BuildTak

Has anyone tried the new product BuildTak? It's a heavy gauge sheet that adheres to your print bed, and prints (both ABS and PLA) stick to it. They claim no acetone, hairspray, ABS juice, PVA cement, blue tape, kaptan tape is necessary. BuildTak does it all. It's failry expensive - about $10/sheet in small quantities. I don't want to fork over that amount of money for what could be just a sheet of plastic unless I heard some unbiased praise.

It's available at inventables.com, possibly elsewhere - I haven't really looked.

In case anyone else was looking for info:

http://www.buildtak.com/faq/

Per their web site, with optimal care, it can last for many hours of use. I have print jobs that run for many hours. Do I only get one use? At about $10/application for a thick plastic film that apparently releases parts easier when hot rather than cold, I'm not going to be the first to try it.....

What I want to to know is where the kuling brothers build plate comes from...

[www.youtube.com]

PEI impregnated FR4/Garolite?

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- akhlut

Just remember - Iterate, Iterate, Iterate!

[myhomelessmind.blogspot.com]

It's Ultem.

Glass Transition Temp 410F / 210C.

Ultem 1000
Ultem 2100 (10% glass reinforced).
Ultem 2200 (20% glass reinforced).
Ultem 2300, (30% glass reinforced).

Ultem 1000 = $68/square foot on the first web site that I checked.....

Pretty expensive stuff.
Looks like you need a group purchase to get the cost down if it's only .020 in thick, it might be too thin.

Sheets less than .030" thickness are classified as Ultem Film

Ultem® PEI Film
.020 in x 24 in x 48 in $243.64
[www.professionalplastics.com]

8 in x 8 in, 18 panels (less kerf).
$243.64 / 18 = $13.54 each

You might try these plates if you want a more durable option than something that is just a thicker tape. These can be scraped, sanded, machined and heated. You can use both sides and prints will pop off as the plate cools or when you flex it. These will last for hundreds of hours if you don't abuse them.

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Wayne
PRINTinZ.com

I've tried the buildtak sheets. They work very well i get good adhesion with abs at much lower bed temperature 50-70c with little to no warp. FTIR analysis of the buildtak sheet showed it is Polycarbonte. If you have access to PC sheeting you can make your own buildtak surface.

Might want to take a look at this thread on these forums

Thanks

All the more reason *to* buy it!!!!!

I can buy a lot of hair spray for the price of that.

If buildtak is polycarbonate then it is overpriced. I tried PC and found it far too adhesive with PLA. Prints would break before coming loose.

I bought some nGEN_FLEX from Colorfab and they recommended BuildTak. So, I bought it. Any material sticks to it fabulously. But that's where the positive news ends. It's very hard to remove the model. Each time you damage the BuildTak a bit more. Result is that after about 10 prints, it doesn't work anymore. I went to the shop and bought myself some Tesa Eco Repair tape. About 10% of the price of BuildTak. That's what I used on my Ultimaker original without heated printbed. Guess what, on my Ultimaker 3, with heated printbed, it works far better than BuildTak. Tesa tape, way to go !