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I have the MK3 with a magnetic PEI and some PETG residue is stuck on the surface. How can I remove it? Does acetone work?

Thanks

NLed
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1 Answers1

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First you will want to verify that what you are seeing is remaining PETG and not a loss of PEI on your bed. In many cases, when PETG is used without a separating agent (window cleaner or glue stick), the PETG forms a stronger bond to the PEI than the PEI has to the bed. This causes the PEI to lift off the bed. You can often recognize this by seeing a spot of higher smoothness where the print was stuck rather than the more matte look elsewhere on the print bed.

If it is truly PETG left on the sheet, first try a firm use of a fingernail. If that does not work, you can attempt to use acetone or 1000 grit sandpaper (which also work to restore PEI). A careful use of a spatula can also be used to remove the material.

In subsequent prints of PETG, you will want to add a separator when printing PETG.

Andy Levesque
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  • How does the sandpaper restore PEI? Can you please clarify? – mac Apr 11 '18 at 05:26
  • @mac Same affect as the scrubbing side of a kitchen sponge where it is just abrasive enough to remove any residue without damaging the PEI. Recommended for restoring appearance, so sanctioned, but can also help remove small stuck pieces that you can't remove in other ways. – Andy Levesque Apr 13 '18 at 18:32
  • Ok, thanks. The way the sentence is built, confused me: I understood how it would work in the main sentence, the part in parenthesis seemed to me to refer to the first paragraph as in: "sandpaper works to scrape of remaining PETG (and works too when the PETG has removed the PEI)". – mac Apr 13 '18 at 22:20