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SammyWI:
I'll respond in some detail when I get home tonight and can use a real keyboard. But I would stay away from the cheap mystery fillimaent. It will only cause you grief. Hatchbox and Esun brand PLA have both been good for me and are on Amazon Prime. Makergeeks are not on Amazon but are one of my favorites and they do grab bag style deals for discounts but they pick the colors.

SammyWI:
I'm using Amazon for most links since that's where I buy most but Ebay and Aliexpress (cheap but slow) are both fine sources.

My feeling is that most of the overheating issues people have are a combination of marginally sized connectors / wires and poor assembly. I have to bet that Howard will have no issues with electrical assembly ;) after that check things carefully during the first few prints for any overheating. Also, I don't like running the bed too hot with the stock setup. 50 - 60 C is plenty for PLA and PETG. ABS needs more like 100+ C which is pushing things for this unit and another reason to avoid ABS. Make sure the wires to the hotend are secured with a strain relief to the corner of the X carriage. Otherwise things can loosen up and fall out of the hotend causing a thermal runaway. This comes up weekly on the Facebook groups at least. Make sure the wires to both the hotend and hot bed are able to reach freely to all movement positions and don't get pinched or pulled too tight. Zipties are your friend.

My must do upgrades:
Power supply. The supplied unit is 20A with no fan. It's undersized and poor quality. Easiest to up it to a 30A with fan like these: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00MAC9MO6/ref=s9_acsd_hps_bw_c_x_5_w
Also possible to use a computer power supply. And some people run two power supplies, one for the hot bed and one for the rest.

Hotbed SS relay. I use this one: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01HEQVQAK/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o05_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
This lets you bypass the PCB for the hotbed power, the PCB hotbed output is then used as a signal to the relay. Really cuts down on the undersizing / overheating issues.

Hotbed electrical connection. The plug / wires are a little undersized and it gets warmer than I'd like but has not failed or discolored on me so far. Most straight forward fix is to up the power wire size and solder them directly to the board. Easiest to do during assembly but since I didn't do it then and I hate to disassemble a working unit, I'm still working in this.

Hot bed springs. The hot bed springs can scratch through the 'paint' insulation on the bed and short the bed. Easy fix just add some kind of insulating washer. I just cut up some plastic I had laying around.

Really recommended:
Hot bed surface. Getting the plastic to stick well for the whole print time but still pull off when done is the eternal problem for 3D printers. The right print surface is a big part of this.

The masking tape that comes on the bed will work for PLA but is kinda crap. PLA will print pretty well with blue painters tape and an unheated bed. 3M tape seems to be one of the best. Needs to be replaced every 10 prints or so (depends on how hard you are on it). Clean off any fingerprint residue, dust, etc with some rubbing alcohol before each print (true for most any surface). May help to roughen up the surface a bit.

My best recommendation here is to use PEI (Ultem). It's a type of plastic that has just the right amount of stick and release on a heated bed, at least for PLA and PETG. Leaves a very smooth surface on the bottom. No glue or other stuff to mess with. Most common PEI is a plastic sheet about 1/32" thick that you have to add adhesive to, often sold as a kit for 3d printers. I prefer precut PEI tape I get from here: http://catalog.cshyde.com/item/3d-printing-materials/ultem-pei/36-3a-3d-866x866. Lasts for a lot of prints as long as you don't tear it up getting prints up. I have yet to replace my first piece. I've used a lot of different surfaces and PEI bets them all, works great and easy to use. Just wipe with alcohol before each print.

Decent tool to remove prints. Lots of options but I like this one: https://www.amazon.com/ToyBuilder-Labs-Print-Removal-Tool/dp/B00VB1U886/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1480556021&sr=8-2&keywords=3d+print+removal+tool. It's cheap, thin and flexible enough to get under the part but not sharp so won't hurt the surface.

OK I better stop now.

yotsuya:

--- Quote from: SammyWI on November 30, 2016, 08:35:57 pm ---I'm using Amazon for most links since that's where I buy most but Ebay and Aliexpress (cheap but slow) are both fine sources.

My feeling is that most of the overheating issues people have are a combination of marginally sized connectors / wires and poor assembly. I have to bet that Howard will have no issues with electrical assembly ;) after that check things carefully during the first few prints for any overheating. Also, I don't like running the bed too hot with the stock setup. 50 - 60 C is plenty for PLA and PETG. ABS needs more like 100+ C which is pushing things for this unit and another reason to avoid ABS. Make sure the wires to the hotend are secured with a strain relief to the corner of the X carriage. Otherwise things can loosen up and fall out of the hotend causing a thermal runaway. This comes up weekly on the Facebook groups at least. Make sure the wires to both the hotend and hot bed are able to reach freely to all movement positions and don't get pinched or pulled too tight. Zipties are your friend.

My must do upgrades:
Power supply. The supplied unit is 20A with no fan. It's undersized and poor quality. Easiest to up it to a 30A with fan like these: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00MAC9MO6/ref=s9_acsd_hps_bw_c_x_5_w
Also possible to use a computer power supply. And some people run two power supplies, one for the hot bed and one for the rest.

Hotbed SS relay. I use this one: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01HEQVQAK/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o05_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
This lets you bypass the PCB for the hotbed power, the PCB hotbed output is then used as a signal to the relay. Really cuts down on the undersizing / overheating issues.

Hotbed electrical connection. The plug / wires are a little undersized and it gets warmer than I'd like but has not failed or discolored on me so far. Most straight forward fix is to up the power wire size and solder them directly to the board. Easiest to do during assembly but since I didn't do it then and I hate to disassemble a working unit, I'm still working in this.

Hot bed springs. The hot bed springs can scratch through the 'paint' insulation on the bed and short the bed. Easy fix just add some kind of insulating washer. I just cut up some plastic I had laying around.

Really recommended:
Hot bed surface. Getting the plastic to stick well for the whole print time but still pull off when done is the eternal problem for 3D printers. The right print surface is a big part of this.

The masking tape that comes on the bed will work for PLA but is kinda crap. PLA will print pretty well with blue painters tape and an unheated bed. 3M tape seems to be one of the best. Needs to be replaced every 10 prints or so (depends on how hard you are on it). Clean off any fingerprint residue, dust, etc with some rubbing alcohol before each print (true for most any surface). May help to roughen up the surface a bit.

My best recommendation here is to use PEI (Ultem). It's a type of plastic that has just the right amount of stick and release on a heated bed, at least for PLA and PETG. Leaves a very smooth surface on the bottom. No glue or other stuff to mess with. Most common PEI is a plastic sheet about 1/32" thick that you have to add adhesive to, often sold as a kit for 3d printers. I prefer precut PEI tape I get from here: http://catalog.cshyde.com/item/3d-printing-materials/ultem-pei/36-3a-3d-866x866. Lasts for a lot of prints as long as you don't tear it up getting prints up. I have yet to replace my first piece. I've used a lot of different surfaces and PEI bets them all, works great and easy to use. Just wipe with alcohol before each print.

Decent tool to remove prints. Lots of options but I like this one: https://www.amazon.com/ToyBuilder-Labs-Print-Removal-Tool/dp/B00VB1U886/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1480556021&sr=8-2&keywords=3d+print+removal+tool. It's cheap, thin and flexible enough to get under the part but not sharp so won't hurt the surface.

OK I better stop now.

--- End quote ---
Wow, I have no interest in getting one of these, but I enjoyed this breakdown, Sammy!!!

Howard_Casto:
Thanks Sammy that's extremely helpful.

I think I've got an old atx power supply from a gateway of all things. I'll have to check the wattage but it's small enough to fit on the chassis. I have some nylon washers from another project that will fix the spring issue.

In regards to the bed, I saw where one guy used glass that was roughed up with a dremel. Do you think that would work? I was thinking of maybe a mirror as I could monitor the underside of a print as it's printing.

I'll go ahead and order the other stuff.

SammyWI:
Glass is a good choice for a print bed. Best is borosilicate glass that can handle the heat and stress well. Some people report using plain glass or mirrors without problems, others say those can shatter without warning. Some people like to roughen up the surface but most print with some kind of glue on the glass. Hairspray is one choice but I had great results using PVA glue which is just the basis of Elmer's white glue. Elmer's purple glue stick worked great for pla and nylon on my old printer. The downside of glue is bit of mess and needing to clean it off prints and every 5 prints or so I had to clean the build up off the glass and start fresh. But PVA is water soluble and easy to clean.

Glass can be attached to the bed with binder clips so you can remove which is very useful. But the nozzle can run into the clips if you're not careful. You can also stick the glass down more permanently. Heatsink tape works well from what I hear and helps the glass get up to temperature faster. Speaking of that, you will probably have to take a bit more time heating the bed and remember the bed temperature sensor is on the bottom so the glass temp will lag behind the indicated temp.

The big issue that made me switch away from glass is that an inductive sensor needs metal to work. The glass adds more distance to the Aluminium heat bed and it's hard to get a sensor to work for that extra distance. I know I said don't get the auto level version but that is only because Anets version sucks. A DIY upgrade is very worthwhile and is one of my favorite things about my new printer.

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