it's on this kind of sleepless night that one starts to ask questions like "how much does a waffle maker cost"
the answer to this question is that I could have a waffle maker for less than I spent on the small nonstick skillet I use to make crepes, which... probably shouldn't be the case? something has gone wrong here
Someone in the comments mentioned combination waffle maker/sandwich toasters, and generally speaking those don't work well. Waffle makers have a simple clamshell design that just closes the two plates together, forming an internal cavity (that's where your waffle batter becomes waffle).
A good sandwich toaster has a press style design, with two plates that slide against each other so that you can apply even compression to the sandwich (rather than pinching it on one side) while handling a variety of sandwich form factors. It should be able to compress and toast both a thin, flat American-style sliced bread sandwich (your tuna melt or grilled cheeses), and also sandwiches made with more irregularly shaped and taller breads (your panini, your cubanos). It should also handle varying heights of sandwich, from the very fat to the very thin.
As far as I'm aware, most combination machines don't have the correct hinge geometry for sandwich toasting. Caveat emptor!
