Interlocking Plates v1.0

• Dimensions: 200mm x 200mm x 5mm
• Inner Panel: 140mm x 140mm x 4mm

About This Project

I was looking for something to print that I could construct some guinea pig enclosures with. They're friendly creatures but they're territorial sometimes and they get a little grumpy. Some little nooks to break up eye lines gives them all a nice place to avoid each other when they want alone time.

I found many plate designs, many engineering plates, but none of them suited me perfectly. These are designed to use minimal filament while still being robust and covering a fairly large area. One problem I found with many others is that they can't be connected in a square, or with central divisions, or they were plain and boring.

These can be connected end to end, around corners, and with inside corners, with connectors made to fit each purpose. You can make complex shapes with these, mazes, or you can lay them flat to cover a surface.

The frames and the panels have been reduced in volume to reduce the amount of plastic required for them. Their edges are raised, after some trail and error, to the point where they're still very strong, but mostly... empty space. The main frame is 5mm at the edges but drops down to 2.5mm thick. The inner panel is 4mm at the edge rim and drops down to 2mm in the middle. This gives a flush, flat finish on one side and a recessed finish on the other. I think they both look quite nice. The edge rims add significant rigidity to the panels and allow for increased contact surface area, increasing strength further.

There's a 0.2mm deep tram line running around the edge of the flat face for some interest. I think it's interesting.

About Connectors

THESE CONNECTORS ARE INTENTIONALLY TIGHT! I will add more profiles if there's demand with connectors that are looser, but the goal here was to make a structure that technically could be taken apart, but most likely it'll be nibbled by guinea pigs to the point of being useless before that's going to happen. This is not a one time use, you can take everything apart, but I wanted above all else strong connections. You will likely need to tap these connectors in with a tool. I have a little plastic hammer and small metal head on it, that works great.

It's possible to modify these quite easily, give it a go yourself I guess, or message me with a request and I'll get on to it. Most connectors such as these have a gap of 0.1mm or 0.2mm, enough so that they're snug but go together easily when lined up. I wanted the structure to be very robust, so I wanted something tighter, so there's 0.00mm gap! If you need something different: let me know.

Making a square

The corner connectors are intentionally longer on one side than the other. This will allow you to "wrap" each panel around on the side of the other panel, so that the end result of four panels connected is edge-supported all the way around and ends up square. One panel edge should fit butt flush with the face of the next panel, repeat that pattern all the way round and you've got yourself a box.

The angled inner connectors will allow you to add a base and a lid that also fit and finish flush to the faces of the outer walls too.

Connecting Panels on the Inside

You can use a panel as an inner divider. These panels come with double connectors for that. There's a 90 degree bend connector, half thick, and a straight connector, half thick. This will allow for connection inside the structure at 90 degrees and will allow for the outside to have a straight connection. The half thickness meets snugly in the middle allowing for maximum surface area coverage.

If you can think of or want any other style of connector: please let me know! I think I've covered all the bases, but I haven't exactly gone through and done a use-case analysis for these. I just made them for my purposes and I'm sharing the result.

Inner Panel Panes

Currently there's one design to choose from: an X. If you want something fancier than an embossed X across the middle then please do let me know. I can't guarantee that I can fulfil requests, but I've got ideas already and will likely add some selections in the future anyway. The inner panels are also a tight fit intentionally! You can print them in whatever colours you like of course. I think mixing and matching works very well. It's also possible to use the connectors on the inner panel connector holes too, so you can stand some panels vertically at 45 degrees to what would then be a base plate. I don't know how useful this is, but you can.

They've been separated from the main panel to allow for colour variations as well as to pass through for small pets. If you want to print a whole panel in a single colour then you can orient the inner panel inside the outer frame, centre them on the plate, join them as a single object and then slice away. You'll get one plate that looks like it's got an inner panel that pops out, but it won't! I'll probably add some variants of this nature too without any of the connectors showing.

The inner panes and outer frames are too big to fit on the same print bed, but if you scale them down then using print by object will save you a lot of PLA poop.

Decorative Arch

There is also an arch shaped piece for finishing off open faced structures and maintaining some structural integrity. It stops the edge walls from being unsupported and flapping about, putting strain on corner connectors. They're strong, but they'll suffer under that much leverage. Plus arches look pretty. I've tried to apply the rule of thirds to this one, you can judge the level of success for yourself.

Thank You!

If you've read this far, then thank you! I've got a lot to say about plastic squares it seems. If you download this and try a print yourself then thank you even more. I'm sharing this because I couldn't find something that fit my needs exactly. There's a lot of panels like this one, but this one might just suit you better too. If that's the case then I'm happy to have been of use.