Which PEI sheet?  

Re: Which PEI sheet?

There's no long term experience with them other than at the PRUSA company. There was a delay in delivery because the material was flaking off. This seemed to occur during mass production and not when they made the smaller production of prototypes from what I gathered.
The steel plate that comes with the printer works well and great for PLA. I plan on getting one of each.

If you do a search you'll find people that have beat up their print sheet with testing or when printing with PETG and other filaments.

Re: Which PEI sheet?

I have mk2 and upgraded to full mk3. Had to accept current smooth plate and they gonna send me textured as extra because I specifically wanted to have textured instead of the others.

My experience with the mk2's pei wasn't that great and that's why I wanted to have textured. Now i have smooth type and I think the differences is almost the same but the latest one slightly superior I think.

I'm still waiting for my textured plate.

But it is personal preference, if you can't wait, might as well get the smooth. If you have another 3d printer or able to wait, textured then. There is this thread https://shop.prusa3d.com/forum/general-discussion-announcements-and-releases-f61/textured-pei-sheet-showed-up-out-of-nowhere-yestur-t22805.html about how the textured surface looked like on the parts.

Smooth however is a matte finish I think like art craft cutting board (green colour) and finally glossy, I think glossy will look mirror finish just like you printed on a bare glass but I personally never seen anyone printed on the glossy plate yet.

Hope this helps.

Re: Which PEI sheet?

Take the powder coated one.

I believe the sheet with a sticker was simply a stop-gap to ship printers whilst all the problems with the powder coated ones got resolved. Original orders before the problem came to light certainly couldn't pick a "sticker" option.

If you want a smooth plate down the road, they plan to release a smooth powder coated version.

Re: Which PEI sheet?

I have no problem with the current solution. It works freaking great, so much better than anything else i have seen or used (blue tape on my first printer). It's fantastic, I can't imagine how much better the 'powder' coat could be to be honest. Of course i mostly print in PLA so maybe that is where it's best, but who knows.. I love what I have and a bit of alcohol to clean before each print works wonders!

Re: Which PEI sheet?

I have no problem with the current solution. It works freaking great, so much better than anything else i have seen or used (blue tape on my first printer). It's fantastic, I can't imagine how much better the 'powder' coat could be to be honest. Of course i mostly print in PLA so maybe that is where it's best, but who knows.. I love what I have and a bit of alcohol to clean before each print works wonders!

Heheh... I never used alcohol pads yet, but with pla it still stick so well. I never actually printed so much with pla and printing with pla enables me to print big and a lot of items at once without much of an issues as of yet.

Re: Which PEI sheet?

I have no problem with the current solution. It works freaking great, so much better than anything else i have seen or used (blue tape on my first printer). It's fantastic, I can't imagine how much better the 'powder' coat could be to be honest. Of course i mostly print in PLA so maybe that is where it's best, but who knows.. I love what I have and a bit of alcohol to clean before each print works wonders!

I have chunks of the sticker missing in both sides (from printing the same part repeatedly placing stress on the sheet in the exact same spot) and specks of rust forming under the sticker all over the plate.

Re: Which PEI sheet?

I have chunks of the sticker missing in both sides (from printing the same part repeatedly placing stress on the sheet in the exact same spot) and specks of rust forming under the sticker all over the plate.

You can replace the stickers, but IMO the Buildtak PEI stickers are tougher (thicker) than the PR one, and certainly easier to change down the road

Re: Which PEI sheet?

I have had my printer since Dec 2017 so this is more than 6 months and my stats show 1.15km of filament used over 56 days;8 hours of run time. The PEI surfaces are still in excellent condition and I have only used Isopropyl alcohol and Windex on them.

I am looking forward to the possibility of a textured sheet so that I can experiment with it and also because the look may be nice for some parts but I think the more sure bet is the replaceable adhesive-backed PEI sheets.

Re: Which PEI sheet?

I have chunks of the sticker missing in both sides (from printing the same part repeatedly placing stress on the sheet in the exact same spot) and specks of rust forming under the sticker all over the plate.

You can replace the stickers, but IMO the Buildtak PEI stickers are tougher (thicker) than the PR one, and certainly easier to change down the road

I know it's replaceable, but it's also not a really fun job, so I've personally been putting it off to get the powder coated versions.

Re: Which PEI sheet?

I have had my printer since Dec 2017 so this is more than 6 months and my stats show 1.15km of filament used over 56 days;8 hours of run time. The PEI surfaces are still in excellent condition and I have only used Isopropyl alcohol and Windex on them.

I am looking forward to the possibility of a textured sheet so that I can experiment with it and also because the look may be nice for some parts but I think the more sure bet is the replaceable adhesive-backed PEI sheets.

Prusa have more hours than you, and they all rock the powder coated beds. 😉

Re: Which PEI sheet?

[...] I know it's replaceable, but it's also not a really fun job, so I've personally been putting it off to get the powder coated versions.The great thing is that we can do both. I went with sticker smooth PEI to get my printer quickly. I'm going to order the power-coated sheets when they're available. I mostly want the texture of the PC sheet.

I did have my 1st disaster after months of printing all sorts of materials on the PEI sheet. 3DXTech matte PETG prints at higher-than-normal temps, and a print locked onto my PEI hard. I had prepped it just as I had using PETG, NGEN and XT in the past, but these print settings really made it grip. I managed to get it off, but it pulled up several strips of the PEI. Much to my surprise, I've been able to get the PEI to lay down again, and after a thin coat of glue stick, I can print the same material on it without issues. That gnarled surface is now my official "nasty sticky" print surface.

I do wonder what would happen with a power coated bed with the same print. They're durable, but just how durable? I assume it's still possible to destroy one.

Re: Which PEI sheet?

I have chunks of the sticker missing in both sides (from printing the same part repeatedly placing stress on the sheet in the exact same spot) and specks of rust forming under the sticker all over the plate.

I also have rust forming under the sticker, mostly around the edges, but also in other areas. The sticker itself still looks pretty good.

Re: Which PEI sheet?

Yet another person here with rust forming under the PEI sticker, over about 3/4 of the build plate. I'm pretty surprised that it's not just along the edges but all the way into the center of the plate. So far it doesn't seem to be causing any mechanical problems, it just looks bad.