Do I need the bed factory applied Kapton for PLA?

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insta
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Joined: Tue Sep 16, 2014 3:59 am

Re: Do I need the bed factory applied Kapton for PLA?

Post by insta » Wed Nov 01, 2017 6:15 pm

Gwhite wrote:Food for thought:

I'm still using my original plate with the factory film, and I'm trying to keep it in good shape. One thing that helps is not to pry off the prints. I've found that tapping on them sideways with a pine stick will usually do the job, but that depends a lot on how sturdy your print job is. It wouldn't work on intricate/delicate objects. You should remove the build plate if it requires any significant force to get your prints loose, and when you do, you can look through the underside to see where it is stuck & needs a few more taps.

In any event, when the Kapton eventually dies, I'm probably going to switch to hairspray on the glass. I've flipped the plate over and used it with both PETG and PLA with great success. The part I really like is that once the bed cools down, the prints just pops off. The only reason I don't use it all the time is that it smells a bit & you have to refresh it occasionally. For most of my PLA prints, I can pop the prints loose from the Kapton either by flexing them slightly, or the tap-with-a-stick technique.

I'm using some PLA now that REALLY loves to warp. For that, I'm using glue stick on the Kapton. The downside is that even when cool, the prints are solidly stuck to the bed. A series of taps around the perimeter does the trick. Glue stick seems to last a long time without any attention. I've run about 6 identical prints now on the same surface,
Printing hairspray-on-glass is a recipe for sooner-or-later pulling chunks of glass out. Be warned.
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Gwhite
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Joined: Tue Jul 11, 2017 3:38 pm

Re: Do I need the bed factory applied Kapton for PLA?

Post by Gwhite » Thu Nov 02, 2017 1:57 am

Thanks for the heads up. First I've heard of this problem.

In terms of adhesion, the glue stick seems to be much harder to pry loose than the hairspray, so I'd expect that be more of a problem than with the hairspray. Then again, I mostly use the glue on the Kapton side of things.

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