if you have a 3D printer in 2024 it likely came with a textured Pei build plate but if you do any bit of searching you'll know that these gold textured plates aren't the only thing you can use to get your prints to stick well I've acquired almost all of the different kinds so you don't have to and I'm going to let you know what each of their strength and weaknesses are textured pii is definitely the most common 3D printing build plate out there right now but there are actually a plethora of different kinds of build plates such as smooth Pei P chyo grip super attack 3d effect build plates and even real carbon fiber so it can be pretty hard to know which one is the best for you to start textured Pei is usually a rough gold looking build plate that a lot of people love it offers a wide range of filaments that can be printed on it decent adhesion and when the prints cool they self-release usually with textured Pei you print at a bed temperature of 60 to 65° C for pla but this temperature varies for various different filaments you can print almost any filament on textured Pei pla petg ABS pet PC and even nylon making the spill plate super versatile this means that basically any filament can be printed on textured Pei just as long as your printer can actually print it some filaments however like TPU will require a layer of glue stick on the bottom of your print bed to ensure that they don't chemically bond together when printed the glue stick acts like a barrier between the filament and the build plate ensuring that they don't actually come in contact because if they do they will likely chemically Bond and when you try and remove the prints it will tear up the Pei as you probably would expect the bottom surface with a textured Pei build plate is going to be fairly rough some people really like this finish however I don't really care for it because it doesn't look anything like the top surface of your prints Pei is great because it offers good adhesion while the printer is printing however when the print is done the bill plate cools and the print self-release the biggest downfall however of text Pei is that your build plate needs to be kept super clean in order to keep your prints from turning into spaghetti higher quality textured build plates are better at combating this however you still need to keep them super clean in order to get the adhesion you want to clean the bed you can either use isopr proprial alcohol or warm water and dish soap to restore the adhesion additionally avoiding touching the bill plate with your fingers will also promote adhesion because the oils and residues on your fingers can get onto the build plate causing them to fail many people love textured Pei however I have had trouble getting small flat prints to stick to the build plate even when it's super clean so overall it is a great option but it's definitely not my favorite build plate but we'll get into that later textured Pi is great in many ways but what if you want a smooth surface on the bottom of your prints as opposed to a textured one well then smooth Pei might be the build plate for you it's very similar to textured Pei in that the prints self-release when the build plate cools it also offers good adhesion when the print bed is clean clean and one of the biggest upsides of smooth Pei is improves z-axis dimensional accuracy if you need very dimensionally accurate prints especially in the z-axis then this is the build plate for you the flat surface of the smooth Pei allows the prints to be more Z axis dimensionally accurate whereas textured Pei doesn't allow for this the rough nature of textured Pei can actually get in the way of your z-axis dimensional accuracy for your textured Pei prints however the difference between the smooth pei and text Pei isn't too great smooth PEI will also need to be kept super clean and fingerprints will be even more noticeable than on textured Pei one way that smooth pei and textured Pei differs is that on basically every filament other than pla you're going to need some sort of glue stick barrier however with textured Pei only a few different filaments will need the glue stick once again you can print all the different filaments that textured Pei can print making this bill plate super versatile the bottom surface will look a lot smoother than the top surface however so it's not completely accurate to what the top surface looks like but it is definitely more accurate than what textured Pei looks like P is another kind of build plate that is made by wambam P is very similar to smooth Pei the bottom surface of the prints will be very similar but a little bit rougher and it also has very similar properties to smooth Pi it differs because instead of using soap and water to wash the plate you actually use a Scotch Brite pad to scuff up the surface which gives it great adhesion not only only does this increase the surface adhesion and give you great prints most of the time but it also gives you a more semi gloss finish on the bottom of the prints that look more like a top surface the prints stick fairly well and they also Auto relase this build plate is nearly the same as smooth Pei but I really like it because I found that it gives me better adhesion in most cases it's a little bit more resistant to your fingerprints and putting your hands on the build plate which is a nice Plus for petg you will need glue on the surface to ensure that it doesn't chemically Bond together but I have printed filaments like carbon fiber nylon on this and the adhesion came out perfectly for this one I would likely say that it's kind of a tossup between smooth pei and P but I have gotten a little bit greater adhesion with the p BQ makes a build PL called the chyo grip which is essentially a cool plate there are actually two different versions of this build plate the frostbite and the glacier I personally have the glacier because the frostbite is essentially the bamboo lab super Tack and that build plate will be featured next so stay tuned for that where this build plate stands out is its compatibility with engineering grade filament it can print all the high temperature engineering grade filaments like nylon but also act as a cool plate for PLA and petg which offers energy and money savings because you don't have to heat up the build plate as high and maintain that temperature the chyo grip build plate is essentially a double-edged sword as opposed to having a cool plate for your PL and PG and a smooth Pei plate for everything else you can have both in one instead of printing PL at 60 to 65° C you can print it at 40 to 45° C then this allows you to print every other engineering grade filament at the normal temperature giving you the grade adhesion you want for your PLA and ptg Prints but also your engineering grade filaments so you can have all the great features of a cool plate but also have all the great features of something like a smooth Pi plate all in one the bottom of the prints will be a little bit textured however it is much finer than something like textured Pei if you men the print in pla and petg then I definitely have the bill plate for you if those are your two main filaments I would definitely recommend the bamboo lab super attac this bill plate offers unmatched adhesion especially when it's touch with oily fingers and it can also be printed at much lower temperatures than smooth or textured Pei so this will result in money savings and Energy savings so you can get super good adhesion without having to worry about cleaning it every time after you just touch it with your fingers because it's super resistant to being affected by the oils and residues on your fingers when you touch the bill plate the biggest downside to this is that one it can only print in pla MPG and sometimes the adhesion is a little bit too good I made a full video on this build plate if you want to check it out but essentially if your prints are small and flat they can be very hard to get off the build plate I basically had zero print failures because the one that I did have I accidentally sent the temperature too high which I guess decreased the adhesion but if you're printing a lot of small and super flat things it can be hard to get a tool or scraper underneath the prints to actually pry them off but this is definitely the build plate for you if you print in mainly PLA and petg because you will likely have very little print failures and this adhesion will continue over time the bottom surface is made to replicate what you get on the top surface of the print so I really like the bottom finish it's kind of like a satin is type finish and it looks really nice it is almost indistinguishable which was on the bottom and I really like that this build plate is perfect for PLA and PG Prints but also for the light boxes and the multicolor prints that have that multicolor on the first layer so far I'm really loving this build plate because I do do a lot of PLA and ptg highflow printing so you should definitely check it out if you do too but what if you want your prints to have cool designs on the bottom of them or look like they're made from carbon fiber well then 3d effect sheets are definitely for you there are countless different build plates you can get with all different designs to give your prints a super cool design essentially whatever design you put on the build plate will be reflected on the bottom surface of your prints this can be really cool because you can make your prints look like the bottom is made of carbon fiber or they have a rainbow design on it these build plates are literally all over Amazon and you can basically find them from any manufacturer and for any printer out there bamboo lab also sells their own version that is essentially a build plate with different stickers that you can stick onto the plate however you are very limited with the filaments that you're able to print on these sheets bamboo lab says that pla and TPU are the only filaments that you can print on their version of the 3d effect sheets but there are definitely other ones you can find online that are more versatile and can print with more filaments like petg the bottom surface will be fairly shiny and have whatever design you would like on it these build plates are definitely cool but I don't do a lot of printing with them because they can be very difficult to get adhesion due to the ultra smooth surface of the build plate they can be hard to get the prints to stick so out of all of the build plates on here these definitely have the worst adhesion however if and when you are able to get them to stick the bottom of the prints look amazing one of the downsides though is you only get the effect on the bottom surface so the other sides will look like a normal 3D print however if you're making something like a phone case then you only really need it to be on one side anyways and just a side note you won't need any glue stick for the PLA and TPU because it will mess up the surface finish what if you want a build plate that allows you to print engineering grade filaments just as easy as pla well then a cfx build plate would be perfect for you despite what it may look like this is not a 3d effect sheet in fact this build plate is made with real woven carbon fiber with a high temperature resin on top of it it's not made to give the carbon fiber effect like the other sheets are but it will leave a light pattern on the bottom of your prints this does mean though that you can get a slight carbon fiber effect on the bottom of some of your engineering grade filaments something that can't be achieved on the 3d effect sheets this build plate is made by a company called Dark Moon 3D and is engineered to be the best build plate out there for industrial grade filaments printing with these materials is now almost as easy as printing with PLA and you likely won't need any adhesive on the Bild plates either you can print PA PPA PT or PPS without any adhesive for the engineering grade filaments you won't necessarily need glue but if you do struggle to get adhesion with this plate you can use it however much like Pei you will need to keep this very clean in order to keep your adhesion they recommend isopro alcohol or Dawn dish soap and warm water but since this build plate is made from real carbon fiber it will be extremely durable and will last you for thousands of prints you can basically print anything on this build plate and the only material that you're going to need glue for Is polypropylene for some of the high temperature filaments that need a really high heated bed you will have to preheat the bill plate carbon fiber is a really good thermal insulator so therefore you will need to give it a little bit more time in order to heat up fully and give you the best adhesion results overall this bill plate is really good for engineering grade filaments so if you print with them often then this may be a great option for you one of the super cool features that makes this build plate even more notable is its self-release most of the other build plates like Pei have self-releasing features but it's not really like this one when the print's done and all the way cold you can hear an audible pop from the print releasing when the buildplate is cold it self-releases even better than Pei so this would be really good if you're trying to have a print farm and you want to have the print head push the prints off the build plate this build plate is not optimized for PLA and petg however you can print them on this you may just need some glue and to slow down your first layer this is more of a niche build plate so if you do a lot of engineering grade filaments with nylons then this may be a great option for you but if you're just an everyday user of pla a petg or ABS this may not be the best build plate for you if you've been 3D printing for a while now you've likely seen a video about G10 from the YouTuber makers Muse I will link the video down below if you'd like to check it out his video does a really nice job of showing you all the strengths of using a G10 build plate and lucky enough for me Dark Moon 3D also has G10 G10 is essentially smooth Pei or PEX just on steroids for filaments like pla petg TPU ABS or ASA you can print flawlessly and not need any adhesive as I stated earlier if you print with basically any other filament then pla on smooth Pei you're going to need the glue stick layer but that's definitely not the case with this G10 build plate all you need to do is heat up the bed to the normal temperature and get to printing as long as the build plate is clean you're going to experience Flawless adhesion however for TPU prints you don't even need to heat the bed up at all and if you do it may stick too well so you can go ahead and just print out the ambient temperature and also experience great adhesion it is not recommended that you print any other filaments on this plate than the ones I stated earlier G10 in the past though has been known for getting good results when printing with nylon however this was really before Pei took over as being the number one build plate out there again it's not my recommendation to try using nylon on this because it's not listed in the recommended filaments but I do know that using nylon is something that a lot of people have done I haven't had a great deal of experience with this build plate because I've just received it recently however it has had great results on all the prints that I've tried I haven't had any failur so far and the adhesion seems to be consistent there are also a lot of great reviews on their website so I trust that this adhesion and these results will continue so far if there was a choice between smooth pei and G10 I believe that I would choose the G10 and this is because there's really no need for using glue on this bed at all if you do struggle with adhesion you can use it however I haven't had to do this and I've had great results so far both smooth pei and G10 have similar bottom surfaces on the prints that are very smooth and shiny a lot of people really love this bottom finish and while it's not my favorite I do admit it does look very nice and again with this build plate as well the prints are super easy to take off when the build plate is cooled overall all these different build plates have tons of strengths and weaknesses if I had to choose just one build plate to use from now on I would pick either smooth Pei or G10 but that's just my opinion so let me know what build plate you use and if you're going to buy any of these and try them out there will be some affiliate links down below if you want to help support the channel but this video is not not sponsored thank you for watching and God bless