GPGF - Stacked Gridfinity Baseplates

Why I made this:

I've gotten really into trying to dial in my studio by organizing all the things with Gridfinity. I now have a H2D, so I can print up to a 6x6 baseplate! But the problem is that even a big ol' baseplate is just one plate per print. If I fire up a big baseplate before I go home for the day, this means that the printer is sitting idle for many hours overnight after the bed is filled, and this just wouldn't do.

I had a brain wave that I could stack plates with support material in between them and then print many more plates at a pop. And then, unsurprisingly, I found out that I am by no means the first person to try this. There's other great examples on the internet already, but I have enough particularity about what I want (magnets, chamfered magnet holes, optimized for 0.6 nozzles...) that I figured I'd implement my own design. Making this isn't a full XKCD standards sidequest, but it's not not that either...

I designed a stacked baseplate model that has custom-modeled supports and is optimized for 0.6 mm nozzles and 0.3 mm layers. I have printed a ton of them. Maybe too many. Maybe not enough. And now I would love to share the design with you.

Why this is cool:

Optimization is always cool. And so is maximizing throughput. 

Printing notes:

• There's some really important details to print this right.

• First off, do NOT turn on supports - the supports are custom modeled bodies (they're labeled SUPPORT or INTERSTITIAL when you import).

• The model is optimized for 0.6 mm nozzles.

• If you're printing 4x stacks, it is critical you print at 0.3 layer height.

• If you do not print at a 0.3 mm layer height, you'll get slight height mismatches between plates depending on where they are in the stack - found this out the hard way after printing a ton of plates.

• I have provided a 3MF for each X increment. 

• Each 3MF includes all sizes for that X increment (for example, 6x1, 6x2, 6x3, 6x4, 6x5, 6x6).

• The provided 3MFs are sliced for the following printer details and materials, but you can of course modify to your liking:

  • Printer: Bambu Labs H2D

  • Nozzle: 2x 0.6 Hardened Steel (standard flow)

  • Baseplate material: Bambu Labs PLA Basic

  • Support material: Bambu Labs PETG Basic

• If you don't want to use the 3MF, here's the settings I've been using:

  • Baseplates: 

    • Initial layer: 0.3 mm

    • Default layer height: 0.3 mm

    • Line width: 0.62 mm everywhere

    • Wall loops: 2

    • Infill: 15% Grid

    • **Very important**: turn on "Interface shells" under Strength >> Top/bottom shells

    • If you do not do this, you'll get weirdness where the bottom layers of some plates are just infill

  • Support / interstitial layers:

    • Wall loops: 2

    • Infill: 15% Lightning

    • These settings are just to save a little bit on material

Assembly notes:

• It's hard to remove the first baseplate since the full stack of 4 is pretty stiff.

• I've had good success thwacking the stacked plates with a deadblow mallet until I can pry off the first plate.

• Note: I have also damaged a plate by thwacking too hard... consider yourself forewarned.

• After the first plate is free, I've usually been able to twist/flex the remaining stack until I can pop 'em apart.

• I usually smack the supports with a mallet to remove them quickly, but you can probably just pry them off.

• I went far too deep optimizing my magnet installation workflow by designing this 6x6 baseplate magnet setter jig; maybe you'll find it useful.

• I've also designed a little tool to press 4 magnets down at a time if they don't snap home. That model is designed for these baseplates and for 6 mm magnets. You'll need (1) McMaster Carr 94459A180 M5 heat set insert for the handle and (1) M5 socket head cap screw (length between 12 and 35 mm) to attach the presser body to the handle.

• It's pretty fast to re print and swap the presser body if it gets all gunked up with glue.

• You can print the presser handle as-is, or you can use the knurled STL I modified with Stefan's great BumpMesh tool.

Closing Thoughts:

Hope this is of use to somebody out there! It's been working great for me and has effectively quadrupled my Gridfinity baseplate output.

I did make a fully parametric Onshape model that I intend to publish as a FeatureScript custom feature. If you end up on this page and read all the way down to this and need modifications to the provided models, please let me know and I'll work on sharing the user-editable model.

Happy printing!