<p>I just recently upgraded my Printrbot Simple Metal with a heated bed (and longer x-axis). I looked up some tutorials, and all of them placed the thermistor as in the picture on the left below, so I did too. However, the design of the heat plate seems to strongly suggest thermistor placement as in the picture on the right, inside the small hole near the center.</p>

<p><a href="https://i.stack.imgur.com/2nF92.png" rel="noreferrer"><img src="https://i.stack.imgur.com/2nF92.png" alt="enter image description here"></a> <a href="https://i.stack.imgur.com/tzmTq.png" rel="noreferrer"><img src="https://i.stack.imgur.com/tzmTq.png" alt="enter image description here"></a></p>

<p>I can certainly see the upside of that. The reported temperature may overshoot the average bed temperature (the reasoning used in the tutorials I read), but most of my prints are built in the center of the bed, and the center placement would surely make the temperature control system more responsive.</p>

<p>What are the pros and cons of these placements? And what would be the proper technique for putting the sensor in the center? Should I still use kapton tape? Do I need to make sure the thermistor makes physical contact with the aluminum of the print bed?</p>

[{'answer_id': 1272, 'author': 'Shady Puck', 'author_id': 2044, 'author_profile': 'https://3dprinting.stackexchange.com/users/2044', 'pm_score': 3, 'selected': True, 'text': '<p>You are correct about the walls. Using a <em>Solidify</em> object modifier is probably your best bet. A low <em>Thickness:</em> value (<em>0.1</em> is probably good) helps keep the walls thin but strong. You can monitor the thickness while you adjust the value from <em>Wireframe</em> view.</p>\n\n<p><a href="https://i.stack.imgur.com/u4wif.png" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.stack.imgur.com/u4wif.png" alt="enter image description here"></a></p>\n\n<p>Additionally, and <strong>this is probably the most important thing to know</strong>, your mesh must be clean. By clean, I mean it must all be one piece. No separate cubes, cylinders, etc. that you added while modeling, just one solid piece. Think about it this way. If you have added a cube and part of that cube is inside the rest, it might look good from the outside. But the 3D Printer isn\'t printing the outside, it\'s printing everything. So that wall, albeit hidden, that is present on the inside of your mesh <strong>will be printed</strong>.</p>\n\n<p><em>Bad:</em></p>\n\n<p><a href="https://i.stack.imgur.com/de7eW.png" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.stack.imgur.com/de7eW.png" alt="enter image description here"></a></p>\n\n<p><em>Good:</em></p>\n\n<p><a href="https://i.stack.imgur.com/RQXI3.png" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.stack.imgur.com/RQXI3.png" alt="enter image description here"></a></p>\n\n<p>Lastly, if you have parts of your mesh that can\'t be printed from the bottom up, or wouldn\'t stand by itself, consider adding supports. You can always cut these off later.</p>\n\n<p><em>Leg added because it wouldn\'t stand by itself:</em></p>\n\n<p><a href="https://i.stack.imgur.com/H1tqC.png" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.stack.imgur.com/H1tqC.png" alt="enter image description here"></a></p>\n'}, {'answer_id': 1273, 'author': 'Community', 'author_id': -1, 'author_profile': 'https://3dprinting.stackexchange.com/users/-1', 'pm_score': 2, 'selected': False, 'text': '<blockquote>\n  <p>What are the things that i have to watch out for when 3d printing? </p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p><a href="https://blender.stackexchange.com/q/7910/2816">non manifold geometry</a> :  geometry that can not exist in the real world.  </p>\n\n<p>It\'s a good idea to check if the dimensions of your mesh are correct before exporting:    </p>\n\n<p><a href="https://i.stack.imgur.com/cfYiB.png" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.stack.imgur.com/cfYiB.png" alt="enter image description here"></a>\n<hr>\nTurning on mesh analysis allows visual inspection of problems such as intersecting faces, sharp edges ,edges with thickness below a threshold and other criterias.<br>\n<em>the inspection tool will color the faces with those problems.</em>   </p>\n\n<p><a href="https://i.stack.imgur.com/BLGEK.png" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.stack.imgur.com/BLGEK.png" alt="enter image description here"></a>\n<hr>\nAnd lastly you can make selections by traits, such as loose geometry, interior faces or unconnected vertices.  </p>\n\n<p><a href="https://i.stack.imgur.com/phD8w.png" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.stack.imgur.com/phD8w.png" alt="enter image description here"></a></p>\n\n<p><em>note that those are just tools to help you find the problems , none of them will fix the mesh for 3d printing.</em>  </p>\n'}]
['https://3dprinting.stackexchange.com/questions/1275', 'https://3dprinting.stackexchange.com', 'https://3dprinting.stackexchange.com/users/1998/']