I recently bought the heated aluminium bed and LCD from the store in order to run the MP3DP standalone and in the garage. I started trying blue painters tape on the aluminium surface but I found the tape didn’t seem to work as well as previous experience on plain glass. I purchased some Buildtak sheets and see if I could get better results. For my first test I used this:
and found it stuck slightly too well at 55 degrees C and 190 degrees on the hotend. This test was done in the house at an ambient temp around 20 degrees C or 70F. I moved the printer to the garage and tried to print the MPCNC roller mount. I tweaked the bed temperature to 50 degrees C and left the hotend at 190C. The garage ambient was about 6C or 40F (bit nippy!). the first layer looked OK but the part warped badly about 30 layers in so I stopped it. I decided to try another part so I printed the XYZ arm at 55C and 195C, again the ambient was around 6C. This stuck almost too well to the point where I nearly damaged the print surface when trying to pull it off. The part has zero signs of warping though and is perfect.
My thoughts so far are that Builtak works well but has a small window for successful prints. I’m going to dial it in some more but by trying to print in a cold space I have introduced another variable that is tricky for standalone printing. Does anybody have any tips for printing without having to tweak the settings for every print?
I print with PLA
I have just started using a saturated sugar solution on a glass heat bed at 50-60C.
I print the first layer 10C hotter than the rest.
I disable the fan on the first layer
I overextrude 10-20% on the first layer
I print at 60-70% slower speed on the first layer
Very rarely does a print come loose, and usually because I have done something stupid.
I bought 6 10" x 10" glass mirrors from the local dollar store. I hold the mirror to the print bed with large binder clips. I coat the mirror in a nice layer of glue stick again from the dollar store. Set me bed temp to 60 for PLA and for PETG.
The print adhere to the glue on glass like a beast. I remove the mirror and throw it in the freezer for 10 or 15 minutes. When I come back the print is no longer adhered to the mirror. No more prying.
I did this because a few months ago I almost put a box cutter threw the palm of my hand trying to get a print of my print bed.
So if I am printing back to back I take one mirror off and put another one on. It only takes a couple minutes for the heat plate to warm up the glass and we are printing again.
Yep, I do almost the same thing as Jason, except for the freezer part. Glue stick on glass. I use one of these to pop parts loose if I’m in a hurry. Overnight prints are loose by morning.
I’ve used buildtak. I swore that when I was using it, the chance of a successful
print were about 50/50. Bed could be level, same settings, same print, and it would work once and then not a few minutes later.
Right now I print on panes of 8x10 picture frame glass. Coated in elmers glue stick for PLA, nylon, and PET-G. For ABS I use the same type of glass but I sanded it with 800 grit wet/dry sandpaper, 110 degree bed, and Wolfbite.