Lost as to what to try next to fix printer
Been spending the last couple days trying to figure out why my prints weren't working. Spent hours trying to level the bed, but it wouldn't print right in the center. Did the glass mod, but the first layer is still printing wrong. Any help is appreciated guys
Image is latest print attempt. There should be circles in the far areas, but they don't print at all for some reason.
Thanks for the kind help everyone. I really appreciate it.
Posted Oct 14, 2017, 8:05 PM UTC · edited
110
That is partially bed levelling, and partially lack of adhesive on the glass. Most people have a really hard time using glass without adhesive. I personally recommend gluestick, but hairspray works well too. Most likely your first layer wasn't finished, hence the missing circles.
Thanks for the response. With leveling, I've been doing the paper method, but apparently it hasn't been working. Is there any other method to properly do it?
I 2nd the gluestick; I still have to use it even with a glass bed.
You're using PLA right, and if so, at what temp? Are you heating the bed?
Print Temp 210 Bed: 50
I just went through and leveled the bed again and put a glue layer down. Printing a benchy now and "seems" to be working fine.
Edit: here is the benchy
https://i.imgur.com/NKOWqrb.jpg
I find Kapton tape with hair spray works great on glass.
Also consider locating a good single layer test print off thingiverse. As you print this first layer, you can see real quick where your problems lie.
https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2125379
Well, you may not be doing the paper method correctly. There needs to be more friction between the paper and the plate, from what I can tell from the photo.
I use glass and hairspray. Levelled the bed with paper then ended up turning each screw like 3/4 turn tighter (closer to extruder) after repeated tests.
I get the best results with a 25 to 30 line brim. It even held down a 1 1/2 wide x 7 inch high abs.
7 inches ≈ 18 cm
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I used a feeler gauge to set the corners to .06mm on my glass bed. I have to fine tune it by hand depending on the resolution I'm printing with but I've printed everything except one tiny spacer (3×6mm) on bare glass. Used elmers glue stick for the spacer.
As others have said, leveling and adhesion are the main problems there, but you might also slow down the first layer a little, and increase the bed temp for the first layer. Tight circles are a PITA sometimes. I just did two prints today that were the same part but mirrored. There were some thin corners and a circle. The circle would not stick on the first print (tried 3x with different adjustments), but it was perfect on the second print and I changed nothing. Even though it lifted on the first print it wasn't so bad I couldn't use the resulting part so I let it go.
How thick is the paper you are using for leveling? I seem to have the best luck with 18-20 pound bond printer paper. I've also tried a feeler gauge and receipt paper but I seemed to have more trouble when it was that low.