Heated Beds

Does anyone know of a company that makes high quality heat beds? (carries several different models) I have ordered several off of Amazon and had to return them all for different reasons. Manufacturing defects? shipping damage? E.T.C.?

I am in the same situation as you all of my heabeds look like potatoe chips.I need something that is relatively flat in a 12 x 8 size or 12.5 x 8.5.I was looking into tool plate with a silicone heating pad which seems to be popular but I have been told due to the heat the adhesive on the pad gives out and they start sagging.

IIRC Adrian built some heated beds by attaching several 5 or 10 Watt resistors under an aluminium sheet ...

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Viktor
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I looked into ALCA5 tool plate and parallel grinding, big $$$. I may still do it, but will definitely have do do more shopping around.

A guy would think there was a company that made quality heated beds. They could stock 10 to 15 basics beds with variants. There would surly be a market for them. I guess one of the hurdles, would be developing a reputation, and then shipping them without damaging them.

Cast tooling plate comes milled flat. Why would you need to have "parallel grinding" done to it?

You can cut aluminum with a hack saw, and drill it with any drill. Buy a piece of cast plate, cut it to size, drill it if you need to, and glue on a heater (use silicone, not 468MP). Keenovo makes good heaters.

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

One of the suppliers I checked with listed the "flatness" of the milling for ALCA5 aluminum as .015" (.381mm) With an initial layer height of .3mm it seems the right way to set up a build plate would be to have it Blanchard & parallel ground. It would come down to the machinist, and the condition and quality of his equipment as to what tolerance he can achieve. I get that the next concern in trying to achieve this tight of a tolerance in a 3d printer is the movement system. That is a whole other rabbit hole.

[www.midweststeelsupply.com]

The Midweststeelsupply page is a little suspect, at least to my simplistic way of looking at it. What does 'flat within 0.015"' mean? If that is flat within 0.015" over one imperial foot, then that is a problem; but if that means flat within a sheet of 72.5" x 144.5" then it is probably as good as you would want on a printer bed size piece. We won't go into what that means with respect to different thicknesses of plate.

Mike

Edit: Reading a little more on Metalweb, I think it is flat within 0.015" over a distance of 1000mm*. I think you should be O.K. on your 8 x 12" bed.

*No wonder the Mars Climate Orbiter had an unfortunate trajectory error.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/01/2023 01:29PM by leadinglights.

Maybe

Flatness specs for cast tooling plate are based on a full size sheet that is quite large (6' or 8'x 12'). The flatness of a much smaller piece will be much better.

I have put 1/4" and 8mm thick cast tooling plate beds, 300x300 mm, in 4 printers and didn't have any that I couldn't print edge to edge in 0.2 mm first layer, without any sort of auto tramming or flatness compensation.

If you're going to use auto tramming and flatness compensation, the flatness of the plate won't matter much any way.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/01/2023 07:20PM by the_digital_dentist.

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

Put very well, thanks

siblues - heaters are typically attached to aluminum plates using 468MP adhesive. If that is all that holds the heater on the plate, the adhesive will let go after a couple years of use. Keenovo's manual says the edges of the heater should be sealed using silicone caulk, presumably to prevent the adhesive from letting go. But there's a better way- don't use 468MP adhesive at all. I've had the heater let go of the plate before and it caused the heater to scorch, requiring replacement of the heater. When I bought the replacement heater, I ordered one without adhesive and mounted it on the plate using silicone caulk. It's been on the machine for a couple years now with no sign of letting go.

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