First 100% Successful Print, Ruined my Tape

This is my 3rd attempt at printing, and after about 10 minutes of calibration, this is the result. It is dimensionally precise(all sides equal eachother) and there is absolutely no warping, and it's smoother than the parts that make up my reprap. I am quite shocked that I would get something this good after wasting only 2m of filament. The only issue during printing is that the gears would skip a couple teeth every couple or so revolutions, but it did not affect the print at all. I think I will print those herringbone gears next to stop this.

Now the problem is that I had to ruin my tape trying to get the damn thing off. I used a razor blade to pry it off but unfortunately the tape had holes in it afterwards. Can ruining the tape be avoided or is this something I have to live with?

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/21/2012 06:59AM by Zimtower.

I assume that's ABS?
My experience is removing ABS items from Kapton on glass with a heated bed is that it can be a chore.
Something like the cube, you can remove the glass from the printer and give the object it a whack, often it'll fall of.

If i's PLA then run the heated bed slightly cooler.

IME PET tape doesn't adhere as aggressively to ABS and it's orders of magnitude easier to apply.
A lot of people seem to be using ABS Juice on glass for ABS now, I haven't tried it.

Very nice looking cube you have there. Good work after such a small amount of wasted plastic.

I use blue painters tape and can adjust the amount of adhesion to a point.

I lay the tape on my glass and then run my fingertips over the tape in all directions to remove small air bubbles and this also helps to rough up the tape a bit. As you do this you will see the tape sticking better.

This works much better on cold glass.

I only use the fingertip method if I want the print to stick really well as most times the tape comes off the glass with the print and has to be replaced and scraped from the bottom of the print afterwards.

However, replacing the painters tape is not that hard just a little annoying at times.

If I don't run my fingertips over the tape as much or not at all, the print is easier to remove but some curl up at the edges slightly. This has only been an issue lately as the temp here is colder now. However, the tape normaly survives.

You should try printing on glass now, you never have to replace it.