The key to a long lasting Pei print surface is: Let it cool down to part removal Temp.
Pulling a part off at full adhesion and temp will only warp the surface and pull up the silicone adhesive underneath it. Not only wait till it cools down, don’t use acetone on it (it will ruin it) to clean up. Parts printed with a material (PC,NYLON,PEEK)high water absorption will pull away at the Pei and leave bubbles if the adhesion is too high.
With this idea in mind, it might be smart to remove Pei and print on glass(Borosilicate GLASS ) with abs slurry for PolyCarbonate, to protect the Pei from Acetone degradation and elite scrutiny
Borosilicate glass is a type of glass with silica and boron trioxide as the main glass-forming constituents. Borosilicate glasses are known for having very low coefficients of thermal expansion (~3 × 10−6 /°C at 20 °C), making them resistant to thermal shock, more so than any other common glass. Such glass is less subject to thermal stress and is commonly used for the construction of reagent bottles. Borosilicate glass is sold under such trade names as Simax, Borcam, Borosil, Suprax, Kimax, Heatex, Pyrex, Endural, Schott, or Refmex, Kimble.
Printing on bare glass is always a horrible idea. Glass flakes off in sharp pointy shards. If you are getting pei bed lifting you don’t have the right part remover. I recommend the Caledon gadgets cheese wedge with the slice bit taped over. I remove most of my parts with the bed just bairly cool from 105, and I get little if any lifting. Ever. the key is wedge separation removal. You aren’t lifting the part, you are pressing the pei bed down away from the part into the adhesive.
You are right about glass being a horrible way to go about printing.
Thanks for the ideas, but you presume a lot. I Never meant print on glass not treated with abs slurry or Pva.
Usually I do not use a part remover, because my parts come off at 50 c and forget about it. My Pei plate is fine I never said it came up, it could and I see every post on here about bubbles in their pei. Solution:Let it cool down and don’t print a part with high adhesion(z axis offset)
Do you work for lulz. I see you everywhere Jebba is commenting???
Nope, I do not work for Lulzbot. I just post in forums a lot. Its a habit. I used to be a forum admin for a pretty large mmo gaming forum, so I tend to be prolific in posting, and 3d printing is a relitivly small forum community to begin with.
Please see my recent post on PEI tips I learned from my recent e-mail to Lulzbot. It’s not only removing at the removal temp, but also not letting the bed cool down then reheating the bed to remove it. Add code to have the printer hold the bed at the appropriate removal temp if you plan on the print finishing when you’re not around.
All I can say is I have owned two TAZ printers with the PEI bed and letting them cool down is the key to getting parts off without damage to the surface. I now have a MakerGear M2 and the first thing I did is order the 3M adhesive and PEI sheet from Amazon. The material I got for the bed is .06 thick, I had a heck of a time cutting the stuff and getting it installed. Lessons learned and next time it will be a lot easier.
Now using it the same as I did on the TAZ heated to print and cool to remove. Nothing coming up, no bubbles no issues, it just works. Did I say it was tough. Perhaps TAZ needs to switch to the heavier PEI sheet?
Never have a part removal issue ever again. I tried to get the company to sell me about 60 of them without the slicer cut, but they thought I was jokeing apperently. Best 3d printer part removal tool ever made.
I use HIPS almost exclusively and after the first few prints haven’t had any issues with removing rings, even those with a pretty large flat profile. I don’t know whether the bed gets “seasoned” with use, or if the occasional swiping with an IPA (Isopropyl Alcohol) wipe has helped, but allowing the bed to cool to the pre-programmed temperature (60C for HIPS) has worked for me.
However, after struggling with the “Clam Knife” that is supplied with the Mini, I experimented with a number of tools, settling on the #2 palette knife from this set:
The blade did have a slight burr on it, but emery cloth took care of that. It is razor then, reasonably flexible and reasonably priced (I got two sets). Here is a larger, heavier duty version: