Soccer Ball Stand for Throw-ins

Overview:

We received a request to make several of these stands for our high school soccer team.  They were seen during world cup games, but we couldn’t find a source to buy them, so my son designed this one.  They work great to have along the sidelines, so a player can quickly grab a ball for a throw-in.  The ball boys can track down the stray balls and replace the one taken from the stand, so it is ready for next time.  The stands can also be stacked for storage.

My son designed ours with the school’s logo on two sides, but we’ve included the step file for a blank one.  His Fusion 360 file is also included for a reference, but here are brief details of his process for creating the logo in Fusion 360:

1.      Bring an SVG of the logo into a sketch on the front face and position it.

2.      Extrude the logo to a depth of around 1.25 mm if using only one color.  He created a white background section that he extruded 3.8 mm, then extruded the colored parts 1.25 mm deep into that.

3.      Extrude the newly sunken face back to the outer face but ensure to select “New Body” on the join type to make it a separate part.

4.      Offset all faces on the Stand / female side by 0.1 mm, then chamfer the bottom edges to the same value as the extrude depth (e.g. 1.25 mm).

5.      Create a chamfer for all edges on the male side using the same value, so it fits nicely into the pocket.

6.      Mirror or pattern all of these features to additional faces if desired.

For assembly, he simply used CA glue to glue the logo pieces in place.  Or just skip all of the offsetting, chamfering and gluing, and use a tool changer to simply print it in multi-color.

He has included versions for ball sizes 3, 4 and 5.

Printing:

I recommend printing these in ASA or something similar for outdoor use. No supports required if printed in the orientation shown.