In search of magnetic printer pads for cube3

[DonaCorning]

Hi everyone.
I am new here.. so please forgive me if I am posting in the wrong area.
I bought a used Cube3. It is fully functioning but it is missing the magnetic leveling pads that the build plate sits on. I am thinking I might be able to make replacement ones. The threads of the small posts appear to be 3mm. I am wondering if finding 1.25" round magnets that are fairly thin and gluing them to the top of a flat surfaced thumb nut would work? I do have another 3D printer I could print PLA thumb nuts with. I just need to know how thick this whole set up would need to be as to not loose too much building height. I did a test with just small thumb nuts and placing a 6x6 piece of cardboard on top to make sure that the sensors would sense something there and they did.. but an error came up saying the build plate too low which I expected. I just wanted to make sure it was working. Thanks in advance for any help or suggestions. My other alternative I guess would be to somehow directly screw on a build plate like my Prusa i3 has?

[TommyDee]

If the pad magnets are the same as the plate magnets, then they would be 3/32" thick and 3/4" diameter.
They are N42 neodymium.

I've never really looked at how they put the stud in the magnet.
Maybe something like this? http://www.kjmagnetics.com/proddetai...-N-N52&cat=173

[MegaloDon]

Bo, do you think the magnet cap I designed for you would help in this situation?

[DonaCorning]

I think I have it figured out. I removed the little screw posts and I ordered the magnets. I am going to epoxy the tops of the posts into the counter sunk hole. The posts have a washer/stopper so I know how far to put in the magnet. A cover for them would be great if you have a file to print them. I could do that on my Prusa. I also ordered a glass build plate and will epoxy magnets onto that as well unless someone knows of a better way to do this. The build plate this came with looks pretty damaged and I was reading a post here where someone used Borosilicate Glass with good results. I might buy this for my Prusa as well.

[TommyDee]

Yes, a good quality borosilicate plate is excellent. I have two; one of which is slated for a heated bed experiment.


I use Shoe-Goo for the magnets to the glass. It cleans up better than epoxy or RTV.
This also gives you a change to redo it without breaking the glass.

The main reason for the covers is to keep from breaking the magnets.
With the Infinity Rinse material, they actually provide different pads that seem slicker (fiberglass weave?).
Therefore, whatever cover you come up with will help. But it can be as simple as a sticky-backed "dot" taped to the magnet.

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Here is some more info... page 3 starts to get interesting.

http://www.print3dforum.com/showthre...et-build-plate

[MegaloDon]

A cover for them would be great if you have a file to print them. I could do that on my Prusa.

Here is the one I designed for Bo.
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1vB...I5lvAZ7bLteTLr

There are 2 versions. One has a raft / brim, and a blob shield (ideally designed for printing on the Cube 3). The other is plain. The plain one would be better for printing on the Prusa. You can just add a brim and the blob shield is only needed on the Cube. Bo may have some advice for printing it since he did all the test printing. I didn't want to take my caps off to test it since it is leveled perfectly and I only have one Cube 3.

Keep in mind that this was designed for printing on the Cube 3 and the tolerances may not be the same when printed on the Prusa.

Let me know if you need any changes made.

[TommyDee]

https://www.ebay.com/itm/170mm-x-170...item4d56048c02

My glass plate source.

[DonaCorning]

Thanks everyone for your help. The magnets came and my glass build plate. I was able to put the counter sunk magnets on the exiting posts and use little c clamps to hold the magnets in place. I ended up using thin silicone pads on the magnets to protect them. 3m makes them in just the right size. The only problem I had was that now the build plate is too tall and the auto leveling doesn't work which is ok. I am used to manually leveling and manually setting the z gap on my Prusa. I thought I had it right and I didn't though and my nozzle dragged on the plate and it looks like my nozzle tip broke or flattend out somehow.. are they aluminum? Seems soft and odd it happened or are the nozzles a little on the flat side? Seems like it is flush with the housing (print carriage) now. I ordered a new cartridge although I already did the filament hack so not sure if I should just swap out the nozzle or if I can change the cartridge? Will the hack still work with a new 100% full cartridge? I read through the threads here and learned how to calibrate the nozzles so hopefully I wont have this problem again.. everyday is a learning experience with this little printer.. but for $60 I just couldn't pass up buying it and tinkering.

[TommyDee]

You want the auto-level to work. Without it, you have some unknown leveling state in the machine that you have to work with when manually leveling. Simple way to make auto-leveling work is to cover the surface with blue tape just for this function. Gap can be fooled by using a white piece of paper until it goes to the manual routine.

Did we also discuss setting the default gap using the maintenance menu "calibrate"?

The end of the tip is flat, yes. The hole is about 0.4mm. And it is aluminum.

Glad you got things up and running. Welcome to your new addiction!

[DonaCorning]

No, I don't know what the default gap is. I have been reading through the threads and someone mentioned a secret calibration button but did not find how to access? How do you access that?Under calibration there is Cal1 and Cal2. It has only been calibrating on cal1 and I do not know how to access cal2. I did get both nozzles to purge and both still remaining at 97% so the hack really worked! I will be making the modified cartridges soon to be able to use my favorite abs and pla . I am wondering if the wash away filaments can be used also on the pla side? I have never used it before.

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I was able to print the test print that is loaded on the machine in the abs but it is very poor.. leveling is definately off. I had good plate adhesion on the posterior portion of it towards the back of the plate and what i call noodling or gapping towards the front of it. But the layers beyond the first layer look ok with it being slightly thicker in the front. I need to buy a good pair of calipers to check. I definitely need to figure out the auto leveling adjustments.The nozzles are definitely damaged but work for testing right now. Need to be careful they never scrape again.