Charles320

https://ultimaker.com/en/community/22445-printrbot-metal-simple-cura-23-beta-pronterface-from-cura-15044

Just to clarify, I don't have a heated print bed at all. The bed is just a piece of aluminum (probably) or steel that is painted black. The initial problem I was having is that whenever a print corner or edge was near a blue tape edge, the print would start curling up from the bed, taking the blue tape with it. I was able to solve this sometimes by moving the print location relative to the tape edges, so that more tape and adhesive support were available. I did look into getting wider blue tape, but I couldn't find much except on-line. The 6" wide blue tape rolls were really expensive, something like $80 for a fairly short length. The green tape is nice because my PLA sticks to it nicely, it sticks to the print bed nicely even in those print-edge-near-tape-edge conditions, I can get it at my local hardware store, and it has the same few-dollars price as a roll of narrow blue tape. Removing the print is also easy with the right tool. I use an old wood chisel that I sharpened. It's not woodworking sharp, but sharp enough that I can hold it upside down and get under the edge of the print. Then I lever the print off. So far it has been clean every time, so the tape lasts for many prints.

I print with PLA on an unheated print bed. Per on-line recommendations, I tried using blue painter's tape to get good print adhesion. I didn't get particularly good results. The main problem is that whenever a print edge was near a tape edge, the cooling print would pull the tape up off the print bed. The obvious solutions are careful print placement and using wider blue tape. However, sheets of blue tape seem very expensive and aren't, if you'll pardon the pun, widely available. I found a really nice alternative at my local hardware store. It's green painter's tape. This tape sticks to the PLA the way that blue tape does, but it has a stronger adhesive. Now, with narrow strips of green tape, I don't see the edge lifting that I used to see with blue tape. The green tape comes off the print bed pretty easily, but I find that I don't need to change it very often. I remove the prints with an upside-down chisel, carefully getting under the edge and levering them off the tape, and am usually good to go for the next print without further ado. So for 3D printing, I think that green tape is much better than blue tape! Charles

I use a Printrbot Metal Simple from the build-it-yourself kit, and have been using Cura 15.04.4 for a long time. I like the Pronterface interaction in which I can start and stop printing, measure and set the extruder temperature, and move the print head around. Most of my prints are need some hand-holding, which is usually tinkering with the individual settings until I get satisfactory prints. I do a fair amount of clean-up of my print bed and extruder head on failed prints. I eagerly downloaded Cura 2.3 Beta, and was very happy to see support for Printrbot Simple printers. At the same time, I noticed that the Pronterface option is no longer available. So it looked like I could either explore the new features in Cura 2.3 Beta, or keep the Pronterface for my own troubleshooting cycles, but not both. However, there might be a best-of-both-worlds alternative. I'm trying my first print right now which I sliced with Cura 2.3, then saved as a .gcode file, which I then opened in Cura 15.04.4, and am printing through the Pronterface. Charles