Increasing Build plate size?

[curious aardvark]

yes you can increase it on your own. Without rebuilding anything or changing your motherboard. Sometimes geoff overlooks the easy - ducttape world - option because the hard option is easy for him :-)

Bear in mind that the whole width of the of the machine is not used because the specs are given so that both heads can reach everywhere on the build plate.

All you need to do is drop a wider plate (3mm glass or aluminium would be fine) onto the existing one and use a cold bed plastic like nylon, pet, pla etc. you can then use the right head to just print stuff on the right and the left head to print on the left.
I haven't measured it but I reckon another 5-6 inches of width would be easily achievable.
Not sure if it'll print with more depth. But you could probably squeeze a bit more depth out if you wanted to.
Easy way to check is to move the printhead as far forward as it'll go and see if it's gone past the end of the printbed, if it does then there's your extra print depth :-)

That's the easy bit. The hard bit is getting the software to use the new width of the build plate.
I suspect you'd need to start using a fullly compatible 3rd party software like simplify 3d. Not sure if makerware or repg will let you designate a larger printing area.

Proftweak might.

[Geoff]

yes you can increase it on your own. Without rebuilding anything or changing your motherboard. Sometimes geoff overlooks the easy - ducttape world - option because the hard option is easy for him :-)

Bear in mind that the whole width of the of the machine is not used because the specs are given so that both heads can reach everywhere on the build plate.

All you need to do is drop a wider plate (3mm glass or aluminium would be fine) onto the existing one and use a cold bed plastic like nylon, pet, pla etc. you can then use the right head to just print stuff on the right and the left head to print on the left.
I haven't measured it but I reckon another 5-6 inches of width would be easily achievable.
Not sure if it'll print with more depth. But you could probably squeeze a bit more depth out if you wanted to.
Easy way to check is to move the printhead as far forward as it'll go and see if it's gone past the end of the printbed, if it does then there's your extra print depth :-)

That's the easy bit. The hard bit is getting the software to use the new width of the build plate.
I suspect you'd need to start using a fullly compatible 3rd party software like simplify 3d. Not sure if makerware or repg will let you designate a larger printing area.

Proftweak might.

The printing area in your machine is designated by the firmware, which replicator G talks to and sorts out your build area from that, so no there is no actual way in replicator G, short from manually editing the Gcode (which is a futile effort for me)

Getting your build plate on there and in position is the easy part yeah move some endstops around, shift a few things, a 20x20 build plate fits well within that case but the problem is the limits just wont let you go there with a dual head machine, I imagine thats why the plate is not a standard plate on a flashforge, its 22cm wide to account for the extra width needed to make the second head print at each edge.

A dual carriage extruder is (well, mine is) 8.62cm wide, when in reality an extruder is only as wide as the stepper motor, or needs to be, and thats about 4cm.

This is alot of wasted space if you are not using dual extrusion, and as I said - when the head gets to the left edge, it needs to allow the right hand extruder to make it that far and vice versa on the other side.

The only thing really that would need to be done is the Y axis, the X should be fine already for 20x20 plates

Well, I think I might have a go at this myself, ive done half of it already I'd just need to get the endstops moved now as its still setup for the original plate.

[sasabs]

yes you can increase it on your own. Without rebuilding anything or changing your motherboard. Sometimes geoff overlooks the easy - ducttape world - option because the hard option is easy for him :-)

Bear in mind that the whole width of the of the machine is not used because the specs are given so that both heads can reach everywhere on the build plate.

All you need to do is drop a wider plate (3mm glass or aluminium would be fine) onto the existing one and use a cold bed plastic like nylon, pet, pla etc. you can then use the right head to just print stuff on the right and the left head to print on the left.
I haven't measured it but I reckon another 5-6 inches of width would be easily achievable.
Not sure if it'll print with more depth. But you could probably squeeze a bit more depth out if you wanted to.
Easy way to check is to move the printhead as far forward as it'll go and see if it's gone past the end of the printbed, if it does then there's your extra print depth :-)

That's the easy bit. The hard bit is getting the software to use the new width of the build plate.
I suspect you'd need to start using a fullly compatible 3rd party software like simplify 3d. Not sure if makerware or repg will let you designate a larger printing area.

Proftweak might.

Hi can someone help me understand where a 5-6" expansion is possible?
If I want to print only the right nozzle I can expand the bed and gain the width of the nozzle separation about 1.5 inches on the right side. I can't move the x-stop since itrs close to the y rail.
On the left side I can gain 1.5" if I only use the left nozzle. I can't move the stop as it is close to the wall.
So, if I want to gain three inches I would have to split my model into two and have the same filament on each extruder. Seems hardly worth it. If I need extra width it is easier to print twice and glue.

[bl099]

yes you can increase it on your own. Without rebuilding anything or changing your motherboard. Sometimes geoff overlooks the easy - ducttape world - option because the hard option is easy for him :-)

Bear in mind that the whole width of the of the machine is not used because the specs are given so that both heads can reach everywhere on the build plate.

All you need to do is drop a wider plate (3mm glass or aluminium would be fine) onto the existing one and use a cold bed plastic like nylon, pet, pla etc. you can then use the right head to just print stuff on the right and the left head to print on the left.
I haven't measured it but I reckon another 5-6 inches of width would be easily achievable.
Not sure if it'll print with more depth. But you could probably squeeze a bit more depth out if you wanted to.
Easy way to check is to move the printhead as far forward as it'll go and see if it's gone past the end of the printbed, if it does then there's your extra print depth :-)

That's the easy bit. The hard bit is getting the software to use the new width of the build plate.
I suspect you'd need to start using a fullly compatible 3rd party software like simplify 3d. Not sure if makerware or repg will let you designate a larger printing area.

Proftweak might.

I know this is an old post but potentially I can put on a sheet of aluminium, and be able to print bigger objects? Does the actual 3D printer?s firmware need changing?