3D printing question - first layer, and filament age

The filament is probably damp, which causes all kinds of printing problems.

A simple way to dry it is to set the heated bed to 70C for 8 hours (for PLA) or 80C/12 hours (for PETG) - look for gcode to do that for your printer. Place the filament reel on the bed with a cardboard box over it - the box the filament came in with a side cut away is ideal. Leave for the given time, turning over the reel at halfway.

I managed to revive a reel of PLA like this that had been in a damp garage for years, it was remarkable how good quality it came out. Keep your dry reels in an airtight cobtainer to prevent them getting damp in future - I use this system:

Theo

PLA probably not, PETG likely needs drying out, buy a couple of kilos of silica gel, stick it in a big (not too big) tupperware box.

Clean your build plate with washing-up liquid, then after drying give it a squirt of IPA and wipe with microfibre cloth. Set your Z height so you can *just* slide a piece of paper under the nozzle without it runkling.

I always coat the build plate by spraying with 3DLac lacquer. Never had a failed print yet even on a smooth plate. It smells just like hair lacquer when you apply it (which you could try I guess). A big can lasts ages.

I have always used a stick of glue, just a light smearing, and have not had any adhesion issues for a long time - last time I had problems, it was when I used Pritt Stick, it doesn't seem to be the best for it. I bought some JT16 Glue Sticks by GeeeTech, which are supposedly formulated specifically for 3D printing hot bed use, and that has worked very well.

As others mentioned, a raft can be useful - sometimes I'll have a raft a few layers thick if I'm printing something that might not adhere well. But tree supports are really useful for delicate stuff, too. I sometimes paint in extra tree supports in my slicer just to know that there'll be plenty of material laid down to support the print.

Of course, zeroing in the nozzle to the right height is key - I use a BambuLabs A1 Mini and, thank heavens, it takes care of all of that itself

- no mucking about with sliding sheets of paper under the nozzle to know if it is at the right height... I know that "buy a new printer" isn't the answer you're looking for, but I can highly recommend the A1 Mini if you were considering doing so at any point - it is a very good printer, and pretty cheap!

Thanks - I've ordered and will report back

That seems a reasonable way to dry it, but I have several reels so will leave it on the boiler for a while and see if that helps.

I tried pritt stick, but without any success. I've ordered some 3DLAC spray adhesive and will see if that helps.

I've been doing that. One thing I haven't tried is to make a box to reduce drafts ... maybe worth a go

My Neptune4Pro does it's own levelling (after an initial manual rough levelling) and I only check the Z offset every few prints with a bit of paper ... yes it's old hat, but I rarely have to change anything, just check it.

What works 100% reliably for me is a decent bed temperature - I use 60°C

- a highish workspace temperature and a Pritt stick.. If you printer is open frame that may require a bit of cardboard engineering to keep the heat in.

Wipe the Pritt over after applying with a damp sponge and it will be super tacky after the bed warms up.

Also use a skirt in the slicer setup if its a small footprint

Trouble with old filament is it gets water in it and that turns up as steam bubbles in the print.

Use up the old filament getting a decent print file and then buy some new filament for the final print if you run out

Ive found PLA to be pretty usable indoors at room temperatures

Never worked for me. Had to use a Pritt sick

I don't seem to need it with PETG, but add a brim instead, it's all folklore, stick with what works ... #

I have a textured build plate, which does help. The only thing is it leaves a texture on the print, which may or may not be desirable. I can flip it over for a smooth surface, but thus far I'm happy with the texture.

After printing a few vertical flagpole style prints which detached, I now put a brim and tree supports on everything.

Theo

I tried loads of things. I cleaned the plate with acetone, cleaned it with IPA. Cleaned it with soapy water. Short answer - a clean plate is simply not good enough. Spent a day reviewing all the special sprays. Short answer, none of them are better than a pritt stick, which I can buy in waitrose.

I tend to wipe the plate with a warm wet sponge after printing to smear the pritt over the base print area ready for a new print

So far, the A1 Mini’s auto-calibration has been perfect every time. It has definitely lived up to its marketing hype on that front.

First printer I used was an UltiMaker 2 at the company I used to work at, was used for product prototyping, and that needed careful manual calibration every time to be sure it’d print right - sometimes we’d get cavalier and not bother and it’d be OK for a few prints, lulling us into a false sense of security until BOOM, next print goes t*ts right up, usually one that we’d set running shortly before leaving for the day. Never a nice sight to see the next morning all the filament sprayed everywhere like candy floss….

Just a general heads up for y’all, there is now a newsgroup for 3D printing: free.3d-printing. It’s available on Eternal September, and maybe elsewhere by now, so feel free to head that way for printing chat!

Yes. Glue alone is not enough with high aspect ratios.

I almost exclusively use smooth plates, with that specialist glue stick I mentioned earlier it all just works really nicely. Now I think about it, the few adherence failures I’ve had in the past were on textured plates!

Another thing that might help - speed. Lay the first layers down slowly, that in itself really helps adherence. If I’m printing something that is quite fine/delicate, there’s an option on my printer to run at 50% speed, too, and I activate that as the sliced model is being sent to the printer. Again, it helps prevent it from going wrong - my printer is a “bed slinger” and sometimes the speed of it zipping around caused issues. I did change to a 0.2mm nozzle and started printing at 0.06/0.08mm layer heights for fine detail and that also slowed it all down to a nice and controlled rate. We’ve just got a second A1 Mini with the 4-spool AMS attachment and that still has the stock 0.4 nozzle in at the moment and it looks so much lairier when it prints than the other one with the 0.2…

Thanks. It's not on NIN, but maybe they're not adding new groups since they've announced they'll be shutting down?