The Smell of Molten Projects in the Morning

Ed Nisley's Blog: Shop notes, electronics, firmware, machinery, 3D printing, laser cuttery, and curiosities. Contents: 100% human thinking, 0% AI slop.

Prusa MK4 Headbed Insulation

Over the winter, my Prusa MK4 printer occasionally coughed up a MINTEMP error when its platform heater cannot maintain the 90 °C called for by PETG. I finally added a cardboard insulating layer under the PCB heater:

Prusa MK4 Headbed - cardboard insulation
Prusa MK4 Headbed – cardboard insulation

Yes, the blue tool layer rectangle marking the centers of the corner cutouts is offset 2.5 mm to the left:

Heatbed Insulation - LightBurn layout
Heatbed Insulation – LightBurn layout

The layout is not symmetric, because Prusa wanted to prevent you from installing the PCB incorrectly, so I needed three tries to get it right.

The alert reader will note the lack of the front-corner chamfers in the picture letting your fingers get under the corners to remove the steel sheet. I cut ’em off with a utility knife and you get the benefit of hindsight.

Whether this minimal insulation will solve the problem shall remain unknown until the coldest days of next winter, but eliminating drafts around the thermistor taped to the bottom of the PCB can’t possibly be a Bad Thing™.

The LightBurn layout exported to an SVG image as a GitHub Gist:

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