For the past year or three I've been using Sainsburys Basic hairspray on the heated glass beds of my printers, with a lot of success. Apart from working well, it was ludicrously cheap - under 50p (less than 1$) for a 300ml can. My problem is that I've run out... and Sainsburys don't sell it any more.

I've tried Tesco Essentials hairspray (ridiculously expensive at 79p for 400ml!) but that's just not doing the job - even my PLA prints lift off after a few layers. With the old hairspray they stuck so well that I often had to wait for the bed to cool before I could get the parts off the glass.

So, my question is - can anyone recommend an effective hairspray for printing that's easily available in the UK?
(Ignore the earlier comments about cheapness: my last can of the old stuff lasted about 2 years, so paying a bit extra won't break the bank. If possible, I would prefer that it didn't make my room smell like a tart's boudoir though...)

Most good PLA filaments will adhere to glass without the use of any coating, if your printer has a heated bed. The keys to success:

- Initially, scrub the glass in hot water with a little washing up detergent
- Handle the glass by the edges only after cleaning it, to avoid finger-marking it
- Rinse with clean water
- Dry it with paper towels, not a tea-towel (which would probably be contaminated with fabric conditioner)
- Install it in your printer
- Before each print, heat it to about 65C and wipe it (during heating is OK) with a paper towel moistened in distilled vinegar
- After printing, when the bed has cooled down the print will pop off

Don't use IPA or any other organic solvent to clean the bed, just wipe it with vinegar before each print.

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Large delta printer [miscsolutions.wordpress.com], E3D tool changer, Robotdigg SCARA printer, Crane Quad and Ormerod

Disclosure: I design Duet electronics and work on RepRapFirmware, [duet3d.com].

Elnet...the cost of it put me off for a long time, but jesus that stuff sticks so much, the chances of the bed tape surviving...slim to none, maybe on plain glass is how people end up with broken glass? maybe I used too much?
but hooray for flat prints.

David - I'll have a go with your suggestions, when I have some time to play around.

Mechabits - which type of 'Elnett' are you talking about? There seem to be several types... 'supreme hold', extra strength', plus others...

I have supreme hold, maybe not needed.

I can now confirm that "L'Oreal Elnett Extra Strong Hold" works just as well as Sainsburys Basic hairspray! I bought a can today and tried it this evening - just the right amount of sticking on glass for PLA (not tried it with ABS yet).

The room now smells like a tart's boudoir though...

I also bought a small bottle of white distilled vinegar to try out dc42's method, when I get some time to play around - at the moment I just want to get a few parts made in a hurry.

Thanks,
David

P.S. I'm still chuckling about asking recommendations for hairspray on an international forum! Especially as I'm 'follically challenged'...

Why mess around with hair spray that costs more than 3D lac per volume?

From my comparisons, in my country Elnett Supreme Hold costs about €4,5/100ml
3D Lac costs €2/100ml and is a proven product

The only downside I can think of is shipping

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http://www.marinusdebeer.nl/

I've never heard of 3D lac! Maybe not available in the UK? Anyway - what I've got will probably last me a couple of years... the last can did.

Ohhh my bad, sorry. It's this stuff: [www.3dlac.com]

It's from Spain, we use it at the academy where I work on the 3D printers. This stuff is unstoppable.

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http://www.marinusdebeer.nl/

What is hilarious about this discussion is that I went to Amazon to get some "unscented Aquanet Super Hold" for my printing. I use hairspray on glass for everything that I don't just use blue tape for. I looked through all of the deals and without exception, the bulk of the comments came from 3D printer folks. I saw only one person comment that was using it for hair spray, and they didn't like it.
Finally, someone commented that it looked like this hairspray would have disappeared "from the shelves" if not for the Reprap community.

DLC

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Kits: Folgertech Kossel 2020 upgraded E3Dv6, Anet A8 upgraded E3Dv6, Tevo Tarantula enhanced parts and dual-head, TronXY X5SA Pro(E3DHemera).
Scratch: Large bed Cartesian, exchangeable heads, Linear slide Delta, Maker-Beam XL Micro Delta, 220x220CoreXY.

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Ohmarinus
Ohhh my bad, sorry. It's this stuff: [www.3dlac.com]

It's from Spain, we use it at the academy where I work on the 3D printers. This stuff is unstoppable.

I take it back - I just looked it up on Google and it is available in the UK... at £7 - £11 a can! The exchange rate is almost 1 EUR to 1 GBP at the moment.

My can of Elnett was £3.50 for 300ml.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/06/2019 05:12PM by David J.

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David J

Quote
Ohmarinus
Ohhh my bad, sorry. It's this stuff: [www.3dlac.com]

It's from Spain, we use it at the academy where I work on the 3D printers. This stuff is unstoppable.

I take it back - I just looked it up on Google and it is available in the UK... at £7 - £11 a can! The exchange rate is almost 1 EUR to 1 GBP at the moment.

My can of Elnett was £3.50 for 300ml.

Oh wow, so the Elnett brand is both cheaper and has more content in the UK.

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http://www.marinusdebeer.nl/

The only time I tried hairspray it was pretty much the same as oiling the bed - i.e., no adhesion at all. Not being a forgiving soul I won't try hairspray again.

For a while, I swore by something called "Wolfbite" until it got so good that it tore lumps of glass out of the bed.

My preference is glass cleaned with distilled vinegar. My guess is that the peculiar adhesion of ABS to hot glass when it is hot is a thing that happens at a molecular level and that soluble films that need cleaning are not the cause of lost adhesion.

Mike

The hairspray needs to have the some magic ingredient to work, Ive forgotten the name of, apparently ellnet has it.

Some compound of vinyl, I believe.