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i have been talking to a local guy and he wants to maybe use mic 6 instead of 6061. doesnt anyone have any feedback?

Most aluminum is rolled, so it isn't actually flat, mic6 is cast and guaranteed flat to within some specified threshold.
If you put a piece of 6061 on a flat surface, you'll be surprised how not flat it is.

+1 with Polygonhell, I've "been there, done that".

The only issue with using the Mic 6 is that it will be much thicker than you really need. The downside to this is it will take a lot longer to heat up that extra mass. One option is to power the Onyx with 24volts. My 1/8" aluminum plate with borosilicate top heats to 85°C in 2 minutes with 24 volts.

regards,
Michael

so i got my first quote, its 240 for the mic 6, and 220 for 1/4 6061... is this reasonable?

You have to be kidding? $240 for a round aluminum plate, that's insane. Send me $150 and I'll make you one!

Did you know that I posted a DXF file of my heat dissipating plate that has a cutout for the electronics pad and the hole layout for attaching it to your machine. I suspect they are charging you for design time at > $100/hr.

it was my first quote, hopefully the others are more reasonable...else i might have to take you up on that. no i supplied him that .dxf from your site

Great! Glad you found that and I was kidding, I wouldn't gouge you for that much! Check out water jet shops, in Mic 6, water jet is very cost effective. The Mic 6 in 1/4" would be about $50 for a 12" square. Knowing what I know now, I would make the disk 12" D and not attach it with screws, rather use binder clamps to clamp the glass build surface (if you use one), the Al plate, and the Onyx.

yea so he is going to use a cnc, with included the holes and the notch that was cut out for the heatbed connections. maybe if i buy the material i can just find someone to cut a circle for me.

I just bought some Mic6 1/4" in 14" squares from a guy on ebay and paid $40 for 2 of them shipped. Already got it in and planning on putting it on the printer. There was quite a bit more on there also from other vendors pretty cheap, so I would buy it there and then have it milled out. Anyone with a decent size bedmill should be able to get it cut for you quick. Even better if they have a waterjet.

Just trying to decide how I want to cut it. I'm being lazy and I don't want to setup the router on the torchmate is the problem to mill the aluminum. I'm thinking I will just use the bandsaw and a circle jig. Something like this. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H59G5bMrqRo

As long as the plate is decent tolerance, I am not worried about how shiny the edges are anyway. If I am really being anal about it, I will just run the edges over the belt sander really quick.

cjdavis618 wrote:I just bought some Mic6 1/4" in 14" squares from a guy on ebay and paid $40 for 2 of them shipped. Already got it in and planning on putting it on the printer. There was quite a bit more on there also from other vendors pretty cheap, so I would buy it there and then have it milled out. Anyone with a decent size bedmill should be able to get it cut for you quick. Even better if they have a waterjet.

Just trying to decide how I want to cut it. I'm being lazy and I don't want to setup the router on the torchmate is the problem to mill the aluminum. I'm thinking I will just use the bandsaw and a circle jig. Something like this. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H59G5bMrqRo

As long as the plate is decent tolerance, I am not worried about how shiny the edges are anyway. If I am really being anal about it, I will just run the edges over the belt sander really quick.

I hope the surface flatness is within tolerance...that's what scares me about shipping

I've bought lots of Mic 6 from eBay and other vendors with no problems. If you re concerned, order from OnlineMetals - 1st class service and good process. It will be dead flat, no worries.

kk i just ordered the 1/4 thick 12x12 square!

bubbasnow wrote:

cjdavis618 wrote:I just bought some Mic6 1/4" in 14" squares from a guy on ebay and paid $40 for 2 of them shipped. Already got it in and planning on putting it on the printer. There was quite a bit more on there also from other vendors pretty cheap, so I would buy it there and then have it milled out. Anyone with a decent size bedmill should be able to get it cut for you quick. Even better if they have a waterjet.

Just trying to decide how I want to cut it. I'm being lazy and I don't want to setup the router on the torchmate is the problem to mill the aluminum. I'm thinking I will just use the bandsaw and a circle jig. Something like this. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H59G5bMrqRo

As long as the plate is decent tolerance, I am not worried about how shiny the edges are anyway. If I am really being anal about it, I will just run the edges over the belt sander really quick.

I hope the surface flatness is within tolerance...that's what scares me about shipping

I'm not worried about it. It came well packed and banded together with a 1" thick piece of acrylic between it. So I am sure it didn't bend. (The acrylic will be fun to play with later so I thought that was an added bonus.)

Even if it is a hair out of tolerance, I can lap it a bit on the surface plate to smooth it out. I'm already doing that with a smaller piece that I had for my sons flashforge cartesian. That factory plate was WARPED like the Starship Enteprise. It'll print much better this weekend once I get time to finish it.

Understand that while the heat plates will go far towards giving you an even temperature, heating them with an Onyx on 12V will take a very, very long time if you're after ABS temperatures.

g.

geneb wrote:Understand that while the heat plates will go far towards giving you an even temperature, heating them with an Onyx on 12V will take a very, very long time if you're after ABS temperatures.

g.

You are correct, Gene. I have the Mic-6 plate that is almost 5/16" thick and at 12 volts it was unusable because it would never get up to temperature. Using 24V it still takes a while
to get to temperature but once it does it seems to hold that temperature better because of it's mass. I haven't really measured how long it takes to get to temperature but it has to be
about 5 to 10 minutes.

Agreed, I have been using the 24v power supply for a while now and it heats up the bed quick. I will be printing in lots of batches anyway and will keep the bed on through several prints.

As most of you know, the plates I was selling last year were 1/8" thick. I use 24v to heat up to 90°C in 2 minutes. The "issue" is getting good flat 1/8" stock that does not stress relieve and warp. It was a crap shoot unfortunately.

3/16th is probably a good compromise on this also. I just go overkill if I can. That is the metal junkie in me coming out.. lol..

I like to give things at least an extra 1k lbs if I can.. In fact, now that I have the files for the Rostock in cad, I would like to build a rostock out of steel plate that is 1/4". I've been pondering that for a few weeks now. Overkill, yes. But it would be rigid and stable.

cjdavis618 wrote:3/16th is probably a good compromise on this also. I just go overkill if I can. That is the metal junkie in me coming out.. lol..

I like to give things at least an extra 1k lbs if I can.. In fact, now that I have the files for the Rostock in cad, I would like to build a rostock out of steel plate that is 1/4". I've been pondering that for a few weeks now. Overkill, yes. But it would be rigid and stable.

Rigid and stable indeed and a weight of probably a few hundred pounds. You'll need a few friends to help you lift it.

That and if you do a dumb (falls off the table, too much acceleration to the top part and then a sudden stop) you might be bending your aluminum extrusions from all that weight....

http://www.sandsmachine.com/alumweb.htm

14$ + shipping.

I think this came up a while ago in a different thread. This is by far the cheapest mic-6 I could find anywhere. The only problem is that the smallest plate is 14 and 3/8th inches diameter, so it will just barely fit on the rostock max. The edges will probably be a few millimeters away from the belts. I regret not ordering one a week ago. If you end up doing mic-6, tell us how it works out!

Generic Default wrote:http://www.sandsmachine.com/alumweb.htm

14$ + shipping.

I think this came up a while ago in a different thread. This is by far the cheapest mic-6 I could find anywhere. The only problem is that the smallest plate is 14 and 3/8th inches diameter, so it will just barely fit on the rostock max. The edges will probably be a few millimeters away from the belts. I regret not ordering one a week ago. If you end up doing mic-6, tell us how it works out!

I used the 5/16" x 16 3/4" 4 holes and had a machine shop cut it into a 13" diameter circle and drilled the holes that mated with the Onyx. I enlarged the holes in the Onyx so it had some
freedom to expand a little. Works fine on 24 Volts.

Nylocke wrote:That and if you do a dumb (falls off the table, too much acceleration to the top part and then a sudden stop) you might be bending your aluminum extrusions from all that weight....

That wouldn't be a problem. I wouldn't use steel arms, just the base and top plate would be steel. I would use the tricklaser arms just like I do now. The axis system and other mechanical movements would be the same unless I decide to go with linear bearing blocks. It would create a nice dampening effect for the movement of the lighterweight parts and it would be much more stable with rapids.

It was just a fleeting thought anyway but so was 3d printing at one time. I know some of the best printing FDM machines are based on steel tube frames.

I'm also guessing those "best printing" are $$$$$ because of this steel frame