Warped bed :( seems like a common QC issue

You don’t want to do any cutting and tapping as recommended by another user. Just send it back. Don’t try to make do with this.

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Just use it, its possible that the bubbles will go away by itself. Especially because the will get pressed down by the build plate.

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The black layer is made of teflon (PTFE) to prevent the metallic sheet to stick to the very strong magnets permanently if left unmoved too long.
Below it should be the magnet sticker layer, but it is just a guess. Did BL require you to sent back the old bed? If not, you could use it to have a look how it actually is constructed?

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I am relatively certain that the heater is below the alum plate, it’s common practice, but perhaps @BrotherC can weigh in here?

Maybe Bambu Labs could develop self calibrating build plates.
If it’s new, place the calibration side upwards. Using ABL measure the detail mesh, than print a mirrored , thin compensation layer of ASA to that side - after that turn the build plate to print side, done. :partying_face:

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Wow, that would be a good patent to have!

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Just had some more contact with support and gained some information out of it.
The reason why they want a photo of the underside is to determine the version of the heatbed and being able to sent one that is actually fitting to you.
grafik

They changed the power board design between the revisions and the connectors used for it.
Beside the delays, I actually had a very nice experience with their support. And I rather have delays then unfriendly and unwilling support persons.

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I placed my order for the X1C combo with a projected delivery date end of March. It’s now end of March and I haven’t received a shipping update. I’m relieved to hear that a new version of the plate is out and I’m crossing my fingers that the delay is so that I receive that new version whenever it does ship. I’m happy to wait for it than to have a high chance of receiving a warped bed that then needs to be replaced. The air bubbles is disturbing though :smiley:

Just wanted to share what I hope to be good news for me and others.

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Does this mean they actually had fixed beds (v3) floating around already, so 4wks timeline was really for shipments? starts to make sense then. Although it may mean for the next few months people may receive printers with older beds and/or newer beds.

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I believe the v2 beds were for the KS version and the v3 beds the mass produced ones. Maybe someone with the KS version can have a look at his bed and see what version was used there?

And v2 vs v3 seems more to be an electrical change and not a mechanical one, but only BL can really tell.

My bed is V3 and warped. Still waiting for my replacement. I still don’t see how you can keep a plastic bed from warping with a steel or aluminum understucture restrained at 3 pts. All that differential CTE has to bend somewhere.

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They will warp, any material heated from only one side will always warp. But the amount of warp should be minimal and not even close to what we are seeing here. Even a float glass bed will warp, its just physics, but the amount is so little we perceive it as perfectly flat with our eyes.

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To start - I have no relation with Bambu Labs or Prusa.
That said, having a completely flat bed is a myth. No bed is flat. I started with arguably one of the best 3d printers ever made - the Prusa MK3S. Over the years I went to great lengths to flatten the build surface eventually using Octoprints “Bed Visualizer” and a rather invasive method of providing adjustability to the 9 posts that support that build surface. The best I ever achieved is 0.31u average deviance from sector to sector which is pretty good. It took forever. The fact is, build surface topology varies with temperature and even a build surface that is flattened as best it can will still produce mating surfaces that are not perfect with large prints when parts need to be joined.
BedTopology See this graphic. In this case the bed could definitely be better,
image - even all green still has warp to it . So, you would be surprised how not-flat a very flat build surface still is. See this excellent video from Chris’s Basement channel Hack Your Prusa! - Prusa Bed Leveling - Chris's Basement - YouTube . I do not know if there is such a tool for Bambu Labs - yet.
But let it be known after printing for some time you learn how to fill gaps in models of large prints. Bed leveling is by far the way to follow the build surface topology so the model grows from that surface without squishing some parts.
Things you can do:

  1. Make sure the surface the build surface stick to is free of lint or any material that can raise the bed in one or more spots.
  2. I do use glue stick but have learned to use a “very” thin coat and completely clean the build surface every few prints
  3. Never bypass the leveling process to save time. It will get you in the long run.
  4. Sometimes you tilt an item and use supports so the base is built as level as possible. Then you have the issue of support marring

That said, you need to learn to work through it. I personally feel the Bambu Labs product thus far has reduced the “playing” around that is still, quite common in setting the Z-Offset, bed level etc., dispatching with leveling probes and using the touch method.

One of the main upgrades in older 3D printers was some sort of auto-bed leveling sensor. Those are not perfect either, but they are a 100% better then not having that build topology at all. BTW - glass surfaces have significant mass to move up and down and are not as level as you might think as another member stated. With heat they will take on the topology of the supporting surface. Living with it and working around it is part of the fun.

My gripe with the P1P is the very “slow” upload and download of the model. I have gone back to using the SIM card so I can get on with printing.

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I wished the P1P would have costed 50 bucks more and had a decent microcontroller. I think they stripped down a bit too much

Yes, even glass won’t be perfectly flat, but it will almost always remain much flatter then metal surfaces when heated. But even metal surfaces should not be as warped as some of the build plates are, specially in their cold state. Even a cheap CNC could get them a lot flatter then what was shipped. Perfectly flat outside of a high tech lab environment is just impossible.

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A bed made out of milled down casted aluminum ist nearly perfect flat, at all temps.
I have one on my heavy modified Ender3 with Klipper. The visualized Mesh is completely green.

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Doubtful. The wait was probably to implement better manufacturing/QC processes at their suppliers and then the arrival of the new units with the new processes.

My current printer was purchased Feb 2nd, received Feb 9th and is v2. It is very flat.

This seems more likely given how some are saying their v3 beds are warped.

You can’t. The plastic will always want to elongate more than the metal. That’s why a certain amount of warping is acceptable on these and within spec.

Great post. Thanks for this.

Totally. That’s why I was talking about shimming the warped beds before clipping glass on them earlier in this thread. It’s also one of the reasons I advised against adhering glass to a warped bed.

Can someone send me a busted bed? I will purchase it and/or pay for shipping. I could 3D scan it and have a couple CNC’d pretty quickly, but I’d probably need some help with the engineering side of it.

If someone could give me a run down of the best type of metal to use in this situation I could probably make a couple exact copies of the plastic bed frame in the ideal metal within a week or two. I could send an couple out to those willing to help me test them.

I just can’t make any promises on their performance, as I don’t have any experience manufacturing 3D printer parts. I usually make custom parts for high end vehicles. We’ve CNC’d plenty of metal (aluminum and brass). And I have a considerable amount of knowledge about CTE and plastics, since vehicles see huge temperature changes and are mostly made of metal and plastic side by side. But I’ve never made parts that need to go near magnets or next to electronics of this nature, so I’ll need some guidance in that area just to make sure I’m not missing something important when it comes to the type of metal used and/or thickness.

I ordered a second printer today, so I would be willing to run some testing on it as well. Current ETA on that is “early April” so it will be interesting to see the bed version I get and how flat the bed is. Not too worried about it. simp emoji

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Got the tracking number for my replacement bed, this morning. Estimated delivery is April 5th/6th.

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This is totally true, but I’d add that I don’t think the problem we’re dealing with is the alum plate not being sufficiently flat, rather the plastic frame and attachment pieces to the rods were not annealed correctly after production.

The alum bed is the victim here, LOL. This theory is also born out of several reports (and also mine personally) of the warping occurring after the beds were delivered.

My bed was fine out of the box but warped significantly after I did a series of high temp (100-110°C Bed) prints. That pretty much has to be the plastic warping, and we know they used plastic that was up to the task so it sorta has to be poor or no annealing.

I heat soaked at 110° for four hours a couple times then leveled using 2 different thickness alum tapes.

It’s slightly warped now but well within many printers I’ve used before and with the BL ABL system I’m fine for now but can’t wait to get a new one!

Yes, totally true, but the beds we have on these printers are a thin alum plate with plastic mounting. It’s a fair bet that it’s the plastic warping that’s the problem, twisting the thin alum bed. :astonished:

Or there is no room for the hotbed to expand to.
For example: the hotbed from a HevOrt printer is completely hold by magnets to compensate heat expansion and not perfect Z-rods.

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Yeah, there’s that too. I never looked really closely at how it’s held but seems the alum plate is bound on all sides by plastic.