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Build Plates

Table of Contents

Essentials
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  • Build Plates are consumables. They have a long life, but they do wear out.
  • KEEP YOUR PLATE CLEAN.
  • Clean your plate with Dawn or similar dish soap; something with no moisturizers.
  • IPA is not cleaning your plate. IPA wipes are like dusting vs mopping.
  • Use a plastic scraper to remove prints if needed.
  • Metal scrapers take skill to use well. Don’t scratch your plate.

Recommendations
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Check out the Build Plate Buying Guide for recommendations on which plate to get for your needs!

Importance of a clean build plate
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Your build plate depends on interesting interactions of heat and chemistry to bond your filament while printing, but let it go when cooled. None of that works if your build plate is covered in contaminants.

The most common contaminants are oils from your hands, contamination from other prints, and other contaminants from the environment.

A clean build plate is essential to good prints and avoiding blobs of death.

Cleaning your build plate
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ERROR

IPA AND/OR SOAP CAN DAMAGE SOME PLATES!

Read the instructions for your build plate. This is advice for most build plates.

It’s ok to use IPA1 as a quick wipe down between prints to remove ‘ghosts’ and light contamination from touching the plate.

IPA isn’t actually cleaning filament off your plate, because it doesn’t dissolve most filaments2. It’s cleaning oils, additive residues, and dust.

That’s why you need to use hot water, soap, and a nylon brush to clean your plate. The combo provides the chemical, thermal, and mechanical cleaning you need to actually clean your plate.

Recommended products:

Keep Exploring

Build Plate Buying Guide

  1. AKA Isopropyl Alcohol, Isopropanol, Rubbing Alcohol, etc. You want the 91%+ version. ↩︎

  2. IPA doesn’t dissolve PLA. Solubility of PLA in Various Solvents; Researchgate. et al. ↩︎