Supercharge your heated bed times!

[shadowfall]

Hey guys,
Just wanted to share a quick tip about getting your heated bed up to temperature faster than you might think possible!

I'm using the Rostock Max with an Onyx for reference.

Go down to your favorite superstore and buy a nice fluffy dish cloth of the cotton variety. Place it on your bed while you're heating it up. This tiny bit of insulation will drastically reduce your heating times and will enable you to reach temperatures you previously thought impossible.

Originally I was only able to reach 116C at around the 20 minute mark. Someone recommended I print with the bed at 120C but I just couldn't get there. I even went as far as waiting 30 minutes for it to heat up.

Adding this simple layer of insulation allows me to go from 102C to 125C in 2 minutes!

Just don't forget to move it once your print head starts moving.

[Jimustanguitar]

This makes me want to build something out of aluminum foil or a space blanket

Awesome tip!

[cambo3d]

if you search the forum, this has been discussed and its good tip to increase your heat bed warmup time.

but that being said, the search feature on this forum isn't all that great.

[shadowfall]

ah, I thought I had searched the forums sufficiently. Guess I need more practice with my search terms.

[Eaglezsoar]

ah, I thought I had searched the forums sufficiently. Guess I need more practice with my search terms.

The best way to search the forum is to use Google.
Go to Google and under search type in the following: site:forum.seemecnc.com Heatbed
Google will search the entire forum and look for the term Heatbed, you can enter anything you want to search for.

[jesse]

Neat tip, will try

[foshon]

My other printer had some bed issues after upgrading the y-axis to a linear bearing. The people that made the upgrade sent a 24v kapton heater and a 12v step up converter. I hooked it up and the converter smoked. Checked on-line and it turned out to be a very common issue with the converter used. So I had to wait for a 24v supply to come in. In the meantime my bed struggled hard to get to 80c with a 12v source. I ended up covering a bed sized piece of double layer cardboard in aluminium foil, worked great.

[jesse]

I ran a benchmark.

Room temperature 28c.

[img]http://i.imgur.com/eElqwNg.jpg[/img]

Time to 90c without insulation: 14:09

Time to 90c with a 7x7 inch pot holder on the bed: 10:20

Time saved: 3 minutes, 49 seconds

I think with a little more tweaking, it could reach 7 to 8 minutes on 12 volts.

[kbob]

Keep in mind that if the pot holder only covers the middle of the bed, the middle will be hotter than the edges. That doesn't affect benchmarking (-:, but it would keep a large object from adhering well.

[foshon]

At first I thought the potholder pic was going to be the start of joke.... wow was I wrong. That's cool. How long does it take for the bed to compensate/stabilize after removing it, or was it not noticeable?

[jesse]

How long does it take for the bed to compensate/stabilize after removing it, or was it not noticeable?

Wasn't noticeable

[jesse]

I tried again with a 1 foot diameter x 1 inch expanded polystrene foam circle.

[img]http://i.imgur.com/dPBSUKE.jpg[/img]

Results: From 28c to 90c took 9:14

Time saved compared to no insulation (14:09): 4 minutes, 55 seconds
Time saved compared to 7x7 inch pot holder on the bed (10:20): 1 minute, 6 seconds

Removing the foam caused a drop of 2c for about 1 minute.

Note: melting temperature of polystrene is supposedly around 100c

[kbob]

Cool! -- er, hot! (-:

The logical next step is to insulate the bottom of the bed. If you find something safer and thinner than polystyrene, you can make it permanent.

[lordbinky]

For that I was considering a silicone baking mat trimmed to fit.

[shadowfall]

For those interested, I'm heating my bed to 125C. Once the bed reaches temp, I remove the towel and typically see a drop of 1c for approximately 2-3 minutes. Considering I get decent adhesion at 115c I'm well within what I deem acceptable range.