Paint one side of the bed?

Would it be wiser to spray hi-temp paint one side of the bed in a bid to make the IR sensor respond better?

Just a thought since my Ormerod still has to produce it's first print.

Mitch

Ormerod #253
Manila, Philippines

In my opinion 'no'. The issues are with stray ambient IR from other light sources, with the whole bed covered it could increase the angle of light getting to the sensor and make matters worse.

Interesting this did make me think of an improvement that could be tried, use the white tape as a reflector as now advised, but if a ring of an IR absorbing material was placed around this it could help. So imagine a target with a white dot as the central sensing region surrounded by a disk (with central hole) of black IR absorbing material, something like the Kodak stick on black light absorbing sheets that used to be sold (and still might be!).

The other thing I just though of which may or may not be of interest, but I paint glass for stained glass (that will not be of interest!), but for some paints and techniques you have to identify the side of the glass as they are different! Glass is typically produced by flowing onto molten tin, and some of this tin is picked up by the glass and remains permanently fixed to the surface. This fact may be of use to someone somewhere......

Could it affect how PLA sticks direct to the glass, i.e. side dependent?

I might even try painting a whole sheet of glass with a thin wash of colour which is fired on to see if this forms a good printing surface, BUT the down side is the glass often slumps slightly in the firing and can take on the shape of the kiln shelf. I shall give it some thought.

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Ormerod #007 (shaken but not stirred!)

I was wondering about the different types of glass out there - opaque white glass for instance. Also, frosted glass - might that improve adhesion?

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RS Components Reprap Ormerod No. 481

Quote
Radian
I was wondering about the different types of glass out there - opaque white glass for instance. Also, frosted glass - might that improve adhesion?

I've wondered that too - I've got a piece of toughened glass ground on one side for use as a mouse mat, I'll have to try and dig it out (though it's probalby too big and can't be cut to size) and will let you know

Just tried frosted glass (glass with a ground surface with no tape or glue on top) to see if it does aid adhesion, trying with ABS the answer seems to be no :/

Ray