Lightyear G10 build plate. Thoughts?

[7milesup]

I am looking at an additional build plate for my Voron 2.4r.   I came across Lightyear's G10 build plate while searching.  Have any of you folks used one of these? 

It is a Garolite build surface, which seems rather old school, but sometimes old school is better.  It is 1.5mm thick, and apparently only one-sided and smooth, which I am ok with. 

https://lightyeardirect.com/products/preorder-ships-mid-july-magnetic-garolite-g10-build-plate-for-voron-2-4?variant=45352572977449

 

[SuperBoppy]

I use a piece of garolite on my TEVO Tarantula bed and it works great (I use this now instead of glass - much safer).

I printed TPU on the garolite and it stuck too well. Next time I’ll use glue stick or hairspray for TPU. For rigid plastic like PLA or ABS, a clean surface should work just fine.

I have a piece of 300mm garolite for the Voron, but there’s no metal backing to it. I would have to use it over my PEI coated spring steel sheet so the induction probe can level the gantry.

BTW, Makers Muse did a video on this material: 

 

Edited January 17 by SuperBoppy

[7milesup]

1 hour ago, SuperBoppy said:

I have a piece of 300mm garolite for the Voron, but there’s no metal backing to it. I would have to use it over my PEI coated spring steel sheet so the induction probe can level the gantry.

Yeah, the product I mentioned in my OP has the metal sheet so it will adhere to my build plate.  I have TAP for QGL so there shouldn't be any issues there.  I will check out the video.  Thank you.

[claudermilk]

I have a plate with garolite on it for printing Nylon. It's worked quite well for that.

[VDZ]

G10 is an insulation material used in the electric motor / transformer winding industry. I prefer 1/16" G11; same material, higher temperature rating. The adhesion can be renewed by lightly sanding, and washing with alcohol.

Most motor winding shops will stock it and cut whatever size you want. 

[Dean]

I purchased a Lightyear G10 build plate for my highly modified Ender3, and so far, it is the best build plate I have used with that printer, and I have purchased many different build plates. The Lightyear one is a bit expensive, especially if you consider the cost of a raw G10 sheet, but they did a very nice job of cutting it and adhering it to a metal backing plate, which makes it very easy to use with a magnetic bed, also it leveled out my bad ender bed a bit.

I will most definitely purchase one of these for my 300mm Voron 2.4 once I get it up and running.

 

[SuperBoppy]

Grainger sells 12" x 12" x 0.063" (1/16") sheets for around $15: https://www.grainger.com/product/APPROVED-VENDOR-G-10-FR4-Fiberglass-Epoxy-55RM44 Try not to spend too much on a sheet of this. It's just a high-temp phenolic board - very common - printed circuit board. With the popularity of this growing, I see all kinds of sales specifically for 3D printers like it's some kind of special stuff, charging $35 or $40 for a piece of it. 

Also, if you are going to trim a piece of this, make sure you follow proper safety procedure. This board is epoxy impregnated fiberglass. Wear eye protection, a breathing mask if you cut it - i used a wet diamond saw used for cutting ceramic tile to eliminate the dust problem. You can also score and snap it, but you will probably want to sand the edges - use wet carbide sandpaper or wear a mask if sanding dry. The last thing you want in your lungs is epoxy dust mixed with glass fibers.

[7milesup]

15 hours ago, SuperBoppy said:

Grainger sells 12" x 12" x 0.063" (1/16") sheets for around $15: https://www.grainger.com/product/APPROVED-VENDOR-G-10-FR4-Fiberglass-Epoxy-55RM44 Try not to spend too much on a sheet of this. It's just a high-temp phenolic board - very common - printed circuit board. With the popularity of this growing, I see all kinds of sales specifically for 3D printers like it's some kind of special stuff, charging $35 or $40 for a piece of it. 

Also, if you are going to trim a piece of this, make sure you follow proper safety procedure. This board is epoxy impregnated fiberglass. Wear eye protection, a breathing mask if you cut it - i used a wet diamond saw used for cutting ceramic tile to eliminate the dust problem. You can also score and snap it, but you will probably want to sand the edges - use wet carbide sandpaper or wear a mask if sanding dry. The last thing you want in your lungs is epoxy dust mixed with glass fibers.

Excellent info.  I have a 20% off at Zoro so that might work (Zoro is the "discount" side of Grainger).  I have worked with G10 a little for my RC aircraft hobby, plus I have a full woodworking shop, so working with this will not be a problem.

Thank you for the tips and the help.  It is very much appreciated!!

 

EDIT:  Just ordered two sheets from Zoro for $35 shipped to my door.

[WINEDS]

On 1/17/2024 at 4:11 AM, 7milesup said:

I am looking at an additional build plate for my Voron 2.4r.   I came across Lightyear's G10 build plate while searching.  Have any of you folks used one of these? 

It is a Garolite build surface, which seems rather old school, but sometimes old school is better.  It is 1.5mm thick, and apparently only one-sided and smooth, which I am ok with. 

https://lightyeardirect.com/products/preorder-ships-mid-july-magnetic-garolite-g10-build-plate-for-voron-2-4?variant=45352572977449

I have been looking to make a G10 build plate as sadly they are not readily available.  Finding G10 sheet at 355x355mm by 0.5mm thickness plus 3m double sided adhesive sheet plus a suitable blank spring sheet is challenging.  I print nylon carbon fibre frequently and get excellent results with the prusa nylon sheet but it's not big enough for some parts I want to print.  Nylon CF almost sticks too well to the prusa sheet.  Hopefully a G10 sheet would work just as well?

[Dirk]

Interesting.

So as I understand, cheap material that works excellent for certain applications. 

Can I simply glue an old used/abused pei sheet to the back of a g10 plate with  thermal-withstanding glue?

It would then work with tap. For beacon/IDM/cartographer I would probably need to adjust height, as these would scan the metal in the pei sheet below it...

Any recommendations on the thickness of the sheet? I have seen mentioned thickness in imperial size, but I see I can purchase it in thickness 0.2, 0.3, 0.5, 1.0, 1.5, 2.0, 3.0, 4.0 mm thicknesses.

 

[7milesup]

8 hours ago, WINEDS said:

I have been looking to make a G10 build plate as sadly they are not readily available.  Finding G10 sheet at 355x355mm by 0.5mm thickness plus 3m double sided adhesive sheet plus a suitable blank spring sheet is challenging.  I print nylon carbon fibre frequently and get excellent results with the prusa nylon sheet but it's not big enough for some parts I want to print.  Nylon CF almost sticks too well to the prusa sheet.  Hopefully a G10 sheet would work just as well?

 

2 hours ago, Dirk said:

Interesting.

So as I understand, cheap material that works excellent for certain applications. 

Can I simply glue an old used/abused pei sheet to the back of a g10 plate with  thermal-withstanding glue?

It would then work with tap. For beacon/IDM/cartographer I would probably need to adjust height, as these would scan the metal in the pei sheet below it...

Any recommendations on the thickness of the sheet? I have seen mentioned thickness in imperial size, but I see I can purchase it in thickness 0.2, 0.3, 0.5, 1.0, 1.5, 2.0, 3.0, 4.0 mm thicknesses.

@WINEDS  I am not sure where you live but in the US there are a number of places to source these materials.  Amazon is one.  I purchased my G10/FR4 from Zoro.com, in a 12x12"x 1/16" sheet.  One of the keys to finding what you need is to look outside of the normal 3D printing world. 

@Dirk  Reusing your old spring steel sheet with the PEI would be very doable.  I actually ordered a new  Amazon el-cheapo spring steel plate with PEI that I plan on using for my G10. The adhesive used to hold the PEI sheets and G10 down to the spring steel plate seems to be 3M 468MP.  It is available from Gizmo Dorks website.  It is also available from Amazon, but Amazon's shipping method seems to leave a little to be desired, according to some reviews.

As far as thickness, it seems like 1/16" is very common. This is .0625" or 1.5875mm.  G10 consists of fiberglass cloth impregnated with epoxy resin, so I think that the thinner the material, the less durable it is.  Also to note, G10 is good up to about 140 degrees Celcius, which should be fine for our use.  FR4 holds the same properties as G-10 but is flame resistant, hence the FR in its material name.

I know that this seems like a lot of futzing around gathering materials, but meh, it is a hobby and that is what hobbies are about.  As I mention in my original post, I was considering the Lightyear brand, but they are currently out of stock and they also never answered an email that I sent them, so I have crossed them off of my list.

I hope this helps some.

EDIT:  I just looked at Aliexpress and of course there is a bunch available on there for less money, including shipping.  Aliexpress FR4 sheet.

EDIT part two:  I just found the 3M 468mp sheets at Digikey, which is one of my favorite suppliers.  I am going to guess is that is genuine 3M versus the fake 3M from Aliexpress.  https://www.digikey.com/en/products/detail/3m-(tc)/12X12-6-468MP/2649265

[Dirk]

2 hours ago, 7milesup said:

I hope this helps some.

Definitely! Thank you very much @7milesup. I had no real reason to get one of these, but now I will have to look for good reasons not to  

Also a good place to get rid of the try-out PEI sheet that came brand new with my kit

3 hours ago, 7milesup said:

  I just looked at Aliexpress

And yea... AliExpress was cheaper than Amazon, and had many many options.