Protecting your bed BEFORE it cracks, and alternatives to glue stick (Page 1 of 3)

I just looked at that crack.  Is it just me, or does it look like an eagle?  Or some kinda bird anyway.

I have heard of the Kapton tape, however on my brief research online, and most importantly what I have been told indirectly by someone who owns a company that makes prototypes, the print bed tape is far, far superior.  However I would still like to hear your story about it.  From what I have heard its not quite as good, and far more expensive.

What hack kit are you talking about?

We've all heard the phrase "ignorance is bliss" - and depending on how you look at it, I'm still hovering on the "ignorant side" as I've not had my printer that long, but what I have found some "bliss" with is the multiple paragraphs on the forum about getting your parts to stick - to something!  I cleaned the glass and started using the wide "painters tape" purchased from Amazon that is 9" wide from the start and believe that I'll "stick with it" as I've had very little issue with its use and with the ability of the tape to keep it's grip on the part.  Before that roll was delivered, I used a 2" wide version as well from the local hardware store (yes, displayed in the painting/masking type section and that worked just as good.

I look at the tape as the sacrificial item and don't get too disturbed if I have to re-apply it often or not - it's super easy to put down (when the glass is cold or at least not up to final temp.  The tape stretches a bit when it warms and you will probably need to "squeegee" it a little bit just to keep the air bumps out but for the price of either one of these rolls, I'm surely not experiencing the frequency of problems that I've read about others having.  What I believe does prevent it from working as well is pretty simple - it's the oils from your hands - everyone has a bit of different chemistry and we all exude something different and when we take our hand and rub over the taped surface, we're most likely working against our best efforts to have something of a neutral surface that the heated resin will stick to.  You can certainly experiment with this theory but I'm a believer in not touching the tape - just use a plastic squeegee and on some occasions have also wiped across the tape with the glue stick but ever so lightly - this isn't a concept where maybe "1 ounce is good so 3 pounds must be great!"  It's also pretty easy to "see the flatness of the bed when you look (or better yet measure as some have suggested) the tracer strip just off position from the main object.  If that prints cleanly, so will the item you're interested in.

If there's a better option I may just not know about it because of the minimal issues I've had with the tape method - and considering everything else that we tend to be "having fun with" - it's pretty darned cheap as well so don't get wrapped up squeezing the smile off of Lincoln's face just to imagine that your end product will show the difference.  I've taken an extreme amount of care sometimes and other times have just stretched out two or three pcs of the 2 inch tape - either works just as well as long as you don't have much of the air bubbles trapped underneath.  Besides that, you'll end up keeping the glass clean, flat and easier to deal with in those calibrating efforts.  Give it a 30 day trial and see what you think.

Thanks.

Blue painters tape, grabs ABS or PLA
comes off with nothing left behind.

There is alcohol or acetone to clean glass?

There is also Kapton tape
may have to spray it with a bit of hair spray.

Get a bunch of glass plates
Remove print on plate let it cool
put in another plate for next print.

Measure temperature loss by top plate
adjust temp set.

????

Well, I thought I would continue my story.  I do say, this printer is a curse and a blessing.  A curse because the piece of crap keeps breaking, and a blessing because this means I am leaning how to fix it.
Lets start with what I am running as of right now (Or where this story begins anyway)

My setup at the start of this story:
After some research, I decided to downgrade the firmware from G to E (I think, must be)  I did this because if the gcode says that it will use 0 meters of filament, it will subtract 0 meters of filament from the cartridge chip.  It worked.
I have bought about 24 lbs of filament from http://www.seacans.com and use it for most of my printing.  I am very pleases with the results.  I still have some filament left from the cartridges I got with the printer, but just white and purple.  I ordered more colors from this place.
I have modified a version of http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:433194 because the single was not long enough, and the dual was too long for the spools I was using.  I will upload the file here when I can.  For some reason I can't seem to access my work computer.
I am still using a piece of glass OVER the broken/chipped glass.  I am very pleased with how its working, and don't get many 0010 errors.
I am using the hacked version of XYZware from http://voltivo.com/forum/davinci-softwa … repository in order to allow me to load gcode files directly to the printer.  Pretty sure its 1.1.29.4 I am using, but will be upgrading in hopes the new version will support larger gcode files.  I slice the filers with Slic3r, using these settings http://www.scribd.com/doc/224483423/Usi … aVinci-1-0

And the story continues:
So, I started some tall prints one day and went home, namely http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:201097  (I am putting all my friends Christmas gifts in one of these this year.  I am wondering how many of them will throw it at me?)  I have a webcam set up so I can watch the inside of my printer from home.  The first 1/2 of the print went fine, but then one part of the print became separated from the painters tape, and then the painters tape became separated from the bed!  I was heating the bed to 115 for first layer and 110 for the second.  I don't know if that in itself was the issue, or the way I laid the tape down or what.  I have since reduced the temperature to 95/90.  The extruder is set to 220 for all layers. 

So, how to solve the shifting prints:
I also decided to use the glue stick on the painters tape.  After doing this, and wrapping the tape around the edge of the bed a bit on larger prints, nothing has come loose.  The parts however come off the bed with painters tape stuck to them quite badly.  See below for that solution.

How I know exactly where to put the painters tape:
I am cheap.  Like, mega cheap.  I am surprised I am not using a lighter to melt all the pieces of filament I have cut off the spools to gets the kinks out in order to reuse them.  But anyway, in my cheapness I have more then once not put enough tape on the bed, where the print has extended a bit to far forward or backwards.  The simple solution would be to use more tape, but that would not be cheap.  Instead I had an idea.  I am using glass on top of the glass that's already there.  What if I made a grid, and placed that between the two pieces of glass?  Then I could tell from either slic3r or XYZware where the print was going to be, so I could conserve expensive painters tape (lol).

The tale of the defective connector:
So, I finished a big print, and then decided I wanted to change filaments, but noticed the nozzle wasn't heating, or at least wasn't registering as heating.  So I pulled the head towards me to see if I could tell if the nozzle was hot (it wasn't this time, but take a word of advice, don't test a nozzles heat with your finger) and it started heating.  If it was the thermal resister it would have just jumped from 21 to whatever it was at (WAY to high cause it has been a very long time since I told it to unload.)  So I pushed it back.  It stopped heating.  Sigh.  This meant a loose wire.  So I started poking and prodding at wires until I had it working.  I should have been more diligent because I started a print and went home.  A couple of hours later I look in on it.  It had printed about 1/4 of the print, the bed was in the position as though it has printed about 3/4 of it, and still moving, and nothing was coming out of the nozzle.  Back to the store I go (sigh) and play a bit.  Finally I give up for the day.  A friend called and needed some help.  The next day I went in, and disconnected things, and started testing wires.  It seemed as though the problem was either the connector on the extruder end, or the wire about 1-2 CM below it.  After about 2 hours of thought and research (this is apparently a common problem), I realized XYZ's solution if I contacted them would be to send the head or wiring back to them, and wait for them to send me a replacement.  Not an option.  So I haven't even contacted them about it.  I decided I would dive in, and cut and repair those wires myself.  So I did.  Cut the connector off, cut the other end off on the extruder side making sure to cut where I think it may be broken inside.  A few wire twists and some tape, voila!

Now, this painters tape on the bottom of all my prints:
I honestly don't know how I thought of it.  Perhaps because it was a simple idea.  I just soak the bottom of the prints in water for a bit.  It takes quite a bit of time, 30-60 min, and then most of the tape comes off.  Another 5 min soak, wipe the bottom with a paper towel, and the glue comes off.

Conclusion:
First off, if you are not technically minded, do NOT, under ANY circumstances buy this printer.
If you do not want to spend time repairing your 2 week old machine, that should work fine, do NOT under any circumstances buy this printer.
If you NEED your printer to work, and it would be very bad if it suddenly broke, do NOT under any circumstances buy this printer.
If you are technically minded, don't mind a bit of repair work, and are not printing critical things, and want to save a bit of cash, this is possibly a good printer to buy.
If I knew I would have all these issues with the printer, would I have still bought it?  Yes, likely I would have.  I am technically minded, and although it pisses me off to no end that I need to do these repairs, the fact I saved the money on the printer, and that it has been a great learning experience is worth it for me.  If i had not found a printer for this low a cost, I would likely not own one now.  I was not prepared to pay $1500+ for a 3d printer, but $500 was something I was willing to spend.

Final notes:
I will add the stl file for the filament holder I made at a later date to this thread.  Its nothing special, I just duplicated it, cut the backside off the copy, and joined the holderthingee (that's a very technical term, hope I didn't loose anyone) back with a slight extension.

I;ve noticed due to chillier weather, Kapton and elmo glue or uhh is recommended.

While waiting on a bigger roll of kapton tape, I use Elmo Gluestick,
(PYP,PVA is the stuff Pla and Abs likes) either purple or washable.

Just one good layer while cool, The prints bitterly pop off when cool ... the bed is cleaned with a damp papertowl and scraper while it heats up, another layer is applied either cold or heated, below 80cs seems to work best.

I have cracked two heated beds getting my things off of the bed. I had used the ABS Slurry in both cases. In the first case my slurry was a little too thick and it worked too well; also, I was in a hurry and didn't wait for the bed to cool. The glass separated just like the one in the pic above. The second heat bed broke the same way but with a thinner slurry. The thing was about 10cm across though I let the bed cool down it still cracked.
DaVinci charges $150 for a new bed...screw that.
I found one bed on eBay and got it for about $50.
For my 2nd bed, I got a "parts" printer on eBay for about $130 and used its bed.
I hope I don't break any more. Maybe the 2nd glass will work. Just have to recalibrate, which might be interesting.

Does anyone have expierence with using AirWolf's WolfBite with the Davinci heatbed?

It looks pretty good from the video but is kind of expensive, around $20 for 2 ounces. Is it worth it?

I've just started using kapton tape too and it works exactly as you describe. It's excellent stuff !
No messing about cleaning up glue, just peel off the tape when it needs replacing.
You also get a lovely clean glass-like finish to the bottom of your prints.

Yeah you're right, it's really just about getting the 1st layer to stick properly but that's probably the most important layer.
If it doesn't stick, the rest of your print will most likely be a mess.
If you print with slic3r you can set it to print a single layer skirt around the print first which gives you a very good indication of whether your print is likely to stick or not.

The cards are too thick for this printer. If you use cards most of the time you will not get a good stick. Paper is close to to the right height. I use special gauges that have rounded edges so I am not worried about them harming the surface. Even if they did it would not affect the function of it.  As long as the outlet on the nozzle is not deformed or plugged in some way there is no danger. A feeler gauge won't do either due to the way it is inserted. But to each their own. I have printed with brass nozzles for 5 years and have had no issues using metal feeler gauges. I was printing when the Cupcake was THE machine to have.