Thanks for the Partlist!
do you have some images of your installation?
Things people mention here doesn’t have any reference or source, they are under collective illusion!
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Not really, adjust your slicing and keep your temperatures higher than usual than you will have great results even for open printers for low height parts. It is important that your part is close to the bed to absorb reflected heat.
I have a heater from Amazon used to warm seeds for sprouting. It gets up to 125F. I slid it under the printer (there is a gap) and turned it on. The interior of the chamber made it to 48C with a little patience and bed heating on as well. I’m going to look for a shorter heater of the same type that I can put inside on the floor of the printer for less heat loss, but this one works darn well for what it is. I like my printer chamber to be toasty warm inside for nylon and PC. 50C is about as far as I’ll push this though. on my homegrown Prusa i3, I had to be careful about not melting parts, bearings seizing, and electrical wire degradation when I ran it hotter than that.
Sorry for slightly off-topic as I’m hoping to avoid adding an active heater.
I printed ASA last summer with the stock printer and had some warping issues. I have now insulated my X1C on the inside using 1.5 mm adhesive neoprene (white, for helping the chamber light). A 1,5 m roll 300 mm wide was just enough for both side plates and the back plate. 1.5 mm is thin enough to clear belts and other things that come near so it was more or less 45 cm (or so) per plate with no cutouts except for the fans and excess chute (and holes for a few studs but that was just push-through with a finger). I did this partly for some noise insulation (or rather vibration supression) and partly for chamber heat.
I just also installed this door seal for the left edge of the glass door. It does a nice job. Apparently the three other edges are good enough without modification.
So only thing remaining now is to actually test ABS and ASA with these mods but that will have to wait until summer, after I move the printer to the garage again.
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I have the 100W version of these:
I wanted to turn my AMS into a drybox with it, but I may end up using it as a cabinet heater for winter. They’re about AU$30.
Aliexpress Link
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Mine won’t go above 40c with room at 74f
This seems like a good idea… which one did you get?
I have been looking into Chamber heating too for the X1C. I did come across the X1E parts list from the Wiki and would assume that these parts can be purchased and swapped into the X1C. Now if the X1C firmware will allow you to use is another story. Has anyone tried the X1C->X1E Chamber Heater upgrade?
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Yeah I saw that too and wondered if it will fit physically (for a starter).
Another thing I realized when casually researching a DYI heater is that the X1E is only rated for 60°C chamber - just like the X1C. The only improvement with X1E would be faster preheating then, and the most expensive Ethernet port in the known universe. $1,000 for wired LAN.
My current take is I will do perfectly fine without a heater but some insulation. I already insulated the chamber inside walls with 1.5 mm neoprene, now contemplating what material to use for in place of the top glass lid when needed. Perhaps just keep it but apply some sort of IR-insulating film? If that is even a thing lol.
I’m just intending to buy another glass top plate and bond the two together with VHB tape to give an air gap. Easy insulation and looks almost standard.
That is an excellent idea, it’s just €30. I just may do that too!
I would be interested in seeing some photos and product links for what you used!
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I used 1.5 mm adhesive neoprene (white, for helping the chamber light!) from Amazon for about €20 incl. VAT. A 300 mm wide, 1,5 m roll was just enough for both side plates and the back plate. 1.5 mm is thin enough to clear belts and other things that come near so it was more or less 45 cm (or so) per plate with no cutouts except for the fans and excess chute (and holes for a few studs but that was just push-through with a finger). Very easy mounting.
Here’s the only picture I have:
I drew some help lines with a pen inside the chamber before dismounting the wall plates, to know where insulation was needed. All edges of the neoprene sheets are hidden after reassembly - if you would look inside my printer, you’d hardly notice - it’s just a bit whiter.
I was hoping for some noise reduction as a bonus but I honestly can’t say I notice any difference. The printer definitely heats up faster and more, although I have only printed PLA since I added this, which makes it undesirable: I’ve had to open up the glass lid a couple of cm to avoid reaching 40°C chamber temperature with a PEI plate and large prints. Then again, I hate fan noise so I always try to keep them at a minimum.
I can’t find the 1.5 mm thick variant on Amazon right now. The brand was “SDLDEER” (Amazon Europe) but there are plenty of similar products - just ensure you get 1.5 mm thickness, and white!! The product description for what I bought was “SDLDEER Neoprene Foam Plate, Self-Adhesive, Multifunctional Foam, Adhesive Foam Roller Sound Insulation Non-slip Insulation Shock Absorption Buffers (White, 300mm(W) x 1.5mm(D) x 1.5m(L))”.
Thanks for the reply.
I managed to find the below which is the closest thing in terms of thickness in case anyone was interested. Think I will give this a try next week and see if my chamber temps get above 42 C when printing ABS after a hour. Hopefully they can reach these temps quicker too.
I bought one of those heaters for my resin printers. I found the one I bought had an NTC heating element rather than a PTC (despite being listed as PTC). It also doesn’t have a thermal fuse. I didn’t use it after discovering that, it’s just too dangerous. With PTC the resistance increases with temperature, so it’s self regulating. But the NTC one I got draws more power the hotter it gets. If the fan dies or gets blocked then it’s going to go into thermal runaway. I’d check yours before using it. If it is NTC you could still use it safely by installing a thermal fuse (or switch) but the other issue is that because it draws less power when cold the performance at start up isn’t great either. Hopefully mine was just a fluke.
I’ve run a few tests with it for up to 8 hours. I put it in a closed 20L bucket, added power with no control. It takes a few minutes to climb from 2A @ 24V initially to 5.3Amps after that it settles to about 4.7Amps. The highest temperature the air in the bucket reached was around 68-70C. So I don’t think there’s too much danger using it but thanks for the info, I’ll probably add an 80 degree klixxon.
I plan make a unit that fits on the AMS lid, it will measure the incoming and outgoing air as well as the aluminum housing of the heater. I will control the fan and heater independently via PWM. I also need to make a divert valve to replace some of the air periodically.
I second the recommendation from CharMio.
I successfully printed some very finicky Polycarbonate (generic) by using the AUX fan blowing over a 110C heatbed for 30 minutes before starting the print. The chamber maintained just over 50C for the duration of the print and there was zero warping.
Just make sure you get the bed temperature down to whatever temperature you are using during the print before starting. You don’t want the bed cooling during the print.
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