MakerGear Forum

Bear in mind that if you have the intention of shipping M2s with Z-probes on them, then the plate has to have metal in it somewhere. I like the Zebra plate because it works great with the Z-probe. However, it seems a bit delicate, as in, not very happy about having a hot nozzle touching the plate for very long.

http://www.venturetape.com/product.php? ... =25&page=1

Can you cover or sandwich a piece of borosilicate with copper foil?

Would be the best of all worlds, since the customer can use any filament substrate they prefer and use the leveling probe.

I used blue tape, then glue stick, now back to blue tape. Three 3" wide strips, mostly just replace the center piece.

Has anyone done a bead-blasted glass print bed?

i think everyone knows i am fond of the tooling plate. durable as all hell, works with your z probe, one side glass beaded and a coating of hairspray works on just about every plastic and its flatter than any other surface your gonna find. drawback....some people dont like to spray hairspray. i personally like the smell of it and its only a few quick shots so no biggie for me but others for some reason dont like to mess with it. its the fastest thing to apply. its like a quick shot of spray adhesive. i find it does have the broadest range of plastics that work with it though. pla, abs, petg, some nylons, pc, ninjaflex. pretty much anything can be printed on it and you get bonding.

I have been printing PLA on the Zebra plate, and I love it. No heat necessary, PLA sticks tight and removes easily when the print is done. I’ve printed more than 50 pieces with perfect adhesion.

Also though I’m currently not doing much with ABS I printed a coffee filter adapter for my wife, using a bed temp of 75°C. That was fine, too.

I print with a raft and, when necessary, support using S3D.

Most of my prints have large footprints and relatively short vertical dimensions, so that might give the Zebra plate an advantage but it’s worked perfectly for me.

In the past I’ve used BuildTak, which also performed well but wasn’t nearly as durable as the Zebra plate.

I still print PLA directly onto the glass the printer shipped with. Only prep is dry wiping it before every print and cleaning it with alcohol every so often. Works perfectly 90% of the time. The other 10% is getting warpage / corner lift on large prints. Bed temp 70º, prints come off easily once the bed cools.

Automatic leveling: I owned a TAZ Mini that I used for 3 months that came with factory automatic leveling. To begin with its far better to have a machine that holds the leveling adjustment like the M2 with its steel frame than a machine made with aluminum extrusions and plastic corners as the TAZ 5. The build plate had a Stainless Steel washer and flat head screw in each corner holding the PEI covered glass in place. The washers were electrically connected to the frame through that screw. The g-Code had a pre leveling code where it heated the nozzle to a certain temperature and then wiped the nozzle on piece of scotch brite pad mounted on the rear of the build plate.

It then proceeded to touch each corner in turn and recorded the differences in the bed height in the software which I presume adjusted the g-Code to compensate? It could of adjusted side to side level as the Mini has two Z stepper motors. Front to back it would have needed to be in the software correction.

If you had your bed level and did not need the auto leveling, never mind there was no way to shut it off in the setup. So every print had to have the song and dance routine and it was a big time waster.

rpollack wrote:We have been testing various print surfaces and beds and intend to ship machines with the bed ready to use (rather than having to apply tape). Since we ship with PLA the surface needs to at least work with PLA. Being easy to apply is a big plus. Please let me know what you are using and/or any suggestions/recommendations. Tape, hair spray, 3rd party surface, tooling plate vs. glass, etc...

Great to hear that! Once I moved to PEI (glued onto the glass surface) I did not look back.

However, in the past I was using an Up!/Affinia which had these fiberglass/epoxy breadboard like plates that were super easy to print with and had very good adhesive properties.

I like PEI but wouldn't recommend it for a factory stock item.

I tend to agree the glass is fine as a stock item, it works with just about anything if the proper coating is applied. The other surfaces are kind of finicky and may not work with as many materials as glass does.

I will probably catch flak for this, but I am happy with blue painters tape over glass. Both ABS and PLA adhere well to it without any need for glues. It is quick and easy to replace and it peels up easily enough when it is time to remove the print.

MagicEngineer wrote:I will probably catch flak for this, but I am happy with blue painters tape over glass. Both ABS and PLA adhere well to it without any need for glues. It is quick and easy to replace and it peels up easily enough when it is time to remove the print.

ABS? That's a goddamn lie