A while back my sister and her partner asked me to help them find a solution for the cat litter that falls out of their cat’s litter box. Often after the cat does its business some of the cat litter sticks to its paws. As the cat walks out of the litter box the litter gets spread in the area in front of the litter box.
There are some existing products that help deal with this, such as rubber or fabric litter mats, but they seem to have their own issues. Most noticeably the mats either start smelling after a while, do not hold on to the litter well (causing the loose litter still to be spread around), or hold on to the litter so well that the mats are hard to clean.
To solve this problem I set out to design a better product that contains the litter in an area separate from where the cat steps, that is able to be cleaned easily and at a low frequency, and that is built for long term use.
The 3D printed mat that gets placed in front of the litter box.
The 3D printed mat consists out of two components. The first is a generic serving tray that purchased for this project in a local store, the second is a 3D printed grid that is used by the cat to walk on. The litter drops from the cat’s paws through the holes of the grid onto the serving tray. The grid elements have been designed to be wide enough to not hurt the cat’s paws, and narrow enough so that there is enough space for any common size litter to fall through the holes.
So that you can prevent litter from spreading around your house, I have described how to build the DIY cat litter mat below, as well as the materials and tools that are required.
Materials
- Serving tray (approx. 40 x 30 cm / 16″ x 12″ with rounded corners)
- A handful of ~1.5-1.8 mm / 1/16″ steel nails
Printed parts
- 2x Left grid
- 2x Middle grid
- 2x Right grid
The links to the 3D printable .STL files can be found in the Files & Print Settings section below.
Tools
Files & Print Settings
The files are available for download on Thingiverse.
I printed the parts with 2 shells and 25% infill.
Step-by-Step
I started this project by designing the cat litter mat in Blender,.
The bottom of one of the 3D printed grid elements. Visible are the spikes that distribute the weight of the cat and the grooves along the edges into which the steel nails are glued that hold the six printed elements together.
An overview of all parts. I initially 3D printed thin red bars that I wanted to use to attach all six elements to each other. The plastic turned out to be too flexible so I went with the steel nails (rivets that I cut the head off) instead.
The serving tray that I used as a base.
Here I cut the rivets into 18 mm long nails that fit in the grooves of the printed pieces. It would probably be more cost efficient to just use regular nails but rivets were the only thing I had at hand.
The setup I used to glue the grid elements together using hot glue. I used the red beams to help align the grid elements.
After gluing the nails in place any excess hot glue can be removed from the bottom of the grid with a knife.
The completed grid with all nails glued in place.
Gluing the grid on a flat surface ensures it is perfectly flat.
The DIY cat litter mat can now be put to use by placing the grid on top of the serving tray and setting it in front of the litter box.
Conclusion
The feedback I got from my sister on the litter mat has been positive. The litter mat collects the litter well, it is easy to clean and does not hold smells.
I might want to revisit this project at a later point to make a version that is easier to use for others. The nail system to connect the grid elements is a bit elaborate and can be substituted with some kind of interlocking system. Customizable dimensions using OpenSCAD are something I would like to add as well.
If you liked reading this article or have any questions about this project then feel free to leave a comment or check out some of my other projects linked on the all projects page.
