Glassy McBuildPlate

I wanted to get my build plates out the drawer where they were taking up space, and onto a desktop, where they could be vertical, and take up a lot less space.  I began looking around and couldn’t decide what to print.  Most had a fixed number of plate slots.  There was at least one i saw that let you add on plate sections as you added plates.  The ones that held the top glass when needed seemed interesting, only some could be used with my size of build plate (H2C)… you get the idea.  I couldn't decide.  I’d been working on a soup to nuts parameterized exhaust system, and I thought, I’ll just make a parameterized build plate holder!

With this model, you can specify as many build plates as you want it to hold, minimum 1.  You can decide if you want it to hold top glass or not.  You can specify the plate width, the glass width, the overall depth of the body, whether you want the plates to be offset to make it easier to see and grab the plate you want, etc.

The model supports, if you want it, both an inner and outer base that extend beyond the main body, to reduce the chance of falling over.  The width of the inner and outer base may be changed. The inner side supports settable length, and a wedge, the intent being to place that extension under your printer, and minimize the space between the wedge and the printer to avoid any possibility of tipping, and keep it snugged up against the printer.  For my H2C this height is 4mm, the default.

If you want a full-length build plate holder then you want to measure your build plate and put that measurement as the body_depth.  The build_plate_offset is used if you want to stagger your build plate slots backward, so the front sections are easier to see and grab.  The default for the build_plate_offset is 16mm, which for most plates allows you to see the entire front section before the actual build area.  You can adjust this.  The backstop depth, that is, the piece that keeps the plate from going past the end of the build plate, will be equal to the backstop_offset.  If you don’t want to stagger the plate slots, the just set the build_plate_offset to 0.  By default, the backstop depth (not parameterized) is 8mm.  If you're doing an offset, with a large number of plates, you may end up with a holder that will not fit on the plate.

The model uses a “trick” to get rid of things because setting extrusion distances to 0 just doesn’t work.  Fusion doesn’t like it.  The trick is extruding, or setting a sketch dimension, to .001.  So in the Prepare and  Preview windows, you’ll see a wedge, or inner section, or outer section, even if you said you don’t want one.  Don’t worry, the slicer will essentially ignore it.  I show a sample of what you see and what you get in one of the images.

I’ve printed it in PLA, but you can print it in whatever you want. I highly recommend cutting a small part out of the body to test glass and build plate tolerances so that you specify the plate and glass width dimensions are correct for your plates and your top glass.

 Limitations:

The glass is on the left.  The model is not reversible with parameters, but you can easily create a mirror in the slicer with the context menu when the model is selected.  This way you can put the holder with a wedge or inner extension on the left or right side of the printer.

You can’t eliminate the plate holder and just make a glass holder.  If you really want this, let me know and I will add it.

I didn’t work on the ability to make the top of the glass or plate sections flat.  Because they have a radius in the transitions between vertical and horizontal, I had to create a minimum difference or the fillets in the sketch get blown out.  Let me know if this is important to you.

All build plate slots are the same width.  Not ideal, but much harder to parameterize.  Anyway, are they really that much different?  You could always print a separate holder for that really thick one (or use the glass slot instead).

I also gave up on a more contoured look. In one of the images you can see a bunch of prototypes with more curved and angled top surfaces.  It was just a little too difficult to parameterize the depth and height with those variables.  Again, if this is important to you, let me know and I can work on it in a future version.

Please give me your feedback.  I would love to know if this works for you, and what improvements you would like to see.

About me:

This is my first contribution to MakerWorld.  I’m a beginner, so please be kind.  I’ve been working with Fusion for a few months, and I got my first printer in April.  I may have over-engineered this, but I’ve been known to do so in my professional life as a software engineer, and it was at least a really good learning experience.  I’ve created a few useful designs, but nothing ready for contribution yet or with wide appeal, though I’m working on it.