ABP to HBP in a few steps by eM5

Last crawled date: 3 years ago

Now new and improved! (Details at the end.)
I gave up on my Automatic Build Platform! (ABP)
I must admit that at the beginning we had some swell moments. Those graceful wipes at the start and the rolling off the belt at the end were memorable. But there was always something getting between us. Projects that would not stick or that would get knocked down mid-build half hour into the build. And in the rare moments when a raft-less object would finally finish it would have a wavy base. We tried making new belts, we tried kapon therapy and even going to different temperatures but nothing seemed to work. I could go on but it would seem petty on my part after our time together.
I know it seems cruel but I took it apart and built an HBP with some of its parts.
It was simple really. I took the heater board with the thermistor and connections from the ABP. I also removed the wooden base where the heater board sits because it has that nice round cutout that allow space for the connectors and the round hole in the center for the thermistor.
The three other pieces I used were:
the wooden base with the magnets of one of the two acrylic bases that came with my Ultimate Cupcake
a 100mm square sheet of zinc that I cut out of a piece that I had laying around in my garage. I used this since I did not want to put Kapon tape directly on the heater board in case I decide to reconcile with my ABP.
I needed slightly longer bolts so I used four M3 x 16mm bolts that I had left over from my original parts kit.
Now that it's put together I use the HBP profile for my g-code and my first build was beautiful. On the second or third build, the first layer was not sticking very well - making a bit of a mess of some of the detail. So I upped the base temperature to 135 and now it is doing a great job.
Projects stick nicely and don't curl on the base, and with the low and compact profile I no longer have the wobble I was getting on the ABP on tall builds.
Hopefully we can live happily ever after.
Well, we were not so happy. It turns out that my sheet of zink was not flat so there was as much as 1.5 mm difference from one place to another. So I went out and bough myself a piece of 2mm aluminum and had it cut to size. And I love it! It is perfectly flat and transfers heat beautifully. My next step is to inset the bolts so that the top is all flat.