Kapton Tape Options
I am looking at purchasing an MK2 but the PEI bed scares me off a little. I currently have a Wanhao Duplicator i3 plus and spent the first 5 months of 3d printing learning the ropes.
I really like ABS printing and it took me a while to get repeatable workable ABS prints. I use an enclosure to elevate the temperature to 35C and print on ABS slurry Kapton tape. I also print a lot of Ninja flex and this works best on straight glass as it fuses to PEI and Kapton tape.
I have tried PEI with ABS and dont find the results consistent. Difficult prints suffer warping.
Has anyone had experience replacing the PEI bed (not putting glass on top of PEI) with a glass bed? Is this possible and at the same time keeping the autolevel functionality?
Re: Kapton Tape Options
A few have managed a working method for overlaying a glass sheet. Scott put it out: https://www.facebook.com/groups/prusai3mk2owners/
Although, the MK2 prints ABS just fine. The whole idea of the PEI sheet is not messing with mom's hairspray and duct tape to get good bed adhesion. It works.
Yeah, its that guy... 3D Nexus
Re: Kapton Tape Options
💡 tip, if your abs parts won't stick at the pei sheet: instead of kapton tape you can "print" a 200µm thick sheet of petg first, then swap over to abs, add +200um to the live z adjust level and start your abs print. so you've "printed" your sticky sheet yourself...
➡ furthermore it helps to get off large printed parts from the print surface... but it might get a little bit hard to remove the petg "raft" from your printed abs object.
dem inscheniör is' nix zu schwör...
Re: Kapton Tape Options
A few have managed a working method for overlaying a glass sheet. Scott put it out: https://www.facebook.com/groups/prusai3mk2owners/
Although, the MK2 prints ABS just fine. The whole idea of the PEI sheet is not messing with mom's hairspray and duct tape to get good bed adhesion. It works.
The facebook group gave me a great link to using glass beds on the mk2.
I agree, quite likely the mk2 on PEI is likely to be a lot better than the Duplicator i3. I would guess a good percentage of my issues are due to the heatbed design on the Wanhao vs the superior mk2. It is good that I do have the fallback of kapton tape and ABS juice.
I pulled the pin and bought the mk2. 🙂 Very exciting
Re: Kapton Tape Options
You'll be glad you did. I havent had but one print lift and that because I opened a window and it's winter time here, so the room was flooded with very cold air. Otherwise, I have hundreds of hours on the MK2 and no problems.
Yeah, its that guy... 3D Nexus
Re: Kapton Tape Options
You'll be glad you did. I havent had but one print lift and that because I opened a window and it's winter time here, so the room was flooded with very cold air. Otherwise, I have hundreds of hours on the MK2 and no problems.
I ended up building a temperature controlled enclosure with an air scrubber. Edmonton can get pretty cold (-10C to -45C) so an enclosure was the only viable option, particularly with the Wanhao i3. If I even opened my garage door my prints warped.
Re: Kapton Tape Options
A few have managed a working method for overlaying a glass sheet. Scott put it out: https://www.facebook.com/groups/prusai3mk2owners/
Although, the MK2 prints ABS just fine. The whole idea of the PEI sheet is not messing with mom's hairspray and duct tape to get good bed adhesion. It works.
Only it doesn't. It is the most inconsistent build material I have used. PLA always warps and lifts at the corners, even with a first layer temperature of 65C unless I print with a large brim, which is then hard to remove from the print.
Also, the first layer quality always looks awful.
If I could replace it with buildtak or one of the magnetic plates I would in an instant. It is my least favourite feature of the i3.
Re: Kapton Tape Options
.... PLA always warps and lifts at the corners, even with a first layer temperature of 65C unless I print with a large brim, which is then hard to remove from the print...
➡ then your live z adjustment level is most likely rubbish. i would strongly recommend to fix this first (find the correct live z adjustment value).
getting a good adhesion between pei sheet and printed object is one of the key issues at 3d printing with fdm printers.
dem inscheniör is' nix zu schwör...
Re: Kapton Tape Options
.... PLA always warps and lifts at the corners, even with a first layer temperature of 65C unless I print with a large brim, which is then hard to remove from the print...
➡ then your live z adjustment level is most likely rubbish. i would strongly recommend to fix this first (find the correct live z adjustment value).
getting a good adhesion between pei sheet and printed object is one of the key issues at 3d printing with fdm printers.
Thanks, but I do not believe that is the issue. I spent weeks getting the correct Z adjust value evening going as far as outputting the values stored in the firmware and comparing to testing all the points with a piece of paper to compare. I will try your gcode file though and test the result.
I think the issue this is printing in a cold location, and because the printer is not enclosed, the edges of larger prints curl up. I've always had those weird patterns on the bottoms of prints since I assembled the printer at every Z adjust value. If I raise Z adjust higher, then the filament will always refuse to stick.
Re: Kapton Tape Options
... I will try your gcode file though and test the result.
➡ take the third version of the file. i'm pretty curious if it helps you as well as it helped otheres...
...I think the issue this is printing in a cold location, and because the printer is not enclosed, the edges of larger prints curl up...
❓ at which place & temperature do you print ? you didn't mention any extreme conditions.
dem inscheniör is' nix zu schwör...
Re: Kapton Tape Options
.... PLA always warps and lifts at the corners, even with a first layer temperature of 65C unless I print with a large brim, which is then hard to remove from the print...
➡ then your live z adjustment level is most likely rubbish. i would strongly recommend to fix this first (find the correct live z adjustment value).
getting a good adhesion between pei sheet and printed object is one of the key issues at 3d printing with fdm printers.
Thanks, but I do not believe that is the issue. I spent weeks getting the correct Z adjust value evening going as far as outputting the values stored in the firmware and comparing to testing all the points with a piece of paper to compare. I will try your gcode file though and test the result.
I think the issue this is printing in a cold location, and because the printer is not enclosed, the edges of larger prints curl up. I've always had those weird patterns on the bottoms of prints since I assembled the printer at every Z adjust value. If I raise Z adjust higher, then the filament will always refuse to stick.
Strongly recommend looking at getting an enclosure. I live in a cold climate and it is essential to getting quality prints.
https://shop.prusa3d.com/forum/improvements-f14/enclosure-usage-t3267.html#p25212
Re: Kapton Tape Options
I have the printer up in my loft. I live in the UK and it is winter at the moment, normally temperature up there is about 18 degrees.
I love version one of the print for the great music at the end of it, nice touch.
I originally had Z adjust at -425 which is a good median for any defects in the bed, but I noticed it is possibly too low on the front right and the filament is being squished, so I reduced it to -385.
With V3, the front right edge of my print is perfect, but the back edge is full of holes indicating by bed it not level. Bed levelling reports the bed is perfectly perpendicular.
I am attempting to mess with the bed level correction settings to see how they affect the prints (if at all).
Re: Kapton Tape Options
Strongly recommend looking at getting an enclosure. I live in a cold climate and it is essential to getting quality prints.
https://shop.prusa3d.com/forum/improvements-f14/enclosure-usage-t3267.html#p25212
Very impressive John. You should sell those. I think if there was a cheaply available enclosure that wasn't too large I definitely would be up for it.
Re: Kapton Tape Options
Strongly recommend looking at getting an enclosure. I live in a cold climate and it is essential to getting quality prints.
https://shop.prusa3d.com/forum/improvements-f14/enclosure-usage-t3267.html#p25212
Very impressive John. You should sell those. I think if there was a cheaply available enclosure that wasn't too large I definitely would be up for it.
You never know, trained as a chemist so it is all designed to remove volatile organics and microparticles. I can see there is a market for these types of cases. The ones that I have seen on the market use small filters that I think would quickly be overwhelmed. Mine uses heavier grade filters that are likely to last for a long time.
The area I print in sits at around 17C, however if the door opens it can bring in a cold breeze. Last week it was -30C and it has got as low as -40C (-60C with windchill) but that is one or two days per year.
Re: Kapton Tape Options
Count me as your first customer in that case John 🙂
Re: Kapton Tape Options
Right, turns out to get a perfect first layer I had to move the Z adjust up a little, then set bed level compensation to offset the left and rear tilt on the bed. I've now printed the full bed calibration test squares and it was perfect.
However, PLA still lifts in the corner of prints with a flat surface area and there is still a weird fishscale like texture on the bottom of all prints.