ylexot wrote:I've seen a lot of people use plastic or glass build plates covered with painter's tape or kapton tape, but I haven't seen much discussion of why.
For the plate material, what makes a material good/bad? I would think that a conductor like aluminum would be better than an insulator for getting an even temperature. If it is thick enough (1/8" or 1/4"?) warping shouldn't be an issue.
For the surface material, it seems like what is wanted is something that the extruded material adheres to while printing, but releases fairly easily when done/cooled.
I'm actually thinking that an aluminum plate with parchment paper on top might work. Or maybe even a common teflon-coated frying pan
The primary driving factor is flatness, most "cheap" aluminum is actually manufactured on a roll and as a result isn't actually very flat, you can get cast plates, it's more expensive, or machine the extruded aluminum flat.
Aluminum is also a spectacular conductor, that means it get hot fast, but it also cools quickly, In order to minimize temperature oscillation of the build plate you really don't want a good conductor. You want domething you can heat relatively quicklu but resists changes in temperature once the temperature is reached.
Having said that Al can be a good choice, and it is used by some people, but glass is very flat, and dirt cheap, I can go to my local hardware store and buy 2 6x7.5 glass sheets for <$3.
Paper actually works really well as a print surface, but as the print cools and warps it's difficult to attach the paper in such a way that it doesn't just warp with the print, and it's virtually impossible to remove from the finished print.
For ABS PET tape or Kapton Tape work really well, and using "ABS Juice" on glass is the current in vogue thing to do.
For PLA it will adhere to clean glass, though it can be picky about the temperatures it will do this, Blue painters tape is a great surface if you don't ming the surface finish on the bottom and the current in vogue thing is PVA glue or hairspray on plain glass.
