Cleaning the kapton

[Billzilla]

What's the safest way to keep the kapton on the print platform clean?

[Geoff]

What's the safest way to keep the kapton on the print platform clean?

I usually use a damp cloth before printing, anything other than a tissue (leaves dust and stuff)

If you are impatient like me, and don't wait for things to cool down and scrape them off the plate, your tape will get worn, and in that case its about $15-20 for a roll. The first time you put a new piece on you will curse several times, but after a few replacements it's not so bad. I put a new kapton layer on every few weeks as mine gets pretty scuffed up.

Alot of people say hairspray works well to make things stick to the bed, but this of course makes the kapton go pretty funky after a while unless you scrub it down, which then of course leads to the tape getting worn.

If I see a print going bad, often I will stick something in there to help it along, and on the odd occasion ive had things caught in the process and torn the kapton tape... if I'm extra lazy, I will move the print to somewhere the tape is clean
and that way I dont have to change it. To be honest, clean Kapton is only of massive benefit when producing final parts, if you want that nice finish on the surface of a raftless print, otherwise it's not such a big deal I find.

[Billzilla]

Excellent, thanks again.

[Billzilla]

I was thinking about what you wrote here ....

If you are impatient like me, and don't wait for things to cool down and scrape them off the plate,

... So it's better to wait for the object to cool down first before removing it from the platform?
I've used an UP printer for a couple of years but with the blue tape and I can pull objects off that quite okay when they're hot.

[ixlr8]

Geoff I noticed you said in the past that you only use kapton for the build plate, can you share where you are purchasing yours? I know you do a lot of raftless prints and I would like to head in that direction. I've already removed my stock kapton because it wasn't installed properly.

[Geoff]

@Bill

If I print in some PLA's or ABS they literally are stuck like glue to the platform for few mins while it cools down. If you try and rip them off, you can de-level your printbed, and have to level all over again.

Those thumb screws underneath, you only need to remove pressure on one of them for the bolt to literally unscrew itself, bit by bit it slowly will make the level off, and man do I hate levelling my build plate...

Geoff I noticed you said in the past that you only use kapton for the build plate, can you share where you are purchasing yours? I know you do a lot of raftless prints and I would like to head in that direction. I've already removed my stock kapton because it wasn't installed properly.

I bought it direct from ff3dp.com

it cost around $17 from memory. Its the perfect size and you just cut the length to the hotbed length and keep the rest on the roll.

Remember putting contact on your books back in school? same deal but alot harder because you can't bend the hotplate to assist in removing bubbles,so when you put new tape on, like a phone protective screen you need to nudge it with a card or something to make sure there are no bubbles - there must be no bubbles or wrinkles obviously, or it will affect the print.

First time? it took me 4 goes hahaha and I wasted 80cm of the roll, but its a 3 meter roll, so plenty left for that price.

[Billzilla]

Ta, Geoff.

[Geoff]

Ta, Geoff.

noprobs,

I should also note it's near impossible to replace with the hotbed on the machine, unplug it and unscrew and have it out of the machine...

If you do manage to get a new piece on with the bed still in your machine, let me know how you did it!

[jfkansas]

It might be easier to install the tape like vinyl stickers. Use water with a couple drops of dish soap in a spray bottle. Mist the platform, be sure everything is unpluged. Mist the adhesive of the tape, then lay on the platform and squeegee it flat. Let dry fully before heating.

[Geoff]

It might be easier to install the tape like vinyl stickers. Use water with a couple drops of dish soap in a spray bottle. Mist the platform, be sure everything is unpluged. Mist the adhesive of the tape, then lay on the platform and squeegee it flat. Let dry fully before heating.

I haven't had alot of experience with applying decals or vinyl but seeing a youtube video on that now, yeah that's probably not a bad bet at all. the moisture underneath (if any) would evaporate n your first build.