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I have a printrbot simple metal that worked perfect for about a year then i read somwhere that u can clean the metal bed with 70% alcohol, anyway after i cleaned the bed my paint peels off during long prints but the filament is stuck like glue on the tape!! please help i have tried scuffing up the bed with sandpaper

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Plain Glue Stick. Works great below or above the tape. For some reason alcohol & blue painters tape cause extreme adhesion to PLA.

-Jesse

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Hi there! So you cleaned your print bed with rubbing alcohol and now you are having issues with the painters tape sticking to the bed? I’ve been using blue painters tape, rubbing alcohol and glue sticks to get prints to have great bed adhesion for a few years now. My process goes like this, get the tape down and smoothed, then I rub the tape down with the rubbing alcohol, then right before printing I put some glue stick down on the area being printed on. Works flawlessly. I think your issues is wiping down the metal bed itself with the alcohol then still using the blue painters tape. That would effectively do nothing but clean the surface you are putting the tape on. But rubbing down the painters tape with the rubbing alcohol you remove dust, dirt, oils, and it creates a much better area for the filament to adhere to, and the glue stick really helps that as well.

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Not all painter’s tape is the same. Some have poor adhesion compared to other types. Some have so much oils in them that as Sully has suggested it is best to wipe down the tape with isopropyl alcohol after you have applied it to the bed. You don’t really need to clean the metal bed unless there is a lot of tape gunk stuck to it.

I would recommend purchasing a printinz board and ditching the painters tape. I use those boards on all my machines now including my printrbot simple. If a print ever gets stuck to the board all I have to do is remove the board and bend it lightly to pop the print off. On the other spectrum if a print doesn’t stick properly a little bit of glue stick goes a long ways and I don’t have to clean my printinz boards of it as frequently as I had when I was using painters tape and glue. Those boards have saved me money and time with not having to deal with painters tape.

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HAIRSPRAY. I started using it on my simple metal and have never looked back. I mainly use plain BuildTak and spray a little hairspray for ABS and nylon prints. I use Aquanet extra strength.

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I had issues with blue tape on a heated bed - would always come away from the print bed during the print. Only use blue tape on a non-heated bed. But then others have success when heated…!?

Steve

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I own a printrbot simple as well (although the 2014 edition). I use blue painter’s tape as well to good success, and others have made really good suggestions on alternative methods to fix your adhesion problem (I agree with twiesner that some tape does not have good adhesion). On how to fix the OVERADHESION to the tape, I recommend raising your z-starting height by adjusting the screw which presses the z-axis home limit switch. This will raises the gap between the first layer and the bed. Don,t go too far though or you will have the opposite problem. Because my printer has a lot more sag of the print head arm, I find myself constantly adjusting this, sometimes by just manually turning the z screw (although it’s probaly not the best for the motor! lol)

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I have a unheated bed and i dont think it was the tape ive been using the same tape for almost 2 years (on this printer and a previous one)

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Using a printinz board was my last resort, i seem to have fixed the problem by scuffin the bed with 40 grit sandpaper (pretty well ruined the powder coat but oh well) and using glue under the tape

the glue under the tape works miracles

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Thanks everybody who responded,i seem to have fixed the issue. i didn’t want to use a printinz board because of the price, what ended up working the best was glue under the painters tape as well as scuffing the bed up some more.

thanks to everyone who recommended that

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Hi there, you could do the same thing by setting your Z Offset in your printers gcode. I believe printrbot actually has an article about this for setting up Cura.