MakerGear Forum

It is useful to have some sort of wide flat blade to get prints off, like a palette knife or hobby razor. The trick is to get under the print and pry it off from all sides. Use a sharp knife to lift a corner.

Putting the bed+print in the freezer for a few minutes also helps sometimes.

If nothing works, you can always try to remove the print plus tape from the bed and sand it off.

This scraper works great, but it guess you will have to print it after you get the current item off the bed!
http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:34481. An artist's palette knife or putty knife might help too.

I have also turned the bed heat back on when things start to get a bit desperate to soften the glue or plastic enough to just get the print off the bed, even if it destroys the print.

Don't overlook the paper towels, etc. that you use to clean the bed. I've noticed the 'nicer' paper towels can leave a residue, especially on a warm bed (presumably from the alcohol and whatever binders are in the towel itself). I've had excellent luck with Costco brand towels and rubbing alcohol on bare, ambient-temperature glass. If you use a towel or what not, I'd recommend using a basic dish detergent like Dawn without moisturizers and the like to clean and air-dry vs. throwing it in with the laundry where who knows what the detergent leaves behind (and needless to say drying with fabric softener is sure to be problematic).

Another tip is to let the bed heat up a good, long while before starting to print and let the temperature stabilize before laying down plastic. I generally wait until the aluminum 'spider' is hot to the touch and z-platform is warm. When the heater is just maintaining temperature, the less issues with thermal expansion you'll have. I print a lot of larger objects (80%+ bed area...can we have an M3/M4+ model please?? ), and they pop right off as soon as the glass cools; I basically wait a few minutes for it to cool until I hear a crack/pop and it'll come right off without any prying, razors, etc.

It definitely seems to be a game of cleanliness and patience; and a well-squished first layer also doesn't hurt!

Been printing for 2 days. Zero error parts with Aquanet extra hold... Using S3D with no bed heating. 90% first layer height, 35% first layer speed with 3 outlines on the skirt.

I wait for 2-3 min for the hairspray to dry, clean with windex and lint free screen cleaning cloth after each print session.

What I like so far about the hairspray is the part holds well and can be removed by applying just a little hand torque. The skirt is easily removed with a flat razor blade.

Only other comment is I now preheat the Extruders and manually extrude about 20mm of filament before starting the print process. On the couple of initial failures I typically had some filament stings that didn't wipe properly and stay moving with the Extruders head that would knock the first layer loose.

MakerMike7 wrote:Been printing for 2 days. Zero error parts with Aquanet extra hold... Using S3D with no bed heating. 90% first layer height, 35% first layer speed with 3 outlines on the skirt.

I wait for 2-3 min for the hairspray to dry, clean with windex and lint free screen cleaning cloth after each print session.

What I like so far about the hairspray is the part holds well and can be removed by applying just a little hand torque. The skirt is easily removed with a flat razor blade.

Only other comment is I now preheat the Extruders and manually extrude about 20mm of filament before starting the print process. On the couple of initial failures I typically had some filament stings that didn't wipe properly and stay moving with the Extruders head that would knock the first layer loose.

I love aquanet. Give it a try at 70C. You'll like it. Also, rather than cleaning between prints, for smaller prints, I just move them around to different parts of the bed.
And if you ever have trouble getting a print to let go, an upside down can of compressed air works great.

jsc wrote: 4) Elmer's glue stick: best adhesion so far of the chemical treatments. For prints with a lot of bed contact, almost too good.

JSC, Are you printing on the glue-covered glass surface unheated? do you spritz it with water before you print?

I'm having terrible luck trying to get purple elmer's gluestick to work. It forms a smooth surface on the glass, and it's as if I put oil onto the surface- absolutely zero adhesion, printing at 70C.
I tried mixing with water, spreading the paste evenly over the sufrace, spritzing with water, then printing around 40C, and that was useless as well.

What am I missing? o.O

cc19 wrote:What am I missing? o.O

That bed adhesion is like religion -- what works for one doesn't work for all. Try all the methods in the thread.

My poison of choice is AquaNet "Extra Super Hold" which comes in a dark purple spray can, on bare glass.

I'm mostly running Elmers Glue Stick on the glass with the bed set to 30c. Sticks great. Before this printer I had a fleet of Makerbots at work (about 20), which had plastic unheated beds. Originally, I used the blue painters tape which worked ok, but there were a couple of problems. It was very prone to damage/tears and even when treated very carefully and cleaned with alcohol regularly it would lose adhesion after maybe 15-20 prints. The much-better solution was self-adhesive vinyl. It performed very similarly to blue tape, but gave a smoother surface and lasted a LOT longer maybe 100 prints before it started to get weird. Plus, it goes on in one sheet so no edges to carefully align. Highly recommended.

cheers,
c

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00QEO ... ge_o04_s00

I've been using these, has been working great. I would still be on my first sheet if my z-stop hadn't moved, causing the nozzle to gouge into tape and tear it up.

There is no surface prep between prints either. I just wait for the model to cool a bit, pop it off with a small spatula, they fire up the next print. Bed temps from 70-80C depending on the model.

insta wrote:That bed adhesion is like religion --

Just keep praying to the aquanet gods.