How do we use hairspray successfully?

I had a lot of trouble getting Maker Shed brand filament to stick to my bed using hairspray and eventually wound up succeeding with painters tape. However, I'd like to get the hairspray method working because it gives me a nice shiny finish on the glass side of the print. So I'm wondering how folks generally use hairspray. My questions includes the following:

1) Is there a particular brand or type of hairspray people are having good luck with?

2) Do you put it on long before printing or right before printing so that it's a hair wet?

3) Do you put it on the glass thick or thin or something in between?

4) Do you wipe it off after every print?

5) Do you ever put hairspray on top of hairspray?

 

The hairspray is the easy part. Aquanet extra super hold. Just a spritz. If it isn't dry by like 30-60 seconds you used a little much.
The big key is getting your first layer pressed down just right. I'm talking lowering it ever so slightly until the filament is pushed down just a bit. A quarter turn of the threaded rods could be the difference between to high and pressed to low. Its really about very slight adjustments getting it pushed into the bed just right.
Always print with a few loops of the skirt and get real close and see how it is laying those first rings down, adjust them until you find your sweet spot and it will help you get a feel for setting it permanently.

Practice with both tape and hairspray at the same time helped me until I got a good feel for it, now I'm right on the glass. It took me a couple months to really get good at it though so don't rush it.



EDIT: Oops we posted at the same time Tesseract lol. Yeah exactly what he said too.

 

These guys have it dead on; what I usually do is instead of spraying like you normally would if applying hairspray to hair, I hit the button with short bursts of pressure and blast each area with 1 to 2 shots. I only reapply on areas directly under the previous print that were obviously pulled up by said print.

 

Wow, these are great responses! And it tells me why my hairspray attempts failed. First off, "Pantene Stylers" (which is what I had at home) doesn't have either of the chemicals mentioned. Second, I put it on too thick. Third, I was trying to avoid squishing my first layer. I'll have to try this out tomorrow or this weekend after we go grocery shopping. Aquanet it is!

 

And the wife says I don't listen Lol.

 

I'm not sure when the last time is that I cleaned off the hairspray on my bed. I just mist another coat on there and print. Seems to work fine that way, even if it does look a little weird with it fairly thickly coated on.

I've found what works really well for me is to do a thin mist of hairspray, and then tap the surface of it with the ends of the bristles of a paintbrush. It gives it an additional bit of texture/tooth that really helps the filament stick.

I'll sometimes add a very fine mist of a second coating right before printing and print on very slightly damp hairspray, especially if it's something large and flat that will tend to pull up on the corners.

 

What about bed and extruder temps, do you keep them at default?

 

Also do you use anything to prevent over spraying of the bed.

 

I'm currently printing with PLA, leaving the heated bed off (so it's around 2-12 - mostly printing small parts so I'm not concerned about warping) and printing at 210. Hair spray only on glass, and I'm quite sure I've not cleaned the bed once since I posted on this thread last back in April.

I used to use cardboard or a folded up newspaper to block overspray but... ehh, it's not really necessary and I don't bother anymore. I try not to spray directly on the other bits, but overspray is not too much of an issue - been printing regularly for over a year now and haven't noticed any problematic buildup on any other parts - there's a bit of a haze around the plastic of the outer case but nothing really on any important bits.

 

I have been using this method since I originally posted the question, and it's been pretty successful. I move the extruder (Z axis) up to at least 100mm, then I spray the glass. I try to aim it so the spray doesn't go everywhere, but I don't worry about it if some gets on the casing or the Z rods. I make a point of cleaning and lubricating the X axis on a regular basis.

With PLA I set the bed to 32C which is close to room temperature. It's probably my imagination but it seems that if my room is really cold the odds of my print popping off the bed halfway through a print goes up.

I've been told that the hairspray trick shouldn't work with ABS, but I've had equal luck using the hairspray and ABS juice. However, with ABS I set the bed to 90.

Keep in mind, bed temperatures (and hotend temperatures) will vary depending on the brand of filament you are using, and sometimes even with the color. With the brand ABS I use, I have to run black about 5 degrees hotter than orange, blue or white. With the same brand PLA, I have to run the black 5 degrees cooler than the other colors!

Yes, I'm using a cheap eBay filament.

 

Maybe my problem is that the temperature on the bed is not consistent, I'm printing the long spool holders and noticed that where the project lifted from the glass is not heated like the rest of the bed, so the whole bed is not heated. I will try with no heat and see what happens.

 

I also notices that my prints are not centered on the bed as it shows in the software, maybe something is out of wack, as I had to take the printer apart due to failed the extruder not heating, all the cables came unplugged from the circuit board during shipping.

 

I am still getting lift after running to the store and getting aqua net, I heated the bed to 26c just to get it above room temp, but my room is only at 66f, so wonder if that is an issue.

 

Just seems to be an issue if I print more than 10-20 layers. Still can find out why the print starts so far back on the bed, I even moved it in mattercontrol software.

 

incidentally, when I printed my spool holder I set it at 45 degrees (diagonal) so that none of it was off the heated portion.

some folks put a big box over their printer to keep the warm air in. I've had pretty good luck with the bed at 35 for pla.