I think I have made a 3D printing discovery.

[Ampera]

So earlier today I found myself without any masking tape that I usually use to secure prints to my unheated print bed. Only a few masking tapes and some blue painters' tape work for this, and they're usually annoying to apply, annoying to separate the part from, create tons of waste, are one, maybe two time sacrificial, and will leave lines on the bottom of the finished print where the tape sides end.

Finding myself in such a position, I began to improvise, since I really needed a print at the moment, and couldn't just go to the store and get more tape. I did have some masking tape around, but it was too slick and my prints kept separating from it. This was when I decided that instead of covering the bed with tape, to use notebook paper.

I applied it to the bed by taping the ends to all 4 sides of the bed in such a way as to make the paper taut and flat against the surface of the bed, with no to minimal flap (it was about as smooth and level as regular tape). I didn't know if this would work, but I figured it might as the paper is fairly porous, and would make a good gripping surface for molten plastic. I started my print to find out that it did indeed stick, and that there was no issues with leveling or surface discrepancies. Any that did exist could likely be fixed with a simple calibration. It gets better though.

I had originally thought that this paper would have been sacrificial. The part would stick to it, but since it wasn't glued to the bed, I wouldn't have issues nearly breaking my glass print bed trying to rip parts off and sometimes even breaking them. Well not only did I not have issues, the part came right off the paper, leaving no scaring to the paper, and no residue on the part. The bottom of the part was incredibly smooth, with absolutely no lines, and no transfer of ink from the ruling of the page. The paper seems completely reusable, and I am wondering how reusable it is.

So this is the TL;DR: I want people to try this out, and see if I've actually discovered some new and amazing way to cover 3D print beds. The exact method is to cut a piece of notebook/notepad paper to the size of the print area, and then using short strips of wide masking tape, secure all 4 sides to the rim of my print bed, in such a way that the page had no bend nor curve in the middle and it is completely flat.

Does this work for you? I used PLA with a nozzle temp of 200C (standard settings). If so, what were your settings, what is your printer, what did you print (surface area being important), were there any issues with layers misaligning (more than usual), how easy was it to remove from the paper, did it damage the paper, etc. Report back, I'm really interested to hear about this.

[beanflying]

The problem you will likely encounter is lifting with larger prints. The lateral forces on the paper may tend so slide the paper from the tape or the tape from the bed, this will be exaggerated by part shrinkage on the unheated bed. There is now plenty of non tape bed options that exist just getting one that works reliably without heat is the tricky thing.

Interesting alternative all the same 

[coppercone2]

i find it amusing how this turned out to be such a big technical issue. you would think that ANYTHING else would be a problem. its the same freaking problem as baking brownies

[HalFET]

Kind of neat if it works well!

And yeah, I agree coppercone2, especially the thermal contraction based issues can be a real nightmare!

But I use something quite non-standard myself, I ran out of polyimide tape for my build platform but had a few SMT carrier boards with Taconic Tacsil tape ( http://www.4taconic.com/page/tacsil-fpc-carrier-tape-57.html ) at home by accident (forgot they were in my backpack after a Friday afternoon meeting). I figured why the hell not and gave it a go and clamped one of the carrier boards to my printer platform, and unsurprisingly it works really well. Already did a few hundred prints on a scrap piece of tape I pulled from the trashcan at work since then. It's kind of silly if you think about it, it's a high temperature silicone double-sided tape for reflow assembly, resistant up to 260°C. So it's kind of obvious that it might work well. But sadly it's pretty much unobtainium sintered pixie dust in small quantities, and given the price probably not worth the effort either.

[sleemanj]

PLA, heated platform, cheapo hair spray.  60 degrees C platform for the first layer, drop to 45 degrees thereafter.  Soon as the platform cools to room temperature after the print is done it will come right off.  Give it a spray every couple of prints to refresh.  Make sure it drys before you print (spray on hot it will dry in 30 seconds or so).  Bonus, makes office smell like my dearly departed gran.

[Ranayna]

I have not printed much yet, but I had good experience with using a cut to measure mirror tile clipped to the heated print-bed. That might of course eat a bit of the heat, and you need to carefully consider the placement of the clips, but so far this has allowed me to print without bigger issues.
I generally print with a brim though, and is clearly visible that the first few rounds often do not stick. When I see that the brim still not sticks after almost done, I cancel the print, wait a couple of minutes, and try again.

The other thing I heard of, but I never tried so far, is hairspray. Spray the bed, let dry, and print.

[beanflying]

The OP has an unheated bed so a different set of rules apply.

For a heated bed PLA ad uber clean the surface and just the glass is a winner. For PETG Bostik Glustick on glass works better than Hairspray for me.

[Ampera]

My PLA actually tends to contract quite a bit at the base, with the edges curling up, especially on smaller prints. While I'd like to do a large print real quick, I don't exactly have a need to print anything, and wouldn't like to waste plastic if someone else has the will to give it a go. I'll explore it better eventually, but I just thought this might be something people really like.

Of course a heated bed would be awesome, that's why all the nicer printers have them. My 3D printer was actually a Christmas gift, so I'm not going to start complaining about an otherwise really really nice machine. I just think this has a plethora of additional advantages, and this might bring up some interesting alternatives.

Perhaps using a very very very very very light contact/spray adhesive, something easily peelable, might make this work out a bit better. It could eliminate any warping of the paper, and make it function as a tape, but with the porous properties of the paper. Maybe only having the adhesive, say an inch on the edges, might be enough to hold it without tape.

Regardless, I intend to keep using this myself until I run into problems, as it's considerably cheaper than tape, and I now can use the two big rolls of masking tape that I later found out weren't the right ones and didn't let the prints stick.

[beanflying]

Have a search a glance over these two videos. Angus thinks good thoughts on the Cetus which is an unheated bed (the model he reviewed) and the second for a removable Magnetic reusable surfaceto suit it.

Have you looked at upgrading your printer to a heated bed?