top and bottom print plate material

Hello all,

I was wondering what suggestions people have for a tom and bottom print plate material, the visual prusa build instructions show some kind of wood, but as far as I have seen it is never referenced what kind to use, the BOM just says Thick Sheet. I am certain I am overlooking this information somewhere... any help?

Hi, I asked the same kind of question in this thread [forums.reprap.org] and was basically advised to use Dibond Aluminium. Mines not setup as yet though I used this company to get the material [www.cutplasticsheeting.co.uk] I hope this helps!

This should give you some ideas.
Wildseyed is a member here and might pop
in to give more info.

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I did the bottom plate out of plywood, and the top plate out of aluminum sheet covered in Kapton. Both were 1/8 in thick. You don't want the bottom plate to be a heat conductive material, and you want the top plate to be as conductive as possible. Aside from that, the top plate needs to have a surface that your plastic of choice will stick to. There is much discussion on this, bare glass works for PLA, Kaptop or PET tape works for ABS, and there are various other possibilities.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/21/2011 03:30PM by jsadusk.

Has anyone found a good supplier of Dibond in the USA? I haven't been able to find one.

Why bother with Dibond? What advantage does it have over plain aluminum?

It's lighter but similar stiffness because it is a laminate with plastic in the middle. Also much easier to cut and drill.

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[www.hydraraptor.blogspot.com]

if you are using a heated bed (PCB heated) wouldn't you want to use something non-conductive for your top plate? these instructions Here show wood of some kind. also, sort of a silly question, but if you use wood with a heated bed, wouldn't it slowly ruin the wood? I don't know much about the smoke point or what not of plywood or anything, wouldn't it start to discolor and wear?

You want the top plate thermally conductive, but yeah you're right, not electrically conductive. Kapton on the aluminum fixes that. Also I used nichrome instead of a PCB because I had it on hand, but same issues involved.

As for wood on the bottom, I actually put a thin layer of crack filler foam as an insulator between the nichrome and the bottom plate. I'm not sure if it was entirely necessary, but I'd seen people on the wiki do it, and it does appear plate heats up much faster with that insulation on the bottom.