Dishwasher Basket for Silverware and CHOPSTICKS!

thingiverse

I was tired of chopsticks "escaping" from the silverware basket. They would drop through the coarse grate in the bottom of the basket and block the spray bar from turning, and the rest of the dishes wouldn't get clean. ARGH! I designed this basket from scratch with chopsticks (and other pointy objects that would escape) in mind, with a fine pitch grate on the bottom surface. The original basket in my dishwasher also had damaged and missing bars in the bottom grating, likely due to years of sharp objects rubbing against them while doing their best to escape. I addressed the problem of sharp object (and chopstick) containment by making all of the bottom corners solid, both on the side and bottom edge, so as to capture the tips of these objects. The tips harmlessly rest in the solid corners of the basket, keeping the sharp edges away from the grating bars. A subtle design change, but it should make this basket last for many years. You should make this from ABS, Nylon, or some other high-temperature non-toxic filament. The dishwasher gets pretty hot, and will soften then distort objects printed with filaments like PLA.(I originally printed this using PETG. This filament printed great but slowly distorted over time in my high-temperature European dishwasher. In hindsight, I would shy away from PETG.) Added Inventor 2018 file. The grate extrusions are "delicate". If you attempt resize the bars, etc. they tend to fail. (Ask me how I know.)