Ultimaker 2 Glass Bed

[RetromanIE 40]

So I just got another glass bed for my Ultimaker 2 Extended +. This might seem like a silly thing to ask, but can someone confirm its the side with heat/hot sticker on it that we print on? My understanding is that both sides are not the same and there is one proper side with a coating we should always use.

[SyntaxTerror 344]

That's what they tell us, yeah

Personally I don't experience much of a difference between the two though.

[ultiarjan 1,222]

same here, removed the sticker and use both sides.

[SyntaxTerror 344]

If you're using something on the build plate for adhesion, be it hair spray or glue or whatever, I certainly doubt you'll be able to notice any difference between the two sides.

The sticker came off one of my plates once when I was cleaning it. At the time I was completely oblivious to the surface treatment of the build plate and I just kept printing on presumably random sides of the plate. Later I learned there was a difference between the sides and did quite a bit of experimenting printing, flipping over and printing again. I can't tell the difference. Maybe it's just me.

[RetromanIE 40]

I generally use Dimafix on the glass bed. So yes i guess it doesn't really matter

I was just curious, sometimes i want a really smooth bottom finish on a print, and clean glass really helps with that.

[randyinla 14]

It's a piece of glass that's designed (hopefully) to not warp or shatter under high temps. In that sense, there is no side better than the other.

I can tell you to be careful when cooling down. Early on in my U2 usage, I saw a "tip" from someone to spray an upside down can of air onto the glass around the edges of your model to help "pop" it off the glass. This can result (as I found out) in shards of glass separating from the main glass bed and sticking to your model. Don't want to have extreme changes from hot to suddenly cold. Ultimaker were awesome and replaced my glass for free. I'll never do that again.

[tomnagel 123]

The two sides are not the same, though the difference is not large.

When the glass is manufactured, at some point it floats on a pool of molten tin. Therefore, glass has a tin side.

The tin leaves traces in the glass, which changes its properties. There is probably enough info on Google on this.

It's best to use the non tin side.

But: we only recently found out about this. So stickers have not been put on a certain side. We are currently speaking with our supplier to arrange this.

It's not a big effect. It is much more important to use a clean glass plate, make sure your bed is leveled accurately (or use auto leveling on UM3) etc.

[randyinla 14]

Interesting!

So if they don't tell you which side is the tin side, there's no way of figuring it out?

[neotko 1,417]

Also interesting that the first news about that where that it had a 'special coating' to improve the adhesion, when in fact is just a worse side than the other. Marketing is a ...

[tomnagel 123]

Neotko, you have really a way of twisting and making sour remarks.

This has nothing to do with marketing whatsoever. It is about new knowledge dripping in in our young company. We're learning every day, just like you. We're trying to be open, also with new knowledge we're apparently wrong about.

Please stop seeing every bit of communication as a great conspiracy of the ever growing company Ultimaker.

[neotko 1,417]

Neotko, you have really a way of twisting and making sour remarks.

This has nothing to do with marketing whatsoever. It is about new knowledge dripping in in our young company. We're learning every day, just like you. We're trying to be open, also with new knowledge we're apparently wrong about.

Please stop seeing every bit of communication as a great conspiracy of the ever growing company Ultimaker.

 

That might be true. But I'm really worried by the lack of official information about the little stuff. Bed glasses with less than ok flatness, information that once is one thing and then the other. When I said marketing is my assumption, but ofc if the first news about this is 'special coating' and then is just 'that's how is made', don't you think that it could have been easier to be frank and said 'we don't know why one side works betterthan the other'.

I might be twisting words to not be blunt. But I see more and more that issues are not published, there's no record of stuff a new buyer should check (slideblocks, glass, connections disconnected, frame...). So sorry if I'm twisted, but I'm a bit worried. Anyhow I'm just an user.

Also this isn't something new. I find this lack of info a big issue even on umo+ models and their very horrible mxl pulleys. I think UM should be a higher standard of communication (not just a post that disappears on a facebook-like-forum). And it should be more direct about what is improved or what an user should be aware even if that cost UM money, because when (IMO) a new user finds this issues on a 1k or any k money machine, he will think twice about getting the same brand next time, just like anyone would do after buying a TV brand.

So, yeah, I'm twisted, to avoid being direct.