Zebra Plate

[innkeeper]

PLA prints went very well...
no heat - print stuck well, and came off the plate easy enough, and very clean. i can add pics if anyone interested

[insta]

I'll have to run some pla though it, i rarely print with PLA...
i have some PETG coming..just shipped today... but then again i read that my local micro center sells petg.
i may just take a ride and pick up some tomorrow.

Your microcenter sells eSUN PETG, branded as Inland. If you ordered from intservo (either website or Amazon) it's literally the same stuff.

[innkeeper]

not to get too far off topic, but is all the inland filament esun?

[insta]

not to get too far off topic, but is all the inland filament esun?

go make a new thread

[innkeeper]

did a test print with petg wth no heat, dint stick as well, print fell off 2/3 the way though, but playing with squish and addint some bed temp... also gave the bed a little heat, like 40c for the first layer, and it stuck like cazy, so.. needs a little more trial and error.

[Jules]

Tried mine this afternoon - I really like it! It had just the tiniest bit of bow in the center, but believe it or not, you can actually just bend that out and it stays. (Must be the copper layer.)

Anyway - after re-setting the Z-stop, I was getting perfect 2.0mms on the calibration squares, so it's all good. The bad news - it's a bit iffy to get the skirt layers to stick (they are thin, and tend to walk around a bit and get stuck in the print), but I had no trouble getting the main print (PLA) to stick (first layer was printing at 50% speed) at a temp of 40°C on the heated bed. (No heat, or lower bed temps than that, showed a touch of curl at the corners, so I'd recommend the 40°C minimum bed temp with a Zebra and PLA. I'd probably double that for PETG, there's a significant temp drop through the plate. )

The prints really do release easily when the plate cools. With a solid bottom layer, you need to just poke up a corner. With a thin-wall, you can just pick it up.

Happy with it so far!

[Jules]

Running a larger PLA print on it now....sticking like a champ, no warping or edge curl. (For anyone thinking of trying one but still on the fence, PrintinZ is down to only 4 left in stock of the 8x10 plates needed for the M2. Just a heads up.)

[dklassen]

Great info, think I'm going to give one a try.

[innkeeper]

I've been printing a lot of pla in the past week or two... more then I've printed in the past couple years to be frank...I have a lot of pla thats been sitting around for a few years..and never had use for it, and I am modeling prototypes for test fits, so its a perfect case for me to use it up. so far, bed temp of 40c, with only the very slightest bit of 'smush' if that's a term, makes it stick very well, and consistently. I've probably run about 20 fairly large sized, complex prints and a lot of little prints with pla in this way with no issues. even though it sticks well, I could get some very thin prints off the plate without destroying them once the plate cooled.
I've been keeping the plate clean with alcohol.

i''ll be switching to petg shortly for some functional prints.. but thought id report on my longer term pla experience. its defiantly a winner for pla.

I can see where having multiple plates could be an advantage if you print a lot of pla prints back to back..

I've decided to totally stay away from Zebra Plate for ABS.. for me, at the build plate temperatures you need to run (about 50c), is only suitable for small ABS prints. larger prints curl and/or get to hard to get off the plate per my earlier example. there seems to be no happy middle ground...it might just be the abs I am using, but ran 3 different brands on it and the results are similar. frankly i feel abs needs higher build plate temps then you can use with zebra plate .. for me its back to either Kapton tape or abs juice for ABS.

[dklassen]

Just got mine today so I'm looking forward to trying it. Do you put it on the glass plate or in place of?