Heated Print Bed surface question

[zx81]

Hello everyone

I'm in the process of Building a new printer, I should be getting my heat bed sorted out tonight hopefully (soldering the thermistor and power leads and some braided cabling etc) I have a quick question regarding the surface of the bed I'm switching from glass to aluminium surface I've already been testing this using a aluminium sheet on top of my PCB print surface.

now I've found that the best way to get the 1st layer to stick is to use ABS juice directly on the surface now this sometimes peels off the bed because the bed is too smooth so I've been using very fine grit sand paper and deliberately scratching the surface of my print surface this seems to give me better adhesion to the bed now I'm going to be using a 3mm aluminium heated bed is there any reason I should NOT do this to my brand new heated bed ?

cheers
zx

[3dkarma]

Why not try something like buildtak? It's cheaper to replace than an ali bed when it wears out.

[zx81]

I'm planning on using a inductive proximity sensor so I really need to have a metal top layer on the bed

[3dkarma]

I'm planning on using a inductive proximity sensor so I really need to have a metal top layer on the bed

So long as there's metal underneath they'll work through a thin layer, like painter's tape, Kapton or buildtak.

[zx81]

thanks for the info.

I'm probably over thinking this I'll build the printer see if I have any problems first with the metal print bed, just checked it would actually be cheaper just to scratch the bed if I need to than to use buildtak or kapton tape (there more expensive than the heated bed) I'm making my heated bed in a way that if it needs to be repaired or replaced then it will just unplug and I'll just plug in a new one.