Hello, I was curious when to reapply basic purple glue to the smooth plate. Printed some spools in ASA-CF and now printing PETG. This is what the plate looks like:
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Clean and re-apply if your prints are losing adhesion.
A build-up of old, thick glue might create a pattern on the bottom of your prints. You can often mist with water or alcohol and then redistribute the glue more evenly.
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I guess my main question isn’t really for adhesion. I’m printing a lot of PETG currently and I’m more worried about accidently ripping off the coating, I’m using it as a release agent, not for adhesion
Is this is the smooth PEI plate or the supertack? Assuming it’s the supertack, unless you’re printing tall prints or hard to stick prints (small non-flat objects, etc.), I suggest using the PEI plate instead, with no glue. If you must stick with the supertack, I was mine with warm soapy water after 4-5 prints, it can probably last another few but I haven’t needed to last that long. I also go very easy on the glue, one layer of glue lines and I don’t mind if they don’t overlap. It’s been working fine for me with PLA and PETG-HF.
This is the smooth pei plate, I’ve had no issue with adhesion, just don’t want to destroy the plate
You don’t need glue on the PEI plate when printing PETG-HF, it will not ruin the plate. Let it cool, bend the plate, remove prints, rinse and repeat. I use a plastic scraper (the one with removable plastic blades) for the harder to remove prints.
For ASA or ABS, I let it cool to room temp, then stick it in the freeze or fridge for 10 minutes, bend the plate and remove - ezpz with no glue needed.
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Plates are disposable, they will need replacing eventually. If you print the same thing over and over, might shift it on the plate to different quadrants just in case it pulls some of the plate up. No matter how careful you are eventually you’ll need to replace it. Some plates wear slower than others but I’ve never seen one that survives everything. You’re on the right track though to include some glue at least for releasing and preventing the print from bonding to the plate.
When I first started out years ago, I got a new bright orange polycarbonate plate. It was epic, everything held so well and didn’t need to use glue! (before I knew) Then I printed a massive Darth Vader bust for someone. They received the bust and a nice square orange mount. Then I went back to glass. lol