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Pros and cons of not using a heated bed

Posted by Fares Al Jajeh 
Pros and cons of not using a heated bed
March 29, 2015 03:50AM
Hello, I am building with my team a 3D printer with budget and time constraints. To make the design simpler, we are addressing the possibility of not using a heated bed, but rather put carbon fiber vinyl layer on the printbed(idea taken from [www.reprap.org])
What's your opinion or experience about it? Thanks,
Re: Pros and cons of not using a heated bed
March 29, 2015 04:59AM
The only pro of not using a heatbed is that you save about $20 by not having a 12V/11A power supply to provide the power for it (you still need a print bed of some sort).

On the other hand, there are many important cons: basically, you are limiting your choice of print materials and you are making it much harder to achieve quality prints.

Some 3D printer kits are offered with the heated bed as an option. This however, is just a (dirty) marketing trick to lower the base price of the printer; most users end up buying the "optional" heated bed because they quickly find out it's actually essential.
Re: Pros and cons of not using a heated bed
March 29, 2015 02:17PM
I've got a couple printers that I use PLA only. I don't use a heatbed on those. A little Elmer's stick glue works great.

That said, if you plan on printing with other filaments then get the heatbed.

No heatbed straight on aluminum with just stick glue.

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Re: Pros and cons of not using a heated bed
March 29, 2015 02:19PM
I'm currently printing without a heated bed, as I'm buying parts for my printer as I build it.Heated bed it the last thing on the list. As AndrewBCN says, you will have quality problems without one, but you can definitely print, especially small items.
I've had reasonable success printing PLA onto normal printer paper. As long as you make sure the first layer squishes down onto the paper well it does work. I use masking tape to hold the paper in place. On larger items I get very definite warps on the base of my objects, so it's not ideal. As long as you leave a place in your design to add a heated bed, then you can get some prints without, then add one when time/budget allows.

Barny
Re: Pros and cons of not using a heated bed
March 30, 2015 12:57AM
Thanks everyone for your replies! Barny that's exactly what we're going to do for the time being, leaving a place for it for future improvement.
But to follow up on the question, do you have experience dealing with carbon fiber vinyl? we are still hesitant on using it as a print sheet. The idea is that we are closing the printer from outsider intrusion, but at the same time we don't want to open the printer and glue the printbed each time we want to print something as madmike8 said, at least for 6-7 prints(rough estimation). Any ideas?
Thanks a lot!
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