MakerGear Forum

Are you clamping it down? (I opened several of the small binder clips with a pair of pliers to make it easier to clamp the plate to the bed.)

When i got the first Zebra, it had a slight bow in it. I bent it against the edge of the desk until it was straight, and it's never warped up again. The second one, I never bothered to " break it's spine" and it still has a slight bow in it. If i ever need to use it, I'll break the spine on it first. (But the first one is still working fine, when i need to use it.)

Switched over to PEI on glass for most printing now though - it's only necessary to use the Zebra when i know i'll have to flex something to remove it. (And for that....it's da bomb!)

Yeah, I bought some bigger clips for it Mine doesn't look like a simple bow on it, after using for a while, it got some slightly up and down on it, very small thought, in the .1 mm range, but that still matters when calibrating. What's PEI?

DrRobot wrote:Yeah, I bought some bigger clips for it Mine doesn't look like a simple bow on it, after using for a while, it got some slightly up and down on it, very small thought, in the .1 mm range, but that still matters when calibrating. What's PEI?

Ooooh....you'd like it. It's a sheet of surface material that you apply to the glass. Perfectly flat, and it holds everything without the adhesives (like the Zebra plate), but you can use it for ABS as well. Sticks very well, releases when it cools completely.

There's a thread on it here:

viewtopic.php?f=10&t=2296

Jules wrote:

DrRobot wrote:Yeah, I bought some bigger clips for it Mine doesn't look like a simple bow on it, after using for a while, it got some slightly up and down on it, very small thought, in the .1 mm range, but that still matters when calibrating. What's PEI?

Ooooh....you'd like it. It's a sheet of surface material that you apply to the glass. Perfectly flat, and it holds everything without the adhesives (like the Zebra plate), but you can use it for ABS as well. Sticks very well, releases when it cools completely.

There's a thread on it here:

viewtopic.php?f=10&t=2296

I may give it a shot. Thanks for the link

Just got in my Zebra plate - I'm using clips and so far not seeing any bend on it. I'm not bending the plate to remove parts as I'm trying to reduce the amount of fiddling with the build plate for z-cal purposes.

Anyway, they say not to use heat w/PLA, but I found that my parts weren't sticking......then as soon as I applied heat (40c, down from my normal 60c), OMG the sticking power is amazing (almost too much!). I also love the surface texture as it gives my printed parts a very smooth, even texture which looks nicer than printing on glass w/hairspray.

i always use 37 or 38 and if on zebra that usually is higher on the edge (when i make it higher on the center i tend to have corner of the model bending up so i prefer to have the edge higher then the center) the edge usually stick too much and i have always hard time to remove them

if ur print is small then 15cm x15cm (6'x6') zebra is perfectly flat as soon as u get close to the 20x18 u start to have trouble is really only the last 3.5cm (1-1/2") that tend to be curve and make trouble for me

pcenginefx wrote:Anyway, they say not to use heat w/PLA, but I found that my parts weren't sticking......then as soon as I applied heat (40c, down from my normal 60c), OMG the sticking power is amazing (almost too much!)

I ignore the recommendations and print at the same bed temperature as I use with glass, and it seems about right. But that's for PETg (90C); I don't print much PLA these days. They seem to suggest that 90C is uncomfortably hot for the Zebra plate, but I haven't had any problems with it.

A Z-probe and grid-based correction is a great combination with the Zebra. No need to worry about how flat it is. Just calibrate and print.

Tim wrote:A Z-probe and grid-based correction is a great combination with the Zebra. No need to worry about how flat it is. Just calibrate and print.

Is there a way you can set grid-based correction in Simplify3D? Thanks!

DrRobot wrote:Is there a way you can set grid-based correction in Simplify3D? Thanks!

No, it's a firmware thing, and I'm not even sure it has been put into the Marlin firmware yet. I know Marlin supports 3-point probing, but it's the grid probing that works best for a bowed or otherwise warped surface. Hopefully somebody will think it's worthwhile enough to code into Marlin.

Tim wrote:it's worthwhile enough to code into Marlin.

I'd say that requires far more CPU and RAM than an 8-bit microcontroller teleported directly from the 1990s can provide... [sigh]