Rescue Tape

Hey all,

Anyone ever use rescue tape for the bed? [www.rescuetape.com]

It withstands 260C. I am trying to find a good start for my bed. I hear kapton is most used. PET was mentioned on the Hydraraptor website as being better for longer usage.

Anyone else with tape ideas?

blue masking tape is common too, I think

Yes it common, but after everytime you print you will need to replace the blue painters tape which is not efficient if you want to print large quantities (here we go 5 prusas!! yay)

I will use blue painters tape until my kapton tape arrives. or PET tape. Anyone have further evidence for their choice of bed material?

Heated glass (55-65C) is best for PLA. There's a video of Adrian showing how easy it is to use it on the wiki and vimeo. For ABS, heated kapton or PET seems to be the best choice. I found PET hard to find. Use wide ones (50 mm or wider). You can even buy then in 8"x8" size (http://www.makergear.com/products/build-surfaces). The narrow ones gets pulled off easily when removing parts or when it warps on the corners.

I've used Kapton with good and not so good results. On the one hand, I bought some quality ($$$) Kapton from MacMaster, and it worked very well. It did not peel, or tear, and sticking was good. I got a roll of some Kapton from an unknown source. It was a bit thinner, and did not seem to have as strong an adhesive as the other roll. It peels and tears quite often, but it was 1/3 the price, so there is a trade off.

I'm waiting for some rolls to arrive from Hong Kong. Let's see what we get there. I've ordered other supplies from China, and have never been disappointed (knock on wood).

How do you place orders from companies in China? I'm looking into creating kits and selling them so I'd like to bulk order rods/bolts/nuts/washers/motors/belts etc.

Please let me know, the cheaper I get em, the cheaper I can sell the kits. Thats the purpose of the community.

theres an instructable about that.

could you point me in that direction?

I got my roll of 2" Kapton tape from Amazon. It works well and it's much cheaper than McMaster.

owism8 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Hey all,
>
> Anyone ever use rescue tape for the bed?
> [www.rescuetape.com]
>
> It withstands 260C. I am trying to find a good
> start for my bed. I hear kapton is most used. PET
> was mentioned on the Hydraraptor website as being
> better for longer usage.
>
> Anyone else with tape ideas?

I am using a tape similar to Rescue Tape in lieu of Kapton to hold my thermistor on, and it seems to work fine (though I just put it on today). I have also used it in place of electrical tape a few times. It is good stuff.

It is not suitable to use to as a print surface, though. First off, it is non-adhesive-- it sticks only to itself-- so there is no way to apply it to your build surface. Second, it is silicone tape, so it is doubtful that the print would stick to it well.

That said, Rescue Tape or a similar tape is handy to have around. FWIW, it is much cheaper at Amazon.com then through that site. Rescue Tape brand is $10/roll, but this roll is the equivalent of their $50 roll, but is only $14. You can also get 10' rolls of similar tape @ Frys.com for $5

THank you for the insight. My materials knowledge is increasing dramatically

Im using blue painters tape right now until I get a new hot tip.

Is there a design for a good hot tip? Like the on being used by Adrian here: [1.bp.blogspot.com]

Thats the newest extruder by the way. [blog.reprap.org]