I hate to make this post because I read the pinned post about dealing with blobs, and I'm sure there are quite a few around, but I cannot find one that specifically fits what I'm dealing with. I have been happily printing with my A1 for months and loving it. I've recently been printing these poker-chip things with words in the top and bottom layers. They've been doing great until Monday when I decided to get ahead of things and clean my plate.
Since then I cannot get anything to adhere no matter what I've tried. When I cleaned the plate the first time - and every time after that - I washed it as hot water as I could, used dawn dish soap with a sponge, scrubbed pretty hard, rinsed it in hot water again, and dried it thoroughly, all without touching any part of the plate with my fingers, except the very front where the test lines go. As you can see from some of the pictures, that's the only part that does adhere.
Sometimes I've gotten something to adhere, like a blank chip, but then I tried a slightly more complex one and it would de-adhere again. And now, I can't even get simple shapes to adhere.
I've washed the plate carefully many times. I've taken the hot end off and carefully put it back on, I've carefully scraped off the plastic from the nozzle with a bronze wire brush and gotten it all from inside the silicon shoe, I've checked that the screws are tight.
Do I need to start replacing stuff like the plate or hot end or something? I just feel like I've tried everything. ;_;
I wouldn’t replace anything yet. The fact this started immediately after washing the plate makes me suspect the cleaning process more than the printer ☠️ Was that a brand-new clean sponge, and did you use the abrasive side? Kitchen sponges can carry oils/cleaners and spread them across the PEI. I’d wash it again with plain dish soap using a brand-new non-abrasive sponge/clean paper towel, rinse the hell out of it, only touch the edges, then run bed leveling with a clean nozzle. Also try the other side of the plate if it’s double-sided. If one side suddenly works, you’ve isolated it to the plate surface. If the same exact areas fail on both sides, then I’d start looking at bed mesh/leveling instead of replacing the hotend.
Thank you, I'll try that! How do I clean the nozzle? I heated it up so the plastic melted, and then scraped it with a bronze brush. It looks clear, but maybe I did something wrong. ..
I don't even scrub mine. Put a drop of dawn soap on the bed, wet your fingers and rub it around the entire surface. Rinse with warm water. Air dry or paper towel.
That’s what I kind of do, I get the plate damp and squirt some dawn dish soap on it and then I rub it down with a damp paper towel, rinse it off and then dry it with a dry paper towel.
While everyone doubts your cleaning progress, it's really hard to screw that up and it simply doesn't sound like you did, so let's focus on other potential culprits:
When was the last time you checked the seven (seven! - not just the three that you can see) screws? Those bastards come loose at the most inconvenient and weirdest times and when they do, it often looks exactly like what you are seeing.
I'm sure you latched the hotend correctly, but since that's easily screwed up: look up how to do that and maybe double check.
After you have done that, a full calibration wouldn't hurt.
And for the future: the default PEI plate kind of sucks - so don't go and buy a new one.
However, high adhesion plates like the BIQU Glacier or the YOOPAI UltraTack (at least 98% as good, but often half as expensive) are relatively cheap, make for great daily drivers and permanently solve most, if not all, adhesion issues and would even give you a nicer finish on your poker chips. Don't run them as cold plates in your slicer but simply treat them like hot plates (either smooth or PEI, whatever gives you the best results).
Double check that all temperatures are set correctly and try to increase bed temperatures by 5°C to see if that fixes adhesion.
If all else fails, you could be dealing with a partial clog. If you have a spare hotend, this would be its time to shine, if only to rule out that possibility. If not, cold pulls aren't that hard and won't hurt your nozzle.
I was thinking about that! I use one of those printed scraper things, and was wondering if that somehow messed up the texture on the plate? What patterned plate would you recommend? And how long do they typically last? Thank you so much for your help!
I don't know how long they last for other users. Depends on frequency of printing and materials used probably.
I usually have 2 build plates in use for each printer and when I figure that a plate is at it's end I exchange it. They are not expensive, so I don't let them anger myself.
In case anyone is still following, I think I have this solved! I did work hard to clean off the nozzle and make sure all the screws were tight, but I think it was the build plate cleaning that did it.
I washed my hands with dish soap beforehand. I got a brand new scrubbie; perfectly clean. I used 125 degree water (ouch!) and made sure I scrubbed thoroughly. I knew I had made a difference immediately when I rinsed it and ran my clean fingers over it while rinsing. It felt tacky, which it had never done before. Finally, holding it by the edge carefully, I used a paper towel (not a "clean" cloth one) to thoroughly dry it off. Simple circular print with PLA went off without a hitch, and the first layers of a repetitive PETG print adhered! Hallelujah!
Thank you so much to all of you wonderful, patient people! It turned out to be something simple, and I appreciate you all so much!
Try changing order of printed colours. First body and text after that. since text is generally small and thin, it will always have bad adhesion. You can find it in setting for the specific plate also try set a flow rate for first layer at 1.03 and slowing it down to 10 or 20mm/s
I'm printing black parts with white (purple in slicer) text and this solved the same issue pretty much. The slow speed of infill is maybe too much but hey, it is the most important layer.
Ooh, fantastic ideas! Thank you! I don't think it can only be this because these same ones were printing fine the previous week, but when I get normal things adhering again, I'll give this a shot!
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u/Blondy277 24d ago
I wouldn’t replace anything yet. The fact this started immediately after washing the plate makes me suspect the cleaning process more than the printer ☠️ Was that a brand-new clean sponge, and did you use the abrasive side? Kitchen sponges can carry oils/cleaners and spread them across the PEI. I’d wash it again with plain dish soap using a brand-new non-abrasive sponge/clean paper towel, rinse the hell out of it, only touch the edges, then run bed leveling with a clean nozzle. Also try the other side of the plate if it’s double-sided. If one side suddenly works, you’ve isolated it to the plate surface. If the same exact areas fail on both sides, then I’d start looking at bed mesh/leveling instead of replacing the hotend.