Where do you guys source aluminum plate? The Changes to IGentUS (which needs a new name, there’s no IGUS there anymore)…make the old envelope too small.
So, aluminum, head pad, bakelite, glass…but you can pay crazy amounts for aluminum greater than 12" on a side, I’m needing 15.5" (390mm) square to really take advantage of the improvements.
But I recommend you go with something other than shear cut unless you want to be flattening it back by hand. Just ask @Zane_Baird .
True story @Eclsnowman … Pay more and get a truly flat piece. Trust me, it’s worth the extra cash
@Eclsnowman I kept clicking the links and buttons on the image. I’m not a very smart man…
hey that looks like the place i may have bought mine from… i cant remember lol…but yeah it aint flat.
I was able to pick up a piece of aluminum sheet for about $20 at IMS- there are probably metal suppliers around you- they cut it with a sheer for a small fee- but I then just used a circular file to grind away the four places where the rails and ball screws are. But it could even be cut using a hand grinder with an abrasive saw.
ah. here is where i ordered mine from http://www.onlinemetals.com/
beware something is leaving my bed with weird ripples.
@Jim_Stone Do you use glass over the bed? Even though we have aluminum beds my recommendation is still to go over that with glass. My intention with this design was for the aluminum to act as the heat spreader / thermal mass. And the glass to provide flatness. So if the bed is not perfect it should still work ok (presuming the glass in not being pulled out of flatness when clamped down).
yeah im using some good borosilicate too.
@Alex_Lee I click’ed too 
Just to circle back, I ended up getting 1/4" Tooling plate from Amazon for $54. It was $9 more than the ‘non-tolerance CNC cut’ metal from discount steel.
Good thing I upgraded the Z-stage…between this, the heater and the glass, the build platform’s gettin’ kinda heavy!
@Mike_Miller got a link?
Humph, doesn’t look like mic 6, but it IS tooling plate, which is held to higher tolerance than sheet stock.
BTW, it’s a thing of beauty…and the dual leadscrew Z-lift has NO problem moving it, plus the glass, plus the bakelite+heaterpad…I’ll be attempting to remove the pad from the bakelite and attaching it to the aluminum…I predict I’ll be ordering another pad.
Glad to hear it.