I have a heated aluminum bed and I put painters tape and glue down. The print sticks to the tape really well but the tape lifts from the bed as I print. Can someone help?
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GIFT3D
March 29, 2016, 3:01pm
2
Hey Andre46’
I know of two solutions to this problem. Firstly you can ad clips to the side of the aluminium bed to hold the tape down or you can add small magnets which work just as good.
I hope you found this useful.
There are many factors that can cause the tape to lift. Brand of tape is one. I’ve found personally that not all painter’s tape stick well or remains on the bed while printing. Scotch painter’s tape is what I found works best with my printers. I usually then take a spatula and run it over the tapped bed to ensure stick.
Another factor can be residue on your heated bed. I would recommend when changing the tape on your print bed to scrub the bed well with rubbing alcohol on a cotton ball or something to get rid of old tape residue that can get left behind especially if you have the heated bed on while printing on the painter’s tape.
Also what you print can cause the tape to lift. Big and/or flat bottom objects can cause lifting of he tape.
RCole
March 29, 2016, 4:48pm
4
When working with commercial adhesives, the saying is that 75% of adhesion is surface preparation. Make sure that your bed is very clean before you put down the tape. Isopropyl alcohol is great for this. Try to get something as pure as possible (I can get 91% from a local pharmacy). Beware of an alcohol that says “rubbing” alcohol. Rubbing alcohol often includes other products like aloe or oils that will leave a film behind. You can actually make the bed worse by using these. You would be better off cleaning with water (distilled water - hopefully).
Try some other tape as well. Something with stronger adhesion. Some blue tape is designed to be easy to remove (some forms of painter’s tape for example). It is easy to remove because it does not stick strongly.
Keep on printing.
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Interesting. All “rubbing” alcohol in stores near where I live is Isopropyl alcohol. Must differ from location to location. I’ll have to remember to be more specific in the future and stop using the the term “rubbing alcohol” when I mean Isopropyl alcohol.
Thanks for bringing that up RCole!
