Ok, I have come to the breaking point, well the PEI has at least.
It has bubbled to the point that its virtually unusable in major portions of the bed. It started several months after I got the Taz and has slowly progressed. And this week, one of the bubbles tore when removing a part from the bed rendering the front half unusable because I am afraid the nozzle will catch on the torn edges if it traverses over it on the first few layers. If that happens, it will destroy more than the PEI. Its got to be replaced.
Yall have both the PEI for $45 and a whole print bed (heater/glass/pei) for $150. So, how much fun (read PITA) is it going to be to get the existing sheet off, clean glass and a new one on? Is it worth $100 just to get a whole new kit and be done with it? Or is it fairly easy to remove the old one and attach a new one? If I replace the whole schebang, I can keep the old one and remove the sheet/glue as time permits and have a pure glass bed if I need one. Or a heater for doing acetone smoothing. So its not a total waste.
Is there any instructions anywhere on replacing it? Like how to remove the old one and the adhesive, etc so I get a nice clean glass to apply a new sheet to?
Anyone replaced their PEI on a Taz (or other printer)? What was your experience? I don’t want to have the printer down for very long but a weekend project to swap the PEI is acceptable. If it turns into weeks, then its worth the extra $100 to get the kit.
I’ve replaced 3 PEI sheets on my mini, it’s not really that bad.
Take off glass bed and put it in the freezer for 1 hour.
Remove bed from freezer (optional: remove pizza rolls from freezer and make those as well to eat while working on this)
Pull off PEI sheet. The cold allows the PEI sheet to come off very easily.
Using a sharp razor blade and IPA, scraps the adhesive off the glass plate until clean.
Place the edge of the new PEI sheet against one edge of the glass and slowly remove the paper backing exposing the adhesive as you use a straight edge to push out bubbles as you go.
Granted the Taz is a bigger build plate, but for me on the mini, the entire job after removing it from the freezer takes about 30-45 min.
It honestly wasn’t that bad. My uncle did his last week for the first time and it took him about an hour after the freezer. I’d say DIY!
depending on the age of the machine, Lulzbot might send you a new bed under warranty. It’s a common issue with these beds.
I opted to just buy a whole new glass with the PEI already attached for $150. The new bed then would be under warranty, which i assume would be a year, just like the new machine This also give me a “spare” bed for experimentation purposes.
After thinking it over, I needed to get the Taz back running so I could get my printing done for Halloween. I couldn’t risk things going poorly with the freezer thing. I bought the drop in bed and got to printing.
I will put the old bed in the freezer and see if it really comes of well. If not, no critical issue, I can still print while I clean the board manually. If it does come off, I think I will leave the glass neat in case I need to print something straight on glass. Nylon maybe. I wasn’t able to get Nylon to stick to the PEI when I tried it. Maybe naked glass will do better. In any event, I have a backup glass and heater. Just in case.
Right now am busy building and setting up my christmas display so weekends are shot. After I get the display going, I will fool with the bed.
Hello , Just a note for Derrick,
When you purchase a replacement heat bed it only has a 30 day warranty on it. The original heat bed that comes on the printer has the year warranty.
The PEI will of course last much longer than the 30 day warranty.
Thanks for the PEI removal tip. Im going to give that a try. But Im going to go back with a printinZ Zebra bed material instead of the PEI. They make a size for the TAZ 5 for $30.00. I know people who have used it on other printers with good results.
I tried a different PrintinZ product and reverted back to the PEI. The plate… I think it was called the Zebra plate a year ago… anyway it was really sensitive to heat which resulted in an uneven surface. Not like the PEI bubbling, but just little bumps from the heatbed, and nozzle. It may be better suited for lower temp filaments like PLA, but it din’t fair well printing ABS.
The stick on sheets are intriguing, but I’m still a fan of PEI.
