Steel Conveyor Belt for ABP (raftless) by Tunell

Last crawled date: 3 years ago

This is a semi-permanent belt for the ABP. It is a derivative of http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:7460 by tmartin. Tmartin uses titanium, which would be preferable, but is not widely available in the dimensions needed.
Use steel foil measuring 12" width by .002" thick, you'll need to cut the roll at the final belt width.
I used some steel foil from the local electronics store (Elliots in tucson) where they charged me $1/ft, but this stuff is available from many locations:
http://www.mcmaster.com/#stainless-steel-foil/=cntox8http://cgi.ebay.com/NEW-K-S-Stainless-Steel-002-Foil-6030-NIB-/290545521747?pt=Radio_Control_Parts_Accessories&hash=item43a5dcd453#ht_739wt_905http://www.quickshipmetals.com/foils/stainless-foil-00212.html
Apparently this foil is used for "tool-wrapping" whatever that is...
Steel is a great belt medium because: (borrowed from tmartin)
1) Unlike aluminum foil and paper, it does not normally crinkle and maintains a smooth flat shiny surface unless deliberately creased. It it actually somewhat springy.
2) It is flexible like a sheet of paper and rolls smoothly through the mechanism
3) The coefficient of thermal expansion is much lower than plastic over the temperature ranges used, therefore although the plastic will adhere nicely when hot, when both are cooled the plastic shrinks more than the surface beneath it and pops right off.
4) It is physically extremely tough and will survive a lot of abuse.
5) Not damaged by build platform temperatures.
6) Inexpensive.
7) Great for raftless printing
8) Excellent thermal conductivity, gets hot all over.
Disadvantages:
1) It is NOT chemically inert and will not withstand solvent attack.
2) There will be a seam on the belt which will occasionally leave a (small) line on the bottom of a print
3) Poor adhesion to ABS, must be coated with Kapton tape. Sanding doesn't help.
4) Steel may crease if you are not careful when making the belt.
5) Cannot run the ABP conveyor backwards (as if you would want to)
6) Steel may swell when heated causing a loss of belt tension.
Note: I noticed that the belt works even better and stays even flatter when I added the new countersunk plate to my ABP. This provides just a bit of an edge that the belt must wrap over on the front and back. Plus no more bolt interference. See the pic!