The scotchbrite trick helped get me over the line with my Pro plate, it does seem to have some residue but I’m not sure what. The first day with the plate was horrid, before I started I soaked it in the sink with dishsoap (basic no frills) and it didn’t want to lay a good first line without curling off the plate. The scour was helpful, but the decider was upping the both firstlayer and normal bed temps by 5c.
Its been good for the duration but lately I’ve noticed a few defect spots coming out like I’ve left a teardrop and fingerprint in a few spots. I’ve gone over and can’t see any indicators like oil spots or craters. I swapped over to other plates thinking it was a hotspot and the defects disappeared. Flipping the plate over and it isn’t a problem. I don’t work with silicones and haven’t had any transfers from the z-screws, so I just avoid that area when printing flat stuff.
The G11 looks interesting, price is cheaper as its local (Australia-wise). If the other side does the same on my Lightyear it may be a good changeover. Thanks for the link
I presume it would need some kind of adhesive to hold it down to a Bambulab spring steel build plate. Is there a high temperature VHB tape or something similar that would be well suited to that?
Yes there is a double sided high temp tape that will work. I got it off amazon & 3m makes it. I used it to stick spring steel to a g10 sheet for my qidi printer & it has over 100 hours on it with no issues. Ill send a link when I get home. I cant remember what specific tape it was.
The funny thing is that blank steel plates to mount the garolite on cost nearly twice as much as non-blank plates which have PEI coatings on either side. So… Do we need bare metal for the adhesive tape to stick to, or will it stick just as well to a PEI plate? My wild guess is that if the tape can stick to garolite, it can probably stick to PEI. Anyone here tried it?
When I add up all the costs of doing a one-off, it’s cheaper to just buy the plate from Lightyear. That also removes the risk of misapplying the adhesive. I suppose an argument in favor of DIY is that you can have it put together very quickly, whereas Lightyear is out of stock at the moment and it seems everyone else offers only slow shipping.
Was your garolite cut to the profile of your bambulab plate, or was it just a rectangle? I’m unsure whether it works with the homing and height adjustment if it’s just a rectangle (e.g. when it goes to rub its nozzle against the back of the plate).
Does garolite thickness matter? If so, what’s optimal? The amazon one I linked earlier is 2mm thick, whereas the one @mitriebe linked is less than 1mm thick.
An argument in favor of thinner is that it should heat up faster and have less of a temperature offset. On the other hand, an argument in favor of thicker is that it’s less likely to buckle under a long print that wants to curl.
@NeverDie The Lightyear Pro plate takes a little while to heat in my experience. I’ve taken to using +10c on the first layer bed temp so its got a better chance of adhesion. My plate will not perform well with the standard temps, even in a conditioned state. Thickness is a factor I think.
Though on my old Ender I have a 4mm plate of straight G10 (cut out of a sheet) and it doesn’t need the extra temp once its preheated. It is a totally different feel (glossy to touch) compared to the Lightyear though, I don’t know the process they use to get that matte finish.
This guy took a different approach to using G10 on his Bambu Lab printer:
He printed some clips and used them to hold the G10 down directly to the heater bed. No spring steel and no tape. That would make it very easy to test drive G10 without any commitment beyond just the G10 itself.
He’s under the impression that you do need to cover the little nozzle-wipe area in the back with G10. This was my earlier concern as well, but then I found the etsy offering (above) which seemed to contradict this need. That said, I haven’t tried the etsy offering, so I don’t know for sure whether not covering the nozzle wipe part of the build plate with the same G10 would actually work. Who is right?
Reporting back: I re-watched the maker’s muse episode on G10, and Angus preferred 1.5mm thick as an all-around best. As it turns out, that is the thickness that the guy above used (he provides an amazon.com link in his youtube description for the suplier he sourced his from).
He used a laser to cut a plywood router jig for making his bambu lab build plate template. Alternatively, I assume it should be possible to 3D print a template of some kind (maybe with some kind of joinery to make it big enough) to make an equivalent router jig that way.
I received the inexpensive garolite that I had linked to above on amazon. I haven’t removed it from its protective plastic as of yet. It is just a rectangle. It is not profiled. It covers the productive part of the build plate, but it does not cover the little tab in the back that the X1C wipes its nozzle against. So… I guess in this case you would have to put a Bambulab build plate under it or else it would fail during print setup because it lacks the rear tab? I don’t know. I haven’t tried printing on a build plate that didn’t at least conform tothe profile (shape) of a normal bambu lab build plate.
I would assume the nozzle depth works on the pressure sensor and afterwards when it homes and does the centre Z height things will carry on. At the very least if it throws an error you’ll know, I don’t think there’s any chance of damage as at best it’ll hover in mid-air trying to wipe . I am interested in doing up one as a project later on for sure, its just a plate and apart from the barcode read and nozzle wipe there is nothing different other than a great surface to work with.
. I am interested in doing up one as a project later on for sure, its just a plate and apart from the barcode read and nozzle wipe there is nothing different other than a great surface to work with.