Alternate top/bottom plates - aluminum tooling plates

[Jason Fisher]

Found these pre-drilled aluminum tooling plates on eBay, and at a glance it looks like the holes are pre-drilled in the correct arrangement and the plate might make a good alternative to MDF/plywood? ~$20 for 14 3/4" diameter or ~$40 for 16 9/16" diameter and very thick..

http://www.ebay.com/itm/1-Aluminum-Disc ... 19cfc11d02

[Jason Fisher]

Maybe a pizza pan would work for the top plate? Available in aluminum or stainless.

19 - 22" for ~$20 - $40

http://www.ebay.com/itm/American-Metalc ... 1c370b930c

http://www.ebay.com/itm/American-Metalc ... 1e8055c699



http://www.ebay.com/itm/American-Metalc ... 5d445a9489

[Jason Fisher]

Water heater pans are a bit larger -- 26"-30" diameter $30 - $60. Water heaters are actually probably a good maximum size for an indoor printer .. and a junked one may make an interesting heated LISA enclosure? Mount the water-heater off the ground a bit so the steppers/electronics can sit underneath.. if you use PLA/something acetone friendly for printed parts, maybe you could feed acetone vapors into the enclosure for ABS part smoothing.

http://www.amazon.com/Oatey-34187-Alumi ... heater+pan

http://www.amazon.com/Camco-20860-Alumi ... tream_4_dp




http://www.ebay.com/itm/Oatey-34103-28- ... 565f54e108

Water heater capacity to dimensions conversion chart, sizes likely generic but this could be brand specific:


I want a 75-gallon LISA.

[Jason Fisher]

26" diameter steel saucer sled, 6 lbs, available in colors, $35 with free shipping:

http://www.amazon.com/Flexible-Flyer-26 ... tal+saucer


Handles are nice. And that helmet is probably right within the usable build area.

[Jason Fisher]

55-gallon drum lids are probably relatively inexpensive for their thickness.

$30-$40, 24" diameter, 9lbs, 18ga steel



http://www.newpig.com/pig/US/unlined-re ... by_product

Buy a 55-gallon steel drum, build the LISA so it suspends from the lid, put the electronics on top of the lid and then you can lower it all into the bucket for a heated enclosure.

On a side note, I've always wanted to design a printer that attached to opposite ends of the rim of a drum/bucket, with wheels that drove a single axis in circles while the head moves from one end of the axis to the other and drops with a screw to print off the bottom of the container.

[Nicholas Seward]

Any flatstock will do. I like the thick aluminum in your first post.

[uncle_bob]

So.... is the cast aluminum tooling plate flat enough / smooth enough to use as a heated bed? For the moment lets ignore the number of KW it would take to heat it and other minor issues....

[Nicholas Seward]

I would assume they are flat enough.

FYI, the lead screws on 1X LISA are positioned 300mm apart. That puts them on about a 13.75" diameter circle.

[uncle_bob]

I'm aiming for an oversized build, so a fairly large disk would work in my case, diameter wise. Whether or not there is a practical / rational / cost effective way to mount and heat a 35 lb slab of aluminum is TBD....

[Nicholas Seward]

It doesn't matter how big it is. If you thermal epoxy one of these to the bottom and then throw some insulation below that you will be great. Mass and specific heat affect heat of times but the exposed surface area is only thing that will change your max temp. (Well, not quite but close enough.)