PLA sticks to plexiglass print bed. What do I do to prevent it?

[snoozer]

A friend just loaned me his never-used, 5-year-old, Monoprice Architect 3D printer. No joke; never set up or used.

So I set it up and printed a test object. All went well except the object stuck to the plexiglass bed. I was able to remove it with a hair dryer but really don't want to have this occur again.

Is there a way to keep the object from sticking so strongly? My friend gave me a can of hairspray with the printer. Is that to serve as a separating medium? Or should I use the sheet of 3M material (also included) that will stick to the bed itself? I'm not sure exactly what the 3M material is but it's a perfect fit for the bed size and probably is for that purpose. I just don't know for sure and don't want to trash the printer before I give it back.

Thanks to all!

[spezzer]

Hi - the hairspray is to help stick the printing to the glass - doesn't sound like you need it! For releasing prints, I saw a YouTube video that recommends spraying the bed with alcohol. It finds its way under the print and literally pops off. HTH

[airscapes]

actually the alcohol thing is that it cools the print and the difference in temp between the cool print and the hot glass caused the print to warp slightly and pop off. Canned air turned upside down on a print just after it is done will also work.. spray the base between print and plate with the liquid propellant to pop it off.

[spezzer]

good explanation cheers

[curious aardvark]

use the sticker - if they sent yopu one then they don't expect you to just print on the bed.

the other way is to adjust your z-axis gap in the slicer software. start with 0.1mm and go up in 0.05 increments untill you get to the sweetspot where things stick while printing and release when cold :-)



Huh weird, it's replicator clone. but with one extruder and an unheated bed. That is an odd duck :-)
And the bed is Glass - not plastic :-)