What do you clean your glass plate with?

[Carla_Birch 116]

Well i normal use Isopropyl to clean my glass build plate, but due to coronavirus and the human race being how it is, people have put the prices up a silly amount to try and make a quick cash gain from it and the normal places i get it from are sold out or holding stock back from the NHS (whats the right thing to do as NHS comes first)

 

I'm almost out of IPA and I'm not willing to give them people the money they are after, so what else do people use to clean the glass after prints? I was thinking maybe glass cleaner like this: https://smile.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0011569SK/?coliid=IWSLY64SZGUSC&colid=31KHMUA05NPTZ&psc=1&ref_=lv_ov_lig_dp_it

 

If it helps i use 3DLac on my glass when printing and not a glue stick.

[bagel-orb 61]

Vinegar water works well enough. You just wanna get the finger fat off it.

[gr5 2,194]

I like to clean off the PVA with hot water and a plastic scrubber thing - built into one side of my kitchen sponges.  Then I clean with window cleaner using the same process as for windows.

[ultiarjan 1,223]

just water and soap... but only after many prints... and I mostly use a super small amount of glue-stick spread with a moist paper towel.

 

I also sometimes scrape the glass-plate when its dirty from to much glue, while still in the printer, with a glass knive, and then reapply a thin layer of glue, or just use a moist paper towel without adding new glue.

 

This really is my nr1 tool.

 

 

[geert_2 558]

In daily life, I don't clean it.

 

Well, I only clean it less than once a year. First wipe with alcohol, and then thoroughly wash again with pure handwarm tap water only. Then wipe dry with a paper towel. So, in daily life, I don't clean it for 99.7% of the time.

 

I don't use soaps as they reduce bonding. Also, cheap industrial solvents might leave residues that reduce bonding: there is a lot of variation. I tried these things in the very beginning, but now I don't use them anymore. They didn't work for me.

 

But before each print, I do wipe the glass with a tissue moistened with salt water, and I gently keep wiping until this dries into a thin almost invisible layer of salt stuck to the glass. For PLA, this greatly improves bonding compared to printing on bare glass. And after completion and cooling down, the models come off by themself.

 

This "salt method" works excellent for my typical long flat models. But it is not optimal for narrow high models like lantern poles and towers: these might get knocked over.

 

I also use this for printing PET, although in this case it does not improve bonding. But it makes removal easier after cooling down, without chipping the glass. PET sticks well enough from itself.

 

It does not improve bonding for other materials like ABS (which has poor bonding by itself), so it is not suitable for this.

 

This inverted pyramid is the limit of what can be printed with the salt method: the edges do warp a bit due to the huge overhangs. Most of the time the model can be completed, with edges lifting, but occasionally it comes off and produces spaghetti. Stay with the printer when doing tests like this, or when printing narrow high models like poles and towers.

 

[FraggleRock 5]

Regular tap water works fine at least for me. I use glue stick to make some prints glue better to the surface, and that is water soluble.

[RudydG 62]

Cleaning? Once in 10 prints i think. And only with regular tapwater. As a fixing material i use 3DLAC, and i always use the right side of the glass now, (UM2, UM3 and S5)

What was once difficult, became so easy now!

[CTotten 18]

I use Windex wipes (pre-moistened in a package) to clean the glass, then wipe it off with a lint-free cloth.  Works great, isn't a mess since I don't have to spray anything, and the wipe gets thrown out.

Edited March 27, 2020 by CTotten