Best Build Surface



  • We most likely will get a 2nd printer. Probably in the <700 total budget which means after you include an all metal hotend and probably a build surface you are probably talking something CR-10ish. Have a pretty good idea of the hotend (Volcano) as its going to be a big parts printer. Now any surface says its the best and everything sticks to it. Currently on the Pulse we have a garolite bed and everything sticks to it - at least what we print lots of - some with copious amounts of PVA glue which is not ideal but workable. We are on PVA glue stick # 49 (the big ones) in about 10 months. Well HIPS needs lots of it and we do lots of HIPS. So what we print - in sequence of poundage HIPS, NYLON, ABS, PETG ..... then some flex and Polypropylene (that needs packaging tape as it does not stick well to garolite) and then occasional PLA. So MH of course sells Garolite and different Flavors of PEI and BuildTak and GeckoTec and the not very helpful description says "This is the ideal ...." on every one. Well there can only be one ideal and the rest is 2nd and 3rd best so I would like to know what is best for someone who will probably run 5-7kg/week through that printer too. So would like to get a definite answer there and what to expect in milage too. For one thing the Garolite still works like on day one. As for PVA gluestick usage. on large prints (greater 7 in in at least 1 direction

    HIPS = good coating for every print
    NYLON 910 and bridge a light coating every couple of prints CX 12 heavy coat each print
    ABS - ESUN - hardly a coating, Hobby King - light every 4-5 prints MH Build- IDK I gave up on that
    PETG - Quite a bit so it comes off.
    PLA - depends on size of parts on real big ones quite a bit.



  • Curious. Most modern heatbeds never seem to be that flat, well most that I have dealt with over time, how do you overcome this while using Garolite.
    I use a glass surface which works well with hairspray, I get over the unevenness by initially getting the bed as close as possible, the finalizing by adding card under the glass, as far as I can see, to use Garolite I would have to stick it to the glass, kind of over kill I would say.



  • My Garolite sticks to the aluminum plate of my printer and is probably 1mm or 2 thick it seems to be machined. Now I still bed level. The MC software does that. So it works pretty well main complaint I had with the auto bed leveling is that if a print curled it ripped the leg of the BL touch off and that is an expensive joke. So I canned the BL touch for now and do a 9 point level manually with a sheet of paper. In your case you'd probably stick it to whatever your glass rests on or if that does not work you can bet it stuck to a piece of spring steel and use it like a flex plate


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