Let’s hope it will be available via mqtt as well. Bed leveling data was removed from mqtt in the latest firmware.
Firmware can’t make a bed flatter. It can only compensate so you can print on a surface regardless of flatness.
Exactly. Bed leveling does not fix a curved bed; it ensures that the first layer and subsequent layers printed on the curved bed are as uniform as possible. A really nice first layer on a curved surface is better than nothing, but I need to start with a flat surface, not a curved one.
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Depends on if you bend the plate down, or bend it up, that will determine if the middle is higher or the edges… 
Using a bendable plate isn’t conducive to a flat bed.
I’m sorry to say but if you need a bed that is flatter than one that is off by .001", just use glass.
I’ve been using a glass bed for years, but I’m quite enjoying the extra ability to flex the bed to get stuff off vs hammering away with the sharp butterknife.
Hey folks,
So I’ve purchased both the Goodplate and the Lightyear plate.
HUGE bonus on the lightyear plate. No errors, works right away. The goodplate had ‘complicated’ install, and had constant issues with z-homing, etc. The downside of the lightyear plate is you can’t switch out your buildplates for things like PEI, coolplate, etc.
Now, I think some issues for the goodplate may have been because I was using “buildplate stop extenders”. These seem to mess things up for no apparent reason. However, I was getting the “force sensor” error before I put those on, but the homing errors might be because of stops?
When using the goodplate, you also need to print out a little “riser” for the lidar calibration sticker so the lidar gets calibrated correctly. I haven’t seen any issue on this front with the lightyear plate.
Looking at both plates, it seems that what you need to create a custom buildplate is this: 1) A layer of something that is ferrous (is attracted to magnets). 2) A layer of something that is rigid, flat, and conducts heat well without deforming. 3) A layer of something that is magnetic.
Ideally you could combine 1&2 into a single layer with some sort of magenetic layer on top to hold the plates. I might try and source some stuff from amazon and let people know how it goes.
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I would call it “Glossy”. not quite mirrored but definitely shiny and smooth provided you have flow properly calibrated.
Adhesion is pretty good. I had my first print fall off, but I bumped the heat up to ~55 and it’s been doing great since then even with very small-footprint prints. I haven’t tried to do a print with a large footprint, but I do notice some 1/4-1/2mm corner curling on sharp corners. I suspect a bit more careful calibration on my part would stop that.
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Thanks for the info. i have both as well but havent used either. I went through a phase and grabbed many different build plates and styles… Still working through them… Interested in the lightyear one.
A feature request on github that bambu studio should show the bedmesh information. All that are interested should vote for this on github. This would help all customers to figure out how flat the bed is.
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Hi Folks,
Here’s a rundown of three different buildplate alternatives for flat plates:
-
Goodplate
Weight: ~675g
Thickness: 4mm
Price: ~$75 (including shipping)
Ease of use: Difficult
Comments: I can’t really recommend people get this plate. Most people using a goodplate have issues with it throwing force sensor errors or throwing homing errors. Installation involves either using brackets that are shipped (mine did not fit the bed) or using silicone glue to hold it down. I used silicone and it was easy to remove later, so this is not a “permanent” solution. You can always take it off and your hotplate will be just fine. The best part is that you can use Bambu or other buildsheets on top of this. -
Lightyear G10 plate
Weight: ~365g
Thickness: 2mm
Price: ~$60 (including shipping)
Ease of use: Easy-Medium
Comments: I love the lightyear plate. Installation is easy, it’s low enough I don’t get homing errors and light enough I don’t get force sensor errors. What I don’t like is that I can’t swap out the buildsheet surface, so I’m stuck printing on G10. Now, this works for most materials but something that is “good” for many is often not the best for a single thing: see “A jack of all trades is a master of none, but oftentimes better than a master of one”. If you find yourself content with a single bottom texture (glossy) and often dabble in many materials, this is probably the plate for you! If you have demanding projects or materials or want different bottom textures, then you might need those specialized buildsheets. -
The FCE Plate. (Flat Cheap and Easy)
Weight: ~365g
Thickness: 2mm
Price: ~$20 for 1, $30 for 2 (including shipping)
Ease of use: Easy-Medium
Comments: I took everything I didn’t like about the goodplate and fixed it. Here’s my version of a DIY plate. I call it the FCE Plate (Flat, cheap, easy). Buy two things off amazon, then spend about 15 minutes assembling. You need thin magnetic adhesive sheets (I bought these) and a cheap 10x10 glass picture frame (I got this). The adhesive sheets come with enough for 2 plates, so you could always buy another picture frame if you have 2 machines. The glass comes right out of the picture frame without any prying, effort, or risk of breakage. You then use 4 of the magnetic sheets around the edges (see image below) and cut a fifth to the correct size to use in the middle. Overlap is fine, just trim it with a razor blade or box cutter. Or find your own arrangement, you just dont want large gaps. Once it’s all good, take a look for any large bubbles and just make a small slash in them to pop them. Small bubbles are fine. This process took me about 10-15 minutes. The glass is a bit smaller than the heatbed, but because it’s thinner than the goodplate, it actually gently adheres to the heatbed. I’m able to nicely lift the buildsheets off and the glass stays behind. However, if I pull forward on a buildsheet the FCE plate will slide forward as well. Because of this, I would recommend a dot of silicone glue in the corners and one in the middle just for safety. The benefit of this is that it’s wicked cheap and you get to use all the Bambu or other Buildsheets. The downside is that you’re left without the little bumpers to align your buildsheets. Hopefully someone can come up with some buildsheet alignment extenders and that’ll be all sorted. I’ve done a few prints on this and it’s been solid! No huge footprint prints yet though, so I can’t say of the magnetism will be strong enough to counteract the contraction of something like a large, square, PETG thing.
Hopefully people find this helpful!
Take a look here for aligment brackets:
Bambulab build plate aligment brackets
I use them with my goodplate.
Good morning
has anyone recently received a new heating bed and is this level? My heating bed replaced about 3 months ago is basically level, but the edge is higher, so the magnet sticker is raised all around.
I got another offer of the exchange, but would like to wait with it, so that I get a flawless print bed. Perhaps it is now so far that the suppliers deliver flawless goods.
I received a replacement bed about 1 month ago. It was slightly worse than my current bed. Both are concave on the X axis.
To anyone reading this, the beds are not flat because it’s bendable plates.
If you want flat, get glass.
My print bed is already flat. Only the edge of plastic surrounding the metal plate is higher than the plate. Therefore, it looks as if the plate bends down in the middle.
Therefore, I am still waiting for revised print beds where the plastic edge is not higher than the metal plate.
@kungpaoshizi In this context it isn’t 100% correct. If the bed (not bendable) is “flat”, you can put a flexible sheet on it and it will be “flat” too. Of course only if the printplate has an even surface and the thickness is everywhere the same (or the textured PEI is distributed even).
The problem: if the bed isn’t flat, your flexplate will take the shape of the uneven bed. If you have a oval bed, the printplate will take this shape (because of the magnet holding it down)
“Flat”: We will always have some deviation (heat expansion etc.). But in our context 0.05mm – 0.1mm deviation (from the highest to the lowest point) may still be considered flat. Depedning on your use-case it may be a bit more or less. The problem is that we have much more deviation over the whole printbed.
Example: on my Prusa mini I managed (with some mods) to get a max of 0.05 deviation over the hole printbed (measured with the printplate on top). I consider this “flat” for my technical prints.
@Lostferret Thank you for your FCE input.
About the goodplate challenges: Did you or others open a github issue for this? in the end it’s just firmware. If enough people vote for such a feature request to adjust homing etc. for glass plates, bambulab will maybe fix it. This would make it in general easier to use borosilicate glass or other solution that go in the same direction.
I should soon receive my goodplate. If I have such issues I will contact support and see were it is going. In the end it should be in the interest of bambulab to help the community to get simple and cheap solutions for a flat bed (if bambulab is unable to provide such by default)
Btw. if somebody consider buying an X1C: my new printer (mid-July) has a warped bed too.
Is there anyway to measure the bed, leveraging the z leveling probing? This is something really easy to do with Octoprint and Prusa for instance. I am very concerned by this issue. I was about to buy the X1C, but to me this is a showstopper, even more if deviation is increasing over time.
Under the bed is a flexible foamy surface. You’re not attaching the plate to a static surface. The magnetism is under the foamy surface.
This entire query is nonsense I’m afraid. If someone wants a flat surface, they will need to engage glass.
But if someone is prototyping on the machine and wanting flatter than glass, they’re using the wrong machine/tools to do so.
I measured the hotbed of my X1C that was delivered today @ 60C with a Starrett rule and a feeler gauge and found a maximum horizontal clearance of 0.25mm. I found some other areas with a variance between 0.10mm and 0.23mm.
Material engineering is a bit out of my wheelhouse, and I’m new to 3D printing – is anyone aware as to whether or not this is an acceptable tolerance? I planned to use this machine to print some prototype pieces out of ABS/ASA and I’m concerned about the longterm viability of the bed given anecdotes of the warpage increasing over time due to thermal stress.
I’ve seen some people mention tolerances of 0.6mm – 1.1mm (that’d certainly have me returning the printer); does anyone know offhand if this level of tolerance might cause me to run into an issue down the line?