So... what causes this

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Neep
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Joined: Tue Feb 23, 2016 12:07 am

Re: So... what causes this

Post by Neep » Sun Mar 06, 2016 7:17 pm

Thanks all for the help. I have been having good success now with the hairspray on the PI tape coated bed, but man I really have to liberally apply the hairspray. I am estimating something like 10 prints for 1 can of hairspray (plus or minus a few). I don't really like how bad the bed looks after a few prints so I ordered a Zebra plate. I hope it works without the hairspray. I am sure it is not foolproof but if I can print PLA with no lifting and no hairspray that will be good enough for me.

Anyway, thanks again for all your help!

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Neep
Posts: 23
Joined: Tue Feb 23, 2016 12:07 am

Re: So... what causes this

Post by Neep » Fri Mar 18, 2016 4:28 am

Just thought I would post a brief update.

Had fairly good luck using hairspray on the Kapton(TM) tape (as long as I truly puddled it). However, eventually got tired of having to deal with cleaning the hairspray off when it got too crazy thick (and having chunks of dried hairspray on my prints) and I decided to spring for a Zebra plate.

Am very glad I did so. So much easier to deal with and no cleaning issues. I've only used it with PLA (and had to play with it a bit to get it working right - like the instructions say to start by not heating the plate for PLA, but I wound up having to heat it to 35C to get the PLA to stick well), but I am very happy with it. Getting prints off it is much easier than the Kapton+hairspray (or even just the Kapton).

So thanks all for your help! I would recommend though that if you had been thinking about maybe getting a Zebra plate you might want to do it.... I am so much happier with it.

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Tim
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Re: So... what causes this

Post by Tim » Fri Mar 18, 2016 1:43 pm

Neep wrote:. . . had to play with it a bit to get it working right - like the instructions say to start by not heating the plate for PLA, but I wound up having to heat it to 35C to get the PLA to stick well)
I have uniformly ignored all instructions about the Zebra plate, and I heat it to exactly the same temperatures I use with glass, both for PLA (60 C) and PETg (90 C). I cannot get filament to stick to it cold. Otherwise, I find it about as easy to use as glass and hairspray, except for the fact that you cannot leave a hot extruder touching it for any length of time, or it will melt (I know this from experience, unfortunately). The Zebra plate is hard to keep flat, so I again ignore instructions and don't flex it to pop pieces off, because it takes a long time to carefully flex it back into a flat state. I continue to use a razor blade to pry pieces off the bed, and so far I've managed to do that without scratching up the Zebra plate.

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