I ordered a piece of tempered glass cut to the size of my heated bed from a local vendor right from the beginning. I like the glass because of the smooth finish on the bottom, and because my bed is very level and even.
The moment I switched to hairspray and PLA everything changed. At first, I didn't like PLA. It turned out that was the fault of my extruder not working properly and my slic3r settings not being dialed in correctly, especially in terms of my nozzle diameter.
I purchased a can of Pantene Pro V and of course went with Maximum hold. They have a 4 circle rating on their cans and Maximum Hold had all 4 circles filled in. Alright I said, "This can of hairspray is manly enough for my purposes." And wow did it work. PLA sticks to hairspray on glass like glue with only a fine layer of spray. At first I was cleaning it off and re-applying between prints, but I found that I didn't need to do this. I have been printing multiple parts in the same place without re-applying hairspray and the pieces are still sticking.
Once the glass has cooled enough that the PLA is no longer flexible I tap the pieces off the glass with a small dead blow hammer. Don't hit the pieces too hard, for the sake of your printer. I tap lightly against the piece until I hear cracking sounds, assuming they don't go flying on the first tap (tends to happen with small prints). For larger prints that are sticking really well, I work my way around the piecing tapping from each side until I heard cracking. The cracking sounds comes from the piece breaking free of the hairspray.
Note: If you are having a really hard time getting a piece off the glass, probably because it has a large surface area, you can put the glass plate with part in the freezer. Don't do this is the glass is hot because it may crack or shatter. After a short while in the freezer the part will either pop off on it's own or be much easier to tap off the plate.
My setup
3/16" thick Tempered GlassSainSmart Heatbed MK2a
Pantene Pro V (Maximum Hold)
70C - start to finish
update: I have recently been lowering the temp to 60C and have still been fine.
Pantene Pro V (Maximum Hold)
70C - start to finish
update: I have recently been lowering the temp to 60C and have still been fine.
Periodic Cleanup
Needed: Isopropyl (rubbing) alcohol, shop towels and razor blade.
If too much hairspray has built up I will pour some alcohol on the glass and scrape the bulk of the hairspray off. I then come back with shop towels and alcohol to get it all clean. Hairspray build-up over time didn't affect my prints, it just got messy.
Examples prints on old hairspray. I started the print without thinking about re-applying and got nervous half way through when I saw the print bed shaking and how much angle the legs had verses how small the contact surface area was. The print come out fine and stayed locked to the glass until it cooled. I still had to give it a light tap to free the piece.
Examples prints on old hairspray. I started the print without thinking about re-applying and got nervous half way through when I saw the print bed shaking and how much angle the legs had verses how small the contact surface area was. The print come out fine and stayed locked to the glass until it cooled. I still had to give it a light tap to free the piece.
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