MakerBot Industries

I ended up ordering an aluminum plate for my HBP - I ripped the last piece of aluminum tape (lol) experimenting (likely my HBP is not yet level). I'll try again once I get the aluminum and wide kapton tape in the mail (couple of days, I hope).

Rigged something up waiting for my aluminum plate to arrive (hehe) - fighting a little bit getting the 'first bit' to stick… but having decent success beyond that point. Guess I've got some playing ahead of me. Fun stuff.

The aluminum plate /kapton combination has been installed and I ran the first few test prints last night. I've gotta say - THIS KICKS ASS. I'm running raftless, no issues, everything is going just as nice as it could be, on that front. I've gone from 'ain't nothing sticking to this blue tape' to 'damn, that's stuck on there tight, raftless' - it's night and day. Anybody contemplating HBP and raftless - DO IT :)

You could also make a copy of the base profile you normally use and make that changes to that. As of now I have 3, default, one with a moded Raft section to improve removal and another that is raftless (Raft still checked, just base layers set to 0). Having separate profiles makes it a little easier/quicker to switch between.

On the raftless I also slowed down the first layer by setting all 3 of the Object First Layer ratios to .3. So far this has been working well. I have the ABP (HBP is backordered) with belt and motor removed. Motor is just removed to allow for larger prints until I mod front panel. I put a layer of Kapton tape (using 3/4" wide that came with kit) over the aluminum tape, wipe it with IPA every so often. I still get a minor amount of curling on tall, large square items, not enough to affect the integrity of the print. I think that has more to do with me being in a cool basement then the platform, as some of what I have read on curling has to do with the upper layers cooling faster then the lower since they are constantly sitting on the heated platform, will see once I get a HBP plate.