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Aluminum Heated Bed

Discussion in 'Mods and Upgrades' started by Trucker, Jan 24, 2016.

  1. Trucker

    Trucker New Member

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    Got me a cheap ebay 200x300 aluminum heated bed, bolted it to a cheap piece of aluminum and now I got me a heated bed that heats the whole bed. YaHoooooo!

    Had to do a little bit of PID Tuning and changed the size of the bed which actually ended up being X210 Y239 Z199 and had to change the area of auto level too in the configuration.h file.

    It will only go up to 89C though but it works ok for now. I'll probably upgrade the power supply at some point.

    In the picture I'm printing PETG at 255C and 80C.

    I also put long enough wires on it so I can leave it hooked up and take the bed off.

    No problems so far but I'll post if there is any but right now I'm just showing off :)

    Dave

    PS: Am I the only one who prints with the printer backwards??? Just wondering.
     

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  2. jototojo

    jototojo New Member

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  3. mark tomlinson

    mark tomlinson ༼ つ ◕_ ◕ ༽つ
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  4. Nathanfish

    Nathanfish Active Member

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    I switched to an aluminum bed but never installed the heater i bought because the stock heater worked pretty good to heat the whole plate. you might try the stock heater before you upgrade.
     
  5. Trucker

    Trucker New Member

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    yep that is the one. I used the PID autotune command. Like I said before the r1 power supply is only capable of reaching temperatures of 80c on the bed but i got to tell you the whole bed is at 80 and my warping issues have all gone away (so far)
     
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  6. jim3Dbot

    jim3Dbot Active Member

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    Does the 3mm aluminum rigid enuf? Seems 5mm-6mm would be better..........considering alum. for better heat transfer.......good job trucker......................jimmy
     
  7. Trucker

    Trucker New Member

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    Its pretty straight forward job. Basically I replaced the glass with an aluminum sheet by using a butane torch to remove the old magnets on the glass and glued them on the aluminum with gorilla glue (the kind that activates with water) that the bed is bolted to. Only snag I hit was I had to put the bolts in upside down with the nuts facing up because the bolt hits the linear bearing and actually made my print area smaller. Other than that its all stock robo with an aluminum bed now.

    You will have to change the bed size in the configuration header file and level the bed (at 80c) because if its too far out of whack like mine was autolevel starts doing some funky things like probing the wrong direction. And of coarse the auto pid like I mentioned before.

    I will be upgrading the power supply because mine takes about 30 minutes to reach 80c but once its there it seems to stay hot forever and has no problems holding it.

    I've been printing boxes for my wrench and sockets so it fits in my tool bag without rolling around on the bottom and I have to print using the entire bed because the boxes and lids are big and the upgrade worked, big prints are all flat on the bottom.

    Sorry it took so long to reply to you I had a really busy week at work and hadn't had a chance to check till now.

    Dave
     
  8. Trucker

    Trucker New Member

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    thanks

    I was thinking it would be too small too but after I got it all bolted up its fine.

    Give me a few and I'll take some more pics and post.
     
  9. Trucker

    Trucker New Member

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  10. Trucker

    Trucker New Member

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    the aluminum bed is .1250" aluminum which is 3.175mm

    I put the magnets from the glass on the magnets in the cradle, roughed up both the magnets and the aluminum sheet with sandpaper put the glue on the magnet, sprayed the aluminum with water and then put the aluminum on the magnet and let it sit all night with weight on top of it. The magnets are well secured to the aluminum sheet.

    The large aluminum sheet stays cool to the touch when the bed is at 80c. I'm thinking of shoving some insulation of some sort between the heated bed and the aluminum that holds it in that gap. I'm thinking that may help it heat quicker. Any ideas there?
     
    #10 Trucker, Feb 6, 2016
    Last edited: Feb 6, 2016
  11. jim3Dbot

    jim3Dbot Active Member

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    Appreciate..........Thank You
     
  12. KTMDirtFace

    KTMDirtFace Well-Known Member

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    Just curious why you needed the double stack of aluminum? could you not just put the heater on one plate and magnet it on like the glass bed?
     
  13. jim3Dbot

    jim3Dbot Active Member

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    The gap appears to be somewhere around 3/8"............Is there a silicone rubber weatherstripping or silicon extruded profile that you can push around the perimeter, compressing & wedging, something around 1/2" or so....silicone can withstand the temperature and may be glued with silicone cement to the lower aluminum plate, easy for heater / thermistor maintenance ....any thoughts of installing a manual tramming with springs, in place of the red vinyl spacers?
     
  14. jim3Dbot

    jim3Dbot Active Member

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    I kinda like the rigidity of the lower plate, I think.........Will allow some easy tramming hardware..........thinking out loud......
     
  15. WheresWaldo

    WheresWaldo Volunteer ( ͠° ͟ʖ ͡°)
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    @Trucker before going out and buying a new power supply it might not be the correct solution. The RAMPS board will only allow so much power to be drawn, maybe something like a Fotek DC/DC SSR to run the heated bed directly from the power supply might work better. Here is an example of what I mean.

    http://www.fotek.com.hk/page1e.htm
     
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  16. jim3Dbot

    jim3Dbot Active Member

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    Waldos correct again, The terminal block located on the ramps shield is NOT rated for the current required by the heated bed.......with longer duration of time to heat, the connector may fail.....have read in reprap forums that the block has actually melted in some cases....with a higher current bed heater the solid state relay is the answer...mount on a finned heatsink or thick piece of aluminum.....use heatsink compound..........take care
     
  17. jim3Dbot

    jim3Dbot Active Member

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    Before installing SSR that is a DC/DC remember that there is a voltage drop that is in series with the 12volt supply...in the case of the above SSR, there is a 1.6 volt voltage drop leaving 10.4 volts for the bed..........maybe won't make a big difference. I guess an alternative, though more work & expense, may be to implement an AC Bed Heater & AC/AC SSR
     
  18. WheresWaldo

    WheresWaldo Volunteer ( ͠° ͟ʖ ͡°)
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    Yeah re: the voltage drop, I usually tweak my power supplies to output around 13V. Most of these Chinese Meanwell clones are adjustable using a small pot at the end of the terminal strip. If you were going to go real big, say over 150W, a 24VDC or 120VAC heater might be a better choice. But please note that if you are concerned with the voltage drop just remember that the RAMPS board is only capable of sending 11A maximum to the bed heater, and only in ideal conditions.
     
  19. Trucker

    Trucker New Member

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    Simple, I liked the design of the MK2 heat bed because it heats the entire bed but its too small to fit on the rack that held the glass so I just bolted it to a piece of aluminum. At some point I will replace the entire system but it works for now.
     
  20. Trucker

    Trucker New Member

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    I really like that alot. I'm going to look into this more. Is there any way to shut it off through Ramps after the print is done automatically or do I need to watch it?
     

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