Hello everyone,

I am printing with abs at 260 degrees with a 110 degree print bed. I am also using this type of pva glue: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001PV3MNA/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o06_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I put the pva glue on both directions as well. This is the second time this has happened in a short span. But you can see the damage done to the glass here. It takes the glass up in strips. It doesn’t crack it.


WHY IS THIS HAPPENING?

Thanks,

Mike

The adhesion is too great, also regular glass isnt the best to use. Borosilicate glass would be better. Try putting a layer of pet tape on bed, ie window tint or a sheet pei works also.

If i have something that needs glue stick I typically just pour out some elmers glue and spread a layer of that on

9 Likes

260 is pretty high for ABS. What brand? You can probably back off the bed temp after the first layer also.

I think the damage to even borosilicate glass is not that unusual. I have a few that are missing small chunks. I think it may be from trying to remove the part to soon.

Thanks for the replies,

I do wait for the bed to cool; I already learned that the hard way. What is funky is I managed to do this twice in a three day interval. Has me worried.

Do you think maybe hairspray would be a better option? I have heard that it doesn’t adhere as well as PVA.

I might be trying out the PEI sheet here though. I have heard positive things about the pei sheet.

Thanks,

Mike

Try lowering the bed temp to 100 and I’m not sure what thickness of glass you are using but 3mm seems to be ideal, any thinner or thicker is prone to failure IME.

Use three layers of PVA glue. Lay one down, wait for it to clear, (Purple to clear?) or dry ish. Then repeat twice. Should drastically reduce your breakage rate. Some metallic color ABS materials have more stick and shrink and will damage glass more than regular colors.

Float glass will degrade over time and begin to sheer.

Boro glass will degrade over time and begin to sheer.

PEI/Ultem® is great if you don’t need a glass finish on the part and have the extra money/time to deal with it, keep in mind you either need a really thick sheet or you need to tape the PEI to the bed, once you damage it the cleaning/replacing is more work than glass. (Unless you have a vacuum system holding the plate down :slight_smile: In which case stratasys will come after you for patent violation.

Hairspray and Glue work the same depending on application. Just clean glue with water and hairspray with alcohol or acetone.

260 is fine for ABS if you are printing fast (80-110mm/s) or using a large nozzle. Even low flow ABS at 30-60mm/s goes 230-245

We used to go through a plate a day-week and have it down to maybe monthly swaps, we have Glass/PVA, Glass/Hairspray, Boro and Float, Ultem, Tape on aluminum, ABS, and the flock of fortus have different plates for different materials (they have the vacuum system and you just swap the plate to the right one for your material)

I am shocked that the adhesion is strong enough to do this. Even though I have had this 3d printer for about 6 months I haven’t experiences this because all my previous parts were not flat on the bottom so had a lot of supports. The current part is completely flat.

When you say that PEI doesn’t produce a glass finish what exactly does that mean? Also, I thought that PEI would reduce time spent messing around with it but according to what you wrote I should expect more time. How so?

Thanks,

Mike

Ive got PEI on all 3 of my machines and have only had an issue where at first where i was removing the prints after bed cooled down and damaged a sheet. But after that my 3 have been great, you need to remove pla prints at around 45c and 50c for abs. Ive done a lot of printing for home and hub and never had an adhesion problem or part pop off while printing with PEI

The bottom of the prints are not shiny like when using glass, they are a matte finish from pei.

9 Likes

What is your PEI setup? I am using one on glass and it is ok. It was a thicker PEI with the separate 3M glue. I am also using a thinner PEI on glass and on a bed directly. It is self adhesive which I like but a larger ABS part can cause it to lift in spots leaving “bubbles”. I really like the performance of the PEI but installing is still a pain to get a good bubble free, smooth surface (and I used to do vinyl work so no stranger to bubbles).

To add, some PEI comes with a shinny or a mat side.