Type of glass on the build plate?

[tinydancer 0]

I searched but couldn't find anything on it. Since the glass build plate is so important, I was wondering if it was a certain type of glass as I'd like to have some replacements made in case I ever break it.

Anyone know?

 

[techbuilder 0]

It's just borosilicate glass

 

[gr5 2,167]

No it's not. It's tempered glass. But I'm pretty sure you can use any glass. Boroscilicate glass (aka pyrex) has a very low temperature expansion coefficient so that would be better than regular glass. But more expensive. Because the heated bed heats up slowly and evenly and because the clips allow the glass to expand and contract, regular glass is fine. More important is the thickness of the glass (4mm?).

Anyway go to your local glass store and have them cut you up a piece of the right dimensions. It's very inexpensive. Maybe $10 to have it cut to dimension and ground smooth? Maybe buy 2. More money if tempered glass. Let us know how much they charge you.

 

[Dim3nsioneer 557]

But I'm pretty sure you can use any glass.

 

Yes, you can. But the adhesion is not the same on every type of glass.

For instance, I use a mirror glass tile from IKEA on my custom heated bed on the UMO. And PLA sticks like welded to the glass. I recently had to put a mirror tile with the print on it for three days :!: into the fridge until it came of.

The standard glass on the UM2 has - well- acceptable adhesion when heated to the very same temperature (60°C). I also have the impression that the UM2 glass (where you can see some interferences) is not as even as the mirror tile which has to be perfectly even as you would see this in the mirror...

At the moment I don't know yet what the exact difference between the two glass types is but I'm working on it...

 

[3dmaker4u 0]

I don't think thermal expansion counts at all. Printing is achieved at rather constant bed temperature. Well, first layer may be at higher, but normally just 10 degrees, and contraction from say 65C to 55C will be something like 0.01 mm per 100 mm.

I had a similar concern for a quite big ceramic plate (ca. 500x500 mm) on an X400 from GermanRepRap. But when I measured the variance between 20C and 110C, it was practically zero.

"Adhesion" may definitely differ. I think there are two kinds of "adhesion", when you do not use any kind of "glue".

1. By normal air pressure - this is obtained if the surface is as of... glass (glass, kapton, PET). On such a surface, if the plastic is laid down correctly, leaving (near to) no air underside, the atmospheric air pressure will keep the part on the bed. This is why, in such a case, you can detach the part by hitting it laterally, making it to slide on the surface and get some air that will actually make it... fly

2. Through porosity - these apply to such surfaces, as in the case of blue tape, BuildTak. There are also some "profi" machines that uses intentionally porous bed materials in different forms.

One interesting point is about the bed temp. Basically, the rule says that first layer should be above glass transition temp, say 5C, while the rest should be just slightly below, also 5C just for simplicity The only issue is that not always the actual value is known or is exactly the one stated by the manufacturer, but is a good starting point. To calibrate, one should try to find the temperature where the plastic become hard from soft and/or the other way around.

 

[tinydancer 0]

Lots of great information here, I'll likely get a couple made in the next week. I'll let you know what it costs me.

Thanks!

 

[Daid 306]

I don't think thermal expansion counts at all.

Except that when you get different expansion in different parts of the glass due to uneven heating, the glass could break.

 

[3dmaker4u 0]

Yeap, I agree, though I was referring to the impact on print

However, about uneven heating, are there real chances with either a PCB heater or a silicone pad and a sheet of aluminum to have such bad variance of temperature to cause breaking the glass?

 

[jameshs 42]

on an unheated UMO I just went to my glass shop and had two sheets of 'picture glass (3mm) cut and edges polished for £3 ..... has worked for nearly a year and allows me to swap them out (well it did until I got my second UMO )

 

[Tycho 0]

I have the same problem. Got the exact dimensions of the buildplate from Github/Ultimaker2/1154_Print_Table_Glass_(x1)/B1154-B2P-A.PDF.

I was wondering if more people have a good experience with mirror glass or recommend other types of glass.

Edited August 15, 2016 by Guest
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