Over the years of 3D printing, we’ve truly tested the limits of our build plates—some have fallen victim to printer malfunctions, and others to moments when my brain decided to go on vacation. Personally, I’ve broken around 10 due to user errors and another 5 thanks to a printer going rogue. My Prusa once had a complete meltdown and rammed the nozzle straight into the plate at full speed, leaving deep scratches all over.
As for the ones I’ve managed to ruin myself? Those are usually thanks to forgetting to use glue and bonding the model so firmly to the plate that removal became a demolition job.
Sure, build plates are consumables, but sometimes I feel like I’ve done my part to shorten their lifespan more than necessary. How many have you broken?
I’ve only broken 1. Well it wasn’t technically broken… More damaged…
It was a textured PEI plate. I’m new to 3d printing. Only been doing it for a couple of years.
I didn’t know that it’s best to let the part cool down before taking it off the plate and parts of the textured plate started to come off.
Nice, you’re keeping the stats alive for us adventurous types! I experiment quite a bit to find the optimal settings, and sometimes things get a little out of hand—the plate doesn’t always break, but it definitely takes some damage now and then.
Ok sir, you need to come to terms with the fat that these are consumables, but just not pringles, you can eat just one…
I mean it has to be terrible for your digestion…
Someone need to keep the business running
I’m aware that I sometimes live on the edge when trying new settings.
I now know that a perfect first layer on my Carbon Fiber Plate needs 80°C and glue as a release for TPU 95A HF. That’s hard to know without testing since printing with recommended settings do print but with some faults on the first layer.
It took me e hours to remove that print from my plate. With glue it just pops loose on its own.
In 13 years of FDM (filament) printing, I think I’ve ruined 3. Two were glass and the filament bonded too well (despite Kapton on one and glue on the other). The third was a PEI plate and the head scraped off the coating (seems like auto leveling failed).
In 8 years of SLA (resin) printing - I haven’t ruined any, but have had to sand a few after gouging the surface while trying to remove a stuck print.
Earlier today, I encountered an unexpected issue with one of my plates. Out of nowhere, my Bambu Lab X1 Carbon went into an infinite pause, pressing the nozzle against the plate at 270°C while the bed was heated to 110°C. This occurred with a model that I’ve printed successfully numerous times before using the same Bambu Studio settings and firmware, so I’m unsure what caused the problem.
Just before this happened, I noticed significant lag on the video stream, followed by a complete loss of connection. The printer’s display became unresponsive, and the only solution was to cut the power. While I’m not entirely sure what caused this, it feels like it might have been an overloaded CPU or a similar issue.
Thankfully, the plate isn’t completely ruined, but it now has a noticeable dent. With time, it might fix itself, but the experience was certainly unexpected.
I experiment quite a bit to find the optimal settings, and sometimes things get a little out of hand—the plate doesn’t always break, but it definitely takes some damage now and then.
