MakerGear Forum

Anyone here have experience with both? Could you share your thoughts on each? I want something different and need advice.

I print mostly Esun PetG on bare glass and allow the plate to cool down to room temp on its own and this is resulting in chips of glass coming out with the part.

I like being able to print directly on the glass without needing to mess around with sticky glues or hair spray...can you print PetG directly to either of these?

I used MIC6 exclusively, I have two of them and they are great, better than anything else.

And I can say I have just about tried everything, Zebra, BuildTak, PEI.

I use a MIC6 plate with PEI applied to the top. No chips, no hairspray or glues needed. Works great for PETG. It's the closest thing to perfect you're going to get. (Also used a Zebra for a while.....MIC6 with PEI is better. Also more expensive. But it's a one time purchase.)

If you don't apply a PEI surface to the MIC6 you will still have to use hairspray or glue - the PEI is what makes that unnecessary.

One of the members here prepares the MIC6 plates (cuts them to the correct size) and applies a PEI sheet if you don't want to try to cut your own, but he only does them in batches when he gets enough orders, generally a couple of times a year. You can drop him (insta) a line on the post below and see if he has any left over from the latest batch.

viewtopic.php?f=10&t=3970

KiddingMe wrote:I print mostly Esun PetG on bare glass and allow the plate to cool down to room temp on its own and this is resulting in chips of glass coming out with the part.

I use to have the same issues printing ABS on glass with a glue stick. After wreaking a number of sheets of glass I just switched and use a sheet of PEI on glass now and no longer have issues or any mess to deal with now. Occasionally I'll re scuff the PEI with steel wool and clean with alcohol but that's it.

My experience with Zebra Plate on another one of my machines has been marginal. The first plate was lumpy and very much not level. They sent me a free replacement, and it has worked OK, but on a 12" x 12" bed I have to put 8 clamps on and shim it in various locations to get it fairly level. It sticks good if you rough it up with some 80 grit sandpaper and use glue stick. ABS has worked well on it with no bed adhesion issues once I figured out to rough it up for some bite.

I vastly prefer PEI on borosilicate glass. Roughed up and glue stick make things stick really well and it is great with ABS, PLA, and PETG. I will be using glass and PEI on all my machines from now on.

I recently sent the PrintInZ people a request to fill out a table regarding what plastics can be used with their Zebra plate. If/when I hear back from them, I will post it here. In the mean time, who can fill out some of the blanks on this table? (Unfortunately, the formatting does not work correctly!)
PLASTIC YES NO TEMPERATURE NOTES
ABS
PLA
PETG
Nylon
NinjaFlex
HIPS
PVA
Ultem
POM/Acetal
Polypropylene
Polycarbonate
ASA
Polyurethane
T-Glase

You can pick up a lot of the answers in this thread:

viewtopic.php?f=10&t=2482

Here is what the company gave me. It still leave a lot of gaps.

PLASTIC YES NO TEMPERATURE NOTES
ABS X 80-100 C
PLA X No heat
PETG X Same settings as ABS
Nylon X Unspecified heat Use glue stick
NinjaFlex X No heat
HIPS X Same settings as ABS
PVA X No heat
Ultem
POM/Acetal
Polypropylene
Polycarbonate
ASA
Polyurethane
T-Glase

For the PLA and PVA, I believe I used a temp of from 40° to 45°. (Even thought they say no heat - it needed it.)
PETG 60°to 65°

The rest of them look about right. Always start on the low end of the range and go up only if you have to. If they don't list a temperature for it, don't try to print that filament. They might be too hot.