ESUN PETG Filament with Flashforge Creator Pro - getting stuck way to hard to the bed

Hello,

Has anyone here tried using the ESUN PETG filament with their Flashforge Creator Pro before? I have read good things about it and other places where people have used it with the Flashforge Creator Pro such as in Amazon reviews and they had positive feedback. I tried using it and it extrudes good at 230-255C (I tried both). I started to 3D Print a simple Christmas Tree from thingiverse http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:14222, but it has been nothing but a nightmare to get these prints unstuck from the bed! They stick way too good! So much that even the little "blob" that is created when the extruder skirts the corner to cut off the little bit of filament that drools before starting to print was so difficult to remove that I ripped a small corner of the blue tape that comes with the Flash Forge on the bed along with it.

I have never had an issue with PLA sticking too hard other than I always had to heat the bed a little more for it to remove or remove it right away before the bed cools. I was never able to remove PLA prints from a cold bed. My usual settings for PLA are 210C extruder and 40C heated bed.

The settings I have used are all the same as for PLA except temperature. For this 3D print I used an extruder temp of 255C and a bed temp of 80C. When I first started printing it seemed a bit weird as the outline of the print it first makes was clear and it wasn't until after the first or second layer was complete I could see the "green" color of the filament. I thought this was an extrusion problem at first, but every other layer came out perfect.

I also tried an extruder temp of 230C, but I got the same issue of the little bit in the corner getting way too stuck to the bed and it just drawing "clear lines" on the print bed for the first layer.

But the problems really started happening trying to remove the print. I first let the bed cool down to room temperature, this didn't work. Then I preheat the bed to 90C. The print started to remove but after removing about half the print, the bottom started to appear "melted" and some of it stayed stuck to the bed. I still hard a hard time removing it, but after a lot of effort using different sized pallet knives I was able to remove it. This stuff is very strong and flexible so it didn't break.

Also, the blue tape on the bed still contains a slightly clear outline of the print that will not come off with alcohol; however, this isn't causing any bed adhesion issues as I am printing with PLA now without any issues. But I wonder if there is a way to properly clean this. I really don't want to replace the tape again as it was a nightmare to get all that glue off the bed. Another question I have is. If I ever need to replace the blue tape again, is there an easy way to get all that nasty glue that remains stuck to the bed? It took me almost an entire day removing it with GOO GONF.

Here is a picture of how the print looked after removing it, in case this helps.


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I print PETG (and PLA and ABS) on glass with 3Dlac and it works like a charm. While warm it sticks like a barnacle, but when cooled down to room temperature it just pops off by itself most times.

Thanks for your response. I can't find anywhere where 3Dlac is sold in the US so I may have to buy it international. Is there any particular glass bed you recommend and can it be installed without removing the blue tape on the bed that comes with the Flashforge. I just don't want to have to remove all of that glue that remains all over the bed after removing the tape it's a real pain. I just did that this past weekend because I needed to replace it with new tape because it was scratched by the nozzle. It took an entire day to remove all of that glue.

I went to the local small hardware store and bought 8 pieces of window glass for it for a buck a piece. He cut them out of scraps. I've never tried printing PETG on tape. It prints perfectly (and removes easily) on clean glass.

I just got a lot more progress experimenting with just the tape with different temperatures. I used 230C extruder temp and 65C bed temp and it still sticks to the bed OK (not perfect) especially if I use a raft, but not as hard and it was super easy to remove. However, I still have a problem with lots of loose stringy filament coming out during printing and this gets in the way of the nozzles or makes them messy. It doesn't seem to create total failure of a print, but the prints come out with stringy bits and messy bottoms. It all starts with the first few layers that are flat to the surface, it eventually stopped making a mess after printing the shapes on the top of the model and the stringy filament did get pushed away by the movement of the duel extruder. I am reading around and it looks like some people tweaked a few more settings. I may be able to figure this out hopefully eventually.

Here are some pictures of the prints I made with the PETG today. Both are the same model, but the second is the model up scaled.

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3Dlac is just a rebranded hairspray, presumably without perfumes added.There are a number of posts out there which particular brand of regular hairspray does the same trick. PETG may well stick to clean glass if you keep the temperature just below the glass transition point of PETG (around 70-75 degrees C).

I use borosilicate glass (heat resistant glass, the stuff that is used for wood burners etc)., but regular glass may work just as well. If it doesn't break, it is the cheapest option.

You can put it on top of the blue tape I guess, it may just slow the heating up time a teeny bit as it is an extra medium to transfer the heat through, but I expect you won't notice any difference.

If you put glass on top you will need to adjust for the extra height. I have a small thingamajig of 4mm I put under the z-endstop that I use to adjust for the 4mm thick glass in my FF creator Dual. My other printers I just adjusted the whole set as I found that I always print on glass now.

For PETG, I run the glass bed at 80c and have never had a problem. By the time the glass cools to something less than 60c, the part comes right off.

I've broken one piece of glass in a year's time, so yep, it's cheap.

I put the glass right on top of the bed, using printed corners to keep it in place (found them on Thingiverse).

I use a small piece of the same glass that I got from the hardware store for my shim. ;)

petg sticks quite well to pva/gluestick as well.
I've only done very small prints so far, so not had an adhesion problem.

With pla I pretty much always reheat the printbed to remove anything with a decent base area.
Just softens the first layer enough to get a scraper underneath.

I finally got prints coming out perfect with the PETG on the blue tape that comes with the flashforge, with it sticking well and removing easy. I set the temp for extruder to 240C and bed to 65C The only problem I still have is it still leaves semi-translucent glossy lines on the print tape from the first layer of the print and alcohol doesn't seem to clean it off. I haven't had any adhesion problems in that area and I printed several times on top of it so it doesn't seem to be ruining the tape yet or causing adhesion problems, but I am not sure if it will eventually. you can barely see the lines and its easier to see in low light at a certain angle. Not sure what to use to clean it.

I have some screenshots of the print bed and the prints that came out good after tweaking a few extra settings in S3D. I also set the z-offest to 0.2 so that the layers are not squished like with PLA and this stopped the stringing problem I was having and I also slowed down the print speed.

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that looks nice !