Magic blue tape trick

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Hello,

Just wanted to share what I found working good if you don't have a heated bed: I used 3M 3434 blue tape. I primarily ordered it because it was 5cm wide, and I was tired of replacing the narrow stock blue tape after almost every print.

Following an advice found elsewhere, I sticked 2 layers (perpendicular) of this tape on the stock bed, and did not have to replace this tape after a lot of prints (actually, I NEVER had to replace it, because after some time I got an heated bed )

I don't know if it's the tape or if it's due to the two layers (probably providing some elasticity in case the nozzle is too close to the bed) but the first printed layer always sticked well, and it was also a lot easier to detach the object after the print, with no damage to the tape.

This will work only for PLA, not for ABS.

My 2 cents

JP

[futurejames 0]

Thanks, I'll give it a shot!

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For completeness, i should add that i was doing a quick wipe with acetone before each print.

I forgot to tell, because I was also doing this with the stock blue tape, and continue to do it on my heated bed borosilicate glass

JP

[futurejames 0]

Just tried a first print with this, here's some things I noticed:

- PLA sticks great.

- When I pulled the finished print off, it did pull up some of the tape off the top layer. But it didn't destroy it, it was pretty easy to smooth it out.

- I got way less "grilled cheese corner" on prints (where it curls up at corners).

- Prints came out great despite the bed having poor calibration.

I have a bunch of things to print over the next couple of days, so I'll be able to give it a good test.

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Great!

Did you just put two layers of stock blue tape, or use 3M 3434?

May be the nozzle is too close to to the bed, pushing hard pla on tape, thus causing over adhesion. You may try to increase a little bit the Z height.

JP

[futurejames 0]

Actually, I used some 3M tape, same as stock just wider. I'm going to pick up some 3M 3434 today and try it out.

For sure the nozzle was off; I mentioned that my bed was poorly calibrated at the time. I was just so surprised to see it still print fine.

Tonight and tomorrow I'll try with 3M 3434 & a calibrated bed.

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I *think* that 3434 sticks less than stock, so you should be able to detach the part more easily after the print.

The drawback may be that you get more warping as it sticks less, but i did not notice any PLA warping with 3434 (YMMV).

Please, let us know.

JP

[futurejames 0]

Nothing new to report as I haven't found any 3M 34343 at any hardware stores near where I live.

Do you have a link to it? I tried searching for it on 3M's website and the link it found wasn't working.

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I got it on eBay (UK seller), here:

http://cgi.ebay.fr/SCOTCH-3M-Detailers- ... 43b21e85c0

 

[ian 32]

another little tip.

if your always printing small objects like key chanins or some thing like that.. mask up just the area under neath what you will be printing!

i amount of times i remashed my bed and it looked super and clean and then one bold small model and the whole thing came back up and redone...

it took me too much time to realise how stupid this was on my side and now i just mask up the areas i will be printing. saves me buckets of tape.

Ian