While waiting for the heated bed - printing on glass

[augusto 0]

Hi Augusto, Thanks .

It's Flex Pla directly on glass, cleaned with some kind of solvent (smells like thinner).

The first one warped a little, so I used a Brim.

Bottom layer, printed at 225° with 15mm/sec bottom speed, 0.1 layer and 110% flow to get a flat solid first layer.

Still like to know who came up with this idea? Should be nominated for some prize or reward :-P

 

That's really nice.. where did you buy this solvent? I`m trying to print with flex but my tries failed miserably... :oops:

I`m using a glue over the ikea mirror, for PLA it is perfect... working much better than the blue tape. This guy deserves for sure a prize! I printed more than 10 pieces and it is still 100% and the pieces are smooth in the bottom. I`ll try the flex PLA today with your configs and will post back the results.

Thanks for the tips.

BTW nice site... it is in my favorites

Augusto

 

[irongland 1]

I'm not sure where everyone is from, but for the last 3 days I have been trying to print on glass with a couple of different wood glues.

I'm over in california, and I was having trouble selecting the right glue (all the products weren't specific about their formulas, in fact no glue mentioned PVAc at all)

I found one that works perfectly (Ill try different ratios tomorrow and my last glue). It happened to be the most similar to those used in grade school, small squeeze bottle with a spout in the middle. Also it dries more clear than the other three I tried, I'm guessing it has fewer additives. Also it was labeled "glue for balsa wood and school projects".

I'm hoping this helps some one select the right glue. If anyone wants I can always post some photos of the glue, the way it dries, and a photo of the results.

Peter if you are reading this, I totally vote you for the silliest, easiest, and most awesome innovation for 3d printing!

 

[3dcase 37]

found a gluestick video from dec 2012.

 

[gr5 2,167]

Yes! Please post a picture or a link to amazon (which would have a picture) or whatever.

You mentioned you are in California. It would be very helpful if everyone would do what I did - at the top right click on your nickname drop down, select profile, select edit, and under "location" enter something like "Bay Area California" or even just what country you live in.

That way when someone says "I've never heard of isopropyl alcohol" and I see they live in the UK I can respond with helpful information. Also it's nice to meet people who live in the same area and potentially meet them at makerFaire's and so on.

 

[peggyb 169]

it works!

always use the brim, so you can tape the brim to the bed (for difficult objects), especially on the side of the fan.

the wood glue worked best for me. the gluestick left a thicker layer (visible in the print) and is more difficult to spread evenly.

when printing on glass, you have to adjust your z-height, to compensate for the thickness of the glass. I printed this little piece (https://www.youmagine.com/designs/z-material-add-on) and put it on the lever that touches the z-switch.

When your done with the glass , or whatever, remove it and continue printing on tape...

You can make one for every thickness you need. After printing, check if the height corresponds with the material, file/sand a little if necessary. Test it with homing: if your nozzle is too high above the glass, remove a little of the top and test again.

Store the z-material add-on on the side of the frame: it is the same thickness...

 

[irongland 1]

Hi guys, sorry for the late update.

Hey PeggyB, that's a really good idea! I already printed up a pair after I adjusted it to my glass's thickness, Thanks!

Here is the glue I'm using, though I imagine any similarly cheap generic craft glue (like the ones in schools with the orange nozzles) will work. Once more my reasoning is that the more generic it is the more basic it is (less addetives) and closer to PVAc.

 

I'll see if I can't get a good shot of my results.

 

[3dcase 37]

Hi,

Printing on glass with a gluestick...

The ABS sticks on the glass very well!!

But next problem is the stress, up higher in the print.

Still might need a heated bed to solve that :(.

 

 

[gr5 2,167]

Heated bed mostly just helps with the sticking to the print bed. The temperature drops quickly as you move up. You will probably need to enclose your UM if you want to make a different that far up off the print bed. But, yes, a HB should help.

If you get a HB, consider also moving your X and Y steppers *outside* the UM (no holes need to be drilled, nothing needs to be purchased). It will be noisier though as the steppers will be touching the wood directly. You'll have to reverse the direction. One way to do that is to just build marlin with the axis direction reversed (checkboxes for that here):

http://marlinbuilder.robotfuzz.com/

Then cover the 3 open sides with plastic and the top with a big box (need space for the bowden). There you go - heated chamber.

 

[3dcase 37]

That's

 

Heated bed mostly just helps with the sticking to the print bed. The temperature drops quickly as you move up. You will probably need to enclose your UM if you want to make a different that far up off the print bed. But, yes, a HB should help.

If you get a HB, consider also moving your X and Y steppers *outside* the UM (no holes need to be drilled, nothing needs to be purchased). It will be noisier though as the steppers will be touching the wood directly. You'll have to reverse the direction. One way to do that is to just build marlin with the axis direction reversed (checkboxes for that here):

http://marlinbuilder.robotfuzz.com/

Then cover the 3 open sides with plastic and the top with a big box (need space for the bowden). There you go - heated chamber.

 

That's a nice next project, when the PLA90 does not work.

I had in mind to build me something to mount the feeder on top of the printer on a kind of tripod (seen on thingiverse).

To shorten the Bowden tube, for printing the soft pla, that's a PITA now with the long bended tube.

Need to find a way to include your roof in that design.

But first finish the dual extruder printhead, than I need to try that roll of PVA as support material..

and then.. and then... need to have some payed prints ... and then pffffffffff :-P

 

[mgg942 0]

I have to confess - I'm a backslider. I've reverted to blue tape as my default, but ON GLASS. So nice to have a flat printing surface again.

The reason that I've reverted to tape is that I like to be able to see the condition of the surface that I'm expecting the PLA to adhere to. With the tape it's easy to see if a bit is missing or is not properly stuck down, not so easy with the diluted PVA.

I had two 6 mm thick glass plates cut. Very flat and dead convenient to loose two bulldog clips and slip a completed print out of the machine and immediately clamp an ready prepared glass plate in place for the next print.

If I need a glossy bottom I'll use the diluted PVA - and I will try it with ABS, but, for the general run of PLA it's blue tape on glass for me.

 

[irongland 1]

I too have been going back and forth between blue tape and glass, PeggyB's little clip makes it easy. You have a point though, I could add blue tape to the glass instead and bypass using the acrilic bed altogether. Another trick I figured out is to coat both sides of the glass, once one side is sufficiently used you just need to flip it over.

In general I think of this glass trick as another trick in the toolbox. For some people I help out with their 3d printers, this trick has replaced blue tape since they use their printers in a school classroom/shop environment (and I replaced their printbed with glass already). They just happen to have brushes and glue laying around ALL THE TIME. For me though I keep my printer in my bedroom, and do the glass and glue trick with my glass plates in the garage. As such Ill use the glass trick if the bottom is going to be used (like an Iphone case). With something like the Venus de Milo, I would print on tape rubed in isopropel since I still get a better adhesion.

Also if you can get other non pla plastics to stick (nylon abs ect) then Ill be using glue and glass much more often when I get some different plastics.

Side note but related to this topic:

Has anyone done a comparison between glue sticks and the glue/water solution?

 

[augusto 0]

Hi Augusto, Thanks .

It's Flex Pla directly on glass, cleaned with some kind of solvent (smells like thinner).

The first one warped a little, so I used a Brim.

Bottom layer, printed at 225° with 15mm/sec bottom speed, 0.1 layer and 110% flow to get a flat solid first layer.

Still like to know who came up with this idea? Should be nominated for some prize or reward :-P

 

Hey 3d,

you forgot to tell where did you buy the solvent? Do you have the name?

Thanks!

Augusto

 

[3dcase 37]

Hey 3d,

you forgot to tell where did you buy the solvent? Do you have the name?

Thanks!

Augusto

 

Oops,

sorry, have a link, but you might want to check using normal drugstore thinner first..

http://www.bison.net/en/products/643-thinners/product/864-thinner-for-bison-kit/features/