Taz 6 and BuildTak

PC-MAX is recommending the BuildTak as the printing surface. Has anyone here installed BuildTak on a Taz 6? If so, was it successful? Any tips?

We have done some extensive testing with PC Max and find it adheres great to your stock PEI with a glue stick to help removal/adhesion.

If you were to install some buildtak, you would most likely need to adjust your Z offset through the LCD.

We hope this helps!

Thanks. I have a PEI and a BuildTak side-by-side, trying to decide which to install. The BuildTak is half the cost of the PEI. That is attractive since this is an item that has to be replaced regularly.

PEI is essentially a permanent, buy once solution. Buildtak is essentially a consumable item. You will need to replace buildtak periodically every 2 months or so with heavy printing. PEI you may need to re-bed at some point if you get bubbles, but that’s about it. Unless you shatter it by dragging a nozzle through it the hard way, it will last forever. That being said, I find that ABS sticks slightly better to Buildtak when dialed in properly.

Yea, but printing with stronger materials like polycarbonate for printing structural components, pulls hard on the surface as it hardens, and does damage the PEI surface leaving it scared and dented, but the real problem is with the adhesive - which starts giving out, particularly around the sides, with warping corners on the prints and the PEI visibly pulling up from the glass leaving massive bubbles after only a month or so of use.

Any thoughts on how to get a stronger bond with the borosilicate?

How do you re-bed the PEI?

yard it off the bed using the freeze the bed in the freezer until the adhesive looses it’s stickiness method. use a citrus based adhesive remover to remove the adhesive (Without getting any on the heater side) then clean the glass 3 or 4 times really well to remove any remnants of the adhesive remover before adding a new sheet of 3m 486mp adhesive and then re-adhering the sheet. It’s a pain in the ass, and there are risks involved (snapping the glass plate, etc.) . If you are going to that much trouble, it’s worth the effort to switch to an aluminum core bed anyways.

It may be just worth the time and effort to buy a new bed.

Where would one get an “aluminum core bed”?

One buys a flat 3/16" thick sheet of aluminum in 12" x 12" configuration and hopes it is truely flat, Aslo one would probably have to adjust the bed corners somewhat as I don’t know of a Taz 6 specific aluminum bed bed corner yet. The taz 5 version is here.
http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1098784