Is 4mm thick enough for 6061 aluminum to print on?

Griffin_Paquette · May 25, 2016, 1:38am

Is 4mm thick enough for 6061 aluminum to print on? I’m adding a heated bed under it as well. I don’t want it to sag during printing. It will be supported in the corners and will be 200x250mm

Alex_Krause · May 25, 2016, 1:40am

Cast or extruded plate?

Griffin_Paquette · May 25, 2016, 1:41am

@Alex_Krause extruded. I was going to go Mic 6 but can’t afford it at the moment.

Alex_Krause · May 25, 2016, 1:43am

The two have different thermal conductivity I believe… not sure if that makes a difference for your application

DongWon_Han_DWONH · May 25, 2016, 2:18am

I’ve been using 4mm thick - extruded 6061 for some years for print bed. No problem at all.

raykholo · May 25, 2016, 6:07am

Seconded, 1/8" is fine.
If you want to put glass on it you may be able to use an even thinner piece of alum like 1/16" b/c it is then a heat spreader only and not structural.

Stephanie_A · May 25, 2016, 6:17am

I’m using 1/16 with glass. It used to be 1/8 but the glass was bending instead of the aluminum.

Jeremie_Francois · May 25, 2016, 6:20am

@raykholo exactly. I now even use cheap 3mm extruded alu on my main printer, but I clipped a 3mm glass plate on top of it: this way it is always flat, and I can swap it out of the printer to wash it or to replace it. Note that glass itself is a bad thermal conductor so you may want to be sure not to blow air on it once it is hot and for the first layer (often not that much of a difference in practice though).