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Im in a pickle... i want to switch sides of PEI from glass to matte, but obviously its a giant pain to do so with the 3m adhesive. I cant really do 2 different pieces of glass because the bed on my new printer is too small to have clips on the corners (nozzles bump them).
Is there any decent reusable adhesive out there?
thanks

You mean reusable over and over? If so, likely not for this application.

i dont really need it to be like glue sticky, like the 3m.. i just need it to hold it in place enough but yeah i dont think there are many options out there.
so im kinda screwed lol

dunginhawk wrote:Im in a pickle... i want to switch sides of PEI from glass to matte, but obviously its a giant pain to do so with the 3m adhesive. I cant really do 2 different pieces of glass because the bed on my new printer is too small to have clips on the corners (nozzles bump them).
Is there any decent reusable adhesive out there?
thanks

You can place a matte PEI on one side of the glass and using the same tape put a shiny PEI on the other side of the glass. The PEI would need to be .03 or .04 so that
the heat from the bed can be propagated through the PEI.

I think the problem im running in to is that I have no way of adhering the PEI glass to the bed... So right now i attached the 3m to the PEI, then the PEI to the bed, and it works great.. i just cant swap it..
unfortunately I cant use clips because they interfere with the nozzles.
may just be stuck using the matte side for both

So if i understand correctly , you are not after an adhesive but rather a means of attaching the PEI ro the bed.

I suppose that's right... yeah...

So on the rostock a piece of pEI on each side of the bed, and using clips works great.. because the nozzle never reaches out to the clips.

On other printers the clips interfere with the nozzle if it is printing close to the edge, so that's why I'm trying to find a resolution that will let me go between matte and glossy without clips.

Thanks

find a steel plate to use as a heat spreader and then use magnets to stick it to the plate.

No need to mess with adhesives.

Interesting thought... I will definitely look in to that...

http://www.geckotek3d.com/

They use magnets and coated spring steel, I almost went with spring steel attached to PEI instead of attaching it directly to the glass.

I would love to buy those... PLA is a long wait and ABS is coming soon... guess ill wait haha

This PEI is thin enough that it does not lay perfectly flat, that's why I searched for an adhesive. I initially tried just clipping it by the edges and that ultimately does not work. One complicated option would be a vacuum table that sucks the PEI down but that is a bit overkill. Glueing the PEI to aluminum is an option that might be less expensive than borosilicate. You need some sort of rigid and flat substrate to adhere the PEI to.

I'm in total agreement.. I'm going to have to try some sort of magnetic action with the PEI..
I think that holds promise..
Not sure I will make it work with my Aluminum bed now.. perhaps I'll just have to get some super strong thin magnets and do it that way... use the 3m tape to hold them to the bed.

mhackney wrote:This PEI is thin enough that it does not lay perfectly flat, that's why I searched for an adhesive. I initially tried just clipping it by the edges and that ultimately does not work. One complicated option would be a vacuum table that sucks the PEI down but that is a bit overkill. Glueing the PEI to aluminum is an option that might be less expensive than borosilicate. You need some sort of rigid and flat substrate to adhere the PEI to.

The Fortus uses vacuum at one of the places I work, they have various kinds of plastic sheets that they vacuum down depending on the material they run, I need to see if I can grab a sheet they run with ABS sometime - its a clear plastic. They only use Ultem(PEI) when they print Ultem.

I like the idea of using vacuum however I don't like the idea of leaving a vacuum pump on for days on end - would have to use some sort of vacuum pot plumbed in and have a vacuum switch operate the pump.