How to get extruded ABS to stick to print bed?

Well I picked up some hair spray Garnier Fructis Full Control Ultra Strong (they did not have Extreme Control). it has both polyester -5 and polyurethane-6.

Turned my glass over to the side with no PET film, sprayed a nice even coat on it, let it dry about 5 minutes, put it on my heated bed set to 90c, started a print but the ABS did not stick at all, just peeled up in a ball as the head moved around.

Tried again with temp all the way up (my bed gets to around 110c) and it stuck better and actually printed but corners were sticking up and so it messed up the print a bit.

Try the purple glue stick with the glass at 110c.
I apply my glue when I start a print when the bed starts heating up and it sticks great!

I got a 2 pack of glue at walmart for 97 cents!

I have never tried anything but the #5 extreme version of the hair spray. If you use the other stuff, you may have to put several coats on the glass.

Regardless of what you use for "stick", bed level counts a lot on the first layer. If the bed is not set up exactly right, you will have problems. I like the glass / hair spray approach because you can look at the first layer from the bottom while it's still on the glass. That will tell you a lot about whether the first layer is extruding properly or not.

I have been through the whole gammit of approaches.
For a long time it was ABS juice on plain window glass - I got tired of replacing the window
glass as it would crack and chip with the parts stuck.
I tried the hairspray and it worked fairly well.
I recently upgraded to Borosilicate glass and decided to try blue painters tape again.

I like the tape because it is easier to clean up than the ABS juice (and less toxic).

I print with my bed at 110C.
I tend to set my Z gap to about 0.05mm (half my standard layer height).

I have had issues with some filament not sticking no matter what.

Glass (or mirror in my case) and ABS juice:
Got tired of CONSTANTLY having to replace the tape after every print. Plastic would stick so well to the tape that warping would pull the TAPE off of the bed. Got me a nice and thick mirror for like $2. If all goes well the next week, I'll be picking up more of these so I can just have a few on hand to toss in there after a print has completed to continue printing while the mirror cools down.


Better picture:

NO warping.

Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 01/09/2014 05:21PM by MrBaz.

If you want to avoid a heated bed, choose PLA.

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3D Printing Blog: [www.absplastic.eu] - The Future, The Possibilities

My hotbed at k8200 was heated to max 55°C ... The good thing is when dissolve rosin in alcohol and paint the hotbed, set raft and brim ... Sry for my english ...

Update on the Blue tape: I just printed the widest thing I have ever tried, and the corners came up and warped durring printing, causing a fail. I have a bare glass surface and I don't have enough Kapton to cover the area. I was trying to avoid Kapton because I hope that when I get good at this I will go to higher volume, perhaps run several printers, and that would greatly increase print cost. I went out and got Aqua Net Extra Super Hold and it failed right away, but I now realize after reading the thread that I wasn't anal enough about cleaning the glass. I will try the hairspray again.

I am new to 3D printing and I haven't tried to print anything large yet, but the el-cheapo sun catcher paint I have been using on my plate glass cold bed seems to work really well with ABS. It doesn't seem to need rafting, though doing a large part, might not hurt. I just paint a couple of coats ( letting dry in between coats or use a hair dryer if you're in a hurry ) on with a soft brush and scrape it off with a razor blade after removing the part.

I can't thank you guys enough for your tips. As a newbie 3der I have been able to print fine with PLA but could NEVER get ABS to stick no matter what I did. I read your post today about the stick glue on the painters tape and tried it. Worked perfect. This entire time I had the solution in arms reach. A simple tube of Elmers Extreme school glue. No acetone smell. No hair spray smell. You guys are the best.

On some of the above advice, I went and picked up a couple of sticks of the Elmers Extreme School glue...
Smeared it on the bare borosilicate glass, no tape or anything else... small skirt.
I've printed 5 pieces so far, all of them have stuck fast, no lifting at all... When it's done, I do nothing... just let it sit and cool
on it's own... about the time the table getsback to room temperature, I here a light, sharp pop/crack or two, and I can walk
over, and with VERY little effort, pull the piece off the glass. Turn on the hot water, rinse the glue off, dry it, windex, new layer
of glue stick, and off and running again... I hope this method never stops working!! It's wonderful!

R

heated bed. 110C, piece of glass with blue painter tape, Garnier hair spray. Works great. even better is if you put little rafts wherever there is a sharp outside corner. 5mm radius .2mm thick.

230C for the ABS.