Heating the plate quicker?

[Clancey 0]

Is there any way to speed up the build plate heating phase? Any addons or replacement parts?

It's ok for PLA and other materials around that temp, but I've just waited longer for the plate to warm up than it's going to take to print a small part in PC.

Thanks.

[UbuntuBirdy 38]

You can speed up this procedure with a hot air gun.

[Labern 734]

For UM2 I use tinkergnomes firmware which has a preheat feature which I start as soon as I turn the printer on.

For UM3 I select preheat as soon as I load Cura.

I know this isn't the biggest help but it does reduce the time a bit.

Having the front door does help with stopping cold air slowing it down so it's only really the available accessory from UM or you could find a full enclosure kit.

Some people put towels on the heat bed which helps but only when preheating or it may crash.

[Dim3nsioneer 471]

I put a cardboard onto the plate while preheating. This reduces radiation losses to almost zero and heating up is a bit quicker.

[nzo 16]

Another super efficient option is to buy a small amount of 1" 1300°C ceramic fiber. Ebay has it at inexpensive prices. Cut the fiber to your build-plate size and place on your plate. You can play a welding torch on the fiber upper surface while resting it on your hand. The fiber's low thermal mass stops heat instantly. Should heat the build-plate very fast.

Edited October 19, 2017 by Guest

[fergazz 58]

some good tips above

@Clancey, could you fill your profile with the printer model that you have? For addons or replacement parts it will help. Depending which heater you have you can replace for a higher voltage one, it will warm up quicly. Community can point you a trustfull dealer.

Edit: Ooops, for build plate I don't know if we can change heater, for the heated block I have sure that we can.

Edited October 19, 2017 by Guest