Tapes...

[rhoded]

So I live and Serbia and just spent some time looking for wide Kapton or PET tape for my printer's bed and was unable to find any. However, I was told to check with cell phone/laptop repair shops, which the former has 1cm wide Kapton, which I already have and is not worth the trouble (glue is working alright compared to trying to cover a Rostock Max bed with 1cm wide tape). My question is, and pardon my stupidity, why do I need to use Kapton or blue PET tape specifically? Will regular packaging tape work? I ask not only because packing tape is cheaper and easier to find but from what I read, plain old blue painters tape works well for PLA. Why such specific tapes?

[IMBoring25]

You can use what you can get that works for the material(s) you want to use. I do like tapes better than liquids but for PLA you might even be able to get away with nothing. Standard blue painter's tape does work for PLA but you need something else for most other filaments. Kapton has worked for me for most applications. There are also purpose-built build surfaces like BuildTak and Fablam. I've not tried them.

[Eaglezsoar]

You can use what you can get that works for the material(s) you want to use. I do like tapes better than liquids but for PLA you might even be able to get away with nothing. Standard blue painter's tape does work for PLA but you need something else for most other filaments. Kapton has worked for me for most applications. There are also purpose-built build surfaces like BuildTak and Fablam. I've not tried them.

The main advantage of Kapton tape is it's heat resistance.