Bambu PEI plate lost adhesion just after strong ethyl alcohol

I also have issues whenever I clean the plate with IPA, just wash it with warm water and dish soap afterwards, wash everything well and dry it with non-woven fabric or something that doesn’t leave dust and strands behind (paper towels work but don’t scrub it with them)

What IPA fallacy?

IPA and ethyl alcohol are different chemicals. Ethyl alcohol is the kind people drink. In order to prevent people from drinking it, when ethyl alcohol is sold for other uses it is denatured. Denaturing is adding chemicals to make it poisonous so that people will not drink it. The denaturing additives can leave a film when using is as a solvent. (When ethyl alcohol is added to gasoline the gas makes it not drinkable.)

IPA is just isopropyl alcohol diluted with water, commonly 70%, although other dilutions are also available.

Both IPA and ethanol are used as disinfectants.

The 3rd common alcohol used as a solvent is methyl alcohol. Methanol is also commonly used as a fuel or fuel additive. It is highly corrosive so it is not used in common fuels.

There was a time when audio enthusiasts believed that ethanol was a better solvent than IPA for cleaning tape reading heads for their equipment. In order to get ethanol without denaturing additives they would by pure grain alcohol at a liquor store. Everclear is 95% ethanol diluted with water.

Random but has anyone used brake cleaner or mineral spirits before? Couldn’t those be used as a degreaser for the plates? :thinking:

Interesting idea.

Working on motorcycles I mostly use PJ1 super cleaner. I only use brake cleaner on brakes because it is my understanding that it is a very harsh cleaner, or at least is more likely to attack some materials. The super cleaner I use on everything, including plastic.

I am going to keep using IPA on the printer plate. It is way cheaper than shop type cleaners/solvents.

When I first started out with printing and then got my first bambu PEI plate. It worked ok for a while but my lack of experience and bad filament stuff wasn’t sticking. So I was adding glue, and cleaning the plate with dish soap and water, and then 99% IPA. And then I was getting more and more frustrated with stuff coming off the bed. So I would clean more and try without glue and with glue. :rage:

Finally I flipped the plate over and magically everything started sticking again. So somehow I ruined the coating in the matter of 2-3 months :man_shrugging:

I know they are consumable, that’s fine. But thought it would last longer. But I guess my cleaning ruined it.

Hi, just to also throw something in the ring. I had similar issues in the last week. I cranked up temps and that seemed to work, but I did get a noticeable improvement after I did a factory reset, I guess something to do with this:

Although this isn’t strictly under extrusion, I found that a slight under extrusion was making my adhesion pretty bad. I guess around the time I started getting troubles, I threw in a firmware update.

Anyway, with slightly increased temps and a factory reset, I get amazing adhesion now. I did the whole cleaning with dish soap and then with alcohol, thing, I noticed no difference.

You can always drink the moonshine if it doesn’t work as intended.lol

Brake cleaners are mixed bag of nuts since each manufacturer has their own sauce, plus Toluene and xylene may be included and are very aggressive solvents

Are you talking about the textured PEI or smooth?

I have a P1P textured and have printed over 40 rolls of filament with no problem on the same side of the plate. (All PLA variants)

I had a similar experience with the cold plate. I cleaned the plate with IPA after every print. Then one day it was like I flipped a switch, bed adhesion was gone. Long story short, I replaced the sticker (surprisingly easy) and stopped using IPA, instead using soapy water about every ten prints. All good since then. And oh yeah, I never use glue stick.

I have had 2 P1Ps for 12 months and print the PEI every day, I clean 99% ipa and they still hold up with ABS, PETG, PETG-CF and ASA

Oh wow, I used for the first time just the antiseptic hand spray, which as I examined the chemical contents was detailed to have a mix of ethyl and IPA totaling together to about 72% of the content, the rest should have been the diluted water and also a little amount of some other as I guess scent and other additives. Surprisingly, this worked fine for me for about 50+ hours of printing until now. With this antiseptic I was able to easily dissolve grease from my fingerprints on the plate, although I was aware I should not touch the center of it much and held it only at the edges where the print-head does not print. So I had 0 problems with adhesion, besides minor edge warping, but no significant disconnections preventing the finishing prints, separating them from the print-bed mid-process etc. Nevertheless, now that I read all the comments, I understand it’s definitively not worth the potential hassle and the cost of failed prints to cheap out on not buying the 99 IPA as necessary to clean the printed. BTW have not used the PET on PEI Bambu sheet, it doesn’t say PET compatible, so I’m hesitant to try to push those limits.

Now I noticed my misprint. I am using PETG, not PET.
Also I used detergent cleaning my PEI plate. It seems adhesion returned )

I use 91% IPA with good results, but a couple of months ago I got something on the plate (can’t recall what–maybe lube grease) and no way would the IPA fix it. I just washed it in warm water and dish soap, and good adhesion returned; so I’m back to 91% IPA.

I’m not sure why this discussion has gone on this long already. IPA for a light regular clean, water and dish soap if you notice any regions not adhering well, or you’ve used glue and want to get it off.

Stop trying to find clever alternatives. The BL recommendation is boring but it works.

Hi, I had all sorts of adhesion issues. But I solved them once and for all by using 3DLAC. After every print I simply spray the areas where the print and calibration prints where and away I go! After say 20 prints I wash the build plate in hot soapy water and when dry I re-apply 3DLAC. I find I don’t even need support skirts/brims. The prints easily break of the plate ready to use.

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I have seen Bambu Support on Reddit say not to use Iso Alcohol for cleaning the Textured PEI plate. They say to use warm water and dish soap. Supposedly alcohol will ruin the build plate, I cleaned my textured build plate with iso alcohol and it lost adhesion

I use 99% IPA to clean all of my build sheets. No problems with any of them.

Have the gold PEI plate that came with my P1S. I use a microfiber towel to wipe it off in between prints, and soapy water every so often. This printer has ben running about 4 days a week doing 2-3 prints per day since July 21st. Have used PLA and ABS on it. So far, no issues with adhesion or release. Looks as good as brand new. So I’ll stick with soapy water.

Besides, it’s a lot cheaper than 99% IPA. Don’t understand why people seem reluctant to wash the plate instead of using IPA. At the most, I’d add a little simple green to the soapy water to cut any residue. Still cheaper than IPA 99.

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Some brake clean products use chlorinated solvents. Chlorinated solvents can almost instantly destroy some plastics. Polycarbonate being one of the most sensitive to solvents. So hopefully PEI is immune. I’ve been a mechanic for over 40 years and used many different solvents.
All I can say is, test any solvent on a sample that you’re not worried about damaging. I’ve destroyed plastic parts having them literally crumble in my hands by using the wrong solvent to clean them.
On a note about IPA, I purchase it in drug stores as rubbing alcohol 90 percent IPA alcohol 10 percent water.
At least where I live its very inexpensive. Have to agree though that a drop of dish washing detergent and water is still cheaper.