Parts stuck to the printing surface

And I mean stuck!

Proto-Pasta ABS material, printed at recommended temperatures, and trying to remove the piece at 50 Deg table temperature, but it is welded on.

Any suggestions on how to get it off?!!

Cheers

Les

What type of tool(s) are you using? The best is something thin and flat that you can work under the parts – I really like these:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0027ITF5O

You don’t want any “prying” or “pulling” action. Just something thin and flat against the bed, gradually worked under the part to separate it from the bed. A putty knife will work as well, but it is hard to keep flat against the bed. Be careful if the tool has any sharp corners, as you don’t want to scar the PEI.

You might also try a few drops of 99% isopropyl alcohol around the perimeter of the part. I haven’t tried that myself, but there are posts elsewhere on the forum that say the alcohol will work its way under the part and help it release.

For future prints (at least with that material), add a bit of z offset – like 0.05-0.10mm – so the first layer isn’t squished against the bed as much.

If it is too stuck to pry, dismount the entire bed and stick the assembly in the freezer for a couple hours. This may also result in the PEI separating from the adhesive, which you will need to re-apply, but it will save the PEI sheet in a last ditch effort.

Thanks for the help guys, I got a pallete knife and tried that, but it was tough - in the end I set the bed temp to 70 deg and that seemed to do the job. I’ll be wary to make some features that make removal easier in future though!

Try a little IPA (Isopropyl Alcohol) around the edges of the print next time… it should help release the print from the PEI.

You might try PVA glue-stick on the bed before printing. I started doing that with PETG on PEI. It still sticks very well, but it releases a lot easier when I’m trying to get the stuff off the bed. Not usually an issue with ABS, that tends to want to peel up at the corners… :slight_smile:

Applying glue stick will help make parts remove more easily. For really stuck parts, I’ve found laying a chisel flat against the bed and tapping LIGHTLY with a hammer gets under the part very easily. Then, once it’s started, I use a standard thin blade tool to remove it the rest of the way.