A client needed a folding stand for a custom wooden bowl. After searching Thingiverse for "plate stand" and "bowl stand" and finding nothing, I designed a custom stand that would fit any bowl perfectly, and include areas for engraving and embossing text. The client is OK with making this publicly available.

The STL file included is for a generic plate. If you want a customized stand for a bowl or different plate, you must adjust the parameters in the OpenSCAD file, which are pretty straightforward. The model for a bowl or plate requires 6 different measurements.

• overall height
• largest diameter
• diameter of top rim
• diameter of base
• height of rim above largest diameter
• depth of recess in base

Here are how those parameters work in the OpenSCAD script:

   |<------ rim_dia ------>|   _________________________  ______  /            ^             rim_ht /             |              _____           bowl_ht          /              |            /                _______|______     /_______    __/       v       __/ __ base_recess    |<----- base_dia ---->| |<-------- max_dia -------->|

The script creates a virtual bowl with a rounded shape that connects these measurements, and constructs the stand around that virtual bowl.

There are several more advanced parameters, for setting text for up to four labels (one on the inside and outside surface of each leg), tilt angle, maximum opening angle, and so on.

Change log

• March 2021 - improved foot cutout for cylindrical bowls
• October 2023:
  • added support for faceted bowls
  • fixed bearing wall thickness error to make hinge slightly bigger
  • setting hook_ht=0 now allows for a stand that hooks into an edge at the middle of the bowl; just make that edge the rim and and bowl_ht be the height of the rim
  • beveled some corners near the hinge to prevent build plate separation
  • loosened hinge part clearances
• October 2024: fixed top hinge closing at large table clearance values