Taz 5 PEI Plate Bubbling?

The bed of my taz 5 has began to form bubbles or “air pockets” all over he bed. these pockets are effecting the part adhesion to the bed drastically and causing the prints to detatch from hte bed. has anybody else experienced this? what should i do?

I haven’t experienced this on my TAZ, but have seen it on my other printer. My problem on my other printer was due to the adhesion of ABS… or really removal of parts due to the super adhesion to the PEI.

Lessons learned, I use a mixing spatula or anything with a blade to get under the project. Then slide the blade around underneath until the part pops off. Also use the Z-offset in slicing software to help with less or more adhesion.

Anyway… if you’re bed is bubbling up, probably need to buy a replacement sheet from McMaster-Carr and re-apply with the 3M 486 double-sided tape. You’ll probably need to scrape the od adhesive off the glass… There’s a good tutorial on how to apply the PEI sheet stickied somewhere on the forum.

Can you post a photograph of your current bed?

Yes, I will post a pic tomorrow after my current print finishes

Sorry this took so long. On top of this issue, I just had a replacement extruder come in about a week ago and it just clogged on me on a 48 hour print. GRRRR I’m sick of all that constant issues with this printer.

Mine kinda looks like that…

That is a small amount of air between the heater and plate. Not sure it’s a problem unless they get really big. I would just monitor it over time, you can also push on the back and probably get the heater to re stick in those spots but only use your fingers, nothing hard or sharp.

so If lets say the bubbles have gotten bigger what do you do? I have tried to rub them back in but they just keep making a popping noise and come back. Please help it is causing so many of my print to fail.

E-mail support. Especially if it’s a Taz 5

On my TAZ 5 the bubbles aren’t between the heater and the bottom of the glass bed, they are between the PEI and the top surface of the glass bed, because you can feel them. Mine have been getting more numerous and larger.


Mark -

Well it’s bound to happen… I’m always worried about removing parts that are really stuck on.

You could try rolling out the air bubbles, but I’d say the adhesive is compromised. And will lift again. Probably need to remove the PEI, clean both surfaces and reapply with fresh adhesive. There’s a good tutorial on applying the PEI on the forums.

the bubbles have only gotten worse. i would like to know if lulzbot will replace the heatbed or at least supply adhesive pei sheets that we can replace ourselves

Must be something wrong in either their application method or the adhesive they used. I did my own 6 months ago and I am pretty aggressive sometimes when taking parts off and no bubbles at all for me.

I would absolutely contact support as this should not happen. Now if the machine was 4 years old and it started then it would be excusable but not with new machines.

ok il send them an email. where did you get the material to do your own?\

I added PEI to my Kittaz. I got a 12 x 24 sheet of 0.010 PEI off Amazon, and the 12 x 12 3M adhesive from Digikey.
I have a couple of bubbles as a result of my application, but they are small and stable. If they become a problem, I still have another sheet of adhesive, and the second half of the PEI sheet.

Scott

Similar problem, Been fighting with part warping and pulling away from the bed. Finally got the part to stick down and it just pulls the PEI away from the glass.


Not sure what to do next.

Contact LB support… They may cover this under the warranty.

My theory is the humidity when summer hit may have something to do with the bubbling. I haven’t experimented, but a bead of silicon sealant around the edge of the glass may help… if it is dre to humidity. Need to get out as much of the bubbling as possible…

It’s also partially part removal technique. If you are using a wedge with a very shallow angle to separate the adhesion layer and pop the part off, it generally won’t lift. if you have a more agressive pry tool, the part adhesion will sometimes cause the PEI to lift from the glue. Thats the one drawback of PEI at the moment. As a 3d printing community we need to find a vendor that can provide PEI with one side with a rough glue ready surface and the shiny print side on the other side, along with a high temperature adhesive that isn’t a heat block that will hold the PEI down better. Gluing a shiny piece of plastic to a shiny piece of glass is just difficult in the first place since you can’t really chemically bond them, and there isn’t an easy way to mechanicaly bond them. I’m actually thinking that a 5mm thick Aluminum plate bed with a dovetail pattern routered 1mm into the face and some sort of adhesive that bonds really well with PEI used to glue it down and lock into the dovetail would be about the best anti lifting method one could employ. That would be somewhat spendy to manufacture. That or maybe a 7mm thick PEI sheet with the heat bed applied directly and no inttermediary glass, or with a thin sheet of metal in the middle for bed leveling. That might have too much deflection though. PEI still works a heck of alot better than the ol Green tape though for me heh.

Edit: It looks like PEI might be castable as a resin.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polyetherimide
http://www.sabic-ip.com/gep/Plastics/en/ProductsAndServices/ProductLine/ultem.html

It doesn’t machine great, so getting a good top surface would be potentially an issue without a form of some sort. I’ll see if I can get ahold of some of the resin somewhere and make a test bed.

Just got an email back from LB, looks like they’re replacing the bed under warranty. Which is good, I hope the new one lasts longer than the first.

FWIW, my part removal process involves the supplied blue handled knife. Not sure if I should categorize that as a “very shallow angle” or not.

-Denny

No thats a pretty sharp angle actually, you want one of these:

calephon gadgets cheese plane: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000SDQGL6/ref=cm_sw_su_dp
Put heavy tape or grind off the actual cheese slicer part, but use the thin wedge shaped part at the front to remove actual parts. This is the main part removal tool I use, and it works great.