MakerGear Forum

Jimc, is this the one to get? http://www.mcmaster.com/#86825k11/=w5gjfc
Sometime last year, you offered to cut and bead blast plates, is that offer still standing?

On a vaguely related topic, I had rsilvers take a shot of his glass bed with a FLIR iPhone camera, thought it might be interesting. This is during an active print, so the bed fan is active.

sure jin i can do that and yes thats the one. i think it comes 12x12. i can cut it 8x10 and glass bead it on one or both sides. i like one side because i can flip it over to the smooth side if i want to use tape. if you didnt order it yet then perhaps you can save yourself some shipping and just have it delivered here. ill do what i need to, throw it back in the box and ship it to you. just pm me for an address if you decide to do it.

your talkin 50 or so bucks all said and done so once again my disclaimer so i dont feel bad if you dont like it lol: alot of printers out there use aluminum. i love the plate. been using it for over a year with fantastic results. a couple guys here got one and wasn't crazy about. your results may vary.

Thanks to jimc for processing my plate. I've used it for a couple of prints so far, and it's working great. Advantages are that it should maintain a more even temperature across the bed, and be flatter than glass. Indeed, when I was releveling, I could not see any deviation across the entire bed. That should help with prints that go out to the edges. I can't say what the adhesion will be like with lots of different materials, but PLA with a coat of hairspray was very good, and jimc has had good experiences, so I'm hopeful. One downside is that it is heavier than the glass, but the steppers don't have any problem with it at the speeds I'm using (max 80 mm/s).

jimc's corner clamps are great, by the way. No wiggle room, and easy to loosen. He recommends you drill and tap them, but I did neither and a #4 screw in lieu of an M3 just self tapped very nicely.

Purchased a plate today and will be joining the crowd ! I

Hey Jim, can I still use glue stick with this? Does it heat up quicker than the glass? Ok to wash with water occasionally?

It heats to 60C in about five minutes. I never timed the glass, so I don't know how that compares. Jim doesn't like glue stick, and I haven't tried it with this plate yet. I gave it a heavy prep coat of hairspray, and it's done five or so prints and I haven't had to renew it yet.

what jin said!

it does take a little longer to heat up. there is more there to heat but the plus side of that is the bed temp is more even all the way out to the edges. more stable also, not that the glass is unstable though. like jin said i dont use glue stick as i cant get it to really work for me, even on glass. the hairspray thing just works. with the glass beaded side the spray goes into the texture of the plate and just makes a nice skin that is bonded to it. once i get a massive amount of build up on the plate i just rinse it in warm water and maybe a quick scrub with a scotchbite pad or the back side of a sponge and your good to go.

I've been avoiding the hair spray method. I don't have a large work area and I'm afraid hair spray overspray is going to accumulate nearby and make everything sticky. Maybe I'm just being paranoid.

If anyone's using the aluminum with glue stick please let me know. I'd like to give this a try.

Okay, the initial hairspray coat was starting to fail, so I gave it a shot with glue stick. It works just as well for me as on glass, at least for PLA.

jsc wrote:Okay, the initial hairspray coat was starting to fail, so I gave it a shot with glue stick. It works just as well for me as on glass, at least for PLA.

Thanks jsc. I'll be ordering them in a few weeks after I get back from a couple of business trips I have to do.