Purple glue sticks cause bed breakage

[MagicEngineer]

A few months ago I started using Elmer's purple glue sticks for adhesion. It work wonderfully most of the time, but I have had four instances now (both sides of two pieces of glass) where as the print and bed cooled it has popped divots out of the glass. Has anyone else had this issue?

[Jules]

A few months ago I started using Elmer's purple glue sticks for adhesion. It work wonderfully most of the time, but I have had four instances now (both sides of two pieces of glass) where as the print and bed cooled it has popped divots out of the glass. Has anyone else had this issue?

Yeah, it can happen. Hairspray can cause it too. That's why we put the kapton tape on the glass. (You can also affix a sheet of PEI to the glass and reset the Z-Stop.)

[MagicEngineer]

Yeah, it can happen. Hairspray can cause it too. That's why we put the kapton tape on the glass. (You can also affix a sheet of PEI to the glass and reset the Z-Stop.)

Unfortunately I have not had much luck with kapton tape. Applying it without air bubbles is a skill I just don't seem to have. Also because orders always seem to come all at once I don't have the luxury of always letting the bed cool and sometimes need to hurry the bed clearing with a sharpened putty knife. Kapton tape does not like that. My printer has been running 24 hours a day for a week now with as little time between prints as I can manage.

[Jules]

Yeah, it can happen. Hairspray can cause it too. That's why we put the kapton tape on the glass. (You can also affix a sheet of PEI to the glass and reset the Z-Stop.)

Unfortunately I have not had much luck with kapton tape. Applying it without air bubbles is a skill I just don't seem to have. Also because orders always seem to come all at once I don't have the luxury of always letting the bed cool and sometimes need to hurry the bed clearing with a sharpened putty knife. Kapton tape does not like that. My printer has been running 24 hours a day for a week now with as little time between prints as I can manage.

Try the PEI. It's much thicker than the kapton and you don't need to use glue stick with it.

[MagicEngineer]

Try the PEI. It's much thicker than the kapton and you don't need to use glue stick with it.

I'll give it a shot. Can you recommend a source?

[Jules]

Yep! I use this kind:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0013 ... UTF8&psc=1

With this tape to apply it.

https://www.amazon.com/TapeCase-squares ... 1C180DQQXK

[MagicEngineer]

Thank you. I have a pack of each ordered.

[Jules]

There are a couple of tricks to apply it too......

start peeling the liner off of 1 side of the tape by slooooowly pulling the liner off one side of the full 12 inch sheet while holding the corner down flat, and doubling the liner back on itself sharply. It's impossible to describe with words, but it's a technique used by vinyl cutters to apply vinyl transfer tape and there is a video of it below. It's all in the peeling.

After you have removed one side of the tape liner, lay the tape on a flat desk, sticky side up. Lay the glass down on it. (No way you won't have bubbles in it, but they won't matter.) Cut the excess tape from around the glass with an exacto knife. Turn the glass over and brayer the tape down and pop the bubbles in the tape through the remaining liner, before you pull it off. (Small slashes cut into the remaining liner to let the air out.)
Get it as flat as you can before removing the remaining liner on the tape, using the same technique you used before, to keep from pulling the adhesive off the glass.

Remove one liner from the sheet of PEI, and lay that side facing up on the desk. Flip the sticky side of the glass facing down, and set the glass down on the exposed PEI surface. Press down well. Use the plastic cutter to score the PEI around the glass deeply. Flip the whole thing over and carefully score (using a straight edge) on the other side of the PEI, trying to line up your score marks with the ones underneath. Keep scoring until you can snap the excess PEI away from the glass.

Sand the edges, remove the top liner on the PEI, scuff the top with fine sand paper and you're done.

Video showing the technique :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r-PRVLEaDRY

[Matt_Sharkey]

If you're running your printer 24 hours a day for weeks, and taking that many orders, you may want to just call the glass a wear item and plan to replace it monthly. Or just get a Mic6 aluminum plate from one of the friendly forumers and be done with it.

[MagicEngineer]

There are a couple of tricks to apply it too......

start peeling the liner off of 1 side of the tape by slooooowly pulling the liner off one side of the full 12 inch sheet while holding the corner down flat, and doubling the liner back on itself sharply. It's impossible to describe with words, but it's a technique used by vinyl cutters to apply vinyl transfer tape and there is a video of it below. It's all in the peeling.

After you have removed one side of the tape liner, lay the tape on a flat desk, sticky side up. Lay the glass down on it. (No way you won't have bubbles in it, but they won't matter.) Cut the excess tape from around the glass with an exacto knife. Turn the glass over and brayer the tape down and pop the bubbles in the tape through the remaining liner, before you pull it off. (Small slashes cut into the remaining liner to let the air out.)
Get it as flat as you can before removing the remaining liner on the tape, using the same technique you used before, to keep from pulling the adhesive off the glass.

Remove one liner from the sheet of PEI, and lay that side facing up on the desk. Flip the sticky side of the glass facing down, and set the glass down on the exposed PEI surface. Press down well. Use the plastic cutter to score the PEI around the glass deeply. Flip the whole thing over and carefully score (using a straight edge) on the other side of the PEI, trying to line up your score marks with the ones underneath. Keep scoring until you can snap the excess PEI away from the glass.

Sand the edges, remove the top liner on the PEI, scuff the top with fine sand paper and you're done.

Video showing the technique :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r-PRVLEaDRY

Thank you. This was very helpful.