face changes.
Step 9
Hollow the tray with 4 mm walls
Click the top ring face of the tray and run Shell with a Thickness of 4, then confirm with OK. The face you picked is the one removed, so the solid ring becomes an open tray: floor, outer wall, inner wall, all 4 mm.
Step 10
Round the tray's rims
One more Fillet, radius 2, on every rim of the tray you can reach: the four at the top — both edges of the outer wall and both of the inner wall — and the outer one at the bottom, then confirm with OK. The bottom inner rim sits inside the bore, 1 mm above the base, where you cannot click it without hiding the stand: leave it alone. Two bodies, one millimetre apart everywhere: export with both bodies visible, so they go out together in one file, and print without supports — the tray's underside bridges the 1 mm gap over the base. It comes off the printer already turning.