PLA doesn't stick  

Re: PLA doesn't stick

I think I'm not worthy of having a printer.. I've tried again: I calibrated-Z, cleaned the bed with alcohol [I only have regular Walmart alcohol. Does the fancy laboratory grade make a difference] and tried printing the 25x25x2 test print that was posted previously. It failed worse than any had before: it did the first front left-to-right border, then started on the right front-to-back border... and it *immediately* lifted. That is, as soon as the head changed direction it was dragging the filament.

And I'm still disturbed that every time I power it up it says "it hasn't been calibrated" -- shouldn't Prusa have done that before they shipped it to me? It looks like the calibrate steps are pretty tricky if you have no idea how the printer was put toegher. for example

Loose pulley - Pulley {XY}:
The belt pulley is loose and slips on the motor shaft. It is important to tighten the first
grub screw on the flat piece of the shaft, then continue with the second grub screw.

grub screw? In another, it says "If the nozzle catches on the paper during the process, power off the printer and lower the PINDA probe slightly." Hat like all makes sense if you built the kit, but is pretty mysterious if you didn't. Should I *try* running the full calibrate cycle anyway?

I"m really thinking I should ship it back to Prusa and let them figure out what's out of calibration and why the filament won't stick

Re: PLA doesn't stick

I think I'm not worthy of having a printer.. I've tried again: I calibrated-Z, cleaned the bed with alcohol [I only have regular Walmart alcohol. Does the fancy laboratory grade make a difference] and tried printing the 25x25x2 test print that was posted previously. It failed worse than any had before: it did the first front left-to-right border, then started on the right front-to-back border... and it *immediately* lifted. That is, as soon as the head changed direction it was dragging the filament.

And I'm still disturbed that every time I power it up it says "it hasn't been calibrated" -- shouldn't Prusa have done that before they shipped it to me? It looks like the calibrate steps are pretty tricky if you have no idea how the printer was put toegher. for example

Loose pulley - Pulley {XY}:
The belt pulley is loose and slips on the motor shaft. It is important to tighten the first
grub screw on the flat piece of the shaft, then continue with the second grub screw.

grub screw? In another, it says "If the nozzle catches on the paper during the process, power off the printer and lower the PINDA probe slightly." Hat like all makes sense if you built the kit, but is pretty mysterious if you didn't. Should I *try* running the full calibrate cycle anyway?

I"m really thinking I should ship it back to Prusa and let them figure out what's out of calibration and why the filament won't stick

Can you post a Picture of your recent print?

Re: PLA doesn't stick

I think I'm not worthy of having a printer.. I've tried again: I calibrated-Z, cleaned the bed with alcohol [I only have regular Walmart alcohol. Does the fancy laboratory grade make a difference] and tried printing the 25x25x2 test print that was posted previously. It failed worse than any had before: it did the first front left-to-right border, then started on the right front-to-back border... and it *immediately* lifted. That is, as soon as the head changed direction it was dragging the filament.

And I'm still disturbed that every time I power it up it says "it hasn't been calibrated" -- shouldn't Prusa have done that before they shipped it to me? It looks like the calibrate steps are pretty tricky if you have no idea how the printer was put toegher. for example

Loose pulley - Pulley {XY}:
The belt pulley is loose and slips on the motor shaft. It is important to tighten the first
grub screw on the flat piece of the shaft, then continue with the second grub screw.

grub screw? In another, it says "If the nozzle catches on the paper during the process, power off the printer and lower the PINDA probe slightly." Hat like all makes sense if you built the kit, but is pretty mysterious if you didn't. Should I *try* running the full calibrate cycle anyway?

I"m really thinking I should ship it back to Prusa and let them figure out what's out of calibration and why the filament won't stick

Have you tried contacting Prusa support? One of the selling points for this printer is the support level you get from the company. I would try to leverage that.

Also posting a link to a YouTube video of your printer might help people diagnose your problem. Including your calibration along with a simple print that fails. I’m also on your side that if the printer says it’s not calibrated something is wrong.

Re: PLA doesn't stick

And I'm still disturbed that every time I power it up it says "it hasn't been calibrated" -- shouldn't Prusa have done that before they shipped it to me? It looks like the calibrate steps are pretty tricky if you have no idea how the printer was put toegher. for example

I"m really thinking I should ship it back to Prusa and let them figure out what's out of calibration and why the filament won't stick

If you re-ran the Wizard then you blew away the calibration.

That's great you've tried acetone, but if you've got Wal-mart grab a bottle of the ONYX brand pure Acetone, works the treat...

I posted some details here, but I really hope this helps all the trouble you've had, it's been a revelation to many of our customers.

Re: PLA doesn't stick

If you re-ran the Wizard then you blew away the calibration.

What should I do now? Just try to blunder my way through the full calibrate?

That's great you've tried acetone, but if you've got Wal-mart grab a bottle of the ONYX brand pure Acetone, works the treat...

I'll do that-- right now I'm just using nail polish remover.

I posted some details here, but I really hope this helps all the trouble you've had, it's been a revelation to many of our customers.

That looks helpful. Two questions: how do I check live Z and if it isn't right, how should I adjust it? I'm thinking that for some of this I should probably download the how-to-build-the-kit guide because although I shouldn't need it it would make dealing with suggestions like yours make sense [hell, I might even know what a grub screw is 😀 ) Is, in fact, returning it to Prusa and letting you folks fix it competently really an option?

Re: PLA doesn't stick

Just follow the wizard, it will do everything for you.

The colored nail polish removers will not work, the deodorizers and colorants counteract the solvent effect.

You can adjust live-z via the tune menu during printing, or during the final step of the wizard that performs first layer cal.

You can repeat the process via calibrate > first layer cal at any time.

Glad that helped, show us the acetone fixed your stick!!!

Re: PLA doesn't stick

What should I do now? Just try to blunder my way through the full calibrate?

If you had looked in the knowledge base you would see details on calibration. Prusament even has a video.

https://help.prusa3d.com/article/fja7hbb22y-xyz-calibration-error-messages-mk-3

They even discuss cleaning the buildplate. https://help.prusa3d.com/article/6Gtws6Yqjg-pei-print-surface-preparation
I doubt you need to clean with acetone at this stage as your printing has been limited.

A bit more reading and research on you part would not go astray.

After you get the calibration right then you need to do the live z adjustment. If your calibration fails after following the video instruction contact Prusa via the live chat on the shop page.

You just asked how you do the live adjust. https://shop.prusa3d.com/forum/assembly-and-first-prints-troubleshooting-f62/life-adjust-z-my-way-t2981.html

Re: PLA doesn't stick

I got it working!! YAY. Thanks so much for the patience. And the link to that youtube video was a great help. Turned out that doing a "calibrate" [since my printer really was in calibration] was a snap. I tweaked the "live Z" to get it to print a bit more smoothly. I ended up at -.500 -- is that about normal?

As recommended, before I did anything I went out and got 100% acetone. I still have just regular alcohol and at least, at the moment, it is enough so I'm not going to hit amazon to buy the laboratory grade stuff. I cleaned the plate with the acetone, then the alcohol. Then calibrated and did a test print. The PLA *really* sticks very very well, just as it ought to.

Thanks again for all the help, patience and advice.

Re: PLA doesn't stick

I got it working!! YAY. Thanks so much for the patience. And the link to that youtube video was a great help. Turned out that doing a "calibrate" [since my printer really was in calibration] was a snap. I tweaked the "live Z" to get it to print a bit more smoothly. I ended up at -.500 -- is that about normal?

As recommended, before I did anything I went out and got 100% acetone. I still have just regular alcohol and at least, at the moment, it is enough so I'm not going to hit amazon to buy the laboratory grade stuff. I cleaned the plate with the acetone, then the alcohol. Then calibrated and did a test print. The PLA *really* sticks very very well, just as it ought to.

Thanks again for all the help, patience and advice.

You shouldn’t need to alcohol rinse after the acetoneC the acetone is a stronger solvent, but certainly not going to hurt anything.

Re: acetone, as long as you get “pure 100%” acetone with only acetone and denatonium benzoate as ingredients, then you have the “good stuff”.