Making a Cereal Box Style Ring With No Experience and $10

For this demonstration we'll be creating a simple cereal box style ring with a customizable face using a small handful of simple techniques. You don't need to pay any money for the software or have any previous knowledge of 3d modeling to make this ring. This instructable is an introduction into 3d modeling, and made to familiarize you with the Fusion 360 tools, using the basic tools you learn in this instructable you can start making just about anything.

First you need to download the Fusion 360 program from autodesk, its free for students and small businesses and is currently being used for this contest and an instructables class found here. Once downloaded open the program and continue to step 1.

Using the "Create" tool, select the cylinder and place select the flat axis represented by a blue square on your grid. the size we'll be working with is 20mm wide with a height of 3mm.

Note: If your units aren't in millimeters you can change that using the units tab on the left hand side of the screen.

Now that you have your cylinder, using the "Modify" tool on the top bar select Fillet and choose one of the outside edges and fillet it to 1.5mm (or half the height of the cylinder). Do this for the top and bottom edges, once you're done the cylinder should look a bit like a coin.

Next flip your orientation (using the cube in the top right corner) to the side so you're looking at the side of your cylinder. Once you've done that, using the create tool again, select a torus and size it to the inside diameter of your ring size +2mm* to account for the width of the band. Make sure the 2 pieces overlap a bit and before finalizing the torus make sure to select "join" fusing the 2 pieces together. If you need to readjust the size you can use the command Ctrl+z to go back a step and re-do it.

For this demonstration we're making a size 8 ring which has an inside diameter of ~18mm so the torus is 20mm with a width of 2mm.

*Note: A mm conversion chart can be found here.

At this point save your progress so you have this blank to customize later with any design you wish. Save with the file tool bar at the top and click "Save as" to protect your project.

Next change your viewpoint to the top of the ring, making sure the band is facing left to right. It should resemble the picture seen above. Once done, in the "Create" tool select extrude and click on the center of the face of your ring and type -0.50mm, this time make sure you've got "Cut" selected so it cuts into the face by 0.5mm. If you change your viewpoint you'll notice a divot on the face of the ring. from here we can make our design.

For this demonstration we'll be creating a green lantern design. Start by clicking on the "Create" tool and selecting the square shape, make sure to click in the center of the face. Find a corner close to the one in the picture measured and slide the square all the way across the face of the ring until it matches roughly the dimensions shown in the picture, make the new square by 0.5mm tall and join it to the face. This will allow it to be flush with the rim of the face. Once done, using the "Sketch" tool draw lines straight down to the bottom of the ring and repeat the process with the square so you have 2 horizontal lines. At this point use the "Sketch" tool to select Trim and delete the lines you used to match your two rectangles.

Next using the "Create" tool select the cylinder and start it in the center of the ring. Expand it until its just barely overlapping the two rectangles you placed above and below it. When setting this piece make sure to join the pieces and make its height 0.5mm same as the 2 rectangles and if done right they should start looking like the green lantern logo. Repeat this process with the cylinder but this time make it a bit smaller, and make its height -0.5mm and make sure its cutting into the face of the design.

Once you finish this step you should have a nice looking cereal box style green lantern ring thats ready for printing!

If you'd like to print your design you have a handful of options, if you don't have your own printer you can send the design to a site like shapeways or find a local place that might print it for you. For this demonstration we'll be using shapeways.

First, save your design to your computer. On the left hand side of your screen you should see a tab with the name of your project, right clicking that in the drop down menu click save as STL, once done go to https://www.shapeways.com/ and create and account.

Once you have your account you can upload your project file, pick a material and purchase a print of your ring! you can also use the code instructables2016 for a discount on your order.