Cleaning the Spring Sheet with Ethanol  

Re: Cleaning the Spring Sheet with Ethanol

Since it is advised to clean the PEI-Sticker-Sheets with 70% Isopropyl Alcohol i was looking to find something similar at home. What i found was some "Brennspiritus". Google translates it to "methylated spirits" and basically it is Ethanol. Which is pretty much the same as Alcohol isn't it? But i do not have any idea how many Percent Ethanol this is. Therefore my question: Can i use this to clean the PEI Surface or will it harm the sticker?

I don’t know the answer to the question, but have been using the same thing - I just have not found isopropyl alcohol here in Germany (but maybe just don’t know where to look....)

Re: Cleaning the Spring Sheet with Ethanol

I'm not from Germany, but maybe try searching online shops for: ipa, isopropanol or rubbing alcohol.

BTW - you can use cleaner one than 70% (that's just the minimum).

Re: Cleaning the Spring Sheet with Ethanol

You can buy Isoprop 99.1% from amazon or ebay in germany.
Or in any good electronics store, Conrad, Reichelt, ...
Apotheke has it too, but with Apotheken-price of course 😉

Re: Cleaning the Spring Sheet with Ethanol

Rubbing alcohol often contains Oil!
not good for heat beds
regards Joan

Re: Cleaning the Spring Sheet with Ethanol

Rubbing alcohol often contains Oil!
not good for heat beds
regards Joan

Isopropanol

You can buy Isopropanol (Isopropylalkohol / 2-Propanol) in every pharmacy in Germany, it’s a standard product.
They should ask you if you need it to disinfect before injection or to remove grease. You want the rather pure stuff, the disinfectants are diluted and may contain other substances to harm the skin less.
A glass bottle with 100ml should have a very low single digit price and may last you a year.
You can buy single use disinfectant pads at the pharmacy, too. They’ll look like Brillenputztücher 🙂 But make sure they only contain Isopropanol and Water.

No need to use/wait for Amazon 🙂

Re: Cleaning the Spring Sheet with Ethanol

Hey there, using Brennspiritus since day one (of my MK3). Working great so far with PLA and Flex 98A (be sure not to use it with more flexible filaments as they will probably stick too much to the surface though).

Re: Cleaning the Spring Sheet with Ethanol

Thanks for all of your answers. I have given the Brennspiritus (Ethanol) a try and it works just fine.
Should there be accruing any problems on a long run, I’ll come back here 🙂

Re: Cleaning the Spring Sheet with Ethanol

You know what I use?

Water.

Distilled water and a paper towel.

Why do you feel the need to do things like attack your print beds with sharp metallic objects, sandpaper, and harsh chemicals and solvents?

What exactly are you cleaning *off* your beds that requires such drastic measures? Are you cleaning the printer or punishing it?

Re: Cleaning the Spring Sheet with Ethanol

This is what I use:

Decontaminated Isopropyl Alcohol 70%. It costs around $28/bottle

Just kidding, I took the bottle from work when it was empty and I fill it with this:

The decontaminated isopropyl alcohol is for clean rooms. I'm a pharmacist in a hospital and we are required by state law to use this (seemingly) ridiculous product at an extreme price. There is no special seals in it.. its just gamma irradiated and double bagged to make us feel better. Once we open it, its no longer sterile... so why sterile in the first place?

Re: Cleaning the Spring Sheet with Ethanol

The decontaminated isopropyl alcohol is for clean rooms. I'm a pharmacist in a hospital and we are required by state law to use this (seemingly) ridiculous product at an extreme price. There is no special seals in it.. its just gamma irradiated and double bagged to make us feel better. Once we open it, its no longer sterile... so why sterile in the first place?

How could 70% isopropyl alcohol ever not be sterile? What sort of pathogen can survive in that?

Re: Cleaning the Spring Sheet with Ethanol

The decontaminated isopropyl alcohol is for clean rooms. I'm a pharmacist in a hospital and we are required by state law to use this (seemingly) ridiculous product at an extreme price. There is no special seals in it.. its just gamma irradiated and double bagged to make us feel better. Once we open it, its no longer sterile... so why sterile in the first place?

How could 70% isopropyl alcohol ever not be sterile? What sort of pathogen can survive in that?

Well, you would probably be surprised, but we are creating superbugs in facilities. Its not by anything we do in clean rooms, but by inappropriately using broad spectrum antibiotics for everything and not narrowing it down once we figure out what we are dealing with. We've had a few cases come into our hospital with super resistant bacteria from outside facilities like nursing homes. If you want an example, a very common bacterial that is resistant to 70% IPA is C.Diff. It goes into spore phase where it can withstand pretty much anything (so its resistant due to a physical phase it goes in, not that it developed resistance). For a normal person who is currently healthy, our gut kills it via our own bacteria (lactobacillus, etc). But when it gets into someone who has been on antibiotics that kill our own normal bacteria, it becomes a problem (you don't want to know what the most effective treatment is... hint, its not more antibiotics, but rather more bacteria... from another person). You can easily prevent spreading it by hand washing, unfortunately a lot of healthcare professionals (me included, but I don't touch patients) just use the alcohol foam generously located on every wall of the hospital.

Re: Cleaning the Spring Sheet with Ethanol

Rubbing alcohol often contains Oil!
not good for heat beds
regards Joan

You say this, like this is common knowledge. Please elobrate on this subject.

Everyone says "Clean the bed with IPA, make stuff stick better." And I'm like "Uhhh, My PLA won't stick after I clean it with IPA." and they are like "*crickets*".
I use Windex for everything, unless I'm doing a "cleanup" which I will use acetone, or IPA depending on how far I wanna go on the "cleanup".

Re: Cleaning the Spring Sheet with Ethanol

What are people using when alcohol doesn't seem to be doing the job on PEI ?

Never had this problem with PLA, always had exemplary first layers! Now with this hatchbox PLA I am trying from recommendations, it just does not adhear to the PEI consistently.

I am getting patterning of unbonded segments.

Using 99% alcohol, and even prepackaged alcohol wipes, no common adjustments seem to be curing the issue.

Tried nozzle distance too close/far, speed, temperature changes nozzle/bed, none of the common adjustments that have always worked before with monoprice PLA+ is working on this hatchbox stuff...

Is acetone the next step?

My first layers have always been amazing, I don't know what the deal is as the sheet PEI I received from Prusa seems to work correctly applied on a different machine, but not my MK3 as received on the flex plate.

Re: Cleaning the Spring Sheet with Ethanol

Hi, i'm using only acetone to clean the sheet and it works every time. i try at least 8 pla brands and i've no problem since i receved my MK3 3 mounths ago.
But i don't know if it good for my PEI sheet...

Re: Cleaning the Spring Sheet with Ethanol

Rubbing alcohol often contains Oil!
not good for heat beds
regards Joan

You say this, like this is common knowledge. Please elobrate on this subject.

Everyone says "Clean the bed with IPA, make stuff stick better." And I'm like "Uhhh, My PLA won't stick after I clean it with IPA." and they are like "*crickets*".
I use Windex for everything, unless I'm doing a "cleanup" which I will use acetone, or IPA depending on how far I wanna go on the "cleanup".

Hi Sean,

as the clip above shows, Rubbing Alcohol contains agents that reduce their cleaning efficacy of the IPA Component in our area of interest.

the IPA And water evaporate leaving the Oils which tend to reduce the adhesion of items on the heatbed.

Similarly Acetone based Nail polish remover is not good for us either

it contains ofthe materials such as glycerine, which reduce adhesion,

regards Joan

Re: Cleaning the Spring Sheet with Ethanol

Im using IPA 99.9% works great need to clean sheet after every 3 to 4 print. Because then im getting adhere issues. So wipe it down with IPA and im good to go for another 3 prints

Re: Cleaning the Spring Sheet with Ethanol

as the clip above shows, Rubbing Alcohol contains agents that reduce their cleaning efficacy of the IPA Component in our area of interest.

Yeah, I've wondered about rather than "cleaning" the print bed if it's actually thinning "globs" of oil, and just a ultra-thin sheet of oil on the print bed, which nothing sticks to.

the IPA And water evaporate leaving the Oils which tend to reduce the adhesion of items on the heatbed.

Along with any oils it dissolved off the heatbed.

Similarly Acetone based Nail polish remover is not good for us either
Nail.JPG
it contains ofthe materials such as glycerine, which reduce adhesion,

I have real acetone. I actually got a drop of Super Glue on my sheet. It took 30 minutes of "wiping" with a paper towel we with Acetone... but I got it off, without leaving a single trace of the mistake.

The Acetone leaves the print bed Much "drier". I don't really know how to describe it.

I use Windex as an "adhesive aid" because I found it works similar to glue sticks in concept. It leaves some kind of wax, which sticks to everything VERY well. And then when you print on it, I'm guessing the filament melts the wax and bonds with it maybe? This leads to VERY good bed adhesion, AND a detachment aid.

The thing I think many people miss when it's said to use windex to help detach... Is the windex a permant coating on the sheet, and you never have to re-apply? (heck no, it's not. Don't try) Which means the windex is coming off the sheet, and staying on the part. Does that mean better or worse adhesion? It depends. My PLA hates sticking to the print bed after a good cleaning. Even after cleaning with Acetone, the parts come off *SUPER* easy... So easy I worry about the part coming loose during the print. When I clean with 90% IPA... I can't get my PLA to stick at all. I'd say first layer fails 75% of the time. Yet with windex... I honestly find the PLA sticks *VERY* hard for for any PLA.

**NOTE** I love my cheap filament. Cheap filament does NOT stick to the print beds. if I use a quality PLA, such as E-Sun, Hatchbox, or the stuff that came with the printer, I have *NEVER* had bed adhesion issues with PLA. Does the Windex "help" or "hurt" those higher quality brands? I'm not really sure. I've never lost a print that wasn't a gamble. (very very small parts have come loose on me) and I've dropped the instances of warping on my larger parts likely by around 80%. (I have a filament, even I won't buy again, becuase the quality was so poor... and it costs 50% more than what I'm using now) That I could NOT print on my cheaper printers. It would just instantly warp, and come off the print surface. When I first got the mk3, I tried, and it had some VERY minor warping... Since I started using windex, I've only had one instance of warping, and I kept the part anyway, as it was so minor.

Re: Cleaning the Spring Sheet with Ethanol

I have been using 99.9% IPA sourced from TSC (farm animal medical area of store) for cleaning and polishing the bed for PLA and acetone for cleaning up ABS, as recommended in the manual.
I find after several ABS prints nothing wants to stick so I clean/polish with acetone then use hot soap and water followed by another IPA polish and the bed works like new again...
Cheers,
Jon