How do you combat PLA prints that are long running and slowly pull up your painters tape allowing curvature at the far ends of your print? I have some extremely wide painters tape I can use so that the tape strip would have to separate from much more acrylic surface before lifting would be allowed… Anyone already try that? Anyone prep the acrylic specially before laying down tape to get max adhesion??
Moar bed temp.
and brim. use brim.
Brim, like skirt just thicker? Helps keep temp trapped by model? I don’t have a heated bed setup yet on my Ultimaker.
like a skirt that’s touching the model. slic3r has the option just under skirt.
other things to try if you’ve not got a heated bed:
clean your bed surface really well
apply tape
put bed surface in the oven to warm it up
using the back of a spoon or something similar, rub the tape into the surface to ensure really good adhesion. this plus the heat seems to make the tape adhere to the glass surface better.
give the tape a quick wipe with acetone.
(though really, get a heated bed. you’ll wonder why you didn’t do so sooner)
And use hairspray.
with blue tape and an unheated bed?
The brim in Cura is great.
I have switched to PVA glue spread across the bed and allowed to dry. No blue tape anymore. Some people suggest diluting the PVA first but my glue is so cheap it did not need that!
+1 on @John_Cooper_choffee 's comment. I dilute though, I feel the coat lasts a little longer that way. With full strength glue, taking the print off the bed tends to remove a lot of the coating compared to the “dilution”.
How do you spread it to get it even? (I haven’t tried yet).
I use paper towel. I try not to touch my bed w/bare hands at all. Gets to much oil on the bed.
Yes paper towel. It does stick pretty hard with non-diluted but seems to last okay. I guess try and find what works best for you.
Any special brand you use?
The one I have now is Elmers Glue. That’s what the store had at the time.
PVA glue works ok with a heated bed, but paste glue stick like UHU or Elmer’s School Glue Stick holds tight enough that I have to chip off large prints with a paint scraper and a mallet even on cold glass.