Tips: Glass Print Surfaces

How To Stick The Print

Not sure if I've mentioned this before but good service begets good custom. That's how my Ender3 Pro ended up with a Creality glass print surface. 

Backtrack:

The year was - umm, 2020 (I think! Damn COVID for timewarping me) and after a year of saving pennies (or was it 2021? Argh!) and a lucky break where two companies each had a sale event and the combined total was under AUD$240 delivered to my door within 4 days, so (early 2021 for sure!) it was definitely time to buy. 

I had one of the batch with a warped print bed and a magnetic flexible print surface, and after setting a straight-edge across the bed and taking a few pictures, I contacted Creality support and while they did try all the usual ways to get out of it, after a fortnight of back and forth, they sent me a new heat bed and magnetic flex surface. 

Back on track:

And because they actually also asked me if my control panel was beeping (it was) and sent a new one at the same time, I became their best evangelist and sold three more Ender3's of various flavours for them just through chatting to a few of my friends online. 

And I also bought a glass build surface from them soon afterwards. Just because. And oh did I have a helluva time with it. Nothing wanted to stick on the corundum (??? something like that ???) side, in desperation I turned it over and used glue stick to print, which worked for a week or so when I needed to remove the old glue buildup.

Now to two confessions. One, I used bulldog clips to hold the surface down, and they are springy, also (as I'll get to in a few minutes) they get in the way a fair bit. Second confession is that I take the whole glass plate off each time and wash it in the kitchen sink with a spot of detergent. Hey - I do the cooking, my kitchen. . . 

So then I thought maybe I should try the corund- the coated side again, and after a quick level, it worked! Here's a video from Lost In Tech that I guess I should have known about, that says essentially that - wash the build surface with water. (BTW if you like that channel maybe subscribe and make sure you give them some Like love too.)

Those bulldog clips:

They are springy. That means that if you remove the glass build surface and put it back, sometimes a speck of plastic can get under, or it can be pressed down a bit too much at one corner, or any of those other random issues that mean re-levelling the bed every time a clean is needed or a part has to be removed. 

They are also surprisingly awkward and get in the way. This meant that on a print that went close to the limits of the bed size, I watched the sharp rolled edge of the clip slice the silicon sock off my hot end and - that was that for three weeks until I could get a new one, because the prints looked awful and had issues.

Oh, the time window? 'Straya, maate! Getting anything like that in Australia was possible but remember I'm on a pension and to order a pack of socks from China and pay delivery was still cheaper than buying one sock locally. Essentially, our Australia Post postal service charges as much or more for a delivery from a few hundred kilometres away than I got charged by a company in Shenzen city. And their five silicon socks was only marginally more expensive than one from a company that shall remain nameless  downunder here.

So I got me some 7mm stainless steel flat clips made for the job, and they are actually very good and I thoroughly recommend them. Also, auto leveling, I intend to do that too, I have a probe and just need to get clicking with the firmware, for now I just use the paper test to adjust the intital layer height and (rarely) adjust by 1/16th of a turn while the skirt is printing. 

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