How do you know that you’re truly spreading around the glue with the IPA wipe and not wiping it off?
This has been my first experience with Bambu Lab’s liquid glue. I like it better than glue stick, because it does go on very smooth and thin, whereas glue stick tends to go on rather chunky. In the case of glue stick, Angus at Maker’s Muse does what you do: he applies some glue stick and then he somehow applies IPA to smooth it all out. He doesn’t actually show that part of it. Instead, he does a lot of handwaving and higher level talk about it…
I am printing (since abt 10 years or so) on all sorts of PEI plates, soft or textured - have never been using glue at all. I do clean once in a while with IPA, thats it. If I need to used some stuff to get e.g. TPU off the plate easier, I use hairspray. Otherwise correct temps…
The liquid glue is great, I generally use a layer and after a few prints it seems to be conditioned for the week unless I smudge a finger on there. I think letting the plate cool off so you don’t have to chisel the model off (and the glue) is the best method. Touching up a spot would be more a preventative if you know the model could lift in that area. If I want to do a perfect flat base like a bowl, I’d clean off the plate to reduce the chance of having any inconsistency transferring to the plastic.
Yes, but are you printing nylon?
I roll the wipe up into a 20-25mm ball and use just the exposed side, never the whole rag. I print ABS without brims with no issues at all. I find it almost impossible to remove the brim on the engineering plate when using the bambu glue.
@duane777 I have a tip that may help you on that. Print it 3 or 4 layers tall. It comes off much easier. Same with skirts. It costs a little extra time to print the extra layers, but it’s generally a rounding error on the total print time.
I don’t don’t use or recommend Bambu glue on an engineering plate, at least not if you want a smooth uniform finish. I still have half a bottle and it just sits there.
Instead, I’ve gone back to a time-tested method… Aquanet Hairspray. It not only produces superior results but it also washes off very clean with soap and water. I get about 6-7 prints on the same contact points using 2-3 coats of hair spray. I let each coat dry for about 20 minutes at room temp or I place the plate in the oven at around 100c and pre-warm it. Then I apply the spray and place it back in the oven. Generally this process using the oven takes a total of 20 minutes but the effort is well worth it.
Here’s an example that had about 8 or 9 prints on it. I was using PC on a smooth engineering plate. You can see the impressions of the previous prints.
Here’s an optically clear experiment I did last November and this time it was with PETG on the flip side of that plate using the High Temp Surface. You’ll note that I went a bit overboard and got some dripping on the plate. But that solidifies and does not interfere with the performance of the plate.
Put simply, if you use Hairspray on a smooth plate, you get almost the same performance you get out of textured PEI but with a smooth finish. I have multiple plates, 3 of which have PEI surfaces and for my needs, I often find I just leave the smooth plates in the printer because they do the job and I’m too lazy to swap them out for each print.
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Is there any residue that has to be washed off the print when using hairspray? Like there is with glue.
I haven’t tried hairspray yet, but just ordered some to use for prints that need glue. I can’t stand the glue “pattern” on the bottom of prints that can’t be washed off, so I’ve been mostly using no glue on the high temperature plate, but some of my prints have needed glue.
I had to order Aquanet from Amazon. They don’t seem to sell them in stores here in Canada, although I think they used to sell it here many years ago.
Well, after faffing around with the Bambulab liquid glue on the engineering plate all day, I’m finding that I get better bed ahesion with the Bambulab textured PEI sheet and no glue. So, that leaves me thinking: maybe this isn’t very strong glue!
I’ll try giving the vision miner glue a test drive and see if that fares any better.
The PEI sheet, when new, has a good adhesion, after a while it will need the liquid glue.
The vision miner glue I would have a high confidence in as an engineered chemical but sheesh at $49/ 100ml that just blows my mind.
It really feels like a suckers play to be honest, especially since I am able to reproduce the same affect for under $0.01 per application.
To put that in perspective, that stuff costs on a per ML as much as a 750ml bottle of Macallans. That stuff is way too expensive for my tastes.
I struggle understanding what use-case justifies that exorbitant expense. Maybe after you purchase it, you can help us understand if it makes sense.
I mean maybe if your business model is charging a $1,000/hr for engineering services and just one blown 3-hour print will cost you $3,000 of lost billable services, maybe, just maybe, that might be justified, but when I looked at their results in their video it looked more like a snake-oil sales pitch in a pretty bottle to be quite honest.
From their website.
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Good point! Assuming it works perfectly, how many times can I coat a build plate with 100ml, and how often would I need to recoat? i.e. how many builds would I be able to get out of that 100ml bottle? If it were, say, 100 prints with guaranteed no failures, then it would be easier to justify.
I had been gearing up to print nylon, but I just learned that it may have a creep- under-constant-load problem that I wasn’t aware of. Now I’m thinking PET-CF will save the day, and it seems better behaved all around and has outstanding properties. I maybe won’t even need a bed adhesion glue for it.
Thanks for your awesome post on aqua net. I had forgotten about it. I had tried it in the past, but my initial experience was that it stunk up the air a lot while spraying it, and that smell lingered afterward. In reality, though, that’s a small trade-off, and maybe if I sprayed outdoors that downside would be limited.
Has that been an issue for you at all? Or maybe you’re just used to it or not bothered by it.
Ive got about 800 hours on 2 printers & havent used glue for the last 6 or 700 hours. Pla sticks to textured pei & everything else goes on garolite. Abs, asa, petg, pa, pc will hold strong to garolite until it cools off.
The garolite sheet is fairly rigid & will help with warp proned filaments.
Spring steel sheets will pop off the magnets sometimes when parts warp too.
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Wow, that sounds like the answer. Please do tell: where did you get your garolite sheet for your bambulab printer? How thick, etc.
For the bambu I bought the lightyear plate. It comes ready to use.
For the qidi I got a sheet off amazon. Its 1.5mm thick.
This is the adhesive I used to add the spring steel on the garolite.
This post was for your other thread 
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Perfect! You just earned your angel wings. 
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The cold plate holds without glue… TOO MUCH. The glue is to help protect the bed, rather than for adhesion. The most important part, is making sure the bed is CLEAN. I also suggest working with a higher bed temp, even on the cold plate. Keep glue layer as thin as possible. I too often wipe my glued bed with IPA and a blue scotts cloth. Again, priority #1, is always CLEAN
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PEI plate with 3DLac makes wonders. I apply it once a week, after about ten to twenty prints. I use to print alternatively in different zones of the plate. And now I discovered SYOSS Max HOLD hair spray that does the same as 3DLac does, is 3 times cheaper, and smells good 
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