ePC hold-down method

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pyronaught
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Joined: Mon Dec 01, 2014 8:24 pm

Re: ePC hold-down method

Post by pyronaught » Thu Mar 02, 2017 6:27 am

Wow, I didn't know you could print ePC that hot. I finally got some filament drives to stick to PEI by roughing the PEI with 220 grit sandpaper and squishing the hell out of the first layer on a 100c bed. I still get about 50% failure rate due to warping, but on the filament drives that did complete I noticed the layer bonding was poor. I could split pieces off by hand along the layer lines. I only printed at 270 though, with 100% infill.

I finally got a Mic6 plate up and running too. It works awesome for PLA, even better than PEI. Still could not get ePC to stick any better than I could with PEI though, and that warp prone Raptor PLA that is advertised as dishwasher safe warped off the Mic6 too. But for regular PLA and PLA Pro the Mic6 plus hairspray works awesome. I printed a rectangular mold part that came within 1/2" of the edge of the plate all the way around, with no brim, no rounded corners and not even squishing the 1st layer much at all and there wasn't one bit of warping. That same part has issues with corners peeling up on PEI. So I'm a Mic6 convert now, just ordered 3 more plates. I use Rave 4x Mega non-aerosol type hairspray and just pour a little on the plate and spread it around with a napkin, that way there's no spray mist getting airborne and landing on the machine parts such as the rails. I wipe the plate down with alcohol after each print and then reapply the hairspray so that I have the exact same surface prep each time. I used a 220 grit orbital sander on the Mic6 plate to create the bonding surface texture. Haven't noticed any defects from the increased mass yet.
Experience is what you get when you didn't get what you wanted.

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