Reddit reviews 130mm X 160mm, 3mm Thick Borosilicate Glass Build Plate, Monoprice Select Mini 3D Printer

This happened to me after a while as well. The solution was to buy a piece of borosilicate glass like this https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07BYJQH79/ref=cm_sw_r_tw_dp_U_x_NF3CCbCG26B3V and clip it on with small binder clips. I even ended up putting a piece of buildtak on top of my glass because I really like buildtak but needed the perfect flatness of glass.

Edit: Success! Increased bed heat to 60c and used the famous gluestick. That resolved to lack of adhesion for me and got me a good benchy. now, there are other issues to resolve still - but isn't that half the adventure with this hobby? Thanks for all the help everyone!

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Looking for some guidance on the right steps to troubleshoot and hopefully resolve my new issues.

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TL:DR: Installed new glass build plate and PLA prints will not stick. No successful prints over 30 minutes yet. I've had one print completely detach, and this benchy had significant warping. The issue wasn't present with the buildTak - but the buildTak had insane adhesion - too much actually.

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Setup:

Monoprice Select Mini v2. Almost all stock, this is the first build related upgrade. PLA, 50c bed temp, 200c hotend temp, 0.175 layer height, 20% infill, 50mm print speed.

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Long Version:

I had been using the buildtak for a few months and had two problems: too much adhesion (breaking prints while removing from buildtak) and the bed was bowing up in the middle.

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I bought this borosilicate glass plate and a silicone thermal pad to make sure it would heat up. Installed them, z spacer, attach with 4 binder clips, leveled the bed. Tried using it without any other changes and PLA would not stick at all. Then tried to use some hairspray and it appeared to work after a little fiddling. Finally got what I thought was a good first and second layer. Checked on it about every 10 minutes and suddenly I noticed that it's about half off the glass surface with warping. I was pretty sure it was going to detach completely soon, so I just stopped the print.

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Anyone have suggestions on how to properly use glass or some tricks? I was previously using tricks to get less adhesion so this is a bit new - and I'd prefer to keep the glass as flat/smooth as possible (wouldn't prefer to sand it for example).

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I've tried heating the bed to 60c and letting it pre-heat for longer to let the glass heat up and that seemed to help, but not completely. I've also tried to slow down the first layer and that seemed to help the first layer adhesion a bit - I haven't re-tried a benchy with a slower 1st layer yet, but I wasn't confident that helped the adhesion enough to prevent the warping.

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I printed a bed level test and so long as the PLA stuck, it looks pretty good - although my center is higher than the edges even though all 4 corners look OK - but that's an issue for another day and another thread.

Agreed. This was the best investment I could have made in my MPSMV2. I bought this one, there are cheaper ways to go, but I felt that the savings in time and fiddling around cutting glass was well worth the cost. Be sure you first print a 3mm gap adjustment device. I printed several including an adjustable one, but settled on this one from Thingiverse. I did not remove the black pad on my V2, I just use tiny binder clips to attach the glass to the bed. It leveled perfectly and heats very well.

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I used a piece of 20 lb copy paper to set my nozzle gap, so even though you own a feeler gauge, I recommend checking it against a piece of paper. You want the first layer to be a flattened tube, not a round tube as it appears in your pictures.

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Many people suggest Aqua Net hair spray, but my store only carried it in aerosol. I felt that would be a mess to spray onto the glass, so I got some pump hair spray that was right next to the Aqua Net on the cheap shelf (it had similar ingredients to the Aqua Net, primarily water). I spray the hairspray onto a paper towel and then wipe the cold glass to create a very thin film. I have found that the adhesion is excellent at 50-60 degrees, and the parts pop right off after the bed cools (using PLA, various brands).

I had the exact same issues. A glass bed, thermal pad, and aquanet hairspray (yes, two is cheaper than 1) fixed it and I haven't had bed adhesion problems since. In fact, I have to use a flat razerblade just to get prints off the bed sometimes, lol.

I have a thermal pad sandwiched between the glass plate and the bed and it provides decent friction to keep the plate on but I also use two metal bag clips in the front and back to make sure the plate is pressed against the bed.

Glass Plate: BKM 130mm X 160mm, 3mm Thick Borosilicate Glass Plate, Select Mini

Alternatively, I've heard of people using glass they cut from a picture frame using a glass cutter

Thermal Pad: uxcell 400mm x 205mm x 0.5mm Silicone Thermal Pad for CPU GPU Heatsink

Not entirely necessary but supposedly this helps transfer heat more evenly and you get a huge sheet so you can get like 4 uses out of it if you optimize your cutting.

As far as the bed wiring goes, it's a common problem for them to get pinched due to the way they are routed and mounted at the factory. This usually ends up in an opening in the circuit (either in the heater or the thermistor wires, or both) because the wire inside the insulation has actually broken. If your bed temp reading shows 0 or 999 during printing or preheating, it has happened to you. This guide helped me with rewiring and rerouting the bed wires to eliminate this problem when it happened to me. If you're not comfortable with soldering it yourself there even a link in there to where you can buy a whole new bed with the wires already soldered on. Then just print the parts they recommend for the new side panel and you're good to go! Also, since I soldered my wires directly off the back of the bed I went with a center mount for the cable brace grommet, there are remixes to the one linked in the guide. As a final note, I recommend a glass bed, this is the one that I got and I just hold it on with small binder clips. With that, a bit of glue stick, and the heated bed, I'm getting the best adhesion I could ever need. After a print is done just throw it in the freezer for 30 minutes and it will pop right off. If you've already seen all this but haven't taken the time to do it, just do it! It's definitely worth it. If it's new info for you then I hope it helps. Happy printing!

This actually happens because the air gap between the raft and the print is too big, however, if you make it too small your raft will not come off. I recommend what most people say about a better build surface.

Personally, an 18$ glass build plate from amazon has worked wonders for me, better than any painters tape or buildtak.

I add a generous amount of hairspray and let it heat up to dry.

If you are interested, here is the link to the glass plate:

https://www.amazon.com/BKM-130mm-160mm-Borosilicate-Select/dp/B07BYJQH79/ref=mp_s_a_1_fkmrnull_4?crid=26O8O6WR9UIGU&keywords=bkm+130mm+x+160mm%2C+3mm+thick+borosilicate+glass+plate%2C+select+mini&qid=1550989157&s=gateway&sprefix=bkm&sr=8-4-fkmrnull