Purposely adhearing print to bed material?
Jumping right in to it, I saw the Spannerhands spool system, and liked most of it other than the fact the "window" that gets printed is going to be pretty opaque no matter what you try. So how to improve that without going back to one of the "lasercut acrylic" designs... I've had this idea mulling around in my head now for a while and want to know if anyone else has tried using common polyethelyne vapour barrier as a clear removable heat bed material which stays fused to the first printed layer. As a base, it could be used for clear windows (as in the spannerhands spool system.)
Most of the construction folks I know will refer to that vapour barrier as "6mil poly". The roll I've been using stuff from is made by Duchesne, and their website confirms that it is indeed polyethelyne film. There's various quality control and standards claims that it is a "uniform" 6mil thickness.
Questions that I've come up with so far (please pile on with yours too)
- Has anyone here tried such a thing?
- Will PETG fuse with polyethelyne film?
- What recommendations are to be had around devising a test for compatibility?
Initial thought is to use a few binder clips to hold a sheet on my buildplate, preheat for PETG, then print a few forms on to the film. I'm thinking a short, hollow cylinder, short hollow square and some frame with internal "ribs" also printed on the film. I'd be testing for successful fusion of the film to the forms, and trying to get a rough idea of the force required to pull the film from the printed shape before and after printing.
Thoughts? Suggestions? Raspberries?
RE: Purposely adhearing print to bed material?
Why go through all the trouble of trying to print on it? just print the spool system and cut your polyethylene film to the right size, and use a small amount 100% silicone sealant to adhere the polyethylene film.
The Filament Whisperer
RE: Purposely adhearing print to bed material?
Well, printing on it, inserting it... anywhere you'd want a reasonably transparent, airtight window without the hassles of sealant and drying time. Add to that, Silicone can be remarkably tricky to convince to bond with alot of plastics. (the tip of most caulking tubes is polyethylene, and silicone tends to peel off pretty reliably). I think I'm also going to try one more scenario of using an iron to seal the PE film to a PETG print, just to see if it can be done manually, neatly - kinda like a really thick seal on a takeaway cup of bubble tea, now that I think about it.
When sealing a house, about the only reliable thing to stick and seal to the stuff is that red "tuck tape". The stuff heat welds wonderfully to itself though, which is why I'm wanting to look in to compatibility of PE and PETG, given that we all have these wonderful CNC plastic heating thingies.
RE: Purposely adhearing print to bed material?
how about modeling a compression style frame (press in frame) possibly held with screws ,and capturing the PE that way? It should be at least as air tight as the case of the spool holder is.
Just brain storming with you, and your not stuck using PE their are many clear plastic types
The Filament Whisperer
RE: Purposely adhearing print to bed material?
jgun-204,
this is OVERTURE 3D Transparent PETG It's as clear a PETG filament as I've been able to find.
It still requires post processing to make it that way.
These aren't my images, However I have achieved this same level of clearness using this filament only a few layers thick. this could present a possible option for you. BTW I have used quite a bit of the Overture brand TPU, PLA and PETG in the past few months and they are of a middle to upper end in quality & price in my experience. Hatchbox PETG being on the low end and Prusa PETG on the upper.
The Filament Whisperer