Using another type of build surface might mean having to prepare the surface between each printing session. However, if using plastic other than PLA, this will be the case anyway.

A more thermally conductive platform would be of metal type, and this will not work safely using resistance wire as the heating element, it is unlikely it will create much power saving over glass. The best way to reduce power, is to reduce the size of the heated build platform.

Mark

I’ve been using the same nichrome wire heated build bed almost two years now without any maintenance apart from the occasional bed levelling. I only use PLA filament at the moment so window glass has been ideal due to the PLA filament sticking to it; and the nichrome wire set-up has worked great.

Now knowing more about window glass thermal properties I probably would add more resistance wire to the glass if I had to build the heated build platform again. The resistance wire layout as it is now can have more than 5 degrees Celsius variance across the glass surface.

I may use oven glass on the next heated build platform design so I can get the temperature up higher for other filament material types, and then just add a plate of window glass on top whenever I use PLA filament for 3d prints.

Mark

Are you still using this bed design? Would you change anything on it?

The resistance wire should not glow, at least for the 3d printer build platform anyway. You might have miss-calculated the resistance and ended up with the resistance being too low across the resistance wire.

You will need to check you are using the intended wire gauge. Check that the resistance was calculated correctly for each length of wire. Was the resistance divided correctly, if using more than one length of resistance wire.

Mark