Dual Extruder DIY XL Upgrade

More pics.

Here is a short video of a 16mm rod being printed with 2 shells at 10% infill. The is a short clip of it well on it's way to 17". My first print was just a small calibration cube so I thought I'd go for some height to test for any kinks or issues.

http://youtu.be/7wbDxpBxs0Y

What I found along the way was that the extruder power needed dialed in a bit more to produce 100% consistent layers but so far so good.

Nice! I like the build height on that. Was the 16mm rod also a test print or did you have a use for it?

No use for it other than to get me excited about the machine working. I know some folks aren't keen on a moving print bed printing a tall object so I thought I'd test out the capabilities of the machine with a skinny tall rod. I wanted to see how much the model would move as it was printed and it really didn't move much at all.

This rod will head to the scrap pile to be turned into more filament when I get my Strooder!

I was impressed with how well it stuck as the bed moved back and forth.

I can see that it's only a matter of mass vs. contact surface area. Eventually something with enough mass over a small contact area on the print bed would eventually shake loose. However from your test print, it looks like quite a bit can be accomplished with a moving bed.

I definitely need to get a filabot, strooder, or something eventually since I don't really have the means to compost PLA (requires an industrial composter).

I've done some recent upgrades to the bed and carriage. I ordered a 2ft square chunk of 1/4" aluminum from ebay and used it to cut a new build plate and carriage to replace the plastic versions. I used some square tubing from home depot to replace the bed leveling arms. Now I have a very rigid, albeit heavy, and flat build surface. I just recently calibrated all of this and I'm impressed with how well the print stuck. I just completed printing a 22 hour part that was 16x14x5 at .25 layer height and I didn't have any issues with warping or overheating.

Here are some pics of the upgraded bed.

So I was searching Amazon for heaters for a project I'm working on and came across an interesting product I thought I could potentially turn into a heated build plate. Here is what I purchased : http://www.amazon.com/Cozy-Heater-Mount ... aze+heater

This is a 250w panel heater typically mounted to a room's wall to provide heat for the space. It seemed like something I could turn into a build plate pretty easily if I could control the temperature and it's surface was fairly level.

Please note this panel is made of fireproof resin and is approximately 18x14" and is a tad heavy. You would need an updated carriage and rail system to be able to make this upgrade in my opinion. I have an aluminum carriage with steel square tube so it handles the weight without bowing.

For testing purposes, we'll see how long it works well, I decided to just affix the panel to the carriage arms via velcro. I designed and printed a foot that has a surface area decent enough for some velcro to attach and voila the bed is attached. I just attached velcro to the panel and set it in place and flipped the switch. I used a simple lamp dimmer from home depot to lower the temp of the panel. It's 160ish at full power and with the dimmer in place I can take it down to 100.

I put tape on the panel surface initially but found clipping a small aluminum sheet it place works much better and is easier to remove to remove the models.

So far it's worked great. No more warping on my parts! Not bad for $60 and no additional power supply.

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Fantastic!

I'll try this for sure. I've been really successful with PLA on acrylic using blue tape + hairspray but I've been limited to only PLA as ABS warps. I have several rolls of ABS that have been screaming at me to get a heated bed.

Great solution.

Thanks for posting this.

I should mention that the surface of the heated bed wasn't perfectly flat but I haven't tried to use the entire print bed yet for a large print so I'm not sure how off it is. I can just sight down the length of the board and see it's a little off. Nothing major but my next test will be to visit the local chemical supplier and see if there is a resin that I can pour over the board to get it perfectly flat but still be rigid at the temps required.

Here is the foot I designed to slip over the new steel carriage rail and allow for it to accept the spring so the heater can be leveled as ususal.

https://drive.google.com/folderview...lOSlBxbnVxUUtMcHpvZDNTUk1Lb2RZUW8&usp=sharing

Here is a video of my first ABS print on the new heated build platform:
http://youtu.be/iLgf2WUnDKs