FlashForge New Creator Pro - Bed Extender - Sized for 8 x 10 Plexiglass by Timetoprint00

Last crawled date: 3 years, 1 month ago

I find that on the FlashForge NEW Creator Pro (received November-2016) that parts with large surface areas are difficult to remove from the bed plate. For example the first time I printed out the orange bird house (thingi1351023), I did so on a glass plate, that I clipped to the FlashForge Bed. Because this bird house has such a large contact surface area to the bed, I found it to be very difficult to remove. In the end the glass plate shattered, and in fear of cutting my fingers from the shards of glass, I simply threw the bird house into the garbage.
To remedy, I decided to use plexi-glass, so that I could flex the plate to create a separation between it and the 3d printed object. Locally (at HD) thin plexi-glass can be purchased in 8” x 10” sheets for approximately $4 USD. These sheet are approximately 2mm thick. Then to avoid having to cut the plexi-glass to size, I designed the bed extensions to accommodate the 8 x 10 plexi-glass sheet.
The Bed extensions are small enough to be able to be printed out on top of the original FlashForge Bed. They Bed Extentions are secured into place by using 3mm Wing-Nuts, one for each corner, so a total of 4. From the picture you can see I have the "NEW" Creator Pro Logo is silver/chrome. Therefore this is the 2016 "NEW" Creator Pro. The Bed Extenders accommodate the position of the corner bolts for this model. I do not know, but I would expect that the bed bolt positions are the same for the previous Creator Pro.
To help hold the plexi-glass in position on the bed when printing, small clips are used for clamping. There are 5 slots on each bed extender. The wire clips in the picture are from Dollar Tree; you can purchase a pack of 6 of them for $1. When clamped in place the clips remain outside where the nozzle moves; there is about 10mm clearance. Note: I use Simply3D to slice the parts I print. Therefore starting position of the nozzle is at the front right-hand corner of the bed. If you are using Slic3r or ReplicatorG, the nozzle’s starting position is at the front Left-Hand corner; In this case the wire clip may interfere with the starting position of the nozzle (depending where you place it), you may need to put the clip into a different slot.
As a result I can now print out much larger objects. When I originally printed out the bird house with a glass plate (that shattered), I had scaled it down to 90%, because it came so close to the edge of the FlashForge bed, and I wanted a rim printed. However, with the plexi-glass bed, I was able to print it full size with no worries of hitting the wire clips. It is so nice to be able to print larger objects.
Two other quick notes, I use blue painters tape on the top surface of the plexi-glass, and then liberally apply glue stick to the top of the blue tape. Parts, especially PLA, adhere very well.
Enjoy!