Bambu Thermo Cap

If you want to print ABS/ASA without warping you can pay $2500US for the new Bambu X1E. Or… you can get great results with a P1S and an insulation layer.

The folks who live upstairs from me have been getting food deliveries that come packed in a product called Renewliner which is a PET insulation packing material (see photo). I have found this to be the perfect material for insulating 3D printers because it does not shed and produce dust like fiberglass and it is much more versatile than rigid foam. 

Using Renewliner is perfect because you should be able to get it for free. You can also keep some of this stuff out of the landfill as it was designed from recycled materials that have been combined in a way that is not actually recyclable here in the US.

You will want to print this with ABS or another high-temp material because we are trying to get the printer to 60 degrees C and PLA will deform above 55.

**** WARNING **** INSULATING AND WORKING AT HIGHER TEMPERATURES CAN INCREASE WEAR ON YOUR MACHINE, CAUSE OVERHEATING, HEAT CREEP, AND POTENTIALLY VOID YOUR WARRANTY. DO SO AT YOUR OWN RISK.

So let's get started. I have included 3mf files that should take care of all the settings but I will also describe my printing methods.

The cap was designed with relief holes to minimize warping but you will probably need to insulate the printer to get good results. Prepare your print bed and wrap the top, sides, front, and back if possible with insulation. Move your bed about ¾ of the way to the top of the printer. Set the bed temperature to 100 degrees and the auxiliary fan to 20%. You can watch the hotend temperature as it will tell you the chamber temperature when the hotend is not being actively heated. When the chamber temp reaches the high 50s you can start the print.

This project uses roughly 500g of filament in total.

Filament: 

for ABS I set the bed temp to 100 and the max volumetric flow to 10

Speed: 

caps - 100mm/s max, 5000mm/s acceleration

clips - 50mm/s max, 2500mm/s acceleration

3 wall loops

Supports: 

type, normal; style, snug; base pattern, rectilinear; base pattern spacing, 1.5mm

I used 3D Gloop (ABS) to glue it all together. Do a test assembly before you get the glue out. Start by putting  two peices together. Then put the other two pieces together. Then snap the two halves together. Side clips do not need glue.

Layer 2 pieces of 1" insulation in the cap and maybe add a strip of lights. 

**** FINAL WARNING ****

I have read that Bambu printers will send an overheat error at 70 degrees and shutdown. I have not experienced this or any other problems associated with overheating but this is always a possibility.