Hi, I have just purchased the vertex printer and so far happy, tried two prints and both have been quit successfull, I also have the K8200, now stripped down, what I was wondering was, could I fit the hot bed from K8200 to the vertex, it has a separate power supply and the power board to get the hotbed to greater temperatures, thanks for any help. Ted
i just installed my k8200 hotbed in my k8400 it works! i just connected the bed to the motherboard (no external power), laid the pcb under the glas plate and used duct tape to hold it all down. its SLOW to heat up tho, and i could only hold it steady at 50c.
That’s great, thank you for telling me, I will be putting mine in tomorrow with a separate power supply and a reprep me controller board, ted
I overcame heating the bed by installing a 40W light bulb between the plate supports. Also used a separate power supply. It’s cheap, reliable and works.
Steve,
Could you post a picture of your setup?
Hi, I didnt manage to get around to installing on Sunday, but I will do during the week and will post pictures once done and tried. thanks
Steve,
Thank you I was just wondering how you did this.
Does it seem to work ok?
Can you print with ABS?
I used a piece of angle aluminium and slotted it to fit a bulb holder. Attached a bulb and holder (IKEA stripped down table lamp) and a 40W candle light bulb. (Small enough to fit between the two tapering bed struts.
I preheat by switching the bulb on some 15 minutes before I intend to print.
Found that the heated bed considerably reduces warpage when using PLA, as well as maintaining print quality no matter the ambient temperature or humidity.
I have used with ABS, but I incorporate a perspex printer cover that I have made to trap in the heat as well as reduce the fibre cooling fan speed to 70%. Still find it difficult to maintain the recommended melt temperatures even so and it takes a fine balance to achive an acceptable quality of print.
Ok this looks very nice.
Hi, well I got round to putting the hotbed on to the vertex and at this moment is working very well, it took about 6 minutes to get to 60 degrees, and about another 12 minutes to get to 85 dgrees,
this is the pictures I have taken, will take some more when I gat a chance, thanks for all the replies and assistance.
Hi, as promised a couple more pictures, printing in clear ABS, at 75 dgrees K8200 hotbed and 265 hotend.
Hello deafoldgit,
it is basically a nice idea, and when I saw it I had a clear picture how it can be improved.
Since I’m suffering a heated bed for a longer time, I took the opportunity to build a RTP heatbed (Rapid Thermal Processing, although it is actually not that fast;-))
http://ddd.k8400.hoehnemann.net/Heatbed/2017-12-16-637.jpg
A longer description of my part is here: Heated Bed.
Now I’m ready for new challenges.