Isopropyl Alcohol ... from the farmacy : don't use it.
Hello,
Want to share with you something that cost me hours recalibrating and wondering :
I degreased my sheet with isopropyl alcohol from the farmacy nextdoors.
Just to find out after hours of recalibrating first layer and wondering why the serpentine always released at the strangest places that this farmaceutical ipa has oil added to protect the skin.
So I was greasing my sheet instead degreasing it.
Cleaned with Dreft and went to get pure IPA. Problem solved.
Hope to save some fellow members time and frustration with this information.
What you got is sold as 'rubbing alcohol' or 'alcohol rubbing compound' here in the States, which does include oils that will kill a print. It also probably has quite a bit of water in it as well.
I can attest that what's sold here in the States in the major pharmacy chains as '91% isopropyl alcohol' is indeed just that, alcohol and nothing else but water to normalize it to 91%.
Likewise, what's sold as '99% isopropyl technical grade' here in the States is indeed just that, with a bit of water.
During the height of the pandemic, the 91% IPA was hard to find, but lately it's been in stock most places.
I've also had very good luck cleaning the Prusa build plates with what's sold here in the States as 'denatured alcohol', which is EtOH with enough adulterants to discourage use as an intoxicating beverage. This was always available at the local hardware store when the 91% started getting scarce at the drug stores.
My experience was that the denatured seemed to cut glue stick residue a bit better than IPA, but otherwise was about equal for cleaning build plates.
use plain dishwasher detergent and plenty of warm water instead
Hello,
I don't even have IPA and print PLA, PETG, ASA, FLEX, XT-CF using all 3 sheet types provided by prusa (smooth, textured, satin).
If you do not touch the sheet with something greasy like fingers, you do need to degrease the sheet only from time to time. You can make several dozens of print over days or weeks without any cleaning in between whatsoever. That is, if the printer is in a relative clean environment, bare of significant dust and aerosols carrying dirt and oil.
I use plain dirt cheap dishwasher detergent, nothing fancy and especially no type that includes skin caring additives. The process has been described in this forum several times.
use plain dishwasher detergent and plenty of warm water instead
Edit: I own the MK3S FDM-Printer. I neither own nor have any experience with the SL1.