aluminum Bed thickness ?

I've been given a bit of aluminum plate 2mm thick will it be ok to use for my print bed ?

Thanks Nikki

What is the plan for its use? Will you be applying tape of some sort and printing directly on it, or stacking up glass or other layers on/under it?

2mm thick aluminum is quite flexible. It probably isn't very flat to start with, and will surely flex more when you adjust the leveling screws.

I was thinking of printing directly on to it. The underside of my heated bed has a 2mm plate and a layer of cork so i was hoping that it should stay quite flat.

thanks Nikki

It can't hurt to try.

2mm is a bit thin, it can still bend from heating. Usually you should try to get >=3mm thickness and have it machined from both sides.

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Yes 2mm aluminum warps during heating. It is what i have so im using but looking to go to the thick plate that has been discussed in depth here on the forums.

How large will the print bed be? Large beds need to be stiffer and therefore thicker. 2mm does sound rather thin to me, but OK to use as a heat spreader behind a glass bed.

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Large delta printer [miscsolutions.wordpress.com], E3D tool changer, Robotdigg SCARA printer, Crane Quad and Ormerod

Disclosure: I design Duet electronics and work on RepRapFirmware, [duet3d.com].

What is the leveling scheme used? 4 screws at the corners, or 3? If it's 4 screws, it will bend instead of leveling and you'll struggle to get prints to stick anywhere but dead center on the bed. How thick is the undercarriage plate? If it too is thin, when you try to level the bed, you'll be flexing the undercarriage plate (and messing with the alignment of the bearings).

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Ultra MegaMax Dominator 3D printer: [drmrehorst.blogspot.com]

I haven't had good experiences with heating aluminum... it goes goofy...

I've been told buy guys that didn't drop out that "the thermal expansion of aluminum is terrible" So...

I was thinking along the same lines but using thin copper plate and a counter weight if I noticed any ill effects from the weight.

Extruded aluminum sheet will warp when heated to a greater extent than cast aluminum. Extruded sheet is also not flat to start with. Add heat and things gets messy very quickly. Also, typical printer kits come with aluminum sheets that are much too thin and poorly designed leveling mechanisms that bend the aluminum instead of actually leveling it.

Cast aluminum, such as MIC6 tooling plate, has a more amorphous structure that expands with much less warp as it is heated. Cast tooling plate is milled flat, so it is flat when you get it and it stays that way when heated to 3D printing temperatures. Cast tooling plate costs a little more than extruded sheet, but it works well for print beds. I have a 12" x 12.5" x 1/4" cast aluminum tooling plate bed that I cover with Kapton tape and print on directly and I can print nearly edge to edge.

The thin stuff you get with $300 printer kits is awful. Don't think that anything that comes with a $300 printer is representative of what is possible for performance. The only thing you can expect with the stuff in a $300 printer is what is possible if your only concern is making a printer as cheaply as possible.

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Ultra MegaMax Dominator 3D printer: [drmrehorst.blogspot.com]