3 Attachment(s)
Small upgrade to 3D printer
My printer came with a 4mm thick Al plate bed, covered by a ~300x300 mm plastic/carbon fibre, sticker cover, onto which the printing takes place. However the prints weren't adhering all that well to the cover and after seeking advice from my tech support guy (my son) he suggested applying a UHU glue stick to the cover (apparent hairspray also works) in the area where the print will be deposited.
This worked well. . . . too well . . . . now completed prints would not come of the cover all that easily. In most cases I had to resort to using a single sided razor blade to get in between the print and the cover and then use a sharp thin bladed spatula, and work my way around the edge of the print. After printing about 50 or so objects I invariably ended up making a number of small cuts in the surface of the cover and then ~20c size pieces of the cover started peeling off from the Al plate. Initially I was able to print around the holes but eventually there were too many.
My tech support guy said - "the cover is considered a consumable, peel the old one off, and let the moths out of your wallet and buy a new one". Which I did, but peeling the old one off was more difficult that it appeared. Strange that bits of the cover would peel off when removing prints! The new cover cost $20 and the adhesive is a "peel backing off and you get one shot at applying the cover", and it narked me that I did not apply it straight and it looked awful.
This cover lasted about 2 prints before it got a nick in it when removing a particularly stubborn print. Removing the next print tore a 50c size hole in the cover !!!
Back to tech support and this time he says, "you should get yourself a tempered glass plate for the cover". They adhere well at higher bed temperatures and "let go" more readily at room temperature. I bought one for my machine ($40) but it was 7.6mm short on one side - apparently that's how they come. Not a problem, but this means the built in clips that hold the plate down onto that side of the printer cannot be used.
Tech support says, "use bulldog clips, my latest printer came with 4 bulldog clips as the bed holding mechanism". I did this and it works well, but the bulldog clips really looked ugly so I came up with the following solution.
It's a Al strip that acts as long Z-clip to hold the glass plate in position.
The long clip was milled out of a piece of 6 x 12 mm Al strip sliced using a table saw from a 6mm sheet of Al
Now the original plate holding clips can be used to hold it down
Attachment 394871
Here's a side on view so you can see the profile.
Attachment 394872
Then I transferred it to the back edge of the glass so you hardly even notice it
Attachment 394873