SoliForum - 3D Printing Community — Glass bed completely cracked and coming apart

Re: Glass bed completely cracked and coming apart

2015-07-04T21:09:08Z

Here are some videos of my large print and the destroyed bed...

Taking out the bed:
https://youtu.be/5eKYseRhUBw

https://youtu.be/irjkh4xJP9s

Cracking the glass away:
https://youtu.be/7zoQ9BjxL0M

https://youtu.be/r87ZfkM-iUg

https://youtu.be/W1RulntnvUE

Cleaning the print:
https://youtu.be/d3DXIVBvMrs

Re: Glass bed completely cracked and coming apart

2015-07-03T20:45:55Z

I print areas with long contact. I use blue painters tape. I make sure my calibration is off. The key to blue painters tape is that you have to let it full cool then the glue from the tape should come off. If any remains I use a little acetone and issue resolved.
I found if I use just the glue stick my large prints will burn horribly. XYZ stated this is is a common issue with their printer. I have since modded mine with repetier. No further issues with burning or any thing else.

Glass bed completely cracked and coming apart

2015-07-03T16:52:29Z

So, first the glassed chipped, then on a bigger print, it cracked altogether. See pic.

I used the glue stick that came with the printer.
I read around for infos, and small prints do pop away from the glass upon completely cooled.

I tried the blue tape, and its a mess because it cooks on the glass and its hard to remove. Also, the plastic does not really stick to it, so I had long prints curl up at the edges.

However, the glass and glue stick have consistently failed with prints that have some amount of contact surface with the bed.
Over few square inches, the prints are stuck to the glass beyond the structural strength of the glass itself.

This system seems designed for small prints, with small contact areas. If about a quarter of the bed is covered in the ABS print, it WILL BREAK THE GLASS, to some extent.

XYZprinting has been very responsive with the isse and I think they are about to send me a new heated bed, but the issue will remain.

So my question is: is an aluminum plate the answer to print large contact prints? Should I simply screw an aluminum plate on top of the new bed? Will the existing bracket and screw have enough thickness to accommodate a new layer of material?

Otherwise, should we simply NOT print large surface prints, and use rafters at the bottom? I have never tried the rafter function from XYZware, does it create a flat support system for the bottom of the print? This may be the solution to avoid the plastic to be smoothly stuck to the glass.

How are you all out there doing this? No one is printing prints with large contact areas?

Thank you!

regards