Advice with heated bed & surface

I am brand new to 3D printing, just finished building a Purse i3 clone and I am currently using painters/masking tape on the heated bed. It is a pain because it sticks to the bottom of objects and its hard to remove from the bottom of the object. So I have some questions.

* I understand that because I am using an auto level sensor I cannot use a glass plate on the bed. So is there anything else that I can use to get PLA to stick instead of painters tape that will not be a pain to remove from a finished print object?

* If painters tape is the way to go, how do you clean-up the print's bottom to clean off the tape residue? I know acetone will help but may warp the PLA object, is there another way?

* I have tried printing on the metal bed itself but PLA does not stick (nozzle @210, bed @60).

Thanks in advance for any advice.

Al

With pla.
I use blue painters tape usually at about 45-50, maybe i have been lucky but i never had it get stuck to the print .
Part usually just pops off after letting the bed cool down.
I have allso had good results from using glue stik directly on the alluminium bed at about 40-50 degrees

I dont think acetone has any effect on pla.

Honestly, given how tricky it can be to get the first layer to stick, I think that having a part stuck to the bed a bit too well is an acceptable trade-off or overcorrection, if you will.

I recommend investing in a good part chisel with a very thin edge and flat blade--gently work it under the finished part and pry it off.

It requires some patience to remove a part that is stuck fast to the bed without causing damage, but I think that is still preferable to the alternative of a noodly, goopy mess, wasted filament and several aborted prints.

That being said, I've found that with lots of practice, I've now managed to carefully fine tune the Z-offset so that the first layer sticks well enough to guarantee a successful print, while at the same time ensuring that the tape doesn't get ripped off along with the part.

Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 02/23/2017 09:44AM by scndctr.

If you dont like the finish on the bottom of the part you can try printing a 1 or 2 layer raft. that way the bottom of your part will not come in contact with the tape

Rubbing alcohol can be used to help remove the blue tape. If you don't want to use tape, you can also clean the bed surface with rubbing alcohol. It cleans the surface very well which will help with the adhesion.

If your auto-level sensor is capacitive rather than inductive then you can use a glass plate. A capacitive sensor will read the surface of the glass rather than the surface of the bed.

I have an aluminium surfaced hot bed over which I have fitted a piece of 3mm aluminium sheet, to form a sacrificial printing surface that can be easily replaced. I use two layers of the cheapest and nastiest super-hold hairpray sprayed onto the plate and allowed to dry thoroughly before printing, and print with a brim. The hairspray is easily cleaned off with a damp cloth and lasts for a good number of prints before cleaning and respraying. Surface finish is much superior to blue tape.