Josh_gpi

Hey Rachel, To answer your questions, It could be just straight marketing, but I think PEI and PEX are really two distinct surfaces. It could be just straight marketing, but I believe PEX is marketed as having a higher temperature resistance and this may help with this issue. (You can check out this thread on flexplates where they had issues with Buildtak and moved to Wham Bam and seemed to be doing well). As of this point, it does not seem that the zero point is below the surface, but over more extended time we may run into this issue with PEX...TBD. I do tend to run thicker first layers (0.2mm) but this is because I don't have a need for thin layers. Also particularly for materials like PC this greatly helps with the prints imo. I do not use a Z offset to compensate currently, but I do have some custom profiles and settings in Cura for materials. I plan to post a thread soon about the rest of my setup if that would help. So I did not really get around the zeroing problem, it just has not been a problem for me thus far with Wham Bam. Also to wrap up just wanted to say, Although this might not technically be a bug, I agree that such a limited calibration setup (where you cannot calibrate before having a dangerously hot nozzle or disable heat for calibration, etc.) is very harmful to users and could dissuade people away from Ultimaker products. This greatly limits the flexibility and usefulness of the printers with flex plates, making them worse printers. Imo this should be treated like a very important bug and be resolved. Best of luck printing!

Just wanted to post an update: see my comment here, but overall just wanted to say the Wham Bam has been working amazingly. It creates a nice smooth finish bottom and has worked with every material I threw at it. Had to make some small modifications by cutting out bits of the magnetic surface so the clips could still grip the glass better. Also it would be nice if active leveling would happen before heating so that it wouldn't dig into it at all (hopefully to prevent any long term damage) but otherwise been great. Thanks for all the help!

I have purchased the Wham Bam build plate setup for our Ultimaker S5 and have been seeing lots of successful prints. It works dramatically better then the glass build plate and has had no issues with active leveling (I applied the magnet on top of the glass and then put the Wham Bam on top so it is higher then usual but the Ultimaker adjusts automatically). I will agree that I have seen the issue with the hotend slightly digging into the PEX coated aluminum surface, but in the time we have had it these small indents have causes no issues. It is in the same locations every time and it seems to only be a very minor (if almost even cosmetic) issue. I am on a company budget, but IMO the Wham Bam are 100% worth the investment. TBD how long they will last, but even if they only lasted a year would definitely be worth it compared to anything else. Have printed Carbon Fiber Nylon, Polycarbonate, PLA, Abs, etc. all with no problems. Either way you go good luck!

You are a saint! I did not see that on their website but that is exactly what I was looking for. Thank you so so much!!

Thank you so much for the help! I will purchase one now. (Link for anyone interested) Two quick things: Have you tried printing Polycarbonate on this PEX surface? How was this attached? It seems like this will just go on the glass base plate but wouldn't that interfere with leveling? Thank you so much! - Josh

Hey LePaul, How did the spring steel/flexplate from PS work for you? Thanks!