Pictured here is a custom-made 3D printed cat feeder base that supports the feeder, allows it to remain stationary and functional, and raises the feeder to place the food directly into a separate bowl.

This feeder base was created to fix a few problems:

The feeder needed to be raised in order for the food to go into the special bowl
The feeder needed to withstand the cat's attempts at destruction

Supplies

For this project I used a Elegoo Neptune 2 FDM 3D printer and SolidWorks to design and print the project. I also used some cardboard to fill in the small gaps so that it wouldn't move around. Although I used this specific type of printer and design software, one could use any type of printer or 3D modeling software as long as the following requirements are met;

The printer must have a large enough volume to fit the whole print
The printer must use a strong enough material to hold the weight of the feeder at full capacity and least for the duration of its use
The 3D modeling software must have capabilities of downloading to ".stl" files and have the ability to dimension specific lengths
Most 3D modeling software will have these capabilities

Modeling software: https://www.solidworks.com/

3D printer: https://www.elegoo.com/products/elegoo-neptune-2-fdm-3d-printer

Step 1: Measuring and Designing

For the design portion you can either base your design off of mine or create your own based off of your specific requirements. For either option, the first step is to measure the important dimensions of your feeder and create a drawing that allows you to visualize it. After this is done you can apply those dimensions to your base design.

For the base design, base the dimensions on the size of the feeder. The feeder's base in this example is 7.625 X 7.625 inches so I increased the dimensions to 7.75 X 7.75 inches for the inside to give some wiggle-room. Then I increased from there 0.5 inches around the edges to 8.625 X 8.625 inches for the outside of the base.

In order to get most of the food into the bowl, the feeder must be raised above the bowl and therefore the base must have raised bottom. Therefore, I designed the base to raise the feeder 0.5 inches above the ground and have three inches of material around the feeder to keep it inside.

Step 2: 3D Modeling: Part 1

In SolidWorks I first created the outer edge of the base which is 8.625 X 8.625 inches and extruded that to 3.5 inches to account for the raised base of 0.5 inches and walls that are 3 inches tall.

Step 3: 3D Modeling: Part 2

At the top of the box, I created another square that was 7.75 X 7.75 inches and made a extrude cut into the cube that I created in the last step. This extrude cut went down 3 inches into the cube so that the bottom was 0.5 inches thick. The end result had a base with a 0.5 inch thick base with 3 inches tall walls that surrounded the feeder and were almost 1 inch thick.

Step 4: 3D Modeling: Part 3

Finally, since the release area for the food was blocked by the walls, I created an opening based on the dimensions I took earlier so that the opening would allow all the food to come out of the feeder without being to small as to block any. I did this by creating a sketch on one wall and extrude cutting that portion of the wall away.

Finally, for aesthetic purposes I filleted the walls and opening.

Step 5: Printing

Before beginning to print, make sure that your printer has enough surface area to print the entire base, if not you may want to make the base smaller or make it out of a different material like wood. Also, make sure the printer has enough filament to cover the whole build. Since this is such a large print, it will likely take a day or two so make sure you pick a good time and place to print, and check up on the print throughout its duration. The most important part of the print is the very beginning, so make sure your printer is as level as possible and that the filament sticks to the base plate so that the rest of the print is printed without resounding defects.

To start printing, save the 3D model as a ".stl" file to your computer and send it to a 3D printing software like Cura to slice and send to the printer. Once ready, just start printing and enjoy!