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Free Engineering and structuresArt and pattern
A Small Tray for Three Treasures
Build an open tray in your own colours from five flat, filled PLA panels. Test its use with three of your own small dry items.
- Age
- 10+ years
- Length
- approx. 80 min
- Level
- Easy
- Where you teach
- Home
- Purpose
- Creative
How to run this session
Stages and timing
- 1. Make a solid base
- 2. Prepare four walls
- 3. Position the first long wall
- 4. Add the second long wall
- 5. Fit the first short wall
- 6. Close the perimeter with the fourth wall
- 7. Join all the joints
- 8. Test the space for three treasures
What gets built
Make an open solid and test its everyday use.
What it practises
- Filling a flat outline with touching strands of PLA.
- Fitting five panels and support-assisted welding from the inside.
- Testing your own object in everyday use.
Success criteria
- A base and four straight, low walls form an open tray measuring about 80 × 60 × 20 mm.
- The cooled panels fit before welding; the seams join them to the base and at the four corners.
- The three selected dry items remain in the tray, with no gaps through which they could fall; the tray stands flat and can be lifted carefully with its contents.
What you need
- Filament
- PLA
- Colours
- colour shown in the illustration, colour shown in the illustration, colour shown in the illustration, colour shown in the illustration
- Also
- A 3D pen for PLA and PLA in your chosen colours., A transparent work surface suitable for PLA, with a clear area of 180 × 150 mm., Five 1:1 paper patterns; a printer, ordinary scissors and a ruler for preparation., Three small dry items for testing the finished tray.
Files
The files for this plan are free once you have an account. Download what you need and come back to them any time.
- Session slides Opens in the browser, nothing to install. 8.2 MB
- Step-by-step guide (colour) A4 PDF with full illustrations. 7.8 MB
- Step-by-step guide (ink-saving) A4 PDF prepared for cheap printing. 2.6 MB
- Printable worksheet, 1:1 scale Templates at 1:1 scale. Print one per person. 183 kB
Version 2026-09-29 Updated 2026-09-29
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