i've been meaning to give PEI a try for a while now,

3D Printing
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i’ve been meaning to give PEI a try for a while now, for a more “fire and forget” kind of printing flow.

the setup i have now is a mic6 6mm thick plate (250x250mm) - that depending on what material i’m printing gets a layer of either modpodge or carpenters glue (mixed with water).
this works extremely well for most materials i print, giving a great bottom layer finish (very similar to printing on glass), and extremely good first layer grip.
the caveat being that it has to be re-applied/cleaned every ~7-10 prints or so, and that some prints are harder to remove than others. this sometimes makes the whole process of removing the print and having to re-apply/clean taking up quite some time.

i’ve heard great things about PEI for PLA, PETG and taulman’s Nylon variants which are the materials i mostly print. although, a friend who purchased a PEI sheet (too thin i think) had many problems with it (with which i tried to help).

so i’ve got a few questions which i’m hoping some of you may be able to help:

  1. is there a recommended thickness to get? on the reprap wiki i can see 30mil (0.8mm) is the recommended and most common thickness - does anyone have any experience indicating differently?
  2. i’m trying to decide between buying some 3m 468mp tape adhesive to stick it to the plate and using crocodiles/bulldog (is that what they are also called abroad?) pins - like you would with a glass plate, and have the PEI sheet removable, so i can remove prints and handle them more easily. does anyone have any experience doing this? would a 30mil (0.8mm) PEI sheet be thick enough for that? or should i just forgo that dream and use the 3m tape?
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Second the use of 3M 468MP with PEI–I originally planned to have just the PEI sheet clipped to my aluminum plate but it was impossible to keep it flat; best way to do it is to adhere it directly on your aluminum bed or a sheet of glass to clip onto your bed.
You might have to crank up the heat slightly to account of the different bed surface and reduced thermal conductivity.

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thanks @David_Sherwood & @Ishaan_Gov - would you say there is any advantage to getting a 60mil (1.6mm) thick PEI sheet instead? do you think that could be used with clips on the aluminum plate then?
or should i stick (pun intended) with 0.8mm and 3m 468mp tape?

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@Tom_Keidar , I would just go with the 0.8mm and the adhesive tape–no guarantees that the 1.6mm one will be flat enough;
But do consider making your PEI platform removable either on glass or aluminum; there have been a couple times where a removable platform was really useful

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that kinda puts me in a conflict, since i’m trying to stay away from glass. one of the reasons i moved to a mic6 aluminum plate was the shortcomings of glass (breaking, uneven heat distribution, longer heat times and higher temps needed) - all of which i can happily say the aluminum plate solved.

my gut is churning thinking of permanently attaching the PEI sheet to the aluminum bed (in case i need different adhesion materials for special filaments, or just for easier cleaning and removal of prints) - so i was hoping perhaps a 1.6mm thick sheet would do.

thanks for the info so far, it’s given me much to think on - i’m trying to decide whether to forgo the entire thing or perhaps get the 1.6mm thick one as a gamble and see if i can devise a way that is both detachable and keeps it tight on the bed.

how flexible would you say a 1.6mm sheet is anyway?