HEATBEAD VS 3M PAINTERS TAPE

Hey everyone, I am having trouble keeping my print in place while using the heat bed. As the print begins to build up the layers the extruder slightly moves it and the print is no longer centered. I'm printing with ABS with the heat bed setting 110C marlin firmware. I noticed some other REPRAPPERS using 3M one sided painters tape and it looks like they are able to keep their object from moving around while it is printed. Any suggestions on fixing this problem would be great. Thanks.

What sort of plastic are you printing with on what surface?

ABS won't stick to glass, the current trend seems to be using ABS Juice (ABS dissolved in acetone) in a thin coating on the bed, Kapton tape or PET tape on the glass also work.
If it's PLA, it will stick to glass on a heated bed, but it seems picky about the temperature and 110C is too high, You can use Blue painters tape or Kapton on the bed, some people are using dilute PVA glue solutions on the glass.

The HBP Beds from thingiverse are crap. The bed gets so hot the sauter turns back to liquid and the wire comes off. I'm now only going to use Painters tape and see what happens. Any suggestions would be good. I'm going to glue one side of the painters tape ontop of the other so it will be double sided.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/25/2012 07:08PM by khaiz21.

khaiz21 Wrote:
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>I'm going to glue one
> side of the painters tape ontop of the other so it
> will be double sided.

Why?

Also, I have a heated bed that draws far more power than most at 300W and don't have a problem with the solder melting. That would only be an issue if you are using something like nichrome wire and not using enough of it so that the individual strands get excessively hot.

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It was not holding the object firmly while I printed. The ABS was moving around and it became off center. Is it possible to just print on tape to hold the object in place without heating up the bed?

khaiz21 Wrote:
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> It was not holding the object firmly while I
> printed. The ABS was moving around and it became
> off center. Is it possible to just print on tape
> to hold the object in place without heating up the
> bed?

You didn't mention that you were printing ABS. ABS won't stick to blue painters tape AFAIK. You need either Kapton or PET tape, or ABS juice on glass as has been mentioned.

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Is the Kapton tape double sided? How thick should the Kapton tape be?


[www.kaptontape.com]

Which one do you recommend? thanks

Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 07/25/2012 09:00PM by khaiz21.

Any standard Kapton tape will work. Wider rolls are easier because you don't have to apply as many strips. It is not double sided. ABS sticks to the Kapton material.

I would go for something like these: [www.protoparadigm.com] (Kapton is just brand-name plyimide).
The wider rolls are nice, but can be a little more difficult to apply.

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I have just started getting success with abs on plain Pyrex glass at 110c nozzle at 215c. First layer height at 120% and really pushinging into the bed.
My Pyrex does seem to have a slight texture.

Before this I used kapton tape and it stuck great even too well as it was difficult to remove the parts. I wanted to try getting abs to stick to the glass hoping the parts would pop off like pla does when the bed cools (which they do).

On the Pyrex, my local shop was going to charge me $31 for the piece but when I picked it up the counter lady said it was cut from scrap and dropped the price to $ 20.

Bob

khaiz21 Wrote:
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> The HBP Beds from thingiverse are crap. The bed
> gets so hot the sauter turns back to liquid and
> the wire comes off.

Regular solder melts at ~182C, lead free solder melts at a higher temperature. Either you're using a low temperature solder or you're running the bed way too hot, which may explain why ABS isn't sticking to it, you're way over its melting point.

Also, ABS should stick to blue tape even on a cold bed, I don't know why people think otherwise but this used to be the normal way to print in ABS, it wasn't till heated beds became popular that kapton, PET and ABS juice because useful bed surfaces. Check your first layer height, you may simply be printing too far from the bed to get good adhesion.

The resistor terminals do get a lot hotter than the bed. I find the solder disappears over time if I don't use high melting point solder. I use up to 130C on the first layer. Too hot doesn't stop ABS sticking but it has to be dropped to below the glass transition after the first layer to stay stuck.

I don't remember cold blue tape being the normal way to print ABS, only for PLA.

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[www.hydraraptor.blogspot.com]

i sand down the katon with a fine grade that is working for me for PLA and ABS at 65 and 110 degree