The short story / some more exclamation marks:
- Let the print bed cool down before trying to get the print off the bed (simulate cool down if room temp is almost like bed temp)!
- Never use sharp tools to release the print, otherwise you can easily destroy the BuildTak surface!
- Never use Acetone or Isopropyl-Alcohol to clean it, BuildTak will loose it’s adhesion immediately!
- If your BuildTak looses adhesion (or your cleaned it with Isopropyl-Alcohol), recondition it!
With any printing surface you have to use a correct initial Z-Height (bed to nozzle distance when Z is homed), this assumed as basic requirement. Some PLA tends to swell more than others, maybe you have to adjust Z-Height according to the filament that is used (newer IdeaMaker versions let you do this by software). I have no need to adjust Z, since I use about 4 PLA brands that I know to work similar.
I print with raft. Having an absolute leveled bed with a printing area of 30x30cm is something I question at all (with standard desktop printer setup and printing accuracy down to 10 micron), mostly because I am too lazy to analyze and tune. I always was arguing against raft, but this was another printer and the raft was without islands using up so much useless time and wasting material. If you have a perfect leveled bed and want better bottom surface quality than what can be achieved with a raft, just switch to glass. I also use the R3D provided printing profiles and bed temps for PLA and ABS, did not find I had to change anything (except layer height, I like to print with 0.3mm).
About the cool down. I use the standard bed temp (40°C for example for PLA) and the room temp is around 30°C. After the print finished, it is essential to give the bed and the bottom of the printed object / raft a cool down of some degrees. If you live in an area where it is warmer than 30°C you could try freezer spray as some suggested in the forum or maybe put the print plate at a colder place for some time (I would not dare to use a very cold fridge when the glass plate is still hot!).
After the cool down you have to get under an edge of the print (raft). I bought a spatula wich is 0.1mm thick this is already very thin and tends to bend. I have to use both hands to work it below the raft. In the picture you can see it is already bend, I still use it with the remaining straight part of the blade, always reminded to use it with two hands and to be careful. BuildTak sells their own spatula, I do not know how this one works. Mine costs about 3 Euros, that allows me to bend some more for the price of the BuildTak spatula. At the time I have that small and not sharp spatula under the raft, I use another one wich is much thicker but also not sharp to get under the first spatula. And now here’s the trick: You have to let the BuildTak ‚breath‘ while going further with the bigger spatula. Just use some force to push the spatula forward until you need much more force, then stop. You can hear the print like it’s cracking and sounds like there is air getting under it. Give it a few seconds until it stops then continue pushing the spatula deeper. You can also lift the spatula a bit after having stopped (doing this while pushing forward scratches the BuildTak) giving the print a small lift like that.
Doing it like this allowed me to get off any print off without damaging the BuildTak surface.
Recently I went into ruining my 3rd piece of BT because of feeling the need to clean it with Isopropanol-Alcohol from some oil that dripped down after lubricating the bearings. I had a feeling before that this might be not good, but I did it and went to the BT forum only after to find a warning about it there. In such a case or if your BT has lost adhesion because of being worn off, you could try to recondition it with ABS-slurry wich is just some ABS solved in acetone. Of course your BT will not look nice after doing that and after printing you will see some color marks of the used material also (now feel free to clean it with Isopropyl-Alcohol
