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tl;dr

Elmer's must have changed their formulations from PVA to something else, because I couldn't get any of their gluesticks to adhere to PLA.

Staples Washable Jumbo Glue Stick works just fine, must still be PVA based.

Ordered a PEI sheet from McMaster-Carr, and will most likely pick up some 12" round BuildTak sheets from Matterhackers this weekend.

...




It looks like Elmers may have changed their formulation, because I can't get PLA to stick to the plate with any of their gluesticks I purchased yesterday.

I've Tried:
- Elmer's Purple
- Elmer's eXtreme
- Elmer's Extra Strength

It's like printing on glass, PLA won't stick to them. I rummaged my last stick stub out of the trash and verified that there's definitely a difference, so it's not operator error.

The new Purple stick is more "purplier" but the packaging is exactly the same as the ones I had from before.

Does anyone have any other recommendations? I remember UHU being popular, but noone around me seems to stock it.

I see Avery and Scotch have gluesticks, I'll pick one up of each to see if they'll work.

Halp?

Alan

PEI is the new PVA

Heh, I hadn't been keeping up with all the kids are doing nowadays.

I just ordered a PEI sheet from McMaster, and I picked up Staples glue stick to tide me over until then.

Thanks!

I also see that Matterhackers stocks 12" round BuildTak now.
And they're only 30 minutes south of me.

https://www.matterhackers.com/store/pri ... 2-diameter

[img]https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/qMUNc ... HtlPA=s640[/img]

I would go for PEI by preference. I hear bad things about buildtak's performance, while well treated PEI seems flawless (if it don't stick, wipe with alcohol, if that still don't do it, little bit of fine/ultrafine sandpaper), it's more expensive (I can buy 4 beds worth for what those three pieces of buildtak cost), and it wears out much faster. Using the windex trick, it's pretty easy to get PEI on. If you want a stop-gap while MMC ships, it would do, but it's not as good a solution.

gestalt, you can print PLA on bare glass. Just clean it with isopropyl(sp) alcohol and go. I print at 55C on bare glass, but you can do it cold as well.

g.

gestalt73 wrote:I also see that Matterhackers stocks 12" round BuildTak now.
And they're only 30 minutes south of me.

https://www.matterhackers.com/store/pri ... 2-diameter

[img]https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/qMUNc ... HtlPA=s640[/img]

I've made several attempts with BuildTak and would run away... glue stick works better than BuildTak.

I'm in the process of setting up for PEI and my recommendation is to "stick" with the 1" wide tape as recommended... My quest for perfection got the best of me and after 5 attempts of using the 12" wide 3M sheet and breaking my build plate this morning removing the last failed attempt at 12" wide adhesive, I placed an order for the roll of tape and a new build plate. Lesson learned.

Interesting you has such trouble with the tape. I suppose I'm lucky, as I can't break my build surface (3/16 AL plate FTW). But I've not had problems so long as I used windex (soak the surfaces, then squeeze it out, don't try using only a little), and allowed it to dry between sides. (I tried once without drying it, and went through a pint of goof-off and a cheap brass brush to get it off)

Interesting feedback on the BuildTak. I'll hold off on it for a bit while I get a feel for the PEI sheet.

I ordered the 0.04" sheet, if it works out I'll probably go with the 1/16" in sheets for both printers. I wonder if I could get away with just clipping them to the build plate instead of using adhesive?

This works fantastic for ABS:
http://www.uhu.com/en/products/paper-gl ... 1e2aa97531

Without Kapton - directly on the glass bed.

*John*

For the thinner stuff, not so much. I found mine arrived bowed (And it's pretty flexible for the really thin stuff.) The thicker stuff, like that's 1/16th? I think bot's (at least I think he's the one) been doing that (He may be using something thicker, but he has been getting reasonable success from clip on) . I've been being cheap about it though, so I wouldn't know. (The cost differential between the stuff you could clip on and the thinner stuff is larger than the cost of a 6 pack of squares, so I went the tape route.)

Xenocrates wrote:Interesting you has such trouble with the tape. I suppose I'm lucky, as I can't break my build surface (3/16 AL plate FTW). But I've not had problems so long as I used windex (soak the surfaces, then squeeze it out, don't try using only a little), and allowed it to dry between sides. (I tried once without drying it, and went through a pint of goof-off and a cheap brass brush to get it off)

First mistake was trying to float it on with Windex and not letting it dry out enough.
2nd mistake was accelerating the drying of the Windex with heat and creating air pockets between the tape and the PEI.
3rd and 4th were bad sheets of the 3M that would not release and tore out chunks in the middle and that's when I put too much pressure on the glass cleaning it and snapped it. The tape had some staining on the release paper, so I suspect it was bad in the first place.

BTW, an overnight soak of WD-40 on the tape will release it from the glass and PEI sheet with little effort and avoid breaking the glass.

Quite a frustrating experience. I think the 1" tape is better in that minor gaps between strips will prevent air pockets from occurring.

gestalt73 wrote:I ordered the 0.04" sheet, if it works out I'll probably go with the 1/16" in sheets for both printers. I wonder if I could get away with just clipping them to the build plate instead of using adhesive?

PEI is great and you will love it, but you will probably have to tape it. When I got my first sheet of PEI (on another printer) I tried clipping it and the prints were clearly shifting around - not much but enough to warp the side walls. Locking the sheet down with 3M adhesive did the trick. For the Rostock I just went with tape from the get-go. Have been happily printing with it with no issues.