Trophy Stand for Hanging Medals

My daughter got a participation medal for an activity she did, but I wasn't sure what to do with it. I know most people either use a coat rack-like stand, but mine would always end up on door knobs. I thought it would be fun to use Tinkercad to design a stand that is shaped like a trophy to display it (I've always prefered actual trophies anyway).

Now, this isn't realistic really if you want to display a bunch of them (unless you have a trophy case), but I thought it would be fun for my daughter who only has this one and it was just sitting buried on her shelf anyway.

So, the idea for this stand made in Tinkercad was for it to be shaped like a trophy, have a spot the medal can be propped up on in front, and a spot for the ribbon on it to be folded and stored away in the back.

Instructable 373

• Medal you want to put on the stand
• Caliper or ruler to measure it for your stand
• 3D Printer
• Filament
• Tinkercad

I started by using a caliper to take the measurement of the medal I wanted the stand for. This would give me a better idea of how big it needed to be and how it would sit on it. Then I modeled it in Tinkercad so I could work around it.

I also measure the ribbon all rolled up so I would have an idea of how much room that would take up behind it.

Mine was aboutr 2" in diameter and it sounds like medals are either that or 2.5". So I designed my stand, and then enlarged the top to fit one that is 2.5" in diameter.

My original Tinkercad design was smaller, to save on filament, and was more designed to be a medal with stand on top. This looked awkward and didn't work out great.

The side and front stoppers to hold the medal on looked awkward even though they did work fine.

The main change between the initial and final design is the top. Instead of having it plopped on top of the medal, I changed the upside down cone shape to an upside down paraboloid. I extended it taller and used a rectangle at an angle to cut out the front leaving some in the very front for the medal to lean against so it doesn't just fall off.

There is still a chamber in the back to hold the ribbon.

The base is a rectangle with some radius to the edges and the bottom cut off so it would sit flat and not require support for overhang.

Next going up is a torus.

Then there is a cone sitting inside the torus.

Lastly is the paraboloid as mentioned with a rectangle cutting it almost in half for the ribbon, a rectangle cutting off the front and a second paraboloid cutting out the inside.

The arms of the trophy were created using the Scribble tool. I'm not very artistic, but I did my best. The arms were attached to go from almost the base of the top of the trophy section to extending just above the top.

Printing it is pretty straightforward, but it does require support for the arms of the trophy.

I printed it with a .6mm nozzle to save on time (first time using that size nozzle), and used "Only infill where needed" to also save on filament and time.

I did a color change between the base and main part of the nozzle so it could have a brown base and gold trophy on top.

I used a needle nose pliers to pry off the support and was left with a great stand! The medal sits on it well and I am really happy with the outcome.