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Hi all, I’m new member to this forum and will probably be on here quite a bit.

I’ve recently bought myself a Flashforge finder to use whilst at University (Studying Product Design.) Im not a complete novice to 3D printing as I have experience using the Uni’s (very) tempermental Makerbots and there recent purchase of a FF Dreamer, which I will say is great printer for what it costs.

I do have a few small questions about my finder that I hope you guys can help me with-

1. How do you remove the plate from the build plate ( I think its glass) I dont want to force anything or risk breaking it.

2. Is there anywhere in the UK that sells the blue buildtak surface? or is it basically the same as the blue painters tape I have experienced using before?

3. When printing my printer vibrates a little bit and bed bumps as the extruder goes over it, is this normal?

4. I’ve just started this low quality print, (with UHU stick on the bed to help adhesion as a previous print popped off.) Why has the bottom layer gone so funky like that? is it because of the glue?

5. what is the best way to clean/ remove the glue and parts of PLA stuck to the bed?

Many Thanks.

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Hi Sam,

hope this will help you:

1. At the front of your plate is the Flashforge Logo on the black plastic. You can just pull the plate out no worries there.

If uncertain there are videos on youtube where people do this or do you want to take out the blue print bed itself?

2. I do not know much about the Uk situation, but I would definitely recommend you to use the blue tape as it supports the print (at least for me)

3. This happens for me only when building the raft or when there is cluster at one end of the print. If this is the regular situation, maybe you should re-level the plate or contact flash forge support.

4. Sorry, can’t see what you mean with funky

5. Me personally, I use a small scraper or sometimes even take it off with the blue tape^^but only if I want to change the tape anyways.

Have fun!

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Hi Sam, I’m not familiar with the “Finder” but I’ll answer what I can.

First off, if you’ve got a glass bed on the heated element, you probably don’t need either blue tape or UHU to get good adhesion, as long as you’ve got a good model. I use a glass bed on my Creator Pro and all I use is spray adhesive - usually only one quick squirt - which leaves very little deposit and is easy to clean away afterwards. Adhesion problems can come as much from the bed being too cool (I use 60C - 70C for PLA, 95C for ABS, you’ll have to find your ideal temps), and/or from your models not having a good “foundation” to build upon, i.e. their first layers are very small and don’t form a good contact with the bed.

Did you mean removing the model from the plate? Usually, with glass all you really need to do is wait for it to cool; it’s going to be a heck of a lot easier to remove when cool than hot. Some people use more than one glass bed so they can remove the entire plate and set it aside to cool, allowing another print to start immediately. A DIY paint scraper is a handy tool (they look like a blade trapped in a handle, any DIY store will have one and they’re dirt cheap) and some careful sliding with one of these will usually do the trick.

Vibration can be normal in a printer (anything with a motor tends to vibrate a little), but I’m not sure about the “bumping”. Can you describe in more detail?

As I said, ditch the UHU and look for other options. It sounds like the glue is interfering with the print and causing you other problems in terms of cleaning.

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Use the blue paper tape and keep it on the bed till you need to replace it. Improves adherence.

I don’t have any vibration with de finder, I assume you calibrated it.

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Hi there,

I’ve had one of these for about 3 months now.

1. How do you remove the plate from the build plate ( I think its glass) I dont want to force anything or risk breaking it.

Sorry no idea, not had the need to remove it though either

2. Is there anywhere in the UK that sells the blue buildtak surface? or is it basically the same as the blue painters tape I have experienced using before?

Sorry, also not needed to do this, but and glass like 3D printing material will do, no need to use the original.

3. When printing my printer vibrates a little bit and bed bumps as the extruder goes over it, is this normal?

I’ve put my printer on some tea towels to help soak up the vibrations, also the default settings have the printer head traverse speed quiet high, I always take them down about 20% for high detail prints

4. I’ve just started this low quality print, (with UHU stick on the bed to help adhesion as a previous print popped off.) Why has the bottom layer gone so funky like that? is it because of the glue? Yes that’s glue residue by the looks of it

5. what is the best way to clean/ remove the glue and parts of PLA stuck to the bed? I’ve just used warm water with a bit of washing up liquid

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Thanks for the replys. With regard to the bed removal I meant to actually take the glass bit out of the caddy that slides in and out so I can change the build take/ tape. I will add that the picture I posted was a low quality print at 220 so maybe it was too fast and too hot? As the print continued I had a problem with blistering (pictured) With regards to calibration do you mean the bed levelling? ( the bed isn’t heated btw)

Thanks again.

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Here’s my two cents:

  • Your bumping may be because you’re either too close to the bed and the filament is extruding “rough” and when crossing it will rub. I would check to make sure you have the proper distance between you extruder and the bed. Alternatively, the filament is not extruding at the proper rate for your print speed possibly a combination of heat and feed rate?
  • Blistering is usually caused by the infill amount not being dense enough, I would try increasing the infill % and you should see that problem go away, my rule of thumb is 40% or more to avoid that situation (only applicable to large flat surfaces really).
  • Small stepper movements are notorious for causing vibrations through the printer as well, placing a bit of soft rubber under the “feet” of your printer could help.
  • I find that UHU only works well between 30°C and 50°C, without that heated bed option it may be difficult to get a proper adhesion with the glue. Personally I have never had a problem using UHU but I “cure” it with a hair dryer on my Finder’s that don’t have the heated bed option.
  • Flashforge UK should carry the bed build tape, alternatively you could try using kapton tape, although it’s a bit tricky to get to stick on without bubbling.

Best of luck,

Chris

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The printer doesnt have a heated bed as its PLA only, with regard to the bumping it will do the first layer and if I look at it you can see the surface is rough, and as it goes over again it will then bump/grind over it making the bed vibrate. The printer uses a servo with a sensor for “auto-levelling” the bed (i adjust the screws untill the sensor makes a beep sound) Would you say that this isnt acurate enough compared the old paper under the extruder method?

Im doing a test cube at the moment and have put it at 205C compared to 220 that it was on before. As it did the first layer there was a bit of clicking from the extruder at first but then it stopped. I have put the print down to 60ms for Print speed and 100 for travel

Thanks

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When you level your bed, is the sensor dead straight? Mine ficks down and is facing around 3-5 degrees to the right

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Same thing happened when ours arrived. You need to click the sensor back into place. Take a bright light and look closely at the sensor. The black plastic casing should be snapped into place on both sides. If it is not then press firmly until it clicks. We could not get a proper level until this was done - should solve all of your problems. Oh, and you do not need to remove the glass to remove the bluetak. Just peel it up carefully and use rubbing alcohol to remove any sticky residue. We find blue painters tape (without glue or hairspray) works the best with Finder plus a raft on all builds.

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Okay! im using blue painters tape now but im still struggling with warping. I’ve just put the tape on top of the buildtak, and when the print warps it still stays stuck to the tape but it actually peels the tape up. I cant seem to solve this.

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Change tape brand. I am using blue tape and the tape is lifting only once every three prints.

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I’m having similar problems. Tried a glue stick on the original bed and still had corners lift up.

You’ve put the blue painters tape on top of the original blue buildtak surface?

Thats what ive done and also put a little glue on the tape. I’m still getting slight warping and the tape is coming up.

I know it’s not the brand as its 3m the good stuff. I think I’m going to try and remove the buildtak and put the blue 3m tape directly on the glass and try that.

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Ive gone back to the buildtak and its okay again, so whether the tape cleaned it a bit i dont know. However i am sure theres a fault with my sensor as when I use it to level the bed it is far to close to the nozzle and when building rafts it bumps over the previous layer and makes a grinding sound as it goes over each bit.

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Same with mine. Does your sensor appear dead straight when levelling, mine looks off slightly so possible it’s that.

Read about extruder calibration also which needs doing then the bed levelling so going to try that next.

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How does extruder calibration work? I opened it up but I have no idea what each setting does and how I know if it is correct