Mattroberts' Heated Bed
Release status: Working
| Description | Aluminium Heated Bed
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Introduction
There is nothing new here, just a record of my successful bed design.
Material Choice
I've used 3mm thick aluminium sheet for the bed for two reasons: Firstly it conducts heat very well, so I don't get hotspots. Secondly, at 3mm thick the bed will not bend.
Heater
The heater elements are simply aluminium clad wire-sound resistors. I used 14 resistors of 10 ohms each to build a ~200W heater (farnell part number 9506829).
As you can see from the photos, I attached the resistors by using counter sunk M3 screws and nuts. (Unlike Adrian, I drilled the holes on the resistors to 3mm and used nuts).
(When placing the resistors, be careful not to cause interference with the y-bar clamps, motor or idler).
Editing Mendel
In order to make sure that the bed fits on my standard Mendel: I cut all 20 of the long M4 bolts to be as short as possible. And, it looks like there is plenty of room.
Performance
This bed, even without insulation, reaches 120 degrees in less time than it took me to make a cup of tea (i.e. it is fast enough not to be a problem).
