How to get rid of the blue tape?

Hi all,

I'm getting tired of replacing my blue tape every couple of days for my PLA prints. I have seen on a video that 3DSystems Cubify printer used a kind of oil and I would like to do the same.

Does anyone know what kind of plate and oil they use?

You can't just mix some Elmers and water? You need some top secret proprietary recipe?

PLA printing with Elmers (PVA) glue mixed 4 parts water 1 part glue. Works great with bed at 60C. Wipe occasionally with Windex lightly. Eventually a full clean and recoat but goes for a long time.

1cm sugar dissolved in 3cm of water on a hot bed causes extremely good adhesion.

I use the PVA method but will have to try the sugar idea. Is it easy to clean off the glass?

I found this page (http://reprap.org/wiki/PLA) a while back and decided to try out the polycarbonate bed. Once I got the oiling right it worked fantastically, but it did take me 5-10 prints to dial it in exactly.

Thanks for the tip. As I don't have nor plan to install a heated bed, I'll try that.

Yea it has worked really well for me. The prints pop right off (when oiled right) and it can be re-used tons of times. Eventually there gets to be some build up and you have to replace the PC, but it is significantly easier than blue tape.

draregerreip Wrote:
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> Thanks for the tip. As I don't have nor plan to
> install a heated bed, I'll try that.

That was the attitude I originally had - however a heated bed was the best upgrade I ever did! It just removes so much of the faff from printing. Large parts always stick, no corner lifts, no annoying tape to apply, small things don't get knocked off the bed, first layer doesn't have to be printed really slow and the list goes on! Plus you get an awesome shiny finish one one side.

I made my 300x300mm bed from strip board - cost under £10 and is very lightweight.