Bed Adhesion

TomC · 2017-03-01T17:29:15.000Z

I’m a FDM newbie. I’ve bought a CTC Bizer dual-extruder printer (basically a clone of the Makerbot Replicator 2X).

How the dickens do you make prints stick to the bed?

I’ve got a few fairly small things to print okay. Then I tried printing the brabeest (Brabeast by Gyrobot - Thingiverse) and this planetary gear: Planetary Gear Demonstrator by rileyhousel - Thingiverse.

In PLA, relatively small things do print more-or-less okay. But anything much over an inch square just lifts off the bed. ABS is a complete waste of time; even tiny things lift straight off.

I’m feeling like I’ve tried everything. When printing ABS, I’ve tried a variety of bed temperatures from 90 to 120 degrees. With PLA, I’ve tried a variety from about 40 to 80. With both materials, I’ve repeatedly levelled the bed (so a sheet of 80gsm paper moves under it with some resistance, but again I’ve tried several depths), I’ve tried hairspray, I’ve tried PVA glue. The printer came with what looks like a sheet of PTFE film on top of an aluminium build plate; I’m reluctant to remove the PTFE, if only because it’s been applied quite nicely and it’d be a pain to do it as nicely again if I wanted to replace it.

My googling suggests that most people just don’t have any trouble with PLA, but I’m oh-so-sick of getting 45 minutes into a detailed print, maybe eight or nine layers, and have a piece suddenly start to curl up off the bed on one side. From there it never lasts long.

What am I doing wrong? What can I do to make the stuff stay stuck to the bed?

chanman · 2017-03-05T06:05:02.000Z

There are a number of sheets that you can adhere to your print bed that will make the parts stick better. BuildTak, Fleks3d and LokBuild surfaces are specialized surfaces that have a non smooth surface to help with bed adhesion. I have tried all three and each have their advantages. The latest one is the LokBuild, this was a recent kickstarter and I have been using it for about a month and I have to say, very easy to use, and once you get the right height between the nozzle and the surface just print and let it go. Fleks3D is a flexible plastic sheet that also has the advantage of making it easy to remove the printed part. Just take it off the bed and bend the sheet and the printed part comes off. I have been using these sheets on both my Rep 2 and a Reach3D printer.

If you dont want to use these, you have to work on the nozzle height. Do a bed leveling and slightly reduce the distance of the nozzle to the bed. Also make sure the bed is FLAT it it is high in the center, it will lift.

If the sheet on top of the bed is PTFE, then nothing is going to stick, PTFE (teflon) is made to have very smooth surface so nothing is going to stick well. Have you tried blue painters tape (make sure it is 3M) painters tape works well with PLA, not so well for ABS.