I am looking to build some prototypes and would like to get 20-50 Waffle plates as an initial order.
Looking at the material cost it’s about $1-10/unit for ABS ($1 for generic, $10 for ABSplus). I’m looking for a local ABS printer, but should be able to find some PLA options easily.
Shapeways is offering them for about $30 each in what I assume is ABS, or $20 in PLA.
A few questions:
Is there a source for injection moulded waffle plates?
Can anyone comment on strength and durability of PLA waffle plates, or on durability of generic ABS vs ABSplus?
Can the waffle plate be printed without support material? The overhang looks to me like it would be challenging, but maybe an angle can be introduced to address that.
I’ve found a printer who can do them in ABS for $6/each. I’ve sent that off for production and I’ll let you know the results. I think an injection moulded option would be much preferred tho, so I’m still keen to hear on that.
Waffle plates are main components of TurtleBot3. We already uploaded it on Onshape. So, Anyone can get design files and 3D print it.
We have tested the file of waffle plates using general 3D printer(NOT exclusive) with common PLA. The results are fairly respectable. Furthermore, it doesn’t need to additional support material. We already designed it.
Above capture shows uploaded waffle plate. The support is marked in orange color. When it printed, the supports should be attached on 3D printer’s desk.
Unfortunately, we don’t have any plan to support injection moulded waffle plates. But we assure that the uploaded files are works fine.
I’ve printed out a couple Waffle Plates here @ home, one in PLA and the other in nGen.
IME, the Waffle Plate is a bit of a torture test for 3D printing. The STL from ROBOTIS loads oriented on one of the narrow ends and, suprisingly, should probably be printed that ways with Support=“everywhere” and a sizable Brim.
I tried multiple times to print it flat, but the print always failed, tearing from the bed after the first few layers. I tried different speeds, densities, different loop and overlay widths, none of that worked. If somebody out there has gotten the waffle plate to print flat, I’d love to know what your settings are.
That said, printing it on the long or short end works with support enabled. You’ll have to pick it at the end, but the bits come out pretty easily with a file or pointed tweezers.
Print times for me have ranged from 7-10 hours depending on resolution, infill and various other settings. I’m using a Raise3D N2+ with the V2 hot-end. For nGen I’m printing at 240C with 100C bed temp. For PLA I’m printing at 220C with 70C bed temp.
I like the nGen one better and will probably print the rest of them using that. If you have a printer at home, I’m thinking it will take probably about a week to print out a Burger set or maybe a long weekend if you obsessed over it and just chained yourself to the printer.
Hope that helps some of you with your buy vs. print decision.
routiful,
Thanks for pointing out the support bits. I’d cleared off the obvious support bits on my waffle plates a while back but the orange area you highlighted came out pretty solid for me and not at all like a support structure so I thought it was part of the actual model
I cleared those off and it all fits together much better now
@agutenkunst
It seems like exporting file requires log in.
After log in to Onshape then right click on one of the tabs at the bottom and select export to download the model.
