Tell me I’m not crazy here: I’m about to pull the trigger on a 365mm diameter 9.5mm thick mic6 bed with a 310mm 450W 120V silicone heater to go underneath. Is this a bad combo? I don’t want slow heat up times but don’t want a crazy wattage heater. Just want to know what people think of this. There will be a 3 or 5 mill sheet of PEI on top. The reason why the aluminum is so thick is because I found it cheap as surplus. I’m only looking for 300mm diameter of working area.
@David_Sherwood you’re right good catch:) I’m not too concerned about cool down time but it’s good to hear that the 9.5mm isn’t too crazy. I figured it’s better than 6mm and with my recent aluminum bed problems the thicker the better in my eyes.
Where did you find that? Kind of I ask how much? That’s supposed to be a great setup! Tell us if it works!
How much do you care about long preheat times? It’s definitely on the thick side.
Actually, that’s a pretty high power heater for the bed area. You’re looking at roughly 0.2 degree C per second heatup rate, if I’m doing the math right.
@Ryan_Carlyle I believe my numbers were right in that ballpark. I don’t want any more than half a kilowatt but I also don’t want to wait 30 minutes to print some abs. Happy medium you think?
@Aaron_Spaulding I’ll pass along the links in a little bit if you’re interested!
Power for the size should be just OK - personally, I’d pick a bit more as I’m pretty happy with 650W for a 300mm ID hexagonal bed, but that thing also heats up wicked fast.
One tip, though, cover as much of the aluminum surface with the heater or at least let it overhang they usable print area a fair bit. Else you’ll get a temperature gradient at the edge of your build area.
@Thomas_Sanladerer I mispoke. The heater mat is 330mm diameter with a 310mm diameter piece of PEI on top. (I just ordered all of this btw). My print area was for 300mm so I opted for some overlap like you recommend to ensure a nice and even heat spread across the function zone. I don’t care about the edges. Now its time to figure out where to mount the thermistor…
It should be fine. My heat bed is 1/2" mic 6 although it is much larger than 300mm square I have no problems heating up the mic 6 with silicone heater. The great benefit of it being aluminum is that it will heat evenly and hold the heat very well. The mass of the 9.5mm plate will also be very stable at temp.
@Kyle1 exactly why I wanted it. I can easily find glass or get it cut but the aluminum will be such an even spread and very very level. I ordered the setup last night so I hope to have it going in the next couple weeks!
Cshyde will cut you a custom sheet of pei with adhesive backing. Go for 5 mil. I used a 3 mil sheet on my bed and it was a pain to lay evenly because it was so thin. I had to resort to window tinting solution and squeegee to get the air bubbles out. However I had great result with aquanet hairspray on bare AL. Surface with pla and petg.
@Kyle1 I actually ordered a 3mil 310mm piece from them last night. I was split on going with the 5 or 3 mil but if it doesn’t work out then I will order a new one from them with 5 mil. I’ve done a lot of air bubble work before so hopefully I can get it done! Did it print alright with the 3mil after you had it on the metal?
Yes. It did print great with the pei sheet. Although I have done some large prints with flat bottoms and I did notice that sometimes it would pull the pei off the al in certain spots. Over time the spots dissipated and I am thinking it was due to being heated repeatedly… One thing I did like about having a thin sheet of pei is that it is much clearer than the thicker pei you see on most print beds. The 3mil gives a nice clean waxed look over mic 6 and also does a good job at hiding surface imperfections.
Hello
Can I please ask, as I’m going with almost the same buildup, but can’t decide on the wattage, 1/2" aluminium tooling plate Ø450 mm with 240V 650w Ø 400 silicone heater and glass or Pei at tojp. Will 650w do, and how much a drawback is it to also have to warm the glass, as kind of isolate the heat from warming through? Is Pei better to use considering this?
@Terje_Moe @Thomas_Sanladerer has a great video on heated beds and picking wattages that might help. I would definitely opt for PEI over glass as you really don’t have to recoat anything on it (except with some filaments like PETG).