I've posted this elsewhere, but I think it's generally applicable to any print bed with a textured surface. The Anycubic Ultrabase is a glass bed, with a fired on microscopic ceramic "waffle iron" pattern. I never had good results from it, until I discovered that the manufacturing process could leave traces of flux in the grooves of the waffle iron. Which explained the varying results folks got from the "same" surface. Scrubbing the ceramic flux from the grooves, with hot water, then isopropanol, then ethyl alcohol, made the bed act as it should. Stick like a tick when hot, have no hold when cold. Each scubbing raised more white flux material from the bed, which I had originally assumed was from the paper towels. It wasn't. It was manufacturing residue. Some beds had it, some didn't.
Now that my Ultrabase Pro bed was working like it's supposed to, I got tired of waiting for the bed to cool between prints to remove the object. Because the surface of the Ultrabase is textured like a waffle iron, I found that just a few drops of isopropyl alcohol, applied right next to the finished print, will creep through the channels on the bed and pop the object off in seconds. Even while the bed is hot. I have NOT tried this at over 60 Celsius bed temperature, have a fire extinguisher handy, and make sure the isopropyl won't harm the plastic I'm printing (works for me on PLA and PETG).
A quick wipe, and you're ready for the next print. Just my $0.02, worth what you paid for it, and use at your own risk.
Another quick note. Because calibration and bed leveling uses the peaks of the waffle iron as the base line, I find that babystepping the nozzle offset so that it is BARELY skimming the peaks forces the first layer into the valleys of the waffle iron. If my first layer is 0.1mm thick, I babystep down 0.075mm to get a firm squish into the waffle iron valleys.
The takeaway here is that, if you have a textured bed of any kind, you may be trying to print the first layer too far away from the bed. And a few drops of alcohol at the edges of the print may likely make it pop off the bed without waiting for it to cool.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/31/2021 06:28PM by rq3.
