Sandblasted glass bed

Anybody using a sandblasted glass bed? I am curious if it makes any difference for the adhesion and the removal of the prints afterwards, as well.

Are you printing using PLA, or ABS?

In theory, the roughened glass provides slightly more surface area than a flat, but it also has the potential to trap air, so in high humidity environments, it would have the opposite effect.

If you can afford a little more for glass, get borosilicate, A.K.A. Pyrex Glass. It has a much better adhesion than ordinary picture frame/window pane glass. 1/8 inch / 3.5mm is best.

If you want to experiment, you can try an acid etching kit from the crafts stores in your area.

Right, forgot the etching paste. It would be much more convenient then taking the glass to a shop for actual sandblasting.

I only print PLA. Average room humidity, just like any other indoor situation. I imagine all the pores of the sandblasted/etched glass will get stamped on the bottom of the print - I am not sure how good it would look, might be a nice effect, or it might look awful.

Hello,

I have already try with a homemade sand blasted glass.... You can forget the idea. Its beautiful, but ABS don't stick

IMO if you're using pla, a hot glass bed covered in watered down pva glue works wonders. Perfectly smooth bases, but good adhesion too.

For me PLA sticks very well to plain glass as long as it is free from finger prints. I don't know why there is such variability between people's findings of what sticks to what.

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[www.hydraraptor.blogspot.com]

I know the repraper filament I use is slightly oily once extruded - you can see that the surface of the pva is much shinier and feels different after a print. I have to reapply pva or at least wipe the surface with water after prints. I suspect that's why I never got it to stick to plain glass. Nophead - do you use higher quality filament?

I have only used natural PLA from Vik Olliver (Diamond Age Solutions) and various colours from Fabberdashery. Both are good quality. They all stick well if the glass and plastic are hot enough on the first layer.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/10/2013 06:27PM by nophead.

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[www.hydraraptor.blogspot.com]