Its actually not that bad in terms of cost. For me it was under $45 and it completely changed how I print. I used hair spray before and now I have two full cans collecting dust. The only thing I buy now is 90% pure isopropyl Alcohol from Walmart. I use it to clean the surface and to cool the part after a print. I can’t imagine a better surface. I tried FR4 based solution like PrintBite, but I was not impressed with the holding power. It holds well at temperature and the part comes off when the bed cools down. However, I still had issues with lifting on corners on small and large parts. I don’t trust it to hold my parts especially for long prints. I have full trust in PEI since there is no way for me to take the part off without damaging the bed when its heated. Once it cools down, you can pop the part right off with no effort. The only issue I have with PEI is that its transparent to IR light, so I have to coat it with black paint in order to use my IR height sensor. Other than that, its awesome.
Sounds good. I have some stubborn ABS parts that are large and a lot of infill (still tinkering on that) that love to lift at the corners after several hours.
From what I have read on Printbite it is not great with ABS so I wasn’t going to try it.
Just a quick update. I’m getting reliable good results with the blue tape now. Getting those results seems to be mostly about the z-height of the first layer. I’m still calibrating the bed to the glass surface so the blue tape reduces the gap. Print with too small a first layer and there isn’t enough material laid down to form a good bond for the next layer (and you get all sorts of uneven blobs). Print with too large a first layer and the ABS doesn’t adhere well to the tape.
I’ve done half a dozen prints now where there was no warp and in all but one the tape came away cleanly from the model. In the one case where it became stuck to the model (this may have been because I allowed it to cool right down to cold room temp, about 11C overnight), it was easily removed after soaking in warm soapy water.
The prints are still sticking quite firmly to the bed under the tape so need careful removal with a scraper but they’re not “welded” to it like they were with my first attempts with this tape.
So, in summary, for me it seems to be:
1. Use the right blue tape. I’m using the 3M 55mm wide version from Amazon.
2. Warm the bed before applying the tape (to about 65C so it won’t burn you). Applying the tape to a cold bed means you get gaps between the tape strips as the bed expands (and possibly reduces the tape adhesion).
3. Get your first layer height right. I can’t give any examples because I suspect the “right” height will vary from printer to printer, material to material, but essentially if the nozzle is too close to the bed/tape you get a poor first layer and/or the tape welds itself into the print and to the bed, if it’s too far away it doesn’t stick well (to either the bed or the model).
The PEI bed sounds interesting, and I might well give that a go as well. Although the tape is working, it adds time and “fuss” to the print process I’d rather not have (and is of course an ongoing expense, not a one-off, albeit quite a low one).
I should be trying the PEI this weekend. It is supposed to get here tomorrow. I am also going to run another glues stick on glass test. The last one was going good until power interrupted the print!
I was doing a glue stick test and it was going good until power killed the print. Going to try another starting tonight. I had a lot of infill on my part 50% for strength. It is two pieces that bolt around a pipe like a clamp/bracket. I think if I do even more shells I can reduce infill since many shell layers around the bolt holes should give good crush strength.
Well, this whole PEI experiment was a huge waste of money. I haven’t even been able to print with it. As the bed gets up to temp for ABS (100c) the PEI starts to curl and peel up all around the edges. The interesting this is the PEI sheet was perfectly flat as I installed it.
You have to bump up temp for ABS. With all the layers of thermal resistance of glass, adhesive and even the PEI, the top of the bed may be 15C less than the temp on the heated bed.
I gave up on it for now. The expense and effort was not worth it. It still isn’t working well for ABS. I get much better results with hair spray or glue stick on glass and the effort really is minimal.
I need to get thinner glass to try again with mounting the PEI or make yet another shim!
I might have a solution for you There’s a 3D printing adhesive called Magigoo that works pretty well with heated beds because it sticks when the bed is hot and when it cools it releases the print almost by itself. If you’re printing ABS or PLA I’m sure it will do just fine. you can find it on magigoo.com
There’s a 3D printing adhesive called Magigoo that works pretty well with heated beds because it sticks when the bed is hot and when it cools it releases the print almost by itself. If you’re printing ABS or PLA I’m sure it will do just fine. you can find it on magigoo.com