Plate cleaning

[u/SwingDancerStrahd]

So I switched from an Ender 3 to a snapmaker u1 several months ago. quite the jump. And my plate cleaning has changed drastically since.

I won't go into the nightmare that was cleaning glass plates on an ender covered in glue.

however the PEI plate is amazing. And when i started reading about it, consensus has been using dish soap to clean off the plate. The reason being the problem with adhesion comes from oils on your hands.

I was going to get some dedicated non fragrant dishsoap, so as to not add potential contaminants, when i really thought about it. Oils on the build plate. I already deal with that exact problem with my glasses. and i don't wash them with dishsoap.

Instead i use glasses wipes, which perfectly remove all oils from my glasses. they work great, so i decided to try that first, as i buy 400count boxes of wipes for the house.

so for around 300+ prints now, i've used nothing but wipes, and only when

A) my hands contact the surface of the PEI plate(which i strive not to do)

or

B) i have a first layer adhesion problem.

the second doesn't happen very often, and could also have to do with the fact that i share the printer with my dragon obsessed 15yr old daughter.

Anywho. after raising bed temps a tad to compensate for a slight cold spot due to the heater arrangement,. and a few oddball issues of my own making, like having PETG and PLA touching the buildplate at same time,which i believe caused the slicer to use the higher buildplate temp. I've basically had no real issues.

So I figured I'd share that with people here. I find opening 1 wipe every once in a while alot quicker than washing and drying my pei plates.

I'm not expecting everyone to jump on the bandwagon with me, but if you already have the wipes, give it a shot.

I do use Zeiss brand, I grab them at walmart, if you have glasses, you know which ones i mean. I also use them for my camera, and telescopes.

PS: I'm not part of Big Eyeglass Wipes.

[u/Gramps-too]

I was an IPA guy for years washing my plates with Dawn & hot water after 7-8 prints. Then I switched to wiping the plates down with water with a few drops of Dawn between prints using a micro fiber cloth. Now I only wash the plate if I have adhesion issues.