Bed fixtures Springs? Silicone Spacers, or Standoffs?

So whats everyone’s take on how their bed is secured. Do you prefer springs? Silicone spacers or a more rigid setup using standoffs? What do you use and why?

I changed one printer to silicone spacers and haven’t had to level my bed in quite some time. But my prusa uses standoffs i believe.

What would be the advantage of having the flexibility with springs or the silicone spacers over the rigid standoffs? Would it be to compensate for thermal expansion? if thats the case then what about installing the standoffs while the bed is heated? wouldnt that compensate for it’s expansion.

It depended on the printer design. If it is designed for ABL then using a second leveling system makes no sense to me. Having a dual leveling is just asking for issues. Retrofitting a printer means the tolerances for the bed accuracy are not likely good enough for a rigid connection. Thus the need for some adjustments. ABL under these conditions is a polish to take variations of the bed into account. In my experience it still needs manual leveling/tramming done.

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Having a ridged bed is fine if it is perfectly level to the print hot end otherwise you need something like springs to do an initial setup for the ABL to work properly. Using springs allows the manufacturer to produce a printer that can be made cheaper then one trying to get it “just right” at the factory and survive shipping. As long as strong springs or silicon spacers are used it shouldn’t be a problem.

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I have springs on my ender 5 and they seem okay, my ender 3 has tpu standoffs covered in kapton tape. my tevo tarantula has standoffs. so far I like the tarantula the most. all my printers have bltouch.

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Springs will bounce the bed incase the z hits it nothing breaks.

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I use springs on all of my machines (stiff ones) but I do take the time to lower my Z limit switch all the way and keep the spring under as much tension as possible to minimize bed “wobble”. I have been considering some of the silicone stand offs as a test but not sure if they are worth it. Have to get my hands on some and experiment.

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I got my scilicone spacers from ali express. Though they dont fit my cr10s pro. Or atleast looked too small to bother with.

True, though if you have an abl setup wouldnt it negate that concern?

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Tpu standoffs… Never thought of that, ill have to look into this idea more. Did you print them in 95A or something softer?

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i used soft pla with two slices of kapton tape where they touch the bed so they dont melt.

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my tarantula has metal standoffs and I recommend them more. @Dr.Marvin

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I was just talking to one of the owners and we are going to order in some of the silicone spacers and try them out. Keep an eye out for new products.

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I have the silicone spacers on my ender 3 v2 and I will say, once you level the bed it stays that way. I also have the larger red knobs and that really helps. They are not that easy to compress.
I tried to order the yellow springs, but since it was a warranty thing, I was sent the silicone spacers and knobs.

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It would but it depends on the sensor and the sensors are not 100 percent reliable, there are many failure modes that would still leave the Z-axis moving without the sensor being able to function. There is sensorless homing but I haven;t really looked at that to see how or if it would work on Z

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Sensorless homing with a leadscrew is not reccommend, just an fyi. I suspect its a torque thing.

Cool beans. Perhaps post a link to the store page here when they come available. Also is there a need for differrnt spacer sizes for a cr10s pro over say an ender 3?

Seriously, red handles on a black machine. What is the worlds coming to.

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LOL
I must say, I have never had anything I print in red fail.
Coincidence? Maybe.

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I havent had red fail, but did have this happen.

Ironically it was for a filament review. XD lets just say i was suprised. Though i do give them respect for having filament profiles and being a random brand ive never heard of before.

LOL, that’s funny.