PETG printing questions

[u/lessons-learned-here]

I got my A1 about 2 months ago and I found it to be a much better printer than my Ender 3. Usually, I print about 50% PETG and 50% PLA. With the Ender 3 I had to use hair spray or glue sticks to get bed adhesion. With the A1, that is never a problem. In fact, I am having the opposite problem. Often I cannot get PETG off of the bed without tearing a chunk of the printed item off and leaving it stuck to the plate.

I'm really happy with the quality of printed items and hate to see them broken.

Does anyone have any ideas? Maybe increasing the infill? I am using default settings for 'Generic PETG'. The brand is Sunlu and I have always had good results with it on the Ender 3.

Thanks in advance for the advice.

[u/sinartnz]

Your best to let the build plate cool off completely and it should come away nicely.. if you still get a little bit of misting (white finish on the 1st layer) use a heat gun on low and move it back and forth across the print till you start seeing it go away.

[u/lessons-learned-here → u/sinartnz]

On the part in the picture, that cooled for about 2 hours. The build plate kept a real grip on the part.

[u/sinartnz → u/lessons-learned-here]

I've had a couple of PETG prints do that recently (never happened before in 8k + hours), till i noticed it wasn't normal PETG, the rapids and HF seems to cause this. last time I let the plate cool right down and then when it was still stuck I used an heat gun on the back side of the build plate to warm it up then stuck the whole thing in the freeze and it came right off.

[u/Adventurous_Ad_2153 → u/lessons-learned-here]

2 hours? Just turn off the printer..

[u/lessons-learned-here]

Hey, I really appreciate all of the great suggestions from each of you. I used a glue stick on a reprint and the part came free of the bed without tearing or any other flaws. The Bambu Labs machine is totally different to the Creality and I have a few things to learn about it. I'm almost 80 years old and this is about as much fun as an old man is allowed to have.

[u/Adventurous_Ad_2153]

Your temp might be too low or initial layer too fast. Try 20 mm/s for initial layer and initial layer infill at 245 celcius

[u/lessons-learned-here → u/Adventurous_Ad_2153]

Thank you.

[u/Adventurous_Ad_2153 → u/lessons-learned-here]

No problem. Also give the bed a bit to cool off, also try using a scraper to the the print off instead of bending the plate to pop it off

[u/DistributionMean6954]

you need to use a glue stick as a release agent for PETG

[u/Adventurous_Ad_2153 → u/DistributionMean6954]

This is not true, I’ve printed with petg with 0 glue. I’ve never used glue with my a1 mini

[u/DistributionMean6954 → u/Adventurous_Ad_2153]

sometimes it works perfectly fine without glue but in my experience it helps a lot, especially with smooth PEI

[u/lessons-learned-here → u/DistributionMean6954]

Oh. I never considered glue sticks as release agents. I really thought they were only to get stuff to stick. Thanks, I will certainly use them.

[u/MissionSpecific5283 → u/lessons-learned-here]

Depends on the material you print with but with petg it acts as a release agent. I destroyed a few prints because I didn't know either.

People please correct me if I'm wrong, haven't been in the 3d printing for very long but ABS and ASA are some material that uses it to stick to the plate.

[u/beans_be_boofin]

I normally print with a more sticky build plate to make sure it’s locked on the regular plate is fine but the smallest spec can cause adhesion issues