Bed cleaner

thingiverse

I've been using a LokBuild build plate sheet since I received their Kickstarter reward and I've been extremely happy with bed adhesion, print removal, and not needing to re-tape and re-glue. One new problem I've noticed is color "memory" from old prints. Bold colors left on the bed stick to new prints, spoiling clean white prints. When the brim from an old print has been very thin, it can be tricky to scrape all the old filament off the bed. This is mainly caused by the nozzle being too close, resulting in a film of filament rather than a bead. The end result is that future prints need to be located carefully to miss the dirty bits. My solution is to print a thin square over the whole bed and deliberately grab all the old colors. I've found that one print is usually enough, though some filament pigment (red in particular) needs a second pass. The two photos show the problem and solution - a red arc on the rectangular plate was hardly visible on a reprint. You can see how much old filament has been lifted off in the big photo and also where the previous print has already cleaned the bed. Print Settings: * Print using your favorite settings, but don't use a brim if you're printing near to the bed edge or glass clips. * I used about 8m of filament - a spool end of white seems most suitable. Edit May 17: Ignore the photos if you're looking at the bed cleaner. I've posted them in order to answer the question on Thingiverse.com. How I Designed This: * OpenScad * Cube([180,180,0.5],center=true); * The simplest thing you ever did see. * Make sure the square is big enough to cover the area you print to. Thickness only needs to be 2 or 3 layers. Too thin and it'll be tricky to remove, too thick and you'll waste time and filament.