I was printing some ABS on my modified Anycubic I3 Mega overnight, when I awoke to this horror of a destroyed glass print bed…
Now the question remains, how to actually fix this? One part is still firmly attached to the Bed and I fear this may destroy the Bed even more.
And I obviously need a new Print bed, but I can’t find the exact replacement, so should I even get a replacement Ultrabase? I saw that there are magnetic PEI beds available, but I am unsure if it is worth the 80-100€ for this.
Edit: Since the glass is glued to the 1.5mm aluminium heater PCB (and I already had to resolder the broken off wires once) I was looking at complete replacements at first, which why the price is relatively high
If you want a cheap solution, just get a mirror in the same dimensions as your bed but I am pretty sure you could find a PEI bed for less than 100 if you keep looking.
In the future, if you stick with glass, don’t print directly on it with stuff like PET or ABS: use a release layer like hairspray or a thin layer from a glue stick, otherwise it can bond to the glass and break it.
To be fair the PEI kit I was looking at is a aluminium baseplate, silicone heater mat, magnetic base & the PEI sheet, so basically a complete replacement of the bed.
since the glass is glued to the heater I was looking at a complete replacement at first.
Just get the $25 magnetic sheet and PEI plate, and slap them both on there. If you do go the route of a new aluminum bed, you can heat this bed up to 80 or 90C and then peel the heat pad off of it and stick it onto your new bed. I did both these on my old Sidewinder X2 but didn’t notice much benefit to the aluminum bed (the OEM glass bed was slightly warped and concave), so I didn’t find it worth the money to be honest. I think it’s worth trying in stages since you’re not really out any money if you decide the simpler and cheaper solution doesn’t cut it.
Yes that was my idea, I already ordered a magnetic plate kit today and I can try this out first. Since the heater is an aluminum PCB directly glued to the glass I might just try to separate the glass from the PCB if the glass if sticking it on top doesn’t work out like I wanted
Oh, that’s not too bad price-wise actually.