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If the print isn't sticking to the build plate, does that mean I need new tape?

Discussion in 'General Questions' started by Stera8, Jun 8, 2017.

  1. zemjw

    zemjw New Member

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    I tried the blue painter's tape from amazon and it was a disaster. I could see when it was doing the bed levelling bit that it wasn't seeing it properly. Sure enough, when the print started it happily drove the print head through the tape and gouged a nice long furrow in the tape below (I'd put the blue tape on over the black tape as a test)

    Be very careful if you decide to try the blue tape.

    I'm in the UK as well, so it look like Buildtak will be the route for me. International postage is just crazy stupid these days :(

    Anything over about 60mm long curls for me, no matter what I try. When you say "alcohol" do you mean isopropyl alcohol (rubbing alcohol) or something else? Thanks
     
  2. WheresWaldo

    WheresWaldo Volunteer ( ͠° ͟ʖ ͡°)
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    Alcohol usually means IPA (sometimes called 'denatured').
     
  3. mark tomlinson

    mark tomlinson ༼ つ ◕_ ◕ ༽つ
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    No clue. I have not tried it since I had plenty of their stuff :)
    On the list of things to try after Irma.
     
  4. OutsourcedGuru

    OutsourcedGuru Active Member

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    Thanks for the warning. You'd think that the blue tape would reflect back more light to the LED side of that pair, guess (incorrectly) that it's too close, adjust the bed down and then "air print" instead of what you saw. I bought a huge roll of this tape at the same time as the printer, only to notice that they had tape squares included. (Yipes.)
     
  5. mark tomlinson

    mark tomlinson ༼ つ ◕_ ◕ ༽つ
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    Since we do not know the frequency of the LED (the "color" effectively) it can be a guess. It is certainly "UV" or "IR" but those are different bands and even then minor variations can make it sensitive to specific colors. BLACK is a safe bet :)



    (p.s. if manually leveled and the autoleveling disabled then the color is irrelevant)
     
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  6. KRGraphicsCG

    KRGraphicsCG Member

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    I am having some issues right now with trying to print a new piece... and I JUST PUT DOWN THE TAPE. The sides are gonna be slightly warped because of the tape bubbling and coming off the plate. I am about to look into using something else, like glass or something like that
     
  7. mark tomlinson

    mark tomlinson ༼ つ ◕_ ◕ ༽つ
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    Sounds like you might be extruding a bit hot there :)
     
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  8. KRGraphicsCG

    KRGraphicsCG Member

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    The initial layers for my raft is at 210 C and then down to 195C... I think that is my issue. The BuildTak will fix this issue.
     
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  9. OutsourcedGuru

    OutsourcedGuru Active Member

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    @KRGraphicsCG I was talking with Allen about the temperature of the priming line at 210 causing problems with the initial adhesion of the first layer and possible solutions.

    I've noticed if you choose to preheat the hotend then it seems to more immediately get to where it needs to be after the priming line. And yet, I've tweaked my OctoPrint startup gcode to compensate for all that. You might want to as well. I'm using the BuildTak but you need to re-prime the channel after that pull-off at the end of the priming line (maybe a full mm of extrusion) and wait for the temperature to come back down to where it's supposed to be before starting.
     
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  10. KRGraphicsCG

    KRGraphicsCG Member

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    I don't use Octoprint. I will try preheating the hotend before printing again. I am getting tired of having to fix warped prints at the bottom. I was thinking of using glass held by clamps to fix my issues. How do you have the BuildTak attached to your bed?
     
  11. WheresWaldo

    WheresWaldo Volunteer ( ͠° ͟ʖ ͡°)
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    Of course if you use a skirt the priming line and the whole preheating nonsense is wholly unnecessary I always use a skirt around my prints, 1 layer and usually 2 perimeters about 4 mm from the model. I also believe that S3D profiles default to skirt on.

    Please note I said skirt and not brim, they are different.
     
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  12. KRGraphicsCG

    KRGraphicsCG Member

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    I will try using a skirt on the next piece.
     
  13. OutsourcedGuru

    OutsourcedGuru Active Member

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    Clamps, you say? :laugh: I've spent a fair amount of time thinking about clamp-related solutions as seen in that thread. In my case, I was using the clamps to keep the raft of a huge part from curling (or trying to). I'm right now working on a solution which involves BuildTak on top of a magnetic sheet which is held onto a spare bed with lots of magnets underneath. If it works or not, I'll do a write-up on that.

    Allen at Robo gave me two of their BuildTak adhesive squares to test out on my printer. Like the black tape squares, there's a thin sheet on the back which is removed to reveal the adhesive. Although they don't sell them yet on the website store, they are including them in the latest round of printers being shipped out from what I understand. If you bought a spare bed, ask them to throw in some BuildTak sheets and they'll likely do so.

    Note that the BuildTak can lead to super-adhesion on thin parts. I routinely now throw the bed into the freezer for five minutes to get it to release its hold on a small part (and I'm usually not printing rafts now with this new bed covering since it's not as necessary). The BuildTak seems to want a different z-offset than the tape does. Once you dial it in, it sticks with a vengeance.

    One thing that I've seen work really well is to double the first layer's extrusion.

    I still occasionally see part curl now on thin parts without rafts toward the front of the bed but I've found that I can save them with a little intervention as seen here.

    And seriously, I only print from OctoPrint, the web interface that's presented by http://serial-number.local (or its IP address). I now trust the startup GCODE on that and wouldn't even think of printing from the LCD screen. (I do still choose to preheat from either, however.)
     

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