PLA not sticking to PEI Sheet  

RE: PLA not sticking to PEI Sheet

No worries, @ikith, all of us do things differently and what works best for you might not be best for me.  It seems like there are a few things that some people will defensively argue for, such as cleaning the sheet a certain way and lubricating the bearings a certain way, but the fact is that others are doing it their way and they have mostly successful prints and their printers have not self-destructed.  😉

RE: PLA not sticking to PEI Sheet

Posted by: @jsw

[...] Personally, I find it annoying that the knee-jerk response to 'my filament won't stick' is to 'clean the plate and clean it my way' instead of considering other factors, particularly that pesky Z calibration.

The specific question being answered (and quoted) was: "Why does the IPA not do it and soapy hot water does ?" I'm personally annoyed by people that take a recommendation to always start with a clean bed and proper live-Z adjustment as some sort of attack on their personal preference for adhesion booster. But to each his own.

RE: PLA not sticking to PEI Sheet

@bobstro

Excellent information, very helpful. Cheers

RE: PLA not sticking to PEI Sheet

@joantabb

Excellent advice Joan - as always, thank you.

RE: PLA not sticking to PEI Sheet

Finally got my own Prusa mk3s+, after very happy year spent with employer's mk3s. Bought it on "black friday promo" with textured sheet as "free gift". Expected difficult but successful use of textured sheet with PETG prints, based on my experience.

My employer's Textured sheet started working with PET-G after doing this list:

1. good rinses with hot (hot!) water with good detergents (not home "skin safe" ones)
2. IPA with ~2% acetone
3. wipe throughly
4. try to print, watch how textured sheet releases your print after 10-20 layers
5. go back to point #1

After few (few-teen?) iterations, few hours and 300g of lost PETG, sheet finally got its intended adhesion, which (AFAIK) it still keeps (second year of heavy use with PET-G and Flexfill 98A). First I have tried acetone only on one side. When it started to work, I did this with other side.

Fresh sheet acted like it was covered by silicone oil - zero adhesion and virtually no way to clean.

BUT. My own textured sheed doesn't work at all. It acts not like it was covered with silicone oil, but like it was made of it. Printer is enclosed, temps for hotend/bed/environment are 240/85/30, prints still pop off when they grow to about 4-5mm height. I have no idea what to do.

EDIT: About 10th print attempt have grown to more than 10mm but just now have popped off sheet 😬 

Maybe it's not mentioned enough in this thread, the Prusa's textured sheet is not intended for PLA. Other manufacturers' sheets don't have this limitation. Any successful PLA print on Prusa's textured sheet is a matter of your personal fortune. Or matter of using adhesion agents, like prusa's PVA glue stick dissolved in water, which I practiced with success.

RE: PLA not sticking to PEI Sheet

@igor

I would move the IPA mixture further down the list.  Acetone is one I would not use unless I considering tossing it.  I have used acetone about 5-6 times between two sheets in 3 years.  Now I just watch wash with hot water and soap with a scrubber.  

RE: PLA not sticking to PEI Sheet

I know, thanks for remembering. Acetone was added in desperation, intentionally for initial treatment, in hope for some degradation of glossy and totally non-sticking texture. After the sheet got its adhesion, we started using only IPA and sometimes washing like a regular dish. As far as I know, guys still use this sheet with success.

My own texture sheet starts to show some signs of adhesion, so I will try few more times cleaning with IPA or detergents. To make this sheet trustworthy for prints longer than few hours, it must be used few months, when it loses some anti-adhesive properties. Probably it just needs to be "baked" on heatbed for several days to get full functionality. Or be treated with glue - first month we used one side with PVA glue for longer/bigger prints, and other side for small prints.

RE: PLA not sticking to PEI Sheet

@igor

Interesting.  That may be why I don't need to use acetone anymore on my most troubled sheet.  I used it 1-2 times and not sticks darn well.  

RE: PLA not sticking to PEI Sheet

Two days later, first success. I have decided to run 7h print, bucnh of small elements, each only few square centimeters "laying" on sheet. first attempt - one lost. Second attempt - everything fine.

RE: PLA not sticking to PEI Sheet

@igor

I just retired the second sheet I used acetone one.  I might try to reset it again with acetone, but for now, I replaced it with theKKIINNGG V4 textured sheet.  It stopped sticking.  It was nearly 3 years old so who cares.  

RE: PLA not sticking to PEI Sheet

Wanted to add my two pennorth to this topic.

I'd read dozens and dozens of posts saying "hot water and dish soap", and I tried that a couple of times with no change - things just kept curling up and peeling off.

But I don't think people have emphasised enough the HOT part of "hot water" - after using really hot water, it finally started to work. Here's what I did:

I got a baking tray big enough to hold the bed and put it on the stovetop. Put some dish soap and water in it and scrubbed until all the traces of cooking grease were gone, and then turned on the heat and heated it up to boiling. Gave it a few more scrubs, at the risk of melting my washing up brush. Emptied the water and rinsed it with cold.

Then put in the PEI sheet, added water until it was reasonably covered, and added a LOT of dish soap. Then heated it up until it was almost boiling, all the while gently scrubbing the PEI sheet with a brush. Actually boiled it for a bit as best I could (bubbles coming out from under the sheet foaming up the dish soap). Then emptied it, rinsed with cold, and repeated once more.

All told it was probably in hot/boiling water for 20 minutes or so with plenty of dish soap.

The first print after this is now sticking well, with no curling corners. Moral of the story HOT water and dish soap. Boiling hot!