Off to try it out, lets see how it fares
]]>The problem a lot of people have mentioned about buying sheets of FR4 from Mcmaster and other places is you aren't guaranteed to get a piece that's actually flat. I bet the postprocessing for making a perf board takes care of that, though.
]]>I just ordered this perf board aswell after a long ass time of failprinting and voila! It's magic as seven2099 said, for sure
Kudos to Digikey for quick delivery across the globe!
EDIT: Of course mad props to Bartimaeus!
]]>seven2099 wrote:The bed has no way to adjust the overall heated bed's height...
Z offset adjusts bed height relative to the nozzle. (strictly speaking it adjusts bed height relative to the z probe. Whatever.) If you swap to a thinner build plate, homing ought to compensate automagically.
If you're trying to close the gap between the top of the metal carriage arms and the metal plate so your perf board slips in with no play, run down to the hardware and get some shim stock, make some washers, and put these under the corners of the metal plate. Or just stick a little tape or shims on the top edges of your perf board.
As for leveling, the autolevel should take care of that*, assuming your bed is planar enough to be well described by a 9 point grid. For autolevel, if you're not using SP, make sure your starting G-Code has the proper commands properly ordered for home & autolevel.
*most autolevel code racks the print to match the bed. (Dunno what Marlin does though.) For a serious tilt, that might yield unacceptably out-of-square prints.
it definitely does not compensate for the y-axis if its more than 2 degrees or so, as thats the minimum I could get mine under.
Its an improvement but I still have some slant and therefore have an area of my print bed which is worse off than the rest.
The bed has no way to adjust the overall heated bed's height...
Z offset adjusts bed height relative to the nozzle. (strictly speaking it adjusts bed height relative to the z probe. Whatever.) If you swap to a thinner build plate, homing ought to compensate automagically.
If you're trying to close the gap between the top of the metal carriage arms and the metal plate so your perf board slips in with no play, run down to the hardware and get some shim stock, make some washers, and put these under the corners of the metal plate. Or just stick a little tape or shims on the top edges of your perf board.
As for leveling, the autolevel should take care of that*, assuming your bed is planar enough to be well described by a 9 point grid. For autolevel, if you're not using SP, make sure your starting G-Code has the proper commands properly ordered for home & autolevel.
*most autolevel code racks the print to match the bed. (Dunno what Marlin does though.) For a serious tilt, that might yield unacceptably out-of-square prints.
]]>seven2099 wrote:Bartimaeus do you know how I can relevel the bed itself?
Because no matter how I adjust the 4 screws on the top of the bed, both glass and the perf board are left with an incline which causes problems for the areas where the incline is biggest from the bed.
However the center of the bed is working perfectly I'd like to print something really big and therefore need that whole bed to be actually level
You might check out this thread, it looks like you're not the only one with that problem
Thanks man!
Was super useful. I'm screwed because I've taken the whole thing apart and there's no way to adjust the Y-axis height sufficiently to make up for the problem. If I take a level and measure the base of the bed, its perfectly level, however if I measure the heated aluminum portion, once side is higher than the other, and on top of that it has a 3 degree slant to the front.
The bed has no way to adjust the overall heated bed's height, which is a major problem. For now I've managed to compensate a bit for it, by using some of the left over perfboard pieces under the heated bed to make up for it, however now my perfboard doesn't fit under the glass slot.
So its either, finding a way to fit the perfboard now that its a lot less severely slanted both in the x and y axis or simply go back to printing on painters' tape on the bare aluminum.
Lel
]]>Bartimaeus do you know how I can relevel the bed itself?
Because no matter how I adjust the 4 screws on the top of the bed, both glass and the perf board are left with an incline which causes problems for the areas where the incline is biggest from the bed.
However the center of the bed is working perfectly I'd like to print something really big and therefore need that whole bed to be actually level
You might check out this thread, it looks like you're not the only one with that problem
]]>Because no matter how I adjust the 4 screws on the top of the bed, both glass and the perf board are left with an incline which causes problems for the areas where the incline is biggest from the bed.
However the center of the bed is working perfectly I'd like to print something really big and therefore need that whole bed to be actually level
]]>I wonder if printing with a raft would avoid the dimples from the holes (but then you probably just trade it for the problem of getting the raft detached :-).
That is exactly what happens with the Up! Mini printer.
On some parts it's not so bad, but other times it's sheer hell.
]]>thanks op!
]]>Off to try it out, lets see how it fares
]]>seven2099 wrote:What would happen if you were to print directly on the aluminum bed instead of this or the glass?
The parts wouldn't want to stick to the aluminum very well and would curl a lot. The idea for a glass print bed is that glass is actually a pretty rough surface which gives more surface area for the parts to stick to, where as aluminum can be very smooth. I know someone with a large gigabot printer and an aluminum bed that has to treat it every so often with a mixture of elmer's glue and water to get the parts to stick. A lot of printers with aluminum beds use kapton tape to help the parts stick (you can buy wide rolls like this: http://amzn.com/B00LAJNOXK).
There is also the possibility that the z axis on the Press wouldn't go high enough for the nozzle to reach the Aluminum bed, as the glass plate is ~7mm thick.
You might also have to adjust the bed temperature setting as the bare aluminum will be hotter than the glass or perf board would get with the same power.
Thanks for the info.
Actually I got impatient waiting for replies that I decided to try using painters tape on the aluminum at 100c and I've never had better success with adhesion. Its truly faired a lot better than the glass for me so far.
On the aluminum I've printed some quite big parts with no problems compared to the glass (with abs juice/hairspray/gluestick combos, only of which some worked)
The warping however, I'm not sure how that would come about. Is that from having too high of a temp on the bed?
However, I did order this perfboard and will try it because like the OP said, I'd think it would be best for it to work without any bandaid solution and I have heard wonders of PCB on a heated bed for printing.
]]>What would happen if you were to print directly on the aluminum bed instead of this or the glass?
The parts wouldn't want to stick to the aluminum very well and would curl a lot. The idea for a glass print bed is that glass is actually a pretty rough surface which gives more surface area for the parts to stick to, where as aluminum can be very smooth. I know someone with a large gigabot printer and an aluminum bed that has to treat it every so often with a mixture of elmer's glue and water to get the parts to stick. A lot of printers with aluminum beds use kapton tape to help the parts stick (you can buy wide rolls like this: http://amzn.com/B00LAJNOXK).
There is also the possibility that the z axis on the Press wouldn't go high enough for the nozzle to reach the Aluminum bed, as the glass plate is ~7mm thick.
You might also have to adjust the bed temperature setting as the bare aluminum will be hotter than the glass or perf board would get with the same power.
]]>I've seen a bunch of people say to use hair spray or a glue stick, but that's a band-aid solution to me. None of the other 3d printers I've used have needed any special treatments done to the bed to make them work, and I wanted the same to be true for the Press.
Glue sticks, hairspray, etc. are actually very standard required treatment for lots of 3D printers, and they don't leave behind stubs on your print. It's definitely not just something the Press requires.
Personally, I don't mind using hairspray. It's quick, effective, and doesn't modify my final print.
]]>