Alternatives to acetone

Dear All,

my first post on a RepRap forum. Just to report that, in the last couple of months, I have extensively tested on a glass hot bed to look for an alternative to acetone, which is extremely flammable and therefore does not agree well with extruders and hot beds.

I am currently printing with excellent results, by cleaning the hot bed with "Morrisons Window Cleaner, with added vinegar", a green liquid I buy from the household cleaners section of the local Morrisons supermarket. The full configuration: RepRapPro Mendel, ordinary bare window glass hot bed surface, no blue tape, kapton tape and the like. I set the hot bed temperature to 60-65 °C for PLA and to 100-105°C for ABS. I apply the cleaner liberally, and wipe it off with a cotton rag until squeak-dry. As I do when I clean optics (I do this professionally), I always use a freshly washed rag, and I carefully avoid touching the rag where I will then use it on the glass, in order not to transfer grease from my fingers. I dry the bed completely until it squeaks, and I try not to over-rub once dry, in order not to risk adding grease.
I have hardly had any detachment and, for large parts, I need to cool off the bed for the part to come off, otherwise they are attached too firmly.

In order to avoid brand-specific info: the cleaner is a low-cost window cleaner composed of "amongst other ingredients, less than 5% non-ionic surfactants, EDTA, perfume and vinegar". In Italy, where I was born, wine vinegar is known as a powerful de-greaser, and this may be the trick.

I do not know if the trick is known. If not, I would be grateful about your opinion if it is worth doing a few tests for a vendor-independent solution, and posting / reporting on the Wiki.

Cheers!

Mario

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ScottishMario

Hi Mario,
It's a good tip, and does avoid the use of acetone. I think it's the added vinegar that makes the difference. It cuts through any grease and clean the glass very well. Worth trying out.
NumberSix

I am using a window cleaner containing ammonia on my mirror printing surface, just a small dash on some tissue just before printi.g.
I had a print break yesterday when I tried to remove it , a bottom layer of 0.6mm was too thin...

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Prusa with cast PU parts, RAMPS 1.3, Wades extruder, J-Head hot end

I have also moved away from acetone for quick print bed cleaning. I was concerned about long term effects of breathing the vapor. Also, I had issues with parts not adhering due to a residue haze that the acetone did not remove. I tried Windex and that worked well.

Not knowing exactly what is in Windex (it may leave some residue on the glass) I will probably next try using diluted ammonia or vinegar.

Printing on bare glass with a RepRapPro Mendel.

I think acetone is widely accepted because it actually dissolves the plastic,

I'm finding the acetone is great for repairs and all sort of fancy finishing techniques... a quick dunk of a part in acetone and then back out gives it a shiny, smooth surface... applying acetone to the faces of two parts and then pressing them together and letting them 'set' allows you to weld the two parts with a bond stronger than the original FDM process...

Sorry- not really on topic - but acetone has its uses, just perhaps not the safest for cleaning with everyday - although I don't think flammability is a big issue because it needs a flame / spark to ignite unless it hits ~ 540 degrees Celsius - my printer's bed gets to 110 on a very very hot day with no draft if I leave it on for an hour - lol... not gonna happen, the hot end should also only come to MAX half of that temperature, so even giving some room for error it's not likely to be an issue - vapors / handling, they're fair issues though - but don't be afraid of ignition!

I use it often on models to give a nice finish, or on fine parts which have cracked during cooling, to repair them and therefore not have wasted the hours involved in printing them!

I will try this when i next go to Morrissons!

My Reprappro Mendel printed fine onto glass using either cheap nail polish remover or Boots lens cleaner... prints had to be cooled to around 35degC and were hard to remove.

Then one day nothing would stick beyond 10mm in height so I ended up resorting to kapton tape.

I tried turning the glass ove but it made no difference which made me question whether it was a build up of grease (or other substance) on the glass.

Someone needs to clean one side of the glass with Morrissons Window Cleaner and the other side with your regular print bed cleaner and see if there is a difference! This still wouldn't rule out other factors though.

I think there might be a few influencing factors to prints sticking because if it were just what you clean the glass with there would surely be more compelling evidence to show its just down to this?

For the last two weeks I've been using uncut white vinegar on a hot HBP, both bare glass and Kapton. PLA has been sticking to it just as well as it had with acetone. It leaves behind some solids when it dries so I find I have to follow each cleaning with a wipe down with a dry piece of paper towel or crumpled paper. It's a small inconvenience to keep volatiles out of the house though.