If you have printed with ABS, you
know that part adhesion to the print platform and part warping are quite a
challenge and issue. The much higher shrinkage rate of the ABS material
compared to PLA, make the part want to curl up at the edges.
I have printed some ABS parts with
success, but most parts with a larger base, warp too much. The CubeX
can print nice in ABS, if you can get the part to stick well to the print
platform.
In this case (Yoda model) the ABS print came out good with the standard setup, and the warped bottom does not really matter much.
But often ABS parts look like this (above).
After trying blue tape, different
glues, enclosing the whole printer, etc.. etc.. nothing seem to help
enough against the part lifting and warping on many parts, when printing with
ABS.
I finally acknowledged and what many
suggest, that a heated printbed
is most helpful for most ABS printing to get flat or straight parts.
that designed a heated printbed kit
for the CubeX. They have been selling heated printbed kits for the 3D
touch printers (similar to CubeX) and gotten very good reviews.
In my ABS part warping frustration,
I did not hesitate to order the heated printbed kit and install it
in my CubeX.
The installation is pretty straight
forward. You remove the standard print platform base (3 screws) and then
install the heated print bed re-using the same hardware. The controller box
attaches with high strength double stick tape onto the side of the CubeX, and
the self adhesive cable tie holders keep the cables in place. There is a cut
off switch which turns the heater automatically off when the print is done. - very nice. The
switch needs to be positioned and the switch lever needs to be adjusted to
trigger properly. You have to do a little test print and mark the position on the side how far the print bed moves down after a print so you know at what height to position the heater cut off switch. Then you can use the "Move" command to move the printbed up and down at the mark and check if the switch triggers. Once the switch is in place it's good.
A new z-gap sensor was also installed in a different location, so the temperature changes would not affect the z-gap.
The design and finish of the heated
printbed kit is solid and very clean. The print bed top surface is a high temp glass. The
controller keeps the printbed temperature at the adjustable set temperature and
is very easy to use. The print bed heats up very quick (2min for PLA (70deg C)
and 5 min for ABS (110deg C). The max
adjustable setting is 135deg C.
The controller has also a 110V socket
in the back, which can be turned on or off with a switch at the front of the
controller.
The heated print bed platform is
nice and flat. After the installation, you have to of course level the printbed
and adjust the z-gap.
All three print platform leveling
screws are accessible.
I check the z-gap after the printbed
heated up, right before starting the print.
It was recommended to use blue
painters tape or Kapton tape. So I started with blue painters tape first.
The first print was a
2"x1" small part that I could not print on the standard printbed
without the part warping, but with the
heated printbed the part printed without warping.
I used blue painters tape on top of
the glass platform to print onto. Print bed temperature at 110C.
Now printing a larger part:
The second print was a 6" x
2" square. During the print I saw that the blue painters tape lifted a
little at the end of the part at the tape seam. So I aborted the print.
I only had 2" wide blue
painters tape, so on larger parts, there is always somewhere a tape seam underneath
the part. So it is best to use a wider tape or position the part that the tape
seam is more in the middle of the part vs close to part edges where you have
the most part shrinkage (pulling on the tape)
Next I put a 6" wide Kapton
tape onto the printbed and printed the same 6" x 2" square part
again.
The Kapton tape works great. The
part stayed flat to the platform without warping. It showed already how well it
printed without the part lifting and curling up at the edges. - awesome.
Next was a 9"L x 2"W x 2"H mount. I increased the printbed
temperature to 120deg C.
Since this part is so long and the
best possible adhesion might be needed, put a coat of Acetone/ABS slurry onto
the Kapton tape. (other 3D printer users with heated printbed and Kapton tape
swear by it) It is Acetone with pieces of ABS dissolved into it. I keep it in
an acetone proof container and wipe a coat of it onto the print bed with a rag.
The print came out very nice. Very
flat, no warping. - this is great!
Using the slurry, the parts can be
hard to remove from the platform after the print because the part binds so well
to the Kapton tape with the slurry applied. The "helper pads" make it easier to remove the part without marring the part. Helper disks download: Helper disks zip file
So on a smaller part I just print
directly onto the Kapton tape. Sometimes the Kapton tape can get damaged when
pulling the part off, but if it is not in an area where the next print is, I
leave it. The Kapton tape usually lasts for a couple prints. Otherwise just put
a new Kapton film on. I got a 5" and 6" roll of Kapton tape on
Amazon. It's fairly cheap and there is a lot on a roll. It comes also in
narrower or wider rolls.
After the print, it is recommended to let the heated printbed and the part cool before removing it, so this takes a little longer than without a heated printbed.
So far I only printed three smaller
PLA parts on the heated printbed (at 50 - 70deg C). No glue, directly onto the
Kapton tape. - No problem.
I will print larger parts soon and
see how it would print directly onto the glass.
The heated print bed is permanently
installed, no need to remove after a print since there is no glue to wash off.
To replace the Kapton tape I just lower the printbed and thanks to the remove
able top and access to the side and front, there is enough room to apply the
tape onto the platform. First I thought oh - no, the heated printbed is
not removable, but using it now, I find it is not necessary to remove it
at all anyway.
The heated printbed definitely makes
the difference for ABS printing.
The price for the CubeX
Heated Printbed kit is not cheap, but I am very happy with the product, quality
and ABS print results.
It is nice now to be able to get
besides great PLA prints, also more successful ABS prints.
To see the 9" long part print
perfectly flat on the heated printbed was quite amazing.
I will post some more ABS print
results as they come along, besides the PLA printing.
(Note: I am not affiliated with GRM products and have to buy my stuff like everybody else, but I gladly promote companies with great products and services).
