I have received my BCN3D Sigma and noticed the glass buildplate has embedded magnets

3D Printing
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I have received my BCN3D Sigma and noticed the glass buildplate has embedded magnets for attachment and metalwork for levelling.

This obviously makes it a high value item and probably too expensive to have separate ones for different materials.

I am soliciting opinions on buildplate film material suitable for a range of materials.

I will likely be printing with a combination of PLA and PVA or ABS and HIPS.

Is there a single buildplate film material that can handle those materials without having to coat it with additional preparations? A tall order I know.

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I have been using 3D-EEZ. Check it out.

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PEI has served me well for the past 18 months. Most common materials stick to it pretty well with only occasional maintenance. A notable exception is nylon.

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Kapton with a wipe of acetone is my go to as it works well enough for most stuff. But it’s hard to lay and spoils the print’s surface and often needs replacing. Blue painters tape is even worse than Kapton for that in my experience. Diluted PVA works (and I find is required for some flexibles) but again doesn’t give the perfect shiny surface that bare glass does and is messy. I’ve never had luck with hairspray and it can’t be good for the bearings.
As noted PEI doesn’t work with nylon. I’ve got a Geckotek plate which works well at temperature but you have to be careful to not damage the coating and I’ve not tested how many prints it lasts.
I’ve been meaning to try 3D EEZ, But I wonder how easy it is to get a perfect smooth surface.

5

A sheet of BuildTak will accommodate all those materials and PET, even PC-ABS and PC stick to BuildTak. Lasts a resonable time as long as the nozzle does not dig into it.

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@Richard_Horne ​ This is better than Twitter’s 140 character limit.

Different beasts I know but which do you prefer out of 3D-EEZ and BuildTak from an ease of application and longevity perspective?

I’m really looking for a single solution not tape with supplementary treatments.

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@Neil_Darlow BuildTak is fit and forget, but it can be hard to remove parts from a solid surface - so the ultimate build plate is a flexible FR4 sheet (with buildTak) or a thin PEI sheet.

FR4 and BuildTak clipped over a flat sheet of glass or aluminium is a good solution you can swap out quickly.

Standard FR4 will go to 125 Degrees C without problems. FR5 is even higher rated.

I like to do that so you can keep the heated bed at temperature, remove the flexi-bed and take off the printed parts, then refit and print again straight away - without waiting for the bed to heat up and down each time.

For liquid coatings -
Wolfbite is a fantastic (almost magic in the way it works) surface coating for PLA (Wolfbite nano) or for ABS (Wolfbite) and for PC-ABS and PC use Wolfbite Mega. But it’s not just one coating for all materials unfortunately.

hope that helps (longer than twitter indeed :slight_smile:

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@Richard_Horne ​ if you give a try to the Buildtalk, I will have to reconsider it. Do you print PLA without heated bed? Thank you!

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I’ll try BuildTak. Found a 10" X 8" sheet on Amazon for a reasonable price.