Powder coated v smooth - my experience so far.  

Re: Powder coated v smooth - my experience so far.

Hard to follow your post. Are you saying that PEI smooth sheet give you better adhesion?

This si similar to my experiences with certain filaments.

Re: Powder coated v smooth - my experience so far.

Hey, if you want another stickered sheet I’d be happy to trade 1 or 2 for that textured sheet.

Re: Powder coated v smooth - my experience so far.

Hey, if you want another stickered sheet I’d be happy to trade 1 or 2 for that textured sheet.

Not gonna happen at this time. I have 6 PEI sheets and only 1 PC.

Re: Powder coated v smooth - my experience so far.

Hey, if you want another stickered sheet I’d be happy to trade 1 or 2 for that textured sheet.

Not gonna happen at this time. I have 6 PEI sheets and only 1 PC.

Oh, I didn’t realize that you were the one who created the thread. My comment was directed to the user who created the thread. I doubt they would accept the trade anyway but I’d happily give up my stock of stickered sheets for one powder coated one.

Re: Powder coated v smooth - my experience so far.

Hey, if you want another stickered sheet I’d be happy to trade 1 or 2 for that textured sheet.

Not gonna happen at this time. I have 6 PEI sheets and only 1 PC.

Oh, I didn’t realize that you were the one who created the thread. My comment was directed to the user who created the thread. I doubt they would accept the trade anyway but I’d happily give up my stock of stickered sheets for one powder coated one.

It is easy to misundertand.

Re: Powder coated v smooth - my experience so far.

Hard to follow your post. Are you saying that PEI smooth sheet give you better adhesion?

This si similar to my experiences with certain filaments.

Yes I am saying that the smooth sheet is 100 times better - actually perfect, so far. I've only done a limited number of prints, but so far, so good.

I'd like to give it more time, but I would certainly consider a trade for genuine prusa sheets.....
Texy

Re: Powder coated v smooth - my experience so far.

Hard to follow your post. Are you saying that PEI smooth sheet give you better adhesion?

This si similar to my experiences with certain filaments.

Yes I am saying that the smooth sheet is 100 times better - actually perfect, so far. I've only done a limited number of prints, but so far, so good.

I'd like to give it more time, but I would certainly consider a trade for genuine prusa sheets.....
Texy

Not sure about 100, but there are prints and filaments in which you will get better results with the pei sheets.

Re: Powder coated v smooth - my experience so far.

I got my Mk3 in November too, also with a powder-coated sheet. So far I only printed with Prusa PLA and don't have a smooth PEI sheet to compare to, but experienced pretty much the same as Texy: Poor adhesion and lifting corners with different settings and different cleaning solutions.
Still, I like the texture it gives the bottom of my prints and hope Prusa will improve the pc sheets in the future.

Re: Powder coated v smooth - my experience so far.

the best prep for your bed is to wash it with warm water and dawn dish soap (in the UK use Fairy liquid) by using a wad of clean kitchen paper towel dampen with warm water and put a dollop of Dawn on the pad and scrub (i do it twice at 90 deg to each other holding the plate by the edge as it is a phonograph record rinse under running water and dry with clean paper towel keep touching only by the edge... I do this every other day of printing with both kinds of plate.

Re: Powder coated v smooth - my experience so far.

the best prep for your bed is to wash it with warm water and dawn dish soap (in the UK use Fairy liquid) by using a wad of clean kitchen paper towel dampen with warm water and put a dollop of Dawn on the pad and scrub (i do it twice at 90 deg to each other holding the plate by the edge as it is a phonograph record rinse under running water and dry with clean paper towel keep touching only by the edge... I do this every other day of printing with both kinds of plate.

I had my doubts about Dawn amd resisted. I was incorrect. It works better than IPA most of the time.

Re: Powder coated v smooth - my experience so far.

Hey, if you want another stickered sheet I’d be happy to trade 1 or 2 for that textured sheet.

If you want a pei pc sheet you can buy right now, I can tell you the v3 version of theking plate on eBay is better than the prusa powder coated. I have both, got the v3 in November and the prusa in December. I printed a 12 day job 24/7 of petg alternating plates and put of 570 pieces 3 had adhesion issues. Anytime I've had adhesion issues with any of my plates I've been able to resolve by appropriately cleaning the plate. Dawn does a great job of releasing the grease that gets into the crevasses in the pc surface.

Re: Powder coated v smooth - my experience so far.

the best prep for your bed is to wash it with warm water and dawn dish soap (in the UK use Fairy liquid) by using a wad of clean kitchen paper towel dampen with warm water and put a dollop of Dawn on the pad and scrub (i do it twice at 90 deg to each other holding the plate by the edge as it is a phonograph record rinse under running water and dry with clean paper towel keep touching only by the edge... I do this every other day of printing with both kinds of plate.

I have to admit, that I only tried cleaning with dish soap once and it made everything worse. I'll try using another brand and follow your instructions more closely and see if it gets better.
Either way, that shouldn't be the standard procedure if it has to be done every couple of prints, it's much too laborious and time consuming...

Re: Powder coated v smooth - my experience so far.

Just a note. you must rinse the plate very well.

Re: Powder coated v smooth - my experience so far.

Admittedly not used dawn, but being in the UK, I used own-brand supermarket and Fairy washing up liquids, and with no significant improvement.
I've used the smooth sheet all over the weekend without issue. It is quite gratifying having to actual flex the build sheet to get prints off - with the powder coated sheet I could literally blow the prints off at the end, even if the sheet hadn't totally cooled down to ambient. Whilst I do like the textured bottom layer the PC sheet gives, I can't see myself ever going back to it again.....
Texy

Re: Powder coated v smooth - my experience so far.

I got my Mk3 in November too, also with a powder-coated sheet. So far I only printed with Prusa PLA and don't have a smooth PEI sheet to compare to, but experienced pretty much the same as Texy: Poor adhesion and lifting corners with different settings and different cleaning solutions.
Still, I like the texture it gives the bottom of my prints and hope Prusa will improve the pc sheets in the future.

Thanks - at least it isn't just me. Perhaps we got poor PC sheets from the off - they were, and still are, under a lot of pressure to ship the PC sheets.
Maybe Prusa allowed the quality to drop.....
Texy

Re: Powder coated v smooth - my experience so far.

Make sure to use regular dish soap. The wife switched to one that “softens skin” for winter and it made adhesion worse. I had to buy a bottle of dawn and keep it next to the printer so I know what I’m using. I also found dr bronners plain Castile works like a champ too.

As for the person saying the kings sheet is better I have one and the flatness of the coating leaves a lot to be desired. With 3x3 mbl it’s all but unusable for large prints and with the 7x7 it’s usable but first layer is nowhere near as uniform as my PEI sheet. Read other users experience and see the Kings acceptance criteria on Amazon prior to jumping on the sheet. I have both revisions from the king and feel both were a waste of money and primarily use my PEI sheet as it outperforms the kings sheet in every way except texture.

Re: Powder coated v smooth - my experience so far.

Make sure to use regular dish soap. The wife switched to one that “softens skin” for winter and it made adhesion worse. I had to buy a bottle of dawn and keep it next to the printer so I know what I’m using. I also found dr bronners plain Castile works like a champ too.

As for the person saying the kings sheet is better I have one and the flatness of the coating leaves a lot to be desired. With 3x3 mbl it’s all but unusable for large prints and with the 7x7 it’s usable but first layer is nowhere near as uniform as my PEI sheet. Read other users experience and see the Kings acceptance criteria on Amazon prior to jumping on the sheet. I have both revisions from the king and feel both were a waste of money and primarily use my PEI sheet as it outperforms the kings sheet in every way except texture.

I think the adhesion to the textured build plate depends on the filament. I have found a huge variation from filament to filament.

I love the King and I love Prusa’s TXT plate, but I have to admit that PEI sticks better for most filaments and sometimes too much for others.

For ABS, I have an old pei plate that is roughted up a -little and it is superior for ABS. When it stops sticking, I wash ti with Dawn. If that stops working, I sand ti a little with 1000-1500 grips sand paper.

Re: Powder coated v smooth - my experience so far.

As for the person saying the kings sheet is better I have one and the flatness of the coating leaves a lot to be desired. With 3x3 mbl it’s all but unusable for large prints and with the 7x7 it’s usable but first layer is nowhere near as uniform as my PEI sheet. Read other users experience and see the Kings acceptance criteria on Amazon prior to jumping on the sheet. I have both revisions from the king and feel both were a waste of money and primarily use my PEI sheet as it outperforms the kings sheet in every way except texture.

https://www.amazon.com/Thekkiinngg-Double-Sided-Textured-Powder-Coated-Version/dp/B07HQZCWDV

I read the reviews, it's rated 4.6 with 21 reviews. Coating thickness is raised by a couple. I must be luckily or oblivious, as the 24/7 job I mentioned covered the entire plate and I had nearly zero (0.15%) problems. I stopped using the prusa pei sheet for king v2 in May and that was plenty more variable. Then in November for the v3 and it was amazing, I would have no concerns buying another now. The prusa plate is a little less aggressive texture but otherwise seems the same

Re: Powder coated v smooth - my experience so far.

Maybe I'm just unlucky or overly O/C about my first layer. In any case I'd say make sure to print a test pattern on your sheet as soon as you get it to confirm it's fine...

Here are my results for the 3x3 mesh bed leveling for the V2 shet, as an aside I absolutely love the texture of the V2 sheet and can get pretty good adhesion if I bump bed temp between 70 and 80C...

and the 7x7 mesh bed leveling on the same sheet...