Bambulab Top insulation

Last Updated 9 November 2024

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When printing ABS it is important to maintain a high temperature inside the printer cabinet, this is to secure good layer bonding and to prevent the print from warping to much. The top glass plate of the X1C and the P1S printers are letting out to much heat to be able to maintain a high enough temperature inside the cabinet.

I made a insulated “hat” to prevent the heat escaping trough the top plate of the printer. I designed a 3D-printed frame that are insulated with sound insulation plates. If you want to make one, you can find the design files for the 3D-printed parts on: Printables

To be able to print this design it obviously had to be split in several parts, I made four identical corner pieces that consist of a top and a bottom part. The part that acts as a cover for the seams also joins the pieces together.

Two corners, each consisting of one top and one bottom piece, is joined together with the cover. The 6 pins on the cover is melted in place with an old soldering iron (that I no longer use for soldering…). If you do not have a soldering iron to spare, you can for example heat the tip of an old screwdriver. It is very important to have good ventilation and respiratory protection when melting plastic this way. Repeat this for all 4 joints. Remember that the front seam cover part is different on the X1C and the P1S, the part for the P1S has a cutout in the lower left corner to fit around the P1S display.

I used a sound insulation plate of the kind that has adhesive on on side and a reflective surface on the other. The plate is 30mm thick.

First I cut the insulating plate to fit the inside of the frame. Then I fixed a inexpensive blanket to the adhesive side of the plate and cut it about 20mm larger then the plate on all sides.

Then the plate can be placed in the frame, starting in one corner by bending and pressing the edge into the frame all the way round. On the underside a hole has to be cut to make room for the glass plates handle.

I am using these “hats” only when I print ABS and they are raising the temperature with almost 10 degrees Celsius, off course depending on the nozzle and bed temperature used.