FYI, I saw someone joke on here about using an old bed to fix a new bed by heating it…
I thought this was a joke, but can confirm that I was able to reduce the “bow” of my bed by 50% or so by doing this.
I took my old, uninstalled bed and put it on the new installed bed upside down. Doing this makes both magnetic sheets attract to each other. I then set it to 110C and let it sit for a few hours. After letting it cool (it takes a WHILE) I then removed the old bed (which takes a lot of force due to the magnets), and rechecked.
I went from a 0.4mm gap to less than 0.2mm gap in the center of my bed. Hopefully it stays fixed for a while.
This isn’t a good way to measure bed flatness, especially if you’re using just a regular ruler (which probably isn’t straight to begin with) and using light from behind to determine the gap. A bright light is going to make gaps appear larger than they actually are.
Gotta use an engineering ruler and feelers or a gauge indicator if you want to know how flat your bed is.
Much more accurate way to determine bed flatness than using your eyes.
Be aware that with so many slice an such thickness, you may have to wait a long time for heat to transfer to the top, and the sensor wich is at the bottom will think too early that the correct temperature have been reached.
As an outside observer I just want to say thank you to everyone on this thread putting pressure on Bambu to resolve this as well as working on 3rd party solutions. I have had an X1C sitting in my cart for a few weeks now and don’t plan on pulling the trigger until there is a reasonable resolution.
So you think that a cheap clone from a company with a terrible track record of quality and reliability is a better user experience? Well, spent you money on it if you like.
I wonder if the two magnets are forcing each bed flat (since they’d naturally want to be attached to each other with the most surface area contact possible, not allowing for any dips in the surface). Then by raising the temperature of the pieces in that flat state, you’re basically post curing the plastic frame and increasing its glass transition temperature. This makes the plastic much stronger and rigid, and much less susceptible to warping as it’s being heated.
Ideally, if others want to try this, you should use some thick blankets to smother the printer to keep the warmth in the print chamber for as long as possible. Keeping it at a high temp for longer will help in raising the glass transition temperature. But the real key is ramping down the cooling to be as slow as possible. Cooling too quickly will cause everything to retract quickly and could cause additional warping. But keeping the warmth in the print chamber with blankets or other insulation will help the pieces cool at a much slower rate.
It should work. And increasing the the glass transition temperature of the plastic is permanent, so it should retain that strength moving forward, especially since the working temperature of the print bed is normally lower than 110C.
I suspect it could be just that magnetic rubber sticker adhesive separated from aluminum. Try rubbing it a bit in the middle and re-check if gap remains the same.
I printed out your widget. I used the 3mf file. Success the first time!
The bed is within .25mm, which is perfectly good for me as a hobbyist. One spot back where it does the nozzle cleaning routine it went .3mm.
Great project and answered if i was close to flat or not.
p.s. I did have to file down the underside of the pointer so it did not rub on the dial plate. Maybe my magnet was too thin. Didnt measure it.
I finally got around to pulling the sticker on the replacement bed and checked the aluminum plate. The plate is flat. I dunno how off the sticker is or if the sticker is sitting up on the plastic. Now that said with my engineering ruler against it, I can easily deform the hole assembly by the amount we are worried about. It isn’t that stiff. I know people said the aluminum plate is hard to deflect, it is not. I can easily deflect it a mm with 2 fingers.
Edit: When I decouple the steel bracket from the bottom, the aluminum plate/plastic housing are still dead flat together. So at least in my case its something with the sticker or sticker and plastic housing edges.
aluminum is 1/3 as stiff as steel. look at the steel structure that is stamped (for extra stiffness) underneath the bed and look at the aluminum plate that’s 1/8". You can make a judgment for yourself which is more still. Usually you want your controlled surface to be controlling stiffness wise.
Except no one’s aluminum plate be is being bent permanently. You’d have a difficult time “bending” a 250mm x 250mm sheet of aluminum permanently by fractions of a mm in different spots on the bed (especially when aluminum soften right up the next time it’s heated).
I suspect it could be just that magnetic rubber sticker adhesive separated from aluminum. Try rubbing it a bit in the middle and re-check if gap remains the same.
