[Closed] Not all glue sticks are created equal!  

Not all glue sticks are created equal!

I ran out of the supplied glue stick with my MK3 a couple months ago and looked around briefly for info on the net if there was anything to look for in a good replacement, I didn't find any info, so I bought a cheap two pack of the store brand and went on my way.  These sticks were slightly harder and drier in texture, but applied the same way with a pleasing enough light purple color (though some ominous steam when drying after the first application).  I was printing mostly ABS at the time, trying to tune my chamber and temperatures to minimize warping (I settled at a pretty high 51C average temperature with a small amount of air circulation, but that's for another post on another day), but when I eventually used other materials, I had a bit of adhesion issues I couldn't attribute to warping, especially with PETG.

I adjusted my first layer height, my temperatures, and tried things out and had ok results.... until a few days ago when I went to make a larger PETG part with some text on the underside (fine detail that isn't a perimeter on the underside) and I couldn't for the life of me get a good print.  It was a new spool, but a familiar brand I had a profile for, and I tried varying everything to get better results: print temperature up and down, bed temperature up and down, reapplying glue stick, first layer speed and acceleration, first layer height in several adjustments, even replacing the nozzle with a new one, and every time the PETG came off of the bed and stuck to the end of the nozzle.  I ended up printing the part in PLA as a sanity check and had just a little bit of trouble (much less, for sure), though when the 13.5h print was done, the print had almost fully come off of the bed, flexing the spring steel made no normal popping sounds.

So I decided I'd change one last variable.... the glue stick.  Went to the local drugstore and bough a different brand to try, it's consistency is a bit softer and it applies a little easier, but there's not a hugely obvious difference... except for the results.  Instantly the PETG print I had been trying for a week stuck with normal settings.

So the moral of the story is: the kind of glue stick you use on your bed matters!  I couldn't find this documented anywhere else when I looked, but try to get one with a softer consistency and when in doubt, try a different brand, they are inexpensive.