Disclaimer: You are responsible for making modifications to your 3D printer. Subtle Design will not be held responsible if you damage your 3D printer or any of its parts.
Staymag Installation
Disclaimer: Subtle Design is not responsible for providing a replacement Staymag sheet if you improperly align, tear, crack or get air bubbles during installation. The adhesive is incredibly strong, and henceforth, is virtually impossible to pull up and realign. Avoid a sharp bend radius when removing the 3M backing and applying the magnet.
Staymag is not intended to be adhered to a substrate that is able to be flexed, it is designed to be adhered to your printer’s heatbed.
Step 1: Make sure that your heatbed substrate and working environment are at room temp. Staymag applies best between 21 ºC to 38 ºC (70 ºF to 100 ºF).
Step 2: Remove any build surface or prior magnet that is currently adhered to the heatbed.
Step 3: Thoroughly remove and clean any remaining adhesive residue on the heatbed using appropriate solvent(s). Make sure to let the solvent(s) flash/evaporate fully before proceeding to the next step!
Step 4: Take the Staymag sheet and peel back a small portion of the 3M backing to reveal approximately 5mm of the adhesive. Do not peel off the entire backing!
Step 5: Line up one edge and two corners of the Staymag sheet with your heatbed and verify the position (if your Staymag sheet is oversized, simply center it with equal amounts hanging off the edges of the heatbed); when you are satisfied with the alignment, press down firmly. At this point, 5mm of the Staymag sheet should be adhered to the heatbed.
Step 6: Work your way down the heatbed exposing more of the adhesive slowly by simultaneously removing the 3M backing as you work down the length of the Staymag sheet making sure to not get any air bubbles.
Step 7: If any of the magnet material is extended beyond the edges of your heatbed, you can trim off the excess with a fresh utility knife.
Recommended step: Using a single roller, rubber J roller, apply even pressure across the surface of the magnet material to ensure high bond strength. There is no need to bare down on the roller with excessive force; the goal is to activate the acrylic adhesive without damaging the magnet material.
Final Step: With your build plate placed on top of the Staymag sheet, we recommend performing a PID tune to properly calibrate your heatbed. To learn how to perform a PID tune, please see this RepRap Wiki: https://reprap.org/wiki/PID_Tuning.
Staymag Usage
Cleaning and Care
In the event that you need to clean the magnet sheet, only use 99% Isopropyl Alcohol! Never use water, soap, acetone, or any other solvent!
Everflex Usage
Disclaimer: Subtle Design will not be held responsible if you damage your flex plate in any way, shape, or form.
Build Surfaces and Completed Print Jobs
We recommend applying an adhesive-backed build surface on only one side of the flex plate to ensure the most pull strength from magnets in addition to having the best thermal transfer. Please make sure to thoroughly clean the plate with Isopropyl Alcohol before applying an adhesive-backed build surface to it. Apply the build surface to the side of the flex plate that is most visually appealing to you. Types of common surfaces include: Ultem/PEI, Garolite, painter’s tape, etc.
If you are using a third-party build surface, we recommend that you follow the manufacturer’s list of approved filaments and temperatures that work with their surface.
Resist the urge to bend or crease the flex plate at extreme angles to release prints.
To release printed parts, we recommend waiting for the plate to cool down to a safe handling temperature. Generally, flexing of the plate isn’t required on most prints; as the temperature of the plate cools down, you can sometimes hear the prints releasing from certain build surfaces. For stubborn prints, you can remove the flex plate from the printer and proceed to flex opposing corners of it and the prints should pop right off.
If you are doing back-to-back print jobs and are quick swapping plates while they’re still hot, please use heat-resistant gloves!
Do not use scraping or prying tools to release printed parts; doing so may damage the build surface!
If there are bits of leftover plastic that seem impossible to remove (support bases, etc.), a good way to remove these bits is to start another print on top of the affected area and when the print finishes and is released from the build surface, it usually removes it all.
Cleaning and Care
There are some things you can do to prolong the life of your flex plate.
For cleaning in between prints and to remove finger oils from flexing of the plate, only use 99% Isopropyl Alcohol! Never use water, soap, acetone, or any other solvent!
We recommend using your printer in a temperature and humidity-controlled area to reduce the likelihood of the plate tarnishing.
When working on your printer, remember to take the plate off and keep it in a safe area until the work has been completed to prevent tools or other contaminants from dropping onto the surface.
Z Offset/First Layer Tuning
The first time you use Everflex, we recommend starting to print with the nozzle 100% of your first layer height above the build surface and ‘baby step’ the Z axis until the filament sticks ‘just right’.
For example, if your first layer height is 0.2mm, we recommend starting with the nozzle set 0.2mm above the build surface; this can be done using a feeler gauge. After you baby step the Z axis and find a suitable Z offset, save this to your controller’s EEPROM, config file, or write it down while also noting the filament type.
Heatbed Temperature
We recommend users to experiment and find what works best for their printer and filament. A PID tune of the heatbed after Staymag and/or Everflex is installed can also be very beneficial. As an example, we raised the heatbed temperature 5 ºC after we installed both Staymag and Everflex on our printer and after we performed a PID tune. To learn how to perform a PID tune, please see this RepRap Wiki: https://reprap.org/wiki/PID_Tuning.
Auto Bed Leveling
Capacitive, inductive, and touched-based sensors work great with Everflex. It’s recommended to let the heatbed reach printing temperature before performing an auto bed leveling routine.
This is a living document and may be improved over time. Last Updated: March 9th, 2021 – 9:54 PM CST