What did you 3D print today?

I'm just getting into this...my head is spinning. I was gifted a printer by another member here (thanks again @Pixeltim) that had had a meltdown/spaghetti mess. Bought a new hot end and have been reading and watching a bunch of videos.

Tonight, I finally got everything together and made some hair and spaghetti. The initial strip printed on the edge of the build plate adheres well, but when it starts the item (cube), the skirt barely adheres (just enough to stay out of the way), and the cube will get 3 layers down, then pops off and starts making a mess. Bed leveling is good, checked, checked and rechecked. Then I checked it again. It has a magnetic mat, which has been taken off and cleaned very well.

Tomorrow, I will use my no-touch thermometer to check the bed temp. I suspect there may be an issue as the bed really doesn't feel very warm. While I'm at it, I'll check the nozzle temp also, but I don't think that's my problem.

Ender 5 Pro.

 

What material are you printing? I don't typically use plastic mats but if it's got a little bit of texture to it you should have no problem with adhering as long as your temp is correct for the material

 

Try and clean the bed with alcohol. But yeah, that’s odd, it never did that to me, something isn’t right.

 

PLA

 

I've personally found that PLA is highly sensitive to bed temperature - I always run my bed a little hot when running it.

Ive also found that while PLA really hates being enclosed, it also doesn't like air currents in the room either. Is the printer under an AC vent or ceiling fan?

 

With PLA I've had good luck at 60-65*C any more and it starts to warp at the edges and any less and it doesn't adhere that great. Might help to put down a little hairspray though before you print, plastic beds are kinda finicky sometimes.

 

No vents in the area. Printer is in the basement, so it's a few degrees cooler down there. The slicer software has the bed at 50*, I will turn it up a bit once I hit it with the thermometer.

 

that seems kinda low?

rubbing a glue stick on my bed helps sometimes. gotta clean it more frequently though

 

Set it to 60-65 for pla in the slicer and you'll probably see better results

 

Yeah, I've seen 50C as a default setting. I usually do 60C.

 

Typical TW...ask a question, get a lot of good info and help. Thanks everyone. I've got some things to go over... and probably a lot to learn.

 

I've always run that machine at 60° and in a warm room.

 

I bought an enclosure, which seems to pick the temp up a couple of degrees with the door open. I'll monitor that.

Time to go spend some more filament...

 

The Overture PLA you can get on Amazon is super cheap and runs well in my Ender, cheap prototyping filament but you don't feel bad wasting it to test settings and whatnot.

 

Bed temp reads right and consistent randomly around the bed.

Skirt still not holding, and print still pulls off the bed on the 4th layer, maybe speed is the problem? I'm working off of the slicer defaults, which are set to 80mm/s for print speed.

 

What printer?

 

Ender 5 Pro

 

You got a photo of what the prints look like?

 

How are you setting your zero offset? Post it note method? I like setting mine where the paper has definite resistance between nozzle and bed, but its also not enough to indent the paper. That seems to give enough first-layer smush.

Also could be nozzle temp is set 5-10 degrees too low.

 

Don't know about different colors, but different brands will make a difference. Each filament will have its own temp range, so you should check that and print out a temp tower based on that range. They have stickers on the side of the spool that tells you the range. It will help you get the right range for your prints for that type/brand.

I've noticed that when I had some odd issues where the first layer is good, but things go down hill, I had to re-level the printer. Even with my KE that does the auto-level I had to do it again when my ASA had messed up.