Is there something else I can use besides the glu stick (Page 1 of 2)

Hi,

you can use PEI - Film!

A trick noted on a few forums that I've found works wonders is using a mixture of acetone and a bit of scrap abs to pour a thin sheet of plastic onto the bed before printing.

All you need is a few milliliters of acetone (5-6 eyedroppers worth) and a bit of scrap plastic (roughly the same amount you can get from doing the 'load filament' procedure about 4 times).  Take the abs and the acetone and mix it in a small glass container, such as an empty model paint jar.  You can stir it with a straw or something similar to get a good mixture.

What you should get is a liquid that looks like milk or something similar.  I'm using white abs at the moment, so it's easy to compare the two.  It should be a little thicker than acetone, but not thick like glue.

Once you've mixed it up, slowly pour the mixture onto the print bed.  Make sure the bed is at room temperature or at least fairly cool, as this will allow you to more evenly spread the liquid.  Using a card or the side of a straw, spread the acetone mixture out over the print bed so that it forms a thin layer of liquid.  Try to be as even as you can, but it doesn't have to be perfect.

Once this is done, let the acetone evaporate (it shouldn't take too long), and this should leave you with a very thin layer of plastic to run your print on.

After your print has run, take a razor blade and gently shave into the plastic a few centimeters away from the edge of your print.  As you do this, you will be able to lift the plastic up from the print bed and as you get closer to the print, your print will start to lift.  This works much better for getting your print off the bed, as the plastic should just lift off fairly easily without the force necessary when using a glue stick.

As an added bonus, for most prints your bottom layer will fuse with the plastic layer, giving an almost mirror finish to the bottom of your print.

After that, cleanup is easy, as you can just use the razor to lift and peel off the remaining plastic, and then use the supports you might have left over from your print to make the next batch of acetone for your next print.

If it helps, I can provide some pictures of the process/mixtures, but I think this will be a lot easier to use than the glue stick.

Schnixx, is that film reusable? And is the translucent filament abs or pla? If it's pla, what brand is it?

Is the davinci glass removable? On my solidoodle I pop my glass in the freezer when parts dont pop off on their own. This can sometimes help them pop off. Gradual system of natural-cooling or freezer-cooling seems to prevent cracks, compared to anything too physical when you're trying to get the part off yourself.

Also definitively don't whack the part off, always use a razor to fit underneath the part and pop it off if you're trying to do it physically.

Yes, it is reusable.
And the Filament is BandLay from the same Shop.

quality has its price.
I use it only from this shop.

Since glue sticks are mentioned here, I tried Scotch Permanent Glue Sticks. Supposedly Non-Toxic, Washable, and Acid Free. Honestly they seemed to work about the same as the UHU stick does and have the upside that I can buy them locally at Walmart.

In my opinion though, acetone / abs slurry has worked out for me the best. It does tend to make it hard to get things off the glass, but persistence and a razor blade win that battle every time.

Next paragraph is kind of related to the topic but only a little, so if it's the TLDR thing I most certainly can understand...

The thing that has made the biggest "quality of life" improvement for me on the Da Vinci was adding a cable to move the SDCard into the inside of the machine where I have access to it. Now I just print from the printers menu using the "Star Vase" item by overwriting SAMPLE03.gcode so whenever I have filament not stick I can quickly cancel the print, down arrow to skip cooling, scrape off and print Star Vase again before the machine cools down more than 5 degrees. This makes any kind of failure at the start lot less painful than me hooking up the laptop again, slicing again and so forth just to print.

Hey josh, in repetier I noticed the sd menu bar. I haven't touched it because I thought it would mess something up. Bit if I slice I can upload to the card for easy printing without the computer? Even though I haven't accessed the card from taking apart the printer?

I have that on my list of future things to mod on the Da Vinci, but I'll wait until the alternate firmware process is a bit more refined. I have the filament resetter and can use any filament I wish already, paired with being able to use the slicer of choice makes me a bit leary of trying repetier while my warranty is still intact.

Sadly while I have C02 tanks, I don't have any of the dusters anymore. I use a big electric duster instead, it paid for itself very quickly for what I used the dusters for. I eventually want to try the PEI film and be done with all of the issue's of getting ABS to stick while still have it be easy to remove the print later.

I actually use a strong hold hairspray that works way better for me than the glue stick.

i use ABS soup ,,,,acetone and some leftovers abs ,,let is dissolve

i put a bit on the bed with a cloth and my prints are always good