Sticky Stuff

Thought I'd share this neat trick I learned to make prints stick to the table better.  I've been experimenting with ABS in my Mendelmax 2.0, for no other reason than that's what I ordered... I'm getting better results with less warpage the more practice I get, but this little trick has been by far the most useful thing for successful prints.

First you need to make up some of this splooge.  Its nasty smelling but cheap and effective.  Find a container and fill it about half full with Acetone.  Gather up a bunch of your ABS scraps and dump them in there, put the lid on, and shake it up.  After a while you are left with a slurry like this:










Once you have the slurry, use a cotton ball and spread it around the glass. Do a few even coats, crossing directions. Seems to work a lot better if the bed is SORTA warm- maybe 40-50 degrees.

Bed before prep:





Bed during and after:








Run a print, then watch as we peel it off.  It can be really hard to get off while the bed is still hot, plus I've noticed that parts seem to warp more if I pull them off before they have had a chance to cool.
 












Print removed:





Take a razor blade and clean the skin stuff off. Kind of a pain in the butt because it static-sticks to EVERYTHING.

Cleaned up print!





Great use for old scraps. The stuff stinks to high heaven but has been pretty effective. Next best thing I've found to prevent warpage with ABS is cranking the bed temp WAY up- I start my prints at 90 degrees Celsius so I don't have to wait for hours for it to heat up and start the print. Once the print has started I crank it up to 100, although it really struggles to get that hot. Still get some warpage that way, but hey, I'm impatient.