MakerGear Forum

I was poking around on Google last night and found this...

http://www.instructables.com/id/Reusabl ... Baseplate/

Anyone ever try an acrylic plate? I don't have access to the tools used in the instructions. Tempted to find a local company (Metro Detroit) that could make one for me.

minusbacon wrote:an acrylic plate

Acrylic melts around 150 °C, so it's trivially easy to carve a trench with a 250 °C nozzle. I'd expect it to bond really, really firmly to plastic deposited above its melting point, with gouge-free removal left as an exercise for the user.

Its glass transition temperature hovers around 100 °C, with terrible thermal conductivity and high thermal expansion. A flat sheet can't remain rigid and flat at the usual platform temperatures, because the bottom surface must be much hotter than the top.

Other than that, it's wonderful: as with all platform surfaces, I'm sure it works really well for somebody...

Yeah they are only giod for non heated machines. Makerbot rep2 had a acrylic bed. As soon as you add heat it will warp like a sob.

I've tried acrylic with 230c ABS, and it was a bad idea. The hot filament easily melts the platform, leaving trenches everywhere and making it unusable. Also, in many cases, it was essentially "plastic welded" into the bed so it was impossible to remove without ripping out parts of the bottom layer from the object. Also, the surface is curved, making it hard to get the right layer height at all points on the bed. BUT...

-If you're printing at low enough of a temperature (Low temp PLA)
-Somehow correct/compensate the curvature in the acrylic
-Ensure you're printing with the extruder far enough away from the bed so that you're not essentially pushing filament into the bed. (May god have mercy on your soul if you ever let the extruder touch the bed)

You could do OK for upto 10-20 prints or so. The plastic will leave unwashable residue on the bed, which will require replacement after 10-20 prints.

Goes without saying it's an unheated platform type.

Will it stick? A lot better than anything else, really. And therein lies the problem.