MakerGear Forum

Hi guys, this is a minor bit and I'm really looking for a little confirmation. When leveling my bed, it's kinda like my glass is warped. I could believe it, as I've thrown it in the freezer after a print to hurry the cooling process. While mostly safe from shattering/breaking, I couldn't say anything about warping over time. I've done this number probably 30 times since I've had it.

How it's warped: Pretty easy: almost like it was bent over the long ends. It's high in the center across the plate's width, and on the ends of the lengths it's a little lower. While I put off getting a new $25 sheet of glass after shipping from Makergear, I'll pick up a cheapo $5 peice from the local glass shop. 8x10, but what thickness? It's an American glass shop so they don't have anything between 1/8th inch (3mm) and 5/32" (4mm) for the 3.3mm sheet.

I was at a glass shop to get a window pane, so I asked about getting a piece of borosilicate glass as a backup. The owner was not familiar with borosilicate, but did have tempered glass on hand. After I did my online research, I decided against using tempered glass, and I would definitely NOT use regular glass for printing. I have accidentally run my bed into a nozzle, and if that happened with regular glass, I would have had a huge, sharp, bloody mess to clean up. You could use tempered, if you do not plan on heating the bed, but otherwise stick to borosilicate.
BTW, after using MIC6+PEI, forget glass altogether!

Phil wrote:I was at a glass shop to get a window pane, so I asked about getting a piece of borosilicate glass as a backup. The owner was not familiar with borosilicate, but did have tempered glass on hand. After I did my online research, I decided against using tempered glass, and I would definitely NOT use regular glass for printing. I have accidentally run my bed into a nozzle, and if that happened with regular glass, I would have had a huge, sharp, bloody mess to clean up. You could use tempered, if you do not plan on heating the bed, but otherwise stick to borosilicate. 3/16" is probably the typical thickness to use, although you can always reset your Z to match whatever you use.
BTW, after using MIC6+PEI, forget glass altogether!

I've used regular pane glass before on other printers. Tempered is definitely not recommended due to the way it breaks from thermal stress. I don't put regular glass in the freezer, I let it wait naturally. I'm iffy on getting it to 100C ABS hot as well. Regular PLA I find is good.

Annnnd I do want MIC6! I just need to get some more hours of printing in before I can justify that purchase. Glass, even with purchasing, is still such a low effort process I don't feel an urgent need to switch.
I should be taking a second attempt to get BLTouch working now that I have a good base firmware, so hopefully I won't have to mess with much Z-stop configuration.

I have used MIC6 sheets for $40, check the for-sale section.

insta wrote:I have used MIC6 sheets for $40, check the for-sale section.

Gotta go with insta on this. MIC6 will change your life. Glass is subject to warping, half inch thick Aluminium - not so much. And flat ... so so flat.

insta wrote:I have used MIC6 sheets for $40, check the for-sale section.

I'd consider it! I'll have to see after I pay this ticket I've gotten myself. I've got a Rev D. that has not been converted. You mention ambitious folks, but how ambitious are you entailing?

You'll want a full-width sheet for the RevD if you're not willing to swap to a RevE spider or hack something together.

Are the new borosilicate plates thicker than what I got from Makergear 3-4 years ago? The plate they sent me with the printer fits great but my old plate (without kapton on it) was too close and the 1st 2 layers were just rubbing on the glass without any extrusion.

mathisyourfriend wrote:Are the new borosilicate plates thicker than what I got from Makergear 3-4 years ago? The plate they sent me with the printer fits great but my old plate (without kapton on it) was too close and the 1st 2 layers were just rubbing on the glass without any extrusion.

Tolerances on glass aren't that tight. I have 3 glass plates all purchased around the same time. One of them needs a small Z-offset. Some variation is to be expected.

Zebraplate. Never worry about hairspray or adhesion again. Never worry about broken glass again either.