Qidi Tech 1 - Replicator 1 clone

[DarkAlchemist]

How many watts is the heated bed on this? I am asking because the next question is where can I find a silicone heated mat at for it? My pcb broke a long time ago and I soldered the connector back on (after it got so hot it melted) and replaced the thin wires with 14ga silicone wires. Worked great (jb weld to the rescue to weld the connector back on) but after about 14 months ABS will no longer print in it as it warps any ABS it sees and not a common type of warp either. What happens is that the middle of the part sinks in OR the ABS (mind you this is only ABS not PETG or PLA) goes in an upside down pyramid. Not sure what is happening but I will work all of that out but a nice silicone heated pad of the proper temp (thermistor is attached) will help.

Anyone managed to do this mod? Considering the first time I printed ABS with this printer (when it was brand new) it burnt up the "pc glue" that was on it YET I never exceeded the 100c it says right on it AND the stupid connector yellowed and melted I think a silicone heater pad would be the best bet so I am looking for anyone who has done this.

[DaveB]

HiYa DA, it's been a while. How have you been doing? No idea on the QiDi Tech 1 bed wattage. I replaced my bed heater a year or so ago with the same when I somehow managed to short the heating circuit to the bed metalwork. I also put an insulating pad on the underside of the bed that improved the warm up times. The pad was called "cotton", but it isn't really, and it doesn't burn. I used some hi-temp RTV stuff to glue the insulating pad onto the heater PCB, that has worked well. I also put a thin sheet of thermal "gino" pad material between the heater PCB and the metal plate. Not sure if that helped or hurt the thermal coupling, but after having a short it seemed the right thing to do. After your experience, I had long ago replaced the heater power cables with some nice 12GA silicon super flexible ones and an inline JT-60 connector.

Funny note, I unfortunately had a metalwork short in one of the thermocouple lines on a hot end, at the same time as the heated bed short. When I used an open end wrench to change the nozzle I of course shorted the bed metal to the hot end metal. The errant bed heater voltage instantly fried the thermocouple input IC on the motherboard. Wouldn't have been half so bad if I had not also done it to the replacement motherboard I installed a few days later. Luckily, the second time it happened I saw the spark.

Hang in there DA