Aerogel as a bed insulator...

[geneb]

http://www.instructables.com/id/Heated- ... l-Blanket/

So who's gonna try this first?

g.

[Jrjones]

I already did it in early February this year. Bought it from Aspen Aerogel on ebay, $21 for 3 sample sheets and I used one for both under the bed and insulating the hot end. http://www.ebay.ca/itm/171328843398?ru= ... 26_rdc%3D1

You need very good sharp scissors, and you need to wear gloves (the dust makes your hands hydrophopic, so its difficult/impossible to simply rinse off.) A vacuum is also necessary because the fibers make a bunch of dust.

I used the extra white nylon spacers sent with the Rostock kit to space the bed further from the base, I tried it without but it made the bed visibly concave. I also had to order longer #40 screws from Fastenal.
It was pretty easy to do, just a little dusty. I noticed a slight improvement of bed heat up time (my voltage on the bed is only 11.3-11.5 V). But the main thing I was concerned about was radiant heat into the electrical enclosure. Without the Aerogel I could just barely keep my hand on the underside of the base, and with it is noticabely cooler (I did measure the temps but I forget what they were. Something around ~50-70 °C without, and under 35°C with.)
When the bed is up to temperature it is also more stable, when printing I can sustain 105-110 °C. Before I could barely stay at 100°C.
The Aerogel under my bed is not secured, it is sandwiched loosely.

I noticed a big improvement insulating my hotend with it as well (After replacing the resistors with a heater cartridge too). The temperature is much more stable as well. I can touch the insulated hot end with my bare hands and it is cold to the touch (well room temperature.)
Kapton tape does not stick to the Aerogel, you need to wrap it completely and stick the kapton tape to itself. This is the method I used on my hot end.

Here a good demo of the product for heat conductivity (or lack of): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5sw1tNeJ0Rw

[geneb]

You might want to look into replacing your power supply if it's that weak.

Thanks for the report!

g.

[Jrjones]

Yep, its on my todo list.

[RocketMagnet]

How did it alter your PID values.. presumably it made quite large changes especially for the hot end?

Really good idea actually...

[Jrjones]

I honestly don't remember how much it altered my PID values. I reran the autotune for the PID and used those values.
I've switched the bed control to dead time control and found it much more stable than PID for the bed. http://www.repetier.com/dead-time-control/

For the hot end, several people on the forum have insulated it (most with silicone tape I believe). I chose to use the Aerogel because I was going to use it for the bed and I didn't have any silicone tape.
The tape probably achieves the same results and would be much easier to apply.