kapy academy

A tray that spins on its stand

Two bodies printed in one go: a round stand with a post, and a ring-shaped tray that sits around the post with one millimetre of clearance everywhere — so 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
  • Offset faces
  • Shell
  • Fillet

  1. Step 1

    Sketch the base disc

    Create a sketch on the base plane and 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.

  2. Step 2

    Extrude it 10 mm into the base

    Leave the sketch, select the disc and Extrude it 10 mm. This is the stand's foot — everything else stands on it.

  3. Step 3

    Sketch the post on top of the base

    Click the top face of the base and start a sketch on that face. Draw a small circle at the centre, about 20 mm across: that is the post the tray will turn around.

  4. Step 4

    Extrude the post 50 mm, added to the base

    Extrude the small circle 50 mm with Combine set to Add, so the post and the base become one body. A new body here would leave you two loose parts that happen to touch.

  5. 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. Do it now, while every edge is still in the open: once the tray is around the post, the post's foot is inside it.

  6. Step 6

    Sketch the tray's footprint on the same face

    Start another sketch on the base's top face and draw two circles from the centre: one as wide as the base, one the size of the post. The ring between them is the tray's footprint — the inner circle keeps the post out of it.

  7. Step 7

    Extrude the ring up to the top of the post, starting 1 mm up

    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 of the post — the tray is now exactly as tall as 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.

  8. Step 8

    Open the bore by 1 mm

    Right now the tray's bore hugs the post exactly. Hide the stand from the Bodies window, click the inside wall of the bore, run Offset faces with a distance of −1, and show the stand again. Negative moves the wall away from the post: one millimetre of radial clearance, and only that face changes.

  9. 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. The face you picked is the one removed, so the solid ring becomes an open vessel: floor, outer wall, inner wall, all 4 mm.

  10. 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. Two bodies, one millimetre apart everywhere: export both and print them as they are — the tray comes off the bed already turning.

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