Heated Bed Sourcing

Hi All,

I'm interested in adding a heated bed to my Prusa Mendel but I do not own a soldering iron (I live at college, too many smoke alarms). I've seen a few heated beds on ebay for sale but they aren't quite clear about how exactly you attach it to the printer. (like this one here: [www.ebay.com])

Would anyone be able to give me some advice about how these attach on or whether you've found a better one that just plugs straight in?

Any help would be much appreciated.

Steph from Qld, Australia

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(I live at college, too many smoke alarms)

And your college doesn't have an electronics laboratory?

In addition I have never set off a smoke detector while using my soldering iron.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/26/2013 08:09AM by rhmorrison.

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Bob Morrison
Wörth am Rhein, Germany
"Luke, use the source!"
BLOG - PHOTOS - Thingiverse

Haha that's good to hear. Yes they do, but I'm studying Biomedicine rather than Engineering so I can't get access to it. I could, however, ask one of my engineering friends to do the soldering for me. Have you attached a heated bed before? Do you know much about what's involved if I got the one on the ebay link?

I am using a 220vac silicon heating pad, in fact it is the Heated WolfBed.

And I assume you are talking about one of the 12vdc pcb heated beds.
I used screw terminals for my connections (except for the AC outlet).

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/26/2013 09:18AM by rhmorrison.

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Bob Morrison
Wörth am Rhein, Germany
"Luke, use the source!"
BLOG - PHOTOS - Thingiverse

I did in my last post!
Click on the Heated WolfBed link.

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Bob Morrison
Wörth am Rhein, Germany
"Luke, use the source!"
BLOG - PHOTOS - Thingiverse

The helios print bed from www.panucatt.com has screw-on power connections. The thermistor requires a bit of light soldering, but there is no need for the heavier soldering needed for the power connections. These soldered connections are - in my opinion - the biggest problem area with regard to installing these beds.

Light or heavy soldering... He'll still require a soldering iron

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3D Printing Blog: [www.absplastic.eu] - The Future, The Possibilities

What is the best way to wire up the thermistor wire to the bed and give strain relief from the bed moving ? Also any sugggestion on the type of wire that works best for this ? Thanks

You could buy an Ormerod 2 heat bed from RepRapPro. It has screw terminals. Likewise, the bed thermistor for the Ormerod does not require soldering, it uses a crimp connector.

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Large delta printer [miscsolutions.wordpress.com], E3D tool changer, Robotdigg SCARA printer, Crane Quad and Ormerod

Disclosure: I design Duet electronics and work on RepRapFirmware, [duet3d.com].

On ebay you can post questions to the seller to clarify if it needs soldering. On the heated beds that I got the thermistor wires were already soldered. I just had to cement the sensor into the hole and use kapton tape to tape it to the bottom of the board. You will want either zip ties or split wire loom to bundle the wires together. If you plan on using non PLA filament you may wan to add insulation to the bottom of the board.