I’ve been printing quite a while and tried pretty much everything to get prints to stick to the bed. Blue painters tape, Kapton Tape, Hairspray, Glue stick, Acrylic, Buildtak, Clean Glass. For the most part they all work to some degree.
Blue tape works, but it wears off after a couple of prints and hopefully you don’t press to hard into the tape and it just becomes part of your print.
Kapton Tape, I don’t think I ever got this to work.
Glue stick, works, sort of. Parts stick kind of, and when it cools, they still stick, it’s glue.
Acrylic, umm. It melts and warps eventually. But you can print on it for a bit, careful don’t get the nozzle too close!
Hairspray, parts stick, for maybe 1 or 2 prints, and they still stick when it’s cool. Hopefully you didn’t put too much on or spray the rest of your printer too.
Buildtak, pretty much a waste of whatever it is. Parts would stick to it and become one with it. Unless you just barely drop the filament onto the stuff, in which case you get a rats nest for a first layer.
Clean Glass, has been the winner for me. So normally when I print on clean bare glass, I have to clean it and make sure the bed is perfectly level. I mean perfectly level. So I have to do this pretty much every print, maybe every other one. PLA sticks at 55C and float off when below 40C. Until you want to print with ABS or PETG. PETG Still sticks really well to the bare glass at 80C, sometimes it sticks so well the glass comes off with the part! ABS I don’t print really. But I’m pretty sure it won’t stick well without an enclosed chamber and 100 other conditions.
That’s where Magigoo comes in. Parts stick like buildtak when it’s hot, and nearly float off when below 30C. With the Magigoo, I’ve been able to put an even layer on and launch about 5-10 prints without touching the bed. This, is kind of a game changer. This makes me a bit lazy, but is another piece of the puzzle to being able to launch prints remotely and knock the print off with the nozzle when it’s done. Also, parts that have a very small footprint, I would normally use a raft and support, with Magigoo it’s really not needed. Probably save $5-10 in extra filament right there. The fact that it lasts more than 5 prints per application, that’s pretty huge. Then it’s going to extend the life of your glass as well. How much is that worth? This will give you plenty of prints for less than $20 in Magigoo. I think it’s totally worth it.
Is it hard to apply to the bed? I think it’s hard to re-print a part a few times because the print isn’t printing perfect in the first few layers. And what if you’re not there? How you going to clean off that little bit?
