1 Topic by Claghorn

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Topic: Idea for mounting glass or ceramic to aluminum bed

Any thoughts on this concept?

http://home.comcast.net/~tomhorsley/hardware/solidoodle/problems/bedclip.png

The idea would be to make the glass wider than the bed, epoxy the center cube of two of these gadgets to opposite sides of the glass, and make the thin rod that runs across the bed out of something springy so it would hold the end pieces firmly against the corners of the bed (and also probably pull down a bit as well). I figure springy is important so expansion and contraction when heating doesn't buckle anything.

You could also add frills like a way to mount plastic parts to the corner and center cubes so you could pull back the spring to release the bed without burning yourself when you forget to let everything cool off :-).

The trick would be to find the right springy stuff and make the metal parts (but we do have a CNC machine at work they might let me use if I provide my own metal stock and design files).

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2 Reply by pcm81

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Re: Idea for mounting glass or ceramic to aluminum bed

Claghorn wrote:

Any thoughts on this concept?

http://home.comcast.net/~tomhorsley/hardware/solidoodle/problems/bedclip.png

The idea would be to make the glass wider than the bed, epoxy the center cube of two of these gadgets to opposite sides of the glass, and make the thin rod that runs across the bed out of something springy so it would hold the end pieces firmly against the corners of the bed (and also probably pull down a bit as well). I figure springy is important so expansion and contraction when heating doesn't buckle anything.

You could also add frills like a way to mount plastic parts to the corner and center cubes so you could pull back the spring to release the bed without burning yourself when you forget to let everything cool off :-).

The trick would be to find the right springy stuff and make the metal parts (but we do have a CNC machine at work they might let me use if I provide my own metal stock and design files).

Couple questions:
1. Why?
2. How will the glass be heated if it is in such limited contact with the aluminum bed?
3. Why not just put 8x8 mirror on the aluminum bed and hold it down by paper binder clips?

3 Reply by Claghorn

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Re: Idea for mounting glass or ceramic to aluminum bed

I clearly didn't describe it well enough :-).

The glass will indeed be in complete contact with the bed surface. It will just be a little longer than the bed (7x6 instead of 6x6 for instance). This little gadget would be secured under those each of the 1/2 inch sections that stick out beyond the bed and the corner cubes would grab the corners of the bed.

Why? Mainly to get back my whole print bed, but also to avoid the potential disaster of ramming the print head into the binder clip. I have no idea how much havoc that might cause (and don't want to find out).

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4 Reply by IronMan

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Re: Idea for mounting glass or ceramic to aluminum bed

Claghorn,

Good idea!  You reminded me of something I've been thinking about that's very similar; but my version uses four corner braces that slip on to each corner of the print bed and each brace has a half-round slot on the outside meant to contain an O-ring to provide the spring effect.

One of the downsides of the corner clips is I would sacrifice .160" of print area on both x and y...

Any ideas for improvements?

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5 Reply by cocacough

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Re: Idea for mounting glass or ceramic to aluminum bed

Hi. Sorry to hijack the thread. I tried t put the glass on top on the aluminium bed. But my problem is that the glass will be higher than the printer head. How do I resolve this?

6 Reply by IronMan (edited by IronMan 2013-10-14 14:47:31)

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Re: Idea for mounting glass or ceramic to aluminum bed

cocacough wrote:

Hi. Sorry to hijack the thread. I tried t put the glass on top on the aluminium bed. But my problem is that the glass will be higher than the printer head. How do I resolve this?

Adjust the Z-screw (at the inside back of the machine, just to the left side of the print bed rails).  Drop the print bed manually about 10mm, then turn the screw clockwise to activate the limit switch sooner.  When you think you've lowered the screw by the thickness of your glass, Home the Z-axis and fine tune with the leveling screws.

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7 Reply by markpenix

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Re: Idea for mounting glass or ceramic to aluminum bed

if the mirror is 7x6 and the surface is 6x6, can't you over hang 1 end by 1 inch, 1 binder clip on the either side on that edge? then 2 more on the matched up edge? You don't need a lot of force or even 100% even distribution of clips.

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8 Reply by Claghorn

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Re: Idea for mounting glass or ceramic to aluminum bed

markpenix wrote:

if the mirror is 7x6 and the surface is 6x6, can't you over hang 1 end by 1 inch, 1 binder clip on the either side on that edge? then 2 more on the matched up edge? You don't need a lot of force or even 100% even distribution of clips.

Might work, could be enough friction to hold a binder clip to just the glass and butt up against the aluminum bed. I suppose I could even try that, I have some extra glass and could cut a longer piece. If the glass is too slick for the binder to hold, I could rough it up, or glue down a bit of sandpaper :-).

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9 Reply by Hazer

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Re: Idea for mounting glass or ceramic to aluminum bed

2 clips are better than 3, which are better than 4.

4 clips can bend the glass to the possibly warped bed. 3 can also do so. 2 clips are enough to hold the glass on, but will not bend the glass if the bed is uneven.

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10 Reply by muddtt

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Re: Idea for mounting glass or ceramic to aluminum bed

http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:106281

11 Reply by TheOldMan

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Re: Idea for mounting glass or ceramic to aluminum bed

I just used a couple of angle brackets (suitably trimmed) held in place on top of the bed leveling screws. Works nicely, glass removes easily by lifting straight up.

12 Reply by Claghorn

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Re: Idea for mounting glass or ceramic to aluminum bed

OK, my initial experiment looks promising:

http://home.comcast.net/~tomhorsley/har … ewbed.html

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13 Reply by techbuilder2175

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Re: Idea for mounting glass or ceramic to aluminum bed

Have you ran an indicator across your bed to verify that you may have a warped
plate or rods?

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14 Reply by Claghorn

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Re: Idea for mounting glass or ceramic to aluminum bed

All I get with a dial indicator is confirmation that the readings are wildly inconsistent. The printhead seems to move around enough with the rocking that is naturally built into it and the filament dragging behind it and the cables bunching up beside that I can't get the same readings twice. Sometimes the graph will look like it has a hump in the middle, sometimes a valley (though I suppose if I averaged them all, it might look flat).

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15 Reply by dpotthast

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Re: Idea for mounting glass or ceramic to aluminum bed

I'm trolling my own ideas and I have posted this elsewhere but the idea is simple enough:

glass-->superglue-->painters tape-->build platform.

the only disadvantage is that you cannot easily remove your glass between prints.  For me that is secondary to getting back the print area I paid for and the risk of ramming the extruder into the clips...  In addition I have had issues where the clips slip and the whole glass bed shifts a few millimeters...ruining prints.