Re: Kapton 'Polyamide' Tape - What's the skinny?
Posted: Tue Feb 23, 2016 5:44 pm
Due to ignorance/inexperience from my method of detaching finished prints, I managed to trash my factory applied Kapton film to my 3 week old M2. I've got some full bed sized kapton sheets coming from Amazoon, but in the mean time, went to apply the tape that came in the box with my printer.
No matter how much I prep the glass, I seem to be getting these weird bits of grit under the tape when applying the kapton, even when using the soapy water as surface preparation method. Not clear where this grit is coming from. To repeat, I've cleaned the glass several ways before application, including, or especially, using a credit card to scrap off even the smallest bit of contaminant. I'm taking extra care with the tape between unrolling it, cutting it, and application (so no, I'm not dragging it across my jeans first *wink*). In some ways, it looks like the kapton's adhesive is chemically or physically reacting with the soapy water? I went with the glass cleaner approach, and that went a lot better, but still not the bubble free examples I've seen on you-tube. For the time being, the middle two strips are good enough for the prints I want to do, so I'm moving ahead, but I'm frustrated that I can't get a relatively bubble free application. If necessary, I'll try the full strip immersion method and see if that makes a difference. Is my choice of liquid soap the problem? There's all kinds of extra additives in dish washing soap these days, skin softeners and perfumes, that maybe one of those contaminates is causing this weird grit thing?
(and yes, I know I could just replace the bed material, I'll keep that in mind, just want to know about tape application, thank you)
No matter how much I prep the glass, I seem to be getting these weird bits of grit under the tape when applying the kapton, even when using the soapy water as surface preparation method. Not clear where this grit is coming from. To repeat, I've cleaned the glass several ways before application, including, or especially, using a credit card to scrap off even the smallest bit of contaminant. I'm taking extra care with the tape between unrolling it, cutting it, and application (so no, I'm not dragging it across my jeans first *wink*). In some ways, it looks like the kapton's adhesive is chemically or physically reacting with the soapy water? I went with the glass cleaner approach, and that went a lot better, but still not the bubble free examples I've seen on you-tube. For the time being, the middle two strips are good enough for the prints I want to do, so I'm moving ahead, but I'm frustrated that I can't get a relatively bubble free application. If necessary, I'll try the full strip immersion method and see if that makes a difference. Is my choice of liquid soap the problem? There's all kinds of extra additives in dish washing soap these days, skin softeners and perfumes, that maybe one of those contaminates is causing this weird grit thing?
(and yes, I know I could just replace the bed material, I'll keep that in mind, just want to know about tape application, thank you)