I need some help with printing, Is there any suggestions for getting the part to stick on the print bed.
I tried printing last night and every time the print became loose on the bed. I tried using hair spray as mentioned in the posts and that did not help, made it worse actually. What is everybody’s best method. Someone suggested using painters tape?
I am using the stock heated bed, heating to 50C, when I get home next week I will try and get a glass bed cut as mine has a slight bow, the middle is about .5mm higher than the sides.
The best I managed was 5 layers before the ends came loose and started to curl resulting in the part moving when the print head nudged it.
Another problem I have noticed is the print may stick on the ends and work well but the middle does not stick and results in a ball of plastic then that gets caught by the print head and all comes loose.
I have cleaned the bed with alcohol and acetone I tried sanding it to get a rougher finish.
I have also had the printer shift halfway normally on the Y axis about 3mm.
What material are you printing?
If it’s ABS you will absolutely need to upgrade your heatbed to a separate 24v power supply to reach the necessary tems for printing ABS. (about 90 to 110°C)
Also the heatbed PCB is known to warp, which will make the parts stick lees good on the uneven surface.
I put a glass plate on my heatbed, mounted with thermal compound to fill the gap between PCB and glass and put a separate
24v supply to power it. The stock power supply will only get it up to 60°C. which is ok for PLA, but not for ABS.
There are many other things you can try, like hairspray, capton or some other “magical” tape on the heatbed.
But i prefer my glass plate solution. It’s easy to clean, very even and no fiddling around with tapes or stuff.
I have just tried hairspray on an un-heated bed and got 3 small parts with no problem but soon as I tried something bigger it went belly-up. I then tried masking tape and that went good for the first 3 layers then that started to curl at one corner and detached.
I am using PLA, gave up the ABS till I get this working.
Right now I am trying to print the base plate for the K8201 indicator. This is not a very big job but plenty hassle’s.
Do I need to heat the bed when using hair spray, tried that last night with no success. How is using a glass plate going to change the adhesion to the plate.
As I am new to this any suggestions would help.
How do I wire in a different power supply, bo I need to put in a relay?
A glass plate will at first make your heatbed much mor even, which is very important for good adhesion.
Also make sure the nozzle height it properly adjusted, as low as possible over the heatbed.
This has a big effect on the first layer to stick well.
For connecting a sexond heatbed power supply i used a small self built relay board.
(i know, i should fix it properly some time 
You could also try the BuildTak sheet (google for BuildTak).
Most filament sticks to this sheet like hell. In fact it’s sometimes hard to remove.
[quote=“Deskstar”]You could also try the BuildTak sheet (google for BuildTak).
Most filament sticks to this sheet like hell. In fact it’s sometimes hard to remove.[/quote]
I’ll give that a try in the future too.
But for now i’m testing my fresh mounted GT2 belts with 16 tooth pulleys…
[quote=“ichbinsnur”]I’ll give that a try in the future too.
But for now i’m testing my fresh mounted GT2 belts with 16 tooth pulleys…[/quote]
Sounds good.
Please let us know how it works.
I’m very happy with my two belt GT2 X-drive.
That’s much “stiffer” than the original setup.
/R
Found the BuildTak here is Aus, will order some after the Christmas break. Thanks for the help
[quote=“Deskstar”][quote=“ichbinsnur”]I’ll give that a try in the future too.
But for now i’m testing my fresh mounted GT2 belts with 16 tooth pulleys…[/quote]
Sounds good.
Please let us know how it works.
I’m very happy with my two belt GT2 X-drive.
That’s much “stiffer” than the original setup.
/R[/quote]
Mod is up and running. 
Tried glue stik on an unheated bed and it appears to be working. The next problem is the print is now shifting 3 mm to the left and this seems to be consistent. On the 8the layer it moves every time, tried two different slices and two different objects.
Just very frustrating, got the print to stick now it keeps moving to the left by 2 or 3 mm, print job is coming out well but shifting.
I think one of the problems is where to start to find out why, short of reading every line of G Code it is hard, the other problem is I have not yet learned how to decipher the G Codeand it is helping to get negative reviews.
Can anyone point me in the right direction.
BTW stop hijacking my thread with the belt drives, start your own.
tried restarting the software and re-slicing it a few times still slipping left each time. After killing the print an starting again it does the same thing.
Any suggestions.
[quote=“Bignbad”]tried restarting the software and re-slicing it a few times still slipping left each time. After killing the print an starting again it does the same thing.
Any suggestions.[/quote]
I don’t think the layer shift is caused by the G-code.
Possible reasons are :
[ul]Belt tension to tight (motor can not move free) or to loose (belt slips on the pulley)
Pulleys not tightened and thus rotating on the Motor axes
Motor skipping or loosing steps (most likely caused by overheating or not correctly tuned stepper modules)
acceleration or jerk values set too high (causes the motor to skip or loose steps too)[/ul]
Can you upload a video (youtube) of your failing prints?
That may make searching for the cause easier.
Try hairspray and bed temp set to 55 or 60
Set you stepper motor voltage to 0.55
Check the screws on the motor pulleys make sure they are tight.
Check the bearing on the other side of the belt make sure it can turn freely
Make sure the bed can move freely
Thanks for the replies, I am not home at the present but will check when I get back. The stepping seems to be in the code as when I stop the print it returns to the home position correctly so the belt is not slipping, set the motor volts as per the setup recommended in the build instructions, but will up the voltage to 0.55 if this is better. Have to wait another week though before I go home again.
Got back last night and set the reference voltage to 0.55, now print is good, did two prints last night with no shifting, will try again tonight with a bigger print.
Thanks for the suggestions.
Glad to hear it working better.
Enjoy!!
OK now tried many prints with the PLA and all have printed well. I am using glue stick and no bed temp, seems to be a good option for the PLA. I tried to print ABS last night and every time the print failed to stick. I then put the bed temperature back to 50C and this worked with mixed results, finally did manage to get a reasonable print. Decided to do a large print (the holder for the router) and it printed but seemed to lift at the extremes. I left it to complete and see what happened. I will attach a photo showing the lifting at the corners and I also noticed that it seemed to not stick at various other layers?
Temp for extruder was set to 250C but controlled at 245C. I did set the temperature in the configuration for the slicer but it seemed not to change it from 190C I had to do it manually in the G Code, it did update the bed temperature but not the head temp, any thoughts?
How do I attach a photo?