Replacing acrylic Y axis sled with an aluminum one, question about setup.

Like the title states, I've just ordered a nice thick aluminum Y axis bed mount for my folgertech prusa i3.

Here's my question.

Since I am using auto bed leveling, can I put a insulate directly on the aluminum sled ( rubber insulating tape for hot water pipes ) and attach the heat bed DIRECTLY to that using some thin shims on the corners?

More directly, must the heat bed be floating to allow air circulation under it? Or can it be pressed directly to another ( albeit soft ) surface to reduce flex, and increase stability and insulation for quicker warm up times?

Thanks!

I would suggest attaching the insulating material (I use 1/4 cork) directly to the bottom of the heat bed itself, then attaching the insulated head bed to the sled using the corner hardware as before. This will still allow for rough manual leveling without having the insulating material interfere with the mounting.

I thought it was a good idea to replace the corner springs on my heated be with aluminum spacers, since using auto-leveling. However, I found that if the nozzle hit anything (a rough upper layer or an adjacent part being printed) it was very unforgiving. Losing the springs meant losing the relief they provided. I put them back, tightened almost all the way down, then leveled the bed manually, with respect to the X and Y axes.

I am happy with the performance now, but I always heat the bed to whatever temperature the print requires, then I run G29 before each print.

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-David

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MindRealm
I would suggest attaching the insulating material (I use 1/4 cork) directly to the bottom of the heat bed itself, then attaching the insulated head bed to the sled using the corner hardware as before. This will still allow for rough manual leveling without having the insulating material interfere with the mounting.

I thought it was a good idea to replace the corner springs on my heated be with aluminum spacers, since using auto-leveling. However, I found that if the nozzle hit anything (a rough upper layer or an adjacent part being printed) it was very unforgiving. Losing the springs meant losing the relief they provided. I put them back, tightened almost all the way down, then leveled the bed manually, with respect to the X and Y axes.

I am happy with the performance now, but I always heat the bed to whatever temperature the print requires, then I run G29 before each print.

Dude...you are INCREDIBLY insightful...truly. Thank You.

Where did you find the aluminum sled?

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/06/2015 12:35PM by TheLost.