Perfectly fine first layer calibration with Steel sheet but no chance to print with Powder coated sheet
Dear Forum members,
I am a proud new Prusa Mini Owner and have successfully printed about 50 hours or so with the plain steel sheet without a problem. I wanted to try the powder coated sheet and tried for about 5 hours now to get a decent first layer height but I cannot succeed. Either the prints do not stick at all or the print head is too low and the nozzle is pressing into the just laid filament.
I have tried to clean the sheet with soap and Isopropanol, tried to change the bed temp in 5 degree increments up and down, same for the nozzle temp but nothing seems to work.
Any ideas on where I am going wrong? Any suggestions on things I can try?
Best Answer by JoanTabb:
try once more,
use hot water, and fairy liquid, with a new scotchbright pad, scrub the heatbed, left to right, up and down, diagonally from the top left to bottom right and then top right to bottom left.... then in circles every which way, then rinse well with hot water and dry well with clean plain paper towels, then handle only by the edges...
please do not use IPA this time... have faith
if you are not already using 7x7 mesh bed levelling, please turn it on using the LCD Menu
raise the heatbed temperature to 70C, Use PLA , then try printing again.... you will have to readjust live Z it's currently too low
Cross your fingers and wait to be amazed...
I have my fingers crossed for you here...
regards Joan
RE: Perfectly fine first layer calibration with Steel sheet but no chance to print with Powder coated sheet
A picture for illustration. This is a 15 x 15 mm square printed in the back right corner. You can see that the surrounding layer did not stick (z offset was set to 1.235) so I lowered it slightly when it started printing from the front right corner to the back left. The front right looks ok but is not sticky enough. I gradually lowered it to 1.280 towards the back left. With my limited experience I would say this is far too low but still the filament is not sticking. I am out of ideas
RE: Perfectly fine first layer calibration with Steel sheet but no chance to print with Powder coated sheet
try once more,
use hot water, and fairy liquid, with a new scotchbright pad, scrub the heatbed, left to right, up and down, diagonally from the top left to bottom right and then top right to bottom left.... then in circles every which way, then rinse well with hot water and dry well with clean plain paper towels, then handle only by the edges...
please do not use IPA this time... have faith
if you are not already using 7x7 mesh bed levelling, please turn it on using the LCD Menu
raise the heatbed temperature to 70C, Use PLA , then try printing again.... you will have to readjust live Z it's currently too low
Cross your fingers and wait to be amazed...
I have my fingers crossed for you here...
regards Joan
I try to make safe suggestions,You should understand the context and ensure you are happy that they are safe before attempting to apply my suggestions, what you do, is YOUR responsibility. Location Halifax UK
RE: Perfectly fine first layer calibration with Steel sheet but no chance to print with Powder coated sheet
Improvement 100%
Thanks so much. As indicated I had cleaned it already but that did the trick now.
RE: Perfectly fine first layer calibration with Steel sheet but no chance to print with Powder coated sheet
Cross your fingers and wait to be amazed...
I have my fingers crossed for you here...
regards Joan
I thought I should share a result after the great advice by Joan...
RE: Perfectly fine first layer calibration with Steel sheet but no chance to print with Powder coated sheet
what a beautiful filament
Mini with FW:4.4.1 + SuperPINDA + Bondtech Heatbreak + PC4-M8 couplers + 1 piece boden
RE: Perfectly fine first layer calibration with Steel sheet but no chance to print with Powder coated sheet
what a beautiful filament
Yeah I love it. It is called Geeetech Marble - was fairly cheap on Amazon but seems not available at the moment