Feature Request - Smaller Build Plates

Bambu Lab H2 Series Bambu Lab H2D
1

OK, this might seem like a crazy idea but…

All is great with the H2D, except for 1 issue, and that is I often print VERY small parts, some just a few mm dia / height for example.

As these are engineering parts, gears, small housings, shafts etc etc, I need a flat surface, ie. the smooth PEI plate, but it is impossible to flex the huge H2D plate in order to pop these parts off, and the plate adhesion is excellent.

The only way to do this is with a safety razor blade and often some IPA dribbled around the part to try and release it, but even this is sometimes impossible due to the adhesion, and I have cut into the PEI several times already.

Yes, of course I have lowered the bed temperature, I am NOT going to use glue-stick and my solution is to allow a smaller plate, ideally A1 plate or X1 plate instead of the full sized H2D plate.

Then of course there’s the issue of alignment, but an alignment jig could be printed when fitting the plate and removed again afterwards, and the magnet is def strong enough to hold a smaller plate without any mechanical guides.

And given the cameras in the H2D in the nozzle especially, I’m sure that the firmware can detect a smaller build plate and ask the user to confirm the size.

It could also determine the extents of the plate by itself and of course prompt / tell the user that a smaller build plate is present.

Now this would really be something quite cutting edge and which nobody else has, and I’m pretty sure that the Bambu team with all of it’s talent and knowledge could do this if it wanted to ?

I am preparing to be flamed, but so be it :slight_smile:

1 Like
2

Try using a separating layer between the bed and the component (glue or hairspray).

3

Possibly purchase another build plate from Bambu and cut it in to thirds (or whatever makes sense to you). Then you can lay it like a jigsaw in the printer and it shouldn’t throw up any errors since it’ll just see it is a normal plate.

After it’s finished printing, you can just pull out the small piece of the plate with the print on and flex that.

You may well need a thinner plate so it can be flexed further, there might be some on Amazon that are particularly thin but they may be hard to find as thickness is not something that I would think is usually specified.

If the A1 build plates are right for you (I don’t know if they’re slimmer so more bendable), maybe you could 3D print a surround for it that it slots in to. Then on the surround template: add the QR thing to specify what build plate it is etc so the printer doesn’t suspect anything and the notched wings so it slots properly in to place.

4

Nothing wrong with this suggestion.

A great feature of big printers would be regional heating zones as well.

If the part is 50x50, why does it heat the entire 350x320 (didn’t look it up)?

Why does the bed levelling test the entire plate rather than just the area that will be printed?

In an ideal world, going back to your point, the build it should matter where you place the smaller plate and nit care if you nailed it exactly square. As you noted, there are camera that can detect edges and calculate the location of print and orient the print to be square to the plate. It is only math after all.

We don’t need this in the mix either, especially as you stated you didn’t wish this to be part of a solution. Which it isn’t.