JonPaul Laskis

The following print is of ABS printed with a .15mm layer height with support in the center. The cavity is 3mm off the build plate. The support was grid style with a 80% density and .15mm air gap between the bottom of the print and top of the support. Here I paused the ABS test print right before it is suppose to print over top of the support and add 3 types of tape.

The tape was applied in the following order: Frog Tape (green painters tape): thickness = .12mm Scotch tape: thickness = .06mm 3M (3350) foil tape : thickness = .06mm Control (no tape) Once the tape was set in place I applied glue stick to help the ABS adhere to the tape surfaces.

Once the print was finished I was able to easily remove the support material to reveal the surface of the underside of the print. As you can see the 3M tape stuck to the support while the painters tape and masking tape was still stuck to the print.

The masking tape was easy to remove but the painters tape proved to be a little harder as it would rip when I tried to remove it (probably due to the glue stick that I applied to it which probably wasn't necessary)

Here is the final result! Starting from the left: The control side (no tape): very rough with grid lines visible 3M foil tape: Proved to be the smoothest surface of them all and easiest to remove. Build lines barely visible and very smooth to the touch. Masking tape: Surface somewhat smooth with build lines more noticeable. Frog tape: Build lines are not recognizable but surface is rough with bumps that matches the topside surface imprinted from the tape. CONCLUSION: The foil tap proved to have the smoothest surface finish but since the Frog tape was almost twice as thick all the build lines blended together and made an imprint of the tape surface. Maybe the next test will be with foil tape on top of the Frog tape or 2X foil tape in hopes to remove build lines and provide a smooth surface.