Do the parts still come off easily with the abs mixed in the acetone?
yes. The printsremove rather easily but I am only using about one-fifth of the abs as I have previously used in my abs slurry.
I have been wondering about this. I have been soooo abusive to my glass bed and have had no damage to it. I have had prints stuch so bad I have used a putty knife and mallet to get them off with prying so hard I can see the bed bow. I have had the extruder head fall from the upper frame to the bed. expected a shattered bed but no, not a mark.
I’m wondering if your bed mount is binding somehow as the abuse I have given my bed by all rights should have cracked many times over.
I have given up on the PEI for now. It is an inconsistent mess on my Taz 2.1. I don’t know if the z home is too inconsistent or there is too much backlash in my z axis with the old school threaded rod… Not sure. One print would stick so hard it wouldn’t come off and the next would curl up off the bed.
After over a pound of failed prints, this is what I think of PEI right now.
Sorry it didn’t work out for your printer. It’s still working great on mine for what that’s worth.
I don’t know what the problem is. I have read about it on the forums for months and it seems like the best thing going. It is crap on this machine, that is for sure.
Maybe I will try again after I upgrade the z axis.
We’ve been testing it extensively in house over the past couple weeks, and it definitely seems that first layer squish is key (even more so than with PET). Over squish can cause parts to adhere wayyy too well and under squished parts will lift. You can mitigate this pretty well by setting your first layer to be taller and fatter than normal (0.425mm height and 160% width seem to work for a .5mm nozzle), giving you a bit more slop in the first layer squish.
We’ve had great luck here with standard bed temps and PLA, HIPS, laywood and laybrick, Taulman Tritan, and a few others. Nylon (618 and bridge have been tested) don’t stick at all to the PEI but will adhere to a thin layer of gluestick, I’ve found that Uhu original is the best.
The PEI is really impressive for ABS, but over squish can cause the parts to be realllly hard to remove. Has anyone developed a good way to prevent this from happening or remove super stuck parts without prying with a knife?
Cheers
-Brent
Please post any helpful tips for as you discover them. I will keep an eye on this and try again after the Z axis upgrade.
I like the super stuck on part bit for what i’m doing actually. My part removal method involves a cheese slicer. Go ahead, you can laugh now, I’ll wait.
Ok, but seriously the best tool for removing parts I have come across, and I’ve tried almost every suggestion i’ve ever ran across, is this one: A Calphalon Gadgets Dual Edge Cheese Plane http://www.amazon.com/Calphalon-Gadgets-Dual-Cheese-Plane/dp/B000SDQGL6/ref=sr_1_28?s=kitchen&ie=UTF8&qid=1410818464&sr=1-28
I put tape over the slicer part so it doesn’t mar the bed. The overall unit is thicker than most cheese slizers, but the little front scallop thingy is very very thin, but supported on both sides so it isn’t too flexible. I just work that under an edge, twist it slightly, then off comes the part.
I also occasionally use this little spatula job:
http://www.amazon.com/Provo-Craft-290099-Cricut-Spatula-7-5/dp/B00AQ6SWEE/ref=sr_1_9?s=home-garden&ie=UTF8&qid=1410818680&sr=1-9&keywords=cricut+tool
but it tends to be too flexible. the cheese slicer works way better.
ok, so I’m new to 3d printing, and just got my Taz 4 set up. Apparently, the extruder got out of whack and completely destroyed the plastic coating that is over the glass of my print bed. I was broken-hearted that I’d ruined it so soon, but reading this thread makes me think I didn’t. Can I just peel off whatever this coating is, and put down a layer of painters tape? I sent this question to support but haven’t heard back from them. Maybe you guys can help?
Appreciate any suggestions… Photo attached for reference… Rebecca
Depends on what plastic you are printing. if you are printing PLA, then yes painterst tape will work fine. if you are printing ABS, you will need either a replacement green sheet (sold in the Lulzbot store) or alternativvly one of these PEI bed thingies or something else along those lines.
The green coating is a sticker sheet of PET tape. It is a high temp tape that printed parts stick to really well. We sell extra sheets here, plus docs:
https://www.lulzbot.com/Pet-Tape-12x12-sheet-green-5-pack
https://www.lulzbot.com/support/installing-pet-your-glass-bed
You can use painters tape for PLA, but not so great for ABS… If you peel all the green tape off, clean the glass bed with acetone to make sure there is no debris or anything sticking to it. Then you can put down another sheet of PET, use painters tape, or if you are using ABS (or other filaments) you could use a UHU glue stick (elmers purple works ok too, iirc) and put a layer of glue down on the bed. That works well too, and is cheap/quick.
In this thread, we’re trying PEI, which is pretty great for this purpose. We’re looking into getting PEI sheets into the store, but we haven’t tested the prototypes yet.
-Jeff
So I just upgraded to the PEI bed surface.
I have to admit this stuff is amazing when it comes to adhearing ABS filament.
But now the calibration process has begun. I have it almost dialed in but I am out of space lowering the back right corner. In fact the entire right side is just a little high. I am tempted to zero out all 4 corners and start from scratch. Does anyone here have any quick calibration tips???
Thanks in advance for the help.
I ended up leveling all 4 corners, then I adjust the Z height for the center of the bed.
When I first used the PEI, I followed instructions and adjusted Z with the nozzle in the XY home position (front left). But, this left the center of the bed too high and the plastic (ABS) gets too squished and nearly impossible to remove.
So, now I just make sure everything is level and adjust the height for the center of the bed.
Kenny
Thanks Kenny…I also adjusted Z to the XY home. I will try your suggestion and zero it out and adjust for the center of the bed.
Are any of you that are having success with this surface still running the old threaded rod z axis system? I am really thinking the less accurate limit switch setup and z screw backlash are causing my problems.
Are any of you that are having success with this surface still running the old threaded rod z axis system?
I’ve got a TAZ 4.
Kenny
I have ran both. the newer one seems to work better, but it was working fine with the threaded rod as well
We’re running it on 9 machines in the cluster with the old drive rod system and it is working fine.
-Jeff
So I just leveled the bed and adjusted Z for the center of the bed maually. This seems to be working out quite well.