Has anyone installed HBP on a Z18?

Hi guys, just signed up to the forums but have been lurking for a little while now. I have two PowerSpec Pro 3D printers and print almost exclusively with ABS on glass.

I have an opportunity to purchase a Z18 at a ridiculously low price. It's a company I do work for and they could not successfully use it. After using the PowerSpec for a year and working with ABS I am intimately familiar with my machines, LOL!

I initially wanted to jump on the z18 deal until I discovered they advertise it for PLA but never mention ABS. At that point I started doing a lot of research and discovered the heated chamber. I also discovered that for a $6k machine it sounds like a piece of crap. While a few people praise it, many more seem to hate it. I am aware these are not plug-n-play machines and require patience and knowledge to work with. However, regardless of the price I don't want to sign up for continued frustration! If it's something I know others have been able to conquer I will accept the challenge, but if everyone before me has tried and failed, I would look to pass on the deal.

Anyone familiar with this machine I don't want to revisit all the issues but I have a few questions. 1) Has anyone worked through the issues to the point where you can print effectively? 2) Has anyone attempted to install a Heated Bed Platform on the Z18 for printing ABS? 3) Has anyone been able to produce non-warping ABS prints utilizing the heated chamber instead of adding an HBP?

Of course I have tried google searching the HBP questions and tried searching on these forums. Unfortunately, "z18" is too short of a term and the search engine on these forums.

If anyone could point me in the right direction I would appreciate it. Thank you!

Howdy
Shortly said: one can use ABS on Z18, but with a lot of patience and knowledge of course.
Heated chamber can heat up to 55dc. This alone is obviously not enough for successful preventing warp at ABS.
I was successful with non-MB filaments of special ABS.

There is third party heated bed on market with proper size (30cmx30cm). Can be installed as add-on. Then you get much easyer way to print ABS all together.
Therefore, If you stick with ABS then i would strongly recommend this heated bed.

Otherwise, Z18 is great machine.
With new extruder even better :)

Have you tried the Smart extruder+? If so, what is the cost and was it as good as MB claims it is?

SE+ is definitely the must.
I have Z18 for 1.5years so far. SE was kind of weak point of it, but managable.
SE+ is much better, we produced great prints with no efforts compared to previous SE.

The SE+ states it fits Replicator and Mini on MB website but does not state it fits z18. Is that the same unit?

Of course.
There is only one SE and it is the same for all units.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Roberto

Howdy
There is third party heated bed on market with proper size (30cmx30cm). Can be installed as add-on. Then you get much easyer way to print ABS all together.
Therefore, If you stick with ABS then i would strongly recommend this heated bed.

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Can you please provide me a link to this bed? Ive been searching for a couple days now and haven't come across anything that would fit.

Try this one:
http://makemendel.com/mechanical-par...d-300-x-300-mm