first layer sticking problems!!

I am having a problem with my bottom layer sticking through whole print. The first layer goes down fine but doesn't seem to adhere to the heated bed. I have tried masking tape, hairspray, and Kapton's tape. My next move is to get a gluestick and put it over the Kaptons tape. has anyone had these issues?

Thanks,
Bcamaro1

 

For the first layer it is also important to be with the nozzle close enough to the print bed and the layer/filament to be "compressed"'a little bit. My initial problem was that I was too close to the print bed which resulted to:
Extruder slippings, by this a poluted hobbed bolt and later jams and the print finally too sticky to the print bed.
But with a autolevel machine you can easiliy play with the z-offset value to find the best fit.
By the way, I print now PLA with a 75 degree heated bed/hair spray. Prints never come loose or warp during printing, but pop of easily when the print bed cooled down.

 

do you find that it then melts the base of your prints? everytime I've experimented with heating the bed and pla i've gotten a base that has melted

 

What do you mean with melted? My base is after the print flat and shiny like the opposite glas print bed...For me perfect with no pattern...

 

sorry for not being more clear... mean the edges.... the base is shiny and looks great, but if I print out a cube.... there is a small lip between the sides and the base as if it were melting down.... kind of like a miniture skirt was printed (though that isn't it...)

 

What slicer are you using? If you are using slic3r go to the printer settings configuration page. Try playing with the Z offset value.
If it squishes out too much make the number a little bigger if it does not stick make it a little smaller. I also found out it was useful to print a set of short cylinders at the corners of the build platform and in the center just one layer thick. After printing them pry them off and measure the thickness with a micrometer/calipers. They will tell you a lot about how level the bed is and if its warped or not. I found that when I am using a .4mm first layer thickness and I get right at .016 inch thickness +/- .002 at all five points parts print well. My machine does not have auto level. I adjusted the limit switch so the head is about .4 mm above the bed when it zeros. Then use a negative Z offset to set the height. On the advanced print setting page look at the first layer extrusion width. If its zero the default is actually 200% of your first layer height. Try adjusting this value start with .6 if you still have a ridge make it smaller. If parts start to not stick make it bigger.

 

Aquanet hairspray will work if you spray it on the glass at room temp, heat the bed to 60C or a moment to dry it. Then print PLA at around 50C. If the print is difficult to get off drip some water around the edges to dissolve it. For ABS print at 110C and warping will depend on the model geometry. I wipe it down before respraying with wood alcohol or water.

 

I use hairspray (Aussie something) and a glue stick. Once I get a few good layers down I can print 10+ items without any reapplication, and after 10-15 prints I just do a med coverage of more hairspray to refresh it. After a LOT of prints and refreshes I do eventually need to remove it all and start fresh because the prints eventually cause high and low spots in the stuff (glass cleaner melts so it scrapes off like a thick pancake batter.) Occasionally I need a little spot of glue stick to fix a spot if the print comes off and removes a small part of the "surface." Here is a pic of my bed currently after 10 or so prints of some cubes and other small parts (printing 8-15 small items at once). Note that it doesn't look pretty...but it works amazing.

BTW this pic is of my unheated aluminum replacement bed I made while Robo fixed my heated bed...I received the stock bed back last week but haven't reinstalled it yet.

 

I've found that letting the bed heat to 50C and applying a glue stick works great. In fact sometimes I have trouble getting the prints off the bed. Hairspray worked horribly for me because there can be so much variation in how you apply it, how far away you hold the can, how much you end up spraying, etc. I'd have to say that if you use the glue stick method and your prints are still moving, your z axis is probably too high. I think a lot of people underestimate how important that is. I have a 3Doodler, and that's what taught me. It took me a while to realize how to make the plastic from it stick to anything. Turns out, I was just holding it too far away.

One more thing about using the glue stick is that you have to clean it off and reapply almost every print, because removing the print also removes the glue.

 

For PLA I use with great success hairspray. When I heat the bed to 50C I have big problems to get off the parts after printing and after the bed cooled down. When I heat up the bed to 68-70C, the prints plop off almost by themself after the bed cooled down.

 

I have seemed to fix the problem, using actone and ABS mix as glue while using Kapton tape as well.

 

This is what I use on the replicator 2x. Makes for some crazy strong bonds