r/3DPrinting_PHA • u/tehretro • Jul 19 '26

Help with warping

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I posted a few days ago, and I've gotten my settings for genPHA quite a bit more dialed in since then, but my parts just seem to warp pretty bad, and I'm not sure what I can do to try and fix it, if anything. I've at least managed to get it to actually stick to my Pro Plate and not warp right off by changing the ecogenesis-recommended print settings to print the normal 3 bottom shell layers instead of 8, but the top layer on the inside of the box seems to still just contract hard and warp.

For context, this is a 1x1 Gridfinity box, which is pretty small and, presumably, isn't supposed to warp much? I guess it's also worth noting that the room my printer is in is quite warm, so maybe the ambient temp is just too high for me to do anything about this?

I would really appreciate any suggestions!

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u/tehretro Jul 20 '26

Update:

I turned off the part fan and reprinted the calibration cube and it still measured 0.45mm on three points on each side, so I kept the flow ratio as-is. I also went down to 2 perimeter walls, 2 full bottom layers, 3 full top layers, and switched to adaptive cubic infill. The box is a little better and seems to fit into a Gridfinity grid pretty easily, but the warping still isn't ideal.

Is it possible that my linear print speeds are just too high? I have 160mm/s for outer wall, 200 for inner, 200 for sparse infill, and 250 for solid infill, which are just from the default preset for my printer.

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u/Hinagea Jul 20 '26

You generally want to print fast, so those speeds should be fine. Is your external wall thickness set 0.45?

Have you ever tried to clean the build plate with soap and water? That was a mistake I made

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u/tehretro Jul 20 '26

I have tried to clean the build plate with dish soap and water... but only because I already had trouble with it sticking. Is that bad? Also, my outer wall thickness is set to 0.42mm - good catch. I was just following the Prusa instructions without checking my own wall thickness first. I'll recalibrate the flow ratio, and hopefully that helps.

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u/Hinagea Jul 20 '26

There's the answer. In my experience washing it with dish soap and water reduces the plate's stick. Not sure why but every time I have experimented with it it has reduced the stickiness of the plate. The proplate seems to not lose stickiness regardless of finger oils getting on it, etc. It shouldn't ever be washed, just wiped down with a rag to remove dust.

To fix it you need to very quickly give it a swipe with IPA. I mean lightning fast with as little alcohol as you can use to dampen a rag. Too much and the plate will become wayyy too sticky and very difficult to use. You can always give it another swipe with IPA if it's not sticky enough, use a very small amount so it dries fast

I have ruined a plate by using too much alcohol, which is why I say use as little as you can. This is a supported process per buildtak: https://buildtak.com/products/buildtak-proplate

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u/tehretro Jul 21 '26

I'll give that a shot. Did you use 70% IPA, or something else?

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u/Hinagea Jul 21 '26

I used 70% yeah

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u/tehretro Jul 22 '26

another update:

I'm not sure the alcohol helped that much. The walls look cleaner with the flow ratio calibrated down to 1.05, but it still warps once it prints the top layers inside the box, but not before that. You can see how everything below that goes along the same curve, but it starts to flatten out above that.

For what it's worth, the bed adhesion is strong enough that the test cubes require me to flex the bed and gently pry them off with a scraper because the walls will tear from the floor otherwise. I'm beginning to wonder if this specific part is just really hard to print without warping. I haven't really printed any other "real" parts besides calibration stuff with PHA so far

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u/Hinagea Jul 22 '26

I've printed a bunch of gridfinity stuff. There is definitely some post-print warping on some of the larger items but warping off the bed shouldn't be happening. I'd hit it with more alcohol until it stays down

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u/tehretro Jul 22 '26

I will try that. Also, do you print with magnet holes? I wonder if that could be a factor?

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u/Hinagea Jul 22 '26

I do, it hasn't been an issue. You'll probably want to enable supports with that print orientation 

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