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Glass plate question

#1

I have a question for any or all of you. . In our makerspace at school, they purchased (3) Flashforge creator pro 3d printers. I have been the lucky one chosen to do the printing for the entire school. The heated beds seem to be giving me issues when it comes to removing the printed item. I have read several places that glass beds are the way to go. Do you have any knowledge of this? We are printing PLA only, and I need to be able to remove things without warping them. The blue mats we have now hold heat for a while, and if I try to take something off after it prints, I am causing it to be out of shape, and they want to print car chassis to design cars to race.

Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated!!!

#2

Hi,
I have no experience with Flashforge printers, but at the moment I’m printing on glass too. To be precise, I use a glass covered with a bit of pva glue, and to remove the printed object I use a spatula and tap it lightly with an hammer to pop the print off the bed. Sometimes it works ok, but sometimes you risk to ruin your print, expecially if it sticks to the bed too well or if it has a very large surface area it can be difficult to remove.

I’ve never tried it but exists some “things” (like magigoo I think) that they claim that the print almost self release from the print bed after it is completely cooled down.

Also if you print only pla any generic magnetic removable print surface should be ok, after the print has finished you just remove the print surface and peel the object off.

The last option is to use a raft. you will use a bit more material but if well tuned it will allow you to remove the printed object much easier.

Just try with smaller prints and find what works the best for you and your machines.

Cheers,
Stefano.

#3

I use glass on my printer beds but I find that using hairgel makes the prints easy to remove after they are finished, even if the glass is still slightly warm. If there is a large surface area to the print I use a thin spatula to help get the prints off.

#4

I also print on glass with a thin layer of PEI and it works great with no additional chemicals for adhesion. Once the glass returns to room temperature the print will release from the surface.

Cleaning is very easy using 50% IPA mixture with a lint free product and will last a very long time.