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Answered Chunk of glass bed came off

Discussion in 'Troubleshooting' started by 4sfaloth, Nov 11, 2018.

  1. 4sfaloth

    4sfaloth Member

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    Hi all,

    Basically during one of my prints (a small miniature) a fraction of the glass bed seems to have broken and glued itself to the part. The print complete successfully but when I removed the part (and it came off rather easily) it took a slice of the glass bed with it. Since then it has happened again, so I now have two little chunks of the glass bed missing

    I'm uploading a couple of picture of the bed where you can see the first chunk that is missing.

    What am I doing wrong, and how can I fix it?

    Thanks in advance,
    Filipe Morais
     

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  2. WheresWaldo

    WheresWaldo Volunteer ( ͠° ͟ʖ ͡°)
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    1. You did nothing wrong.
    2. The glass used, borosilicate, can withstand extremes in temperature but is prone to chipping. Not really anything you can do about it. It just happens to some people, and to everyone eventually.
    3. Replace the bed with A) a better choice would be aluminum cut to the same size B) try to find another piece of borosilicate glass that will work C) get a cheap piece of window pane glass (sometimes called float glass) from a local hardware store and clip it over the existing glass bed.

    There are threads here on how to do a bed replacement. It isn't just replace the bed, you will also need to deal with the bed heater element. The threads are more comprehensive than my answer here (intentionally).
     
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  3. 4sfaloth

    4sfaloth Member

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    @WheresWaldo thank you for your reply. Not sure I am happy to know I did nothing wrong; I was hoping there would be something I could fix to prevent this from happening again, cine replacing the bed seems to be troublesome and expensive (new one is 80$ + shipping...)

    I have been also told that, since the chunks are not that large, I could just try to fill them with tape and then cover the whole glass bed with blue painter's tape to help preventing this. Would this work as well?
     
  4. mark tomlinson

    mark tomlinson ༼ つ ◕_ ◕ ༽つ
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    For the R1+ they are usually not in stock.

    Painters tape is fine, but the easiest and best solution is the float glass (cheap too and some binder clips will hold it in place)
     
  5. 4sfaloth

    4sfaloth Member

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    So, just to make sure I understand you correctly, what you are suggesting is for me to go to a local shop and order a custom-sized piece of float glass (4mm thick?) and just hold it above the heated bed using binder clips? Will the heating still work adequately?
     
  6. mark tomlinson

    mark tomlinson ༼ つ ◕_ ◕ ༽つ
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    Yes

    Yes.

    You will be back up and running quickly and cheaply :)
     
  7. mark tomlinson

    mark tomlinson ༼ つ ◕_ ◕ ༽つ
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    The real solution is to replace the glass entirely with aluminum since glass (and particularly Borosilicate glass) is actually an insulator.
    However that is far more work than just slapping a thin sheet of the float glass on there and that will work just fine. If it breaks/chip throw it away and get a new one.
     
  8. WheresWaldo

    WheresWaldo Volunteer ( ͠° ͟ʖ ͡°)
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    Since the float glass can literally be any thickness, don't custom order a piece, just take what they have that is big enough to cover the bed and allow you to clip it in place and that is good enough. The glass I used on my old R1 was only 3.2 mm approximately, actually 1/8 " because Americans are too stupid to figure out how to use measurements in Base10.
     
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  9. mark tomlinson

    mark tomlinson ༼ つ ◕_ ◕ ༽つ
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    I'd blame it on lazy, but metric is actually easier sooo. Stubborn is my next excuse.

    (I mean seriously who doesn't love converting to furlongs per fortnight? )
     
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  10. Geof

    Geof Volunteer Moderator
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    I did a thread on installing a sheet of PEI (I got mine from @Printed Solid ) in the mods and upgrades section. it works great to cover up chunks and keep from happening but you do have to home, then heat before each print (and also let cool down then home and print between prints).

    2nd aluminum or float glass.

    fun story : I just broke my last glass build plate running some PET on my BCN Sigma. I ordered a cut to size piece of aluminum (6061 T6) online for around 20 bucks (1/8" thick for the same reason @WheresWaldo mentions). Going forward if one of my robos glass breaks (like in half and unuseable) I"ll do the same for them and put PEI on top of it (or buildtak or the such).

    Lots of options :D Start experimenting.
     
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  11. 4sfaloth

    4sfaloth Member

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    @Geof @WheresWaldo thank you all for your help. So many ideas to circumvent this :)

    Just one thing I don't really get; why does the printer come with such expensive glass? I thought that regular 'float glass' would stick so well or something like that? Why wouldn't they just use a cheaper glass instead?
     
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  12. mark tomlinson

    mark tomlinson ༼ つ ◕_ ◕ ༽つ
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    Someone convinced them that Borosilicate was needed. (it is not)

    Frankly I suspect the aluminum plate would be cheaper :)
     
  13. Pops668

    Pops668 New Member

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    There is an old glass art called hide-glue glass chipping.
    You get your glass sheet super clean, apply glue, heat it up & keep it hot for a while, and when it cools off, shards of glass get pulled out of the sheet.
    There is a new art called 3d printing.
    You get your glass bed super clean, apply glue, heat it up, keep it hot for a while...this sounds familiar somehow.
    A strong adhesive bond will peel glass and the type of glass isn't so important.
    It points out a contradictory requirement; good adhesion while printing and easy release when cold.
     
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  14. Geof

    Geof Volunteer Moderator
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    Most all manufacturers use borsillicate glass for whatever reason :D it plagues pretty well all of them (the chips- cracks etc). The general solution from most is to print with a build surface of some kind or just buy replacement beds if you must print on glass.
     
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  15. mark tomlinson

    mark tomlinson ༼ つ ◕_ ◕ ༽つ
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    Yea, all of our other brands do this too.
    So far most of them have not chipped (but that may be due to smaller sized beds -- <shrug>) It will eventually be an issue for any of them. Never had float glass die yet :)
     
  16. WheresWaldo

    WheresWaldo Volunteer ( ͠° ͟ʖ ͡°)
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    Plus float glass is really cheap, put an aluminum bed in place of the glass, then get a cheap piece of window pane from a home improvement center, then never worry about the bed again.
     
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  17. mark tomlinson

    mark tomlinson ༼ つ ◕_ ◕ ༽つ
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    This is so true it should come on a tablet of stone.
    Attached to the printer.
     
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