3D printer adhesives you should try
Adhesives is a must for almost everyone using a 3D Printer and it can certainly be a real pain in the b.. if you buy the wrong one. We put together a small list of different 3D Printer Adhesives for your bed, try one of these. and tapes. Enjoy!
Make your own Opinion by the comments below each product. I tend to “stick to” Wolfbite MEGA click here to read more about that one.. (see what I did there… 😉
WolfBite Premium heatbed solution – 3D printer adhesives
is a premium glass bed adhesion solution specifically engineered to bond Acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) plastic printed parts directly to glass 3D printing build plates without lifting (also known in the industry as “warpage”). WolfBite also enables the smooth release of parts after printing. One light application of WolfBite can be used for several prints. After applying WolfBite, printing can commence immediately, with either a heated or room-temperature bed. Airwolf 3D formulated the proprietary solution to promote excellent adhesion and to make printed part removal easy.
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This stuff works as advertised. I was dubious at first, but figured it was worth a try. This has completely replaced Kapton tape and ABS slurry on our Replicator 2X. Properly applied, Wolfbite is not far from amazing. While the bed is hot for printing, parts stick fast to the glass plate. When the bed cools, parts break free with minimal force. Most parts have zero curl. Sometimes large, flat parts curl a tiny bit.
It is amazing how securely stuck the parts are when the bed is hot. If we get impatient and try to remove a part from a still-hot bed, some glass will come up with the part–oops! So we have to remind ourselves to let the bed cool to room temperature before trying to remove the part. I use a fan to quickly cool the bed.
Modifying our Replicator 2 to use this method was easy but not entirely trivial: I bought some borosilicate glass from McMaster-Carr. The glass is held down to the aluminum build plate using double-stick Kapton tape from Ted Pella. Then we put a shim at the z-axis zero switch to compensate for the height of the glass. At first we ran the bed a little hotter to try to compensate for what we thought would be a cooler surface, but now we feel that the standard 110C is fine, as long as we let the bed “soak” at temperature for a few minutes before printing. We feel all this modification was worth the effort.
Airwolf claims a (surprisingly short) shelf life after opening the bottle. I had a bottle open for months and it appeared to work fine until it was consumed. A little does go a long way if you work intelligently. Ours is deployed in a student lab, so we run through a fair bit of the stuff.
WolfBite Nano – 3D printer adhesives
is a premium glass bed adhesion solution specifically engineered to bond Polylactic acid (PLA) plastic printed parts directly to glass 3D printing build plates without lifting (also known in the industry as “warpage”). WolfBite Nano also enables the smooth release of parts after printing. WolfBite was exclusively developed at Airwolf 3D in collaboration with noted polymer chemist Professor Miodrag “Mickey” Micic, Ph.D., a department chairman at Cerritos College in Norwalk, CA. WolfBite Nano is applied with a Polyurethane foam brush directly onto glass, eliminating the need for tape. One light application of WolfBite Nano can be used for several prints. After applying WolfBite Nano, printing can commence immediately, with either a heated or room-temperature bed. Airwolf 3D formulated the proprietary solution to promote excellent adhesion and to make printed part removal easy.
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This is the best thing I’ve found so far to get PLA to stick reliably and repeatedly. It’s more work to release the parts after printing, but it’s not all that difficult. I’ve never had to soak my print bed to get a part to release with WolfBite Nano but I have had to really work at it getting something under the bottom of the part.
It works but can become undone every once in a while and it takes long to dry and apply coats. But otherwise it works!!
I agree with the one other review as of this writing, that the Wolfbite NANO for PLA is not nearly as good as the original Wolfbite for ABS.
Wolfbite NANO takes a long time to dry, and even then it’s tacky. The tackiness interferes with bed leveling: I use a piece of paper to gauge the distance from extruder to plate, but the paper gets stuck to the Wolfbite NANO.
If I really slather on the Wolfbite NANO, then I get better bed adhesion, and thus flatter parts, than with painters’ tape. But then the part is difficult to remove from the bed, and I end up soaking the bed in water for a while to break the part free.
Addicore Kapton Tape Sheets – 3D printer adhesives
Can withstand extreme temperature, vibration, and other demanding environments when you 3D print with kapton. Polyimide film with easy-release liner release backing. Silicon adhesive leaves no residue
3D Printing Application:
• Kapton tape can be used to coat heated build plates
• Provides easy release of printed parts as they cool
• Fits Makerbot, Afinia, UP, and other 3D printers with build plates smaller than 8″ x 11″
• Pre-cut rectangular sheets
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This Kapton Tape is exactly what I needed for my print bed! I was using the manufacturer recommended glue sticks for the longest time to create a stickable surface for my printer
it’s what it says it is. prints well and a bit prone to damage when a fussy print won’ come off the bed. I’d love to see a thicker kapton in bulk sheets like this, but the really thick stuff comes in pre cut smaller squares and is a terrible value compared to this product.
Purchased for a MakerBot replicator 2x. This Kapton tape was exactly what I needed, its larger than the base but is easily cut down to size. The extra can then be used to patch the tape if it tears while trying to remove a part. Comes packaged in a sturdy envelope and the backing is made to be easily removable.
Gizmo Dorks Polyester Film PET Tape – 3D printer adhesives
is ideal to use on top of a 3D printer bed platform such as glass. If using filament such as ABS, a heated build plate is required. The heat transfers well through the PET tape. Adherence to build platforms is sometimes troublesome, but ABS and other filament adhere remarkably well to PET tape. In particular, PET tape has equal if not better adherence than traditional Kapton tape. Application of PET tape can be done dry, which involves rolling the PET tape on to your printing surface. However, a more efficient method is using a wet method which involves spraying the surface with water so that the PET tape can be repositioned. Additionally, this allows the PET tape to be lifted to squeegee out any air bubbles. If you do not have a squeegee, then a credit card can be used.
PET tape can be easily removed without leaving any residue behind. The tape has an upper temperature range of 425 F or 220 C. PET tape has a silicone adhesive, and the PET film layer measures 1 Mil thick. The dimensions of this roll of tape are 6.25 inches wide by 100 feet in length.
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I had received a roll of this to try for an unbiased review, I have a printrbot simple metal. I’ve upgrade the bed to a heated surface. So far so great! This is much better than the blue tape I’ve been using. I’ve been able to get prints off the bed easier and on the plus side, no more little lines from the tape gaps. I’ll be buying more of this when I run out.
The roll of tape comes nicely shrink-wrapped inside the package. It’s an extremely wide roll at around 6″, which is wide enough to cover my printer’s whole build platform. Having the tape be so wide means that you no longer have to carefully line up pieces of tape next to each other on your print bed, and also gets rid of that seam line that inevitably appears on the bottom of your prints no matter how carefully you line up your pieces of tape.
One major advantage this film has over polyamide is that ABS will stick to it at lower temperatures. I get the same performance at 95C that I do at 110C on polyamide. This translates directly into more printing per day, safer printing, and less wear on the machines. I was given a discount on this product in exchange for an honest review, and I stand by my statements.
Gizmo Dorks blue painter’s tape – 3D printer adhesives
is the go-to and cost effective way of covering your 3D printer bed plate. Plastic filament such as ABS or PLA stick well to this tape while also being forgiving enough to let go when your print is finished. The tape is easy to apply and remove, with strong adhesion. The tape is 6.25 inches wide, so you don’t have to worry about stringing small 1 inch wide tapes together to form zig-zag rows. For most printer beds, you’ll only need one piece of tape. The roll is 100′ long and 6.25″ wide, so one roll will last through plenty of your prints.
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It’s “ok”. It isn’t spectacular if you’re using PLA, but it isn’t bad. As another reviewer stated, it is not as good as 3M painters tape when it comes to PLA sticking to the surface.
It does stick to the glass build plate quite well, and holds up well. This stuff is also thinner than the 3M stuff, so be sure to relevel your build plate.This tape is a perfect match for the Dremel Idea Builder 3D printer. It covers just about the entire area of the build platform. The fact that the tape is so wide means you won’t have lines under your prints when comparing to parallel strips of 3M BlueTape.
Bought for use with my 3d printer. Tears easily when using scraper
How do you clean wolfBite off your build plate?
I’ve always liked blue tape because i could clean it up easily.