I just upgraded the bed on my Flashforge Dreamer to a mirrored bed. I mainly did this to have better support for printing nylon and switching out the bed per print.
Little did i know though how much my prints would improve with the glass bed. I have only printed a single test print so far but I am speechless at the glossy finish that resulted on the surface that was touching the print bed. The heated glass kept the PLA stuck very well with no issues and when the temperature dropped the part literally fell off.
For Anyone contemplating on upgrading their print bed to glass or mirror, Do it now! you will not regret it. I have no idea why I waited this long.
I have including a few pictures although the glossiness was very hard to capture, you can see reflections on the surface. I have also included a reference part that was printed on buildtak for comparison. While the camera might not be able to capture it, the difference in person is miles apart.
For me, there are times I like the glossiness of a mirrored plat, and at times I like to have a flat finished on the bottom. It all depends on the usage though. The only problem I have with using bare glass is that little chips sometimes breaks while taking of the printed object, unlike glass covered with buildtak you can use it so many times without worrying about breakage, Note, I do not use buildtak, but use the blue sticker that came with my flashforge creator pro.
Agreed, I use 1/8" window glass cut to 6x9" squares. I got 5 squares from a glass shop for 5 bucks and filed the sharp edges off with a fine file. Prior to printing, I spray it down with a layer of aqua net. Every couple weeks, I run the plate under hot water and scrape off the accumulated hairspray with a razor. To secure the glass to the build plate, I used to use binder clips, but now I just use 2 4" strips of 2" blue tape on the sides, which is much more forgiving for an extruder hits it. Another little trick is to remove the glass and object at the conclusion of a print, flip it over and run cool water on it in the sink to release the print. This is way better than trying to pry it up with a 1" wood chisel like I do with smaller items. With this glass method, my original kapton tape is still in pristine condition.
One of of my favorite parts of 3 d printing is finding ways to improve and optimize my printer. My next favorite is the active cooling fan I installed.
I currently designed my own kind of glass corner supports and release system in order to easily switch out the glass sheets. I also have one glass sheet with a Flashforge blue tape thing that i referred to earlier as buildtak. If you are interested in the glass release system I made I will be posting it on thingiverse eventually after i finish testing it thoroughly. It effectively adjusts depending on the size of the piece of glass to insure a perfect fit each time without moving around.
Im gonna be trying various materials now to start seeing how they react and stick to the glass surface like ABS, Nylon and Alloy 910.
Not at all! I remove the build plate when the print is done and pop it into the freezer for 2min and the parts just fall off. Glass looks Brand new still.
