ultem

[PcS]

Has anyone tried this as a print surface ? I have read good things over on the reprap forums and in the wiki. The new taz 5 ships with this print bed. I also read an article from a 3d print board that showed that beer added to a print bed was their secret for large prints staying put. Something about the starch in the beer but they did not go into detail. On that note a potato rubbed all over your print bed might be the secret !!! Lol

[Jules]

You'll laugh, but i thought about using spray starch.

(Still might try it one of these days.)

[hillkwaj]

I ordered a 12"x12"x.03" sheet of PEI from Amazon and used some 3M 486MP transfer tape to bond it to the glass build plate - total cost of materials from Amazon was $27. The PEI was tough stuff to cut so I just used a cutoff wheel in the dremel to trim it to match the glass build plate. This PEI sheet has both a gloss and matte side. I elected to have the matte side exposed.

So far I've only been printing PETG with it, but it seems to stick amazingly well with no additional treatment - I've just been wiping with ISO to remove any oil from my hands and then printing directly on the PEI. With the bed at temp (100C for PETG) even tiny blobs of plastic are nearly impossible to remove but once the bed cools below about 45C it comes off easily. I had a challenging part that just didn't have enough surface area even with my normal hairspray on Kapton that held like a champ with just the PEI.

I'll try some PLA and ABS at some point soon although plenty of folks have reported great results with PEI using those so I'm quite optimistic. So far I'm thinking this was a great upgrade as it looks like I'm free from hairspray or glue sticks. We'll see how it holds up over the long haul, but so far I'd say the PEI is very tough and unlikely to get damaged in normal use.

Steve

[PcS]

Thanks for the good news. I'm going to grab some from amazon as well . I hate tape glue and the like .

[rsilvers]

Ok, I bought some. We shall see if I like it.

[PcS]

I found the pei sheet ok. But can't find the referenced transfer tape ? Anybody got a link ?

[ErikAkia]

I think this may be what you are looking for?
http://www.amazon.com/TapeCase-468MP-12 ... y_hi_img_y

Erik

[PcS]

I think this may be what you are looking for?
http://www.amazon.com/TapeCase-468MP-12 ... y_hi_img_y

Erik

Thank you ! Ordered mine as well !!

[rsilvers]

I plan to just use clips for a while before I commit to bonding this to my glass - though my glass is getting fractured now so it would not be bad to bond something to it.

[hillkwaj]

Just a bit of advice as I've continued printing PETG on PEI... Pay attention to the Z stop distance or you may find it nearly impossible to get the print off. I set the gap to 0.06mm which caused the first Lyer to be substantially flattened. The PETG was very difficult to remove from the surface - even after chilling to - 15F.

The good news is that the PEI sheet is extremely durable. I've had a couple of prints that I aborted after the first couple of layers and have found that I can aggressively scrape to bed clean with a metal putty knife with no damage. Otherwise I'd have to cool the bed since you cant remove anything by hand until it cools below about 50C.

Steve