Will goo-gone work just as well as Limonene?  

Re: Will goo-gone work just as well as Limonene?

Hi Olef,

I am currently using the steel sheet off my upgrade, clipped on to the original style bed on my mk2MMUv1 in preference to using the native PEI... so much easier to remove parts.

Glass will not activate the Pinda, so you would have to do a work around to allow time to install the glass after bed levelling, and also compensate for the glass thickness in the G code

there are companies offering steel plates, one has powder coat PEI which seems fragile, another uses Printbite.

They seem to be expensive and in short supply
regards Joan

Re: Will goo-gone work just as well as Limonene?

Glass will not activate the Pinda, so you would have to do a work around to allow time to install the glass after bed levelling, and also compensate for the glass thickness in the G code

Thanks for pointing that out! You just saved me a lot of grief. I guess ixnay on the glass then.

According to MatterHackers, "Blue painter’s tape, with or without heat, is the best surface for printing PETG plastic." 😮 ( https://www.matterhackers.com/news/how-to-succeed-when-printing-with-petg-filament ). So, I think going forward, that's what I'll use for PETG, and I'll save the restored PEI surface for PLA.

Re: Will goo-gone work just as well as Limonene?

I use an other approach to remove the PEI sheet.

Because I won't use tons of towels and liters of limonene or acetone, I heat the steel plate on the heatbed to 60°, peeling the PEI when hot keeps a large part of adhesive on the PEI sheet, repeating this several times until complete remove.

To remove the rest of adhesive I push it with my thumbs and roll it on the steel plate, the only thing you need is strenth in your fingers and a bit of patience, but you can do that while watching your favorite serie on TV...
When all adhesive is gone, I clean the steel plate with acetone to remove residues and the plate is ready to receive the new PEI sheet.

One hour to do the job, no waste, only the old PEI sheet to throw in the dustbin.

Re: Will goo-gone work just as well as Limonene?

Some caveats about using the paint stripper: it may discolor the spring steel, maybe by partially stripping off whatever protective coating is on it. Also, I don't think this is stainless steel, so I suggest not getting it into contact with water until *after* you have the new PEI installed, or else you may get some rusting. Not sure if that would happen if using the recommend solvent instead.

All in all, even with paint stripper, it is a PITA to change out the PEI. I hope I never have to do it again!

Re: Will goo-gone work just as well as Limonene?

Seems like the only purpose of Limonene is to remove the adhesive from the flexible spring steel plate after the PEI has been peeled off (i.e. when changing the PEI from the spring steel). Unless it's a peculiar adhesive (and maybe it is, I would think goo-gone would work.

Anyone tried goo-gone (or anything else) successfully for this purpose?

Yes, Goo Gone works fine. That's what I have used so far and it's excellent.

For the record, the major ingredient in Goo Gone is Limonene.... so.....

Yea, but pure Limonene is much stronger. It seems to be diluted in Goo Gone.

I've done a PEI swap probably 5 times now. I usually used the Limonene to dissolve the glue, but on my most recent swap I ran out half way through. Switched to using Goof off, and that stuff worked amazingly. Realizing the smell of goof off was basically just acetone, I switched to acetone and that worked just as well. For me, the acetone/goof off got rid of the glue much quicker than limonene ever did.

Re: Will goo-gone work just as well as Limonene?

going down the non-limonene route:

acetone and IPA very slowly eat the glue.

You want to use Turpentine in this case.

Goo Gone which i have tried also very slowly softened the glue.

a paper cloth set on the bed with Turpentine soaked into it for 10 minutes then i take a plastic scraper(credit card) and take off the softened glue.
reapply the Turpentine and repeat eventually you reach the bed and switch to a micromesh cloth with turpentine to remove the glue from between the heating elements. once cleaned you can go over the area with IPA and double check it is all removed. the first time i did it took a few hours as i was very careful. last time took me an hour. the worst problem with this route is the Smell. Turpentine can linger for Months, last time i swapped PEI was in January and my garbage can outside Still Wreaks of turpentine.

paint stripper is worry some as it could remove the heating elements PCB coating, or remove the white markings from the bed.
Acetone reacts with the PEI sheet and makes it brittle.

i finally got some Limonene variant from 3m which is a citrus based industrial cleaner which i plan to try next time i need to change the PEI sheet.
Local laws prevented me from acquiring Limonene directly the company called me and told me they could not ship to my state in the USA.

Re: Will goo-gone work just as well as Limonene?

paint stripper is worry some as it could remove the heating elements PCB coating, or remove the white markings from the bed.

Well, that would be worrisome, except the paint stripper is not applied to the PCB. If you're referring to the possibility that lingering amounts of paint stripper may adhere to the springsteel and later come into contact with the PCB, , those get thoroughly washed off (in my case, first by water, then lacquer thinner, then by acetone, then by IPA). And if somehow a few atoms of paint stripper did survive all of that, they'd be covered over by the PEI sheets on either side. So, I think it's safe to say that there's really zero risk of the PCB being adversely affected by paint stripper that was applied to the spring steel to remove the PEI adhesive.

Re: Will goo-gone work just as well as Limonene?

I've done a PEI swap probably 5 times now. I usually used the Limonene to dissolve the glue, but on my most recent swap I ran out half way through. Switched to using Goof off, and that stuff worked amazingly. Realizing the smell of goof off was basically just acetone, I switched to acetone and that worked just as well. For me, the acetone/goof off got rid of the glue much quicker than limonene ever did.

Hiya.

I did my first PEI replacement on the Springsteel and used acetone and this orange power cleaner that is basically branded limonene.

Glue came off but it discolored (not rusted) some parts of the steel. I put on the PEI sheets, no bubbles, on both sides. As a precaution I wiped down with acetone and then IPA to get rid of any sort of oil that could have been put there during shipping/application

Full XYZ calibration and says it passes.

But holy hell, I cannot get the first layer to stick evenly at all.

The sheet that came with the machine had no issues with sticking but now the live tune seems to not matter at points. I get the smoosh through the entire first layer but parts just seems to not randomly stick or not.

I applied glue stick but it doesn't help.

I checked for clogs but no issues there ; extruder doles out exactly what is ordered.

I tried scuffing the surface with steel wool to give it texture but no help.

I am about to order another steel sheet just to have known-good.

Re: Will goo-gone work just as well as Limonene?

Did you get your PEI sheets from Prusa, or somebody else? Mine (from Prusa) seem a little less sticky than the pre-made PEI spring steel build platform that came with the kit, and I'm glad for that. It's much easier to release prints now than before. However, I haven't had problems with them holding their position during prints. Are you using brims? I am.

Also this time around, I haven't used either acetone or IPA. Following the advice of another forum member, this time I'm using Windex, and nothing but Windex. However, in your case it's too late for that and, if anything, might make your prints stick less.

Re: Will goo-gone work just as well as Limonene?

Did you get your PEI sheets from Prusa, or somebody else? Mine (from Prusa) seem a little less sticky than the pre-made PEI spring steel build platform that came with the kit, and I'm glad for that. It's much easier to release prints now than before. However, I haven't had problems with them holding their position during prints. Are you using brims? I am.

Also this time around, I haven't used either acetone or IPA. Following the advice of another forum member, this time I'm using Windex, and nothing but Windex. However, in your case it's too late for that and, if anything, might make your prints stick less.

Thanks for the response.

It is the PEI from prusa's store. Learned this when I bought PEI from Amazon and it was super thick and sticky like you mention.

I did the first layer test after I applied it and pressed it between two weights . No acetone applied yet. It had the same problem as it does now.

Brims and without brims doesn't matter. It's anything dealing with the first layer. Its the fact some part of the pla will lift and and cause the nozzle to ram into it and then pull up the rest of the print or melt its way through.

I thought it was because there was random spots of oil which is why I used acetone since that would remove the toughest oils from handling.

To help with troubleshooting I am going to order another sheet and if it is inmediatly works properly, I must have did something wrong with the first one

Re: Will goo-gone work just as well as Limonene?

Not sure I'm understanding what you're saying. It sounds as though you are saying that the adhesive on the back of the PEI isn't everywhere holding the PEI flush against the spring steel? i.e. the surface is not completely flat?

Question: Do you have PEI on both sides, or just one side of the spring steel? If only one side, then I'd wager that's the problem.

Re: Will goo-gone work just as well as Limonene?

Not sure I'm understanding what you're saying. It sounds as though you are saying that the adhesive on the back of the PEI isn't everywhere holding the PEI flush against the spring steel? i.e. the surface is not completely flat?

Question: Do you have PEI on both sides, or just one side of the spring steel? If only one side, then I'd wager that's the problem.

The glue back is fine. The print surface (the PEI surface) seems to sometimes reject the filament from binding to it.