First print on Buildtak went really well! NOT. The PLA jammed, because that’s the only think PLA does. The job was that stuck to the bed I had to melt it and lever it off. Trying again with the head a little further away from the bed.
Still have no idea on how to fix my terminal problems with PLA.
The 2nd to 7th prints all turned out like this: https://iaprmg.dm2302.livefilestore.com/y2pvSeqa7yKFESnY_MxEbyZp2Wf5YKKsV8uNPN_bRHoDIBrisTIIXYxNBZUhRVyYnAPgU994jsH_P5TQlayNAZ0OKOXZq3qU2pSv3ppvEHSV_k/WP_20140820_18_10_08_Pro.jpg?psid=1
So far it either sticks or it doesn’t! Will try cleaning with a bit of metho.
5 more attempts and they are all the same. Utter failure. The stuff has turned into teflon!
What are the temperatures you are printing with, nozzle and heated bed? and did you try it with brimming as well?
Normal PLA temps. Cold bed. Printing with a brim won’t help I’m now getting zero stick to the bed. I do have a major problem with my PLA. It could be because of that.
Yea most likely… try glue or hairspray and in the worst case get a heated bed. I notice keeping it warm on the bottom makes it stick like a brick.
Well, it would be best to find the happy medium, where it will stick and still be removable. I’m thinking one of the disadvantages of this is that there is very very little margin of error.
I changed filament and this one is sticking OK so far. Will see how long it lasts until it jams.
The PLA jammed again, FFS. But after 10 minutes hammering and prying I managed to get what was left of the print off.
I can’t say its better than Kapton. In fact I’d say that Kapton wins hands down so far.
But I’ll give it a few more trys.
I just wish I could get PLA to work. All other plastics work fine…
@Ben_Jackson I had a similar problem with ABS jamming. I normally use ABS from @UltiMachine but I had run out and I was given some from a friend but not sure where it came from. Every print I tried with it jammed making me think there was a problem with my nozzle. I got some more ABS from ultimachine and everything printed fine again. I was able to get the other ABS to finally print without failing but to do so required increasing the hotend temp by 20c.
Use the PETG-filament, Luke!
I called them when I had issues with printing on it with ABS. They told me I needed to print MUCH further away from the bed. First-layer should be roughly the diameter of the nozzle, and there should be no “first layer squish” because the bonding is so good. After playing with first-layer height and Z:0 height, I can back up that statement. It’s really critical that you get the correct z:0 height for your printer, otherwise you’ll have issues. It’s unlike ABS Juice or Kapton in the fact that it actually “likes” to stick.
I have tried buildtac and not had a good experience… I got it to stick ABS on but it stuck either too well or not enough… trying to prise off left tears in… then found hairspray… to stick PLA I use a heatbed at 60c… always sticks and pops off at about 30c… just don’t touch glass ever with hands…
Yes I know z-height is critical to using Buildtak. I guess my point is that you only have a very small working range in which to use it. Go outside that range and you will fail.
Metal beds will be tricky to print PLA on when they are cold. They have a huge thermal mass and conductivity so the pla cools immediately. i would use acrylic or wood with masking tape on it. the masking tape has hairs that hold down the pla. the thermal conductivity is low for both materials.
I’ve been using buildtak on 4 machines (rep2 and 2x).
Did try everything possible before buildtak - blue tape, blue tape with isopropyl alcohol, abs slurry for abs prints only, hairspray, glue sticks, glass. Until buildtak the 3dsystems glue stick was my best friend. Once you get everything dialed in - first layer temp and platter tramming then buildtak is the king for both abs and pla. Ive clocked 1000+ hrs pla and 300+ abs with 0 problems - good adherence across the entire plate and easy pop off once done.
Do you clean your buildtak between between prints? If so, what do you use?
What bed temps do you use?
Hi Ben - Buildtak guys told me to never clean it with any liquids - no acetone, not alcohol etc.
I was using ABS 110 degrees and PLA 50-60 degrees. After lots of testing I found that the PLA didn’t need any heating and was basically just wasting my time to heat up and cool down so no heat on PLA any longer. I print about 20hrs/day on 3 machines printing the same items so it’s a good situation for incremental testing of things like temp and platter height.
Best, Chris
Thanks. Interesting though that you have to print ABS at such a high bed temp. I currently use a glue stick at 80 degrees and it works well. I would have thought that Buildtak would work at lower temps. My bed does struggle to get to 100 degrees.
to be honest - i have never really played with bed temp on ABS prints. 110 was the recommended temp and I kinda stuck with it since never had much probs with it.
Scientifically the bed temp should be around the glass transition temp of the print material. Pla=~60c abs=~100c slightly higher won’t hurt but increasing it too much will.
