Measuring Spoons – Tutorial

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The spoons in this tutorial have been designed to the milliliter measurements but are also represented in tablespoon and teaspoons. You will also see how the outward shell tool and sketch text tool was utilized for the spoons scoop and how the measurement details were added to the spoon handles.

The most important step in creating the spoons was to figure out the radii needed to create the correct volume for the spoons scoop. In the tutorial the spoon radii is rounded up to 3 decimal places to save time, but as mentioned in the tutorial, you can input the exact radii to get the exact volumes. Below you can see how the radii was calculated to create the exact volumes, you could apply this formula to create any spoon or cup sizes you want.

Calculations for spoon scoop Radii

You can work out the radii yourself from a given volume.

The formula for this is V= 4/3 π r³.

I like to work out the radius from a sphere, so I just double the volume of the spoon for the working out.

You start by dividing the known volume by 4.19, I get this number from the formula which is 4/3 x Pi and rounding it to the nearest 100.

Then using 4.19, find the cube root of volume divided by 4.19, which should give you the radius of both the sphere and hemisphere.

 

Below are the exact radii for each spoon if you wish to get the exact volumes.

1TBS = 15ml =      19.275732104070492331046758976931r    or 19.27573210 =     15000 cubic milliliters

½ TBS = 7.5ml =   15.299158709729347301503352793848r    or  15.29915871 =    7500 cubic milliliters

1tsp = 2.5ml =       13.365046175719757785412097349579r    or   13.36504618 =    5000 cubic milliliters

1/2 tsp = 2.5ml =   10.607844179470552438696378719751r    or   10.60784418 =    2500 cubic milliliters

1/4tsp = 1.25ml =   8.4194515048031483637742857047463r   or  8.41945150 =       1250 cubic milliliters

Once the spoons volume was created using the revolve tool and checked with mass properties, the shell tool was used to create the outer scoop of the spoon. By selecting the top face of the revolve and the shell feature, the thickness of the shell was chosen, but shell outward is selected, this causes the walls to shell outward by the desired thickness, with the inner mass disappearing to leave a spoon scoop to the volume created.

 

Another feature of the tutorial is the use of the text tool to apply the measurements of each spoon. Guide sketches were created before the sketch was added so that it could be applied to an exact spot on the handle, the font could then be edited by font type, font style and the font size. Once the first spoon was finished, the part was saved but kept open. It was then used to create the other 4 spoons by rolling back features and editing the sketch of the spoons radius, then double checking the new volume. The handle length was increased so that each spoon sits into each other with the ring hole lined up. And finally, the text was edited to represent the spoon size. Each spoon was then saved with a new name, this method can save you so much time when created similar shaped parts.

When the parts are all complete, the spoons are mated onto the ring concentric in an assembly ready to create an exploded view. In the exploded view, the temporary axis of the spoons handle holes and metal ring were used to define the axis of rotation for the spoons, to ensure that they rotated on the ring and not from there own centre axis. The exploded view could then be brought into a motion study, using animation and the exploded view I edited the keys of the exploded view to speed up the movements of the spoons and then exported the motion study to SOLIDWORKS Visualize.

The exploded view was used to create the final animation seen at the end of the tutorial.

 

Jade Wilson

Jade Wilson

I am a 3D Designer and SOLIDWORKS Blog Contributor from the UK. I am a self taught SOLIDWORKS user, and have been using it to inform and create my designs since 2012. I specialize in the design of Ceramics, Home Accessories and Wooden Toy Design.