Thanks all for the replies. First off, i would like to put in my interest for the 150mm heater from printit.
WardJR: i found this on your website: https://www.printitindustries.com/produ … -8-heatbed
I presume this is what Ski52 was referring to when requesting a 150mm version. I seem to remember you and AZERATE were running this site. Sorry if I am remembering wrong.
This brings up a couple of new questions..
1: Is there a 6" to 8" bed upgrade kit anywhere? I have not yet searched this forum for that. I will try to do that later and link to what i find unless someone beats me to it.
2: the heat time is similar to my stock heater after i tweaked the voltage. I guess what i'm buying here is even heating? or could i expect even faster heat times assuming the hypothetical 150mm version becomes available?
Ski52:
i have used everything. the most reliable, and ironically the most effort is kapton on glass. I have to acetone wipe it right before printing and sometimes i have to pry things off...when they stick. i still get lifted corners frequently. For what it matters, i've gotten applying the tape onto glass down to a science. basically lots of soapy water, a good squeegee (i use one that came iwth invisishield screen protector) and a steady hand. well lubed with the soap water you can butt the edges of the tape together with zero gap and zero overlap. it takes a light touch but doable.
Second on list is gluestick on glass. I tend to use this most of the time now. I cannot get the surface even though so i still use kapton when i need the slick finished surface. I tend to lose about 25% of the prints on gluestick. Also i seem to have to keep applying more glue which eventually requires me stripping the glass.
In this iteration of 3d printing, i am trying aquanet on glass. The "quick squirt and print" method never worked for me. This time i an getting decent success with a multicoat "base". Basically I washed the glass thoroughly and then i sprayed the glass lightly (so there is a pebbled look without any pooling) and dried it completely with a heat gun. Repeat about 5 times. Give it a good solid spray ..maybe double what i was doing for first 5 coats... and drying. repeat about another 3-4 times. switch back to "pebbled" spray. repeat twice.
All and all the process took me about 10-15 minutes with the heat gun. My theory is the first light coats give a tight even bond to the glass as well as provides a texture for the heavy coats to seep into to prevent pooling. the last light coats were an after thought because i thought maybe there was some mechanical adhesion involved that might be helped. So far i've printed 4 things on this glass and lost 2 of them. My printer has been in storage for better part of year and ive not yet tweaked it back into shape...so it is hard to tell if this helps.
Also, i use glass attached to stock metal platform with binder clips (3/4" ones i think?). I have about 10 sheets of glass treated in various ways (cost me a total of $6 i think.. i just kept poking through scrap drawer at local lowes). When i get into "full production mode" i can swap the glass in about 30 seconds and start the next print. I sit the hot glass on by desktop and by the time i've started next print the objects have self separated from the glass (when I'm not using kapton of course).
Disclaimer: aquanet is very flammable. Going at it with a heat gun is probably not the sanest of activities. A hair-drier on low heat is probably safer. Just waiting 10 minutes or so for it to dry is probably best. My hairdrier is too noisy though and im impatient so i figured a flash fire or two was worth the risk. 
