Print wont stick at all  

RE: Print wont stick at all

wash the bed with hot water and dish soap without additives, and clean paper towel to scrub and dry. 

Acetone/IPA will not remove fingerprint oils from the bed. So once you wash it, handle it only by the edges. 

RE: Print wont stick at all

Best to do the soap and water wash: don't follow it with alcohol or acetone or you'll just deposit more oil on the bed.  The streak test is your best guide to how dirty the bed is.

Hot Water wash: often, as needed
Handle the bed only by the edges.
Wash the bed in hot water, use a fresh paper towel as a wash cloth, with a few drops of plain dish soap (Dawn, unscented, no anti-bacterial, etc.). Rinse well in hot water - if you have very soft water, rinse a bit longer.
Dry the bed with a fresh paper towel.
Handle the bed only by the edges.
Place bed on printer.

Alcohol rinse: every few prints
Once in a while, an alcohol rinse is helpful to remove PLA residue. It does not remove finger oils.
Pour a 5 cm puddle of 91%+ alcohol in the middle of the bed, with clean hands use a fresh paper towel to scrub the bed. Wipe up all the alcohol.

Streak test: when contamination is suspected and after a wash
With a fresh piece of paper towel, and very clean fingers, dampen the towel with 91%+ alcohol, and wipe the bed side to side moving back to front, like you're painting it with alcohol. The alcohol should be thin enough on the towel it quickly evaporates. If you see any streaks, the bed is dirty and needs a wash.

Acetone wash: infrequent
Pour a 2 cm puddle of acetone on the bed, scrub it around with a fresh paper towel. It will evaporate fast as you clean. This step removes PEI oxides that form over time and with heat, and improves PLA adhesion to a like new state.

RE: Print wont stick at all

Something that isn't in the Prusa instructions, and should be, is the print bed should get a hot-water and soap wash before the first use. The print bed has likely collected dirt and oils during the packing process.

Another thing that might help (I should take my own advice here) is to invest in a box of disposable nitrile or latex gloves. Then never touch the print bed without a clean pair of gloves on. This should significantly reduce the frequency of skin oils getting on the bed. (Though, which is one reason why I haven't done this, I'm not sure if the cost of a box of gloves is worth the minor hassle of periodically taking my print bed to the kitchen sink for a good clean...)

RE: Print wont stick at all

I use the paper towel I am drying with as a barrier ... and it usually works since my fingers are pretty clean from washing.  But I've also washed with alcohol to remove visible PLA residue after soap and water and was surprised how much oil the alcohol left.  So now I alcohol wash first, then soap and water.

RE: Print wont stick at all

Hi eveyone. I found a solution to fix my sticking issue.

I am new to 3D printing and started printing for the first time yesterday.

My first layer calibration kept delaminating in different sections after many attempts and height adjustments.

I then used the solution linked below and everything worked perfectly three full prints later.

Remember your glue stick and isopropyl alcohol or "metho" is your friend

Hope this helps a few people. ☺

Cheers

Ben

RE: Print wont stick at all

Ben - a gluestick is for REDUCING bed adhesion, not for increasing it. And alcohol does NOT remove finger prints, it only spreads them around in a thinner layer.

To clean the bed, soap and water is your friend.

RE: Print wont stick at all

i find a glue stick is good but you suffer for it. i really CBF dealing with glue aye. i'd rather have a print fail than deal with glue.

heh while we're on the topic of fresh out of the box- do other people get the hilariously oversized spatula?

RE: Print wont stick at all

Posted by: mikkeltj

Hi, my printer has been going for around 50-100 hours and now the print wont stick.

I've been cleaning the steel sheet with acetone og and cleaning the nozzle with a brasswire brush.

I've calibrated 3 times and it still won't stick

Any tips to fixing it?

are ya using good goo? always use good goo. i have suffered from poor goo. twice in fact.

RE: Print wont stick at all

Posted by: ...

Ben - a gluestick is for REDUCING bed adhesion, not for increasing it.

Now, I'm sorry, but this is definitely not true. For materials like PLA or PETG it can be used as a separator. It doesn't decrease adhesion per se, the adhesion is still very good, but it does prevent fusing of the filament to the PEI. PETG may still fuse to the PVA, but PVA is not strong and can be separated or washed off. For materials like ABS or Nylon, it enhances the adhesion very much. Nylon doesn't stick to PEI at all. With PVA as the interface layer, it suddenly sticks well.

I can also imagine PVA nicely filling the top porous oxidized layer of PEI and thus rejuvenating it used in Maker's Muse way. But I'd need to experiment with that to confirm it actually improves the adhesion.

And alcohol does NOT remove finger prints, it only spreads them around in a thinner layer.

And neither is this. What do I have to do to prove it? Actually Maker Muse's (video above) technique for sucking the oils out of a PrintBite is based on the principles of chromatography and will concentrate all the oils in the paper towel. It's genius. And similarly, when using alcohol and a paper towel, the oils accumulate in the towel, because it has several orders of magnitude bigger surface area than PEI thanks to the porosity of the fibers. The residue left on the PEI surface is minimal and in my experience doesn't interfere with adhesion.

To clean the bed, soap and water is your friend.

This one I can agree with. 🙂 For some types of soap.

RE: Print wont stick at all

Posted by: Vojtěch

Actually Maker Muse's (video above) technique for sucking the oils out of a PrintBite is based on the principles of chromatography and will concentrate all the oils in the paper towel. It's genius. And similarly, when using alcohol and a paper towel, the oils accumulate in the towel, because it has several orders of magnitude bigger surface area than PEI thanks to the porosity of the fibers. The residue left on the PEI surface is minimal and in my experience doesn't interfere with adhesion.

I tried emulating Angus' technique he shows for the Prusa sheet by applying a bit of gluestick, then using isopropyl alcohol to thin it out, but I always wound up with the glue grabbing the paper towel and making a mess. I do condition the prime line area with some white glue periodically, but never had luck with the whole PEI surface.

RE: Print wont stick at all

Posted by: bobstro

I tried emulating Angus' technique he shows for the Prusa sheet by applying a bit of gluestick, then using isopropyl alcohol to thin it out, but I always wound up with the glue grabbing the paper towel and making a mess. I do condition the prime line area with some white glue periodically, but never had luck with the whole PEI surface.

I'll try, too. So far I always had trouble getting any kind of smooth surface using glue stick, water, brushes, squeegees or sponges. I never tried to dilute it with alcohol, though. Angus uses methylated spirits, which is a mixture of methylalcohol and ethylalcohol. The solubility of PVA in those may be different from solubility in isopropylalcohol. But it'll have to wait till the morning, it's already too late here.

RE: Print wont stick at all

Cleaning the bed is important.

Then first layer is very important, test higher or lower,(try to get this as good as possible)

higher temperture helps with sticking(normally not needed)

Slower is also better to stick.(normally not needed)

A big brim connected to the model will help with sticking or curling, depends on model.

Only a small part of model is on the bed, do a big brim connected to the model,

a big flat square model, make a big brim and/or glue stick for extra sticking power, also against curling

Normally i print without glue stick.

RE: Print wont stick at all

Well... that's first time i hear that alcohol (or IPA, it's the same) DOESN'T remove finger oils... That's just not true, from my experience anyway. Alcohol and/or IPA is know to dissolve oils and it's widely used exactly for cleaning purposes. I use IPA only and i never had any problems with sticking PLA. PETG stick even too hard, but for now i don't use glue yet, because i manage to remove items with stainless spatula. Cleaning with acetone frequently is deninitely NOT advisable, because it degrades PEI sheet and would quickly make it unusable. I never user soap on my printers yet.

I already have thoughts to dissolve glue stick in water(if it's possible at all) and use it for PETG - i didn't try it yet, but i think it might be easier to apply (and more evenly spread...).

RE: Print wont stick at all

Posted by: ...

Ben - a gluestick is for REDUCING bed adhesion, not for increasing it. And alcohol does NOT remove finger prints, it only spreads them around in a thinner layer.

To clean the bed, soap and water is your friend.

Tim, the last time I checked glue was used for bonding two surfaces together.

This excerpt was just taken out of the Prusa 3D Printing Handbook V3.10 and I think they also believe that glue is a good solution to bond nylon and according to the last dozen prints, PLA does not mind sticking to it either.  I also made no mention to using alcohol for removing fingerprints.  The alcohol, in this situation helps thin out the glue and creates a film on the PEI print bed.

bobstro,  I did not even bother using paper towel due to those very concerns with paper fibres being left behind. 

I use a synthetic, open weave wash cloth, spray it with alcohol and rub the PEI surface and glue stick steaks to create a film.  My prints do not come off with a sticky surface and no spatula is required for removal.

Ben

RE: Print wont stick at all

Posted by: Protoncek

I already have thoughts to dissolve glue stick in water(if it's possible at all) and use it for PETG - i didn't try it yet, but i think it might be easier to apply (and more evenly spread...).

Using a window cleaner spray as a PETG separator is perhaps easier than using dissolved glue stick.