I finally got a 3D printer of my own Spring 2018 and haven’t really had time to learn all the tips and tricks from everyone on great prints. For the couple of hours I spent with this thing, it prints well enough I suppose. At first I just didn’t have luck at all. In the past I had good luck with Painters tape, and even glue sticks on the old Printrbot Simple kits I used to use in summer camps I taught, but my RepRap Guru has a heated glass build plate.
For ages folks have tried recommending different materials to have your 3D prints stick to the build plate and all of them fall short in my eyes. I think I came across the perfect solution (pun intended).
First, here’s what I’ve seen and issues I had with them
- Gluesticks: This makes a mess and in my experience doesn’t work well.
- Painters tape: parts don’t come off of this easy and it’s expensive to continue to replace
- Sugar: Sticky and messy.
- Expensive build-plates: Expensive…
The best solution I’ve come across which gives amazing results is salt water. The parts stick to the glass really well, but then when the print is done, the build plate cools down, the part comes off without any effort whatsoever. In most cases, I pick the part up without having to pull or pry at all.
For cheapness, I make my own solution usually, but recently tried premixed saline solutions. To make your own, get a small glass of water, warm it in the microwave until it’s as hot as warm tea, then slowly add salt to it until no more will dissolve. Use a cotton ball, cotton swab, or paper towel dipped in this water to smear a layer of salt water on the glass build plate. Wait until it dries and forms a nice crystalline layer. You can see in the pic above that the build plate looks dirty, but it it’s just salt. You can heat the bed to help the water evaporate quicker if you are anxious.
While looking for a better or quicker application method, I tried NeilMed Nasal wash. This sprays out in a good even mist and coats the entire plate in literally 1 second. Then I warm the build plate to evaporate the water and print. The one in the image is “hypotonic” solution, which doesn’t have as much salt as the “hypertonic” solution. The hypertonic solution might work better, but the standard solution works great. I usually don’t wash it off between prints unless I notice a clean spot on the glass. Then I’ll rinse the glass, dry with a cloth, then sprits it again with the spray.