Thank you…I have left this filament on the printer while I used it so it could be moist. As far as the bed…it should be I’ve only had the printer for 2 weeks. I’m noticing that there are lots of tweaks…I just got a beautiful print the night before with the same filament…I’m printing a dice towed and it came out great…I have over piece left and I can’t get it to sick to the bed…It’s so frustrating
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I have never been so frustrated with a piece of equipment in my life, every time I fix one problem another crops up. This one though is going to be the death of me… Last night I couldn’t get a first layer to stick to the print bed. A problem that just started happening. I followed some advice on here and lightly sanded the bed and wiped with alcohol. Didn’t work, tried hairspray, didn’t work. I just don’t get it my last print was the best one yet but now I cant get another to print… By the time its printing the 3rd layer the bottom layer has detached and it starts sliding all over the bed and messing up. Please give me some advice as to when your leveling the bed how should the paper feel when your testing it. Should I barely feel the pull or should it be tighter? I thought I had this 2 days ago. when I printed the tower of my dice tower, (I had to press the first layer to the build plate then too, but it stuck and didnt curl up too much) Ive tried the nozzle closer Ive tried the nozzle farther away, Ive tried the bed temp up, Ive tried the bed temp low, Ive tried the nozzle tem up and Ive tried it lower nothing seems to work, Please Help.
hi,
It going to be all right, don’t worry everyone goes through the same frustrations. Listen you know how when you drink coffee that is hot you tend to blow on it so that it cools right! Check that your print is not being overcooled. Example: ABS, Nylon etc needs to have the fan off when printing, because otherwise it will cool the parts too quick thus warping and non sticking. You can change those settings on the profile and inclusive on the Wanhao Duplicator i3 while printing. By turning fan On or Off. Take a look at the profile and see what it say in the Cooling section concerning your fan.
Adhesion to printing platform is going to be a challenge regardless. There are so many factors involved. 1st layer width, bed leveling, fan status, and so on. Keep playing with it. Once I get the temp and all is going well on a big print like the one you are doing. I usually will go in and Place blue painters tape along the edges of the Brim to help it stay in place, especially if it is a long job. Try using a Brim of about 5-6 lines or even a Raft to aid in adhesion.
As far as your bed leveling and how the paper should slide. A rule of thumb I use is I go into the gap not from the back, I dont put any pressure on the bed, so if the paper doesnt go into the gap freely, My extruder is too low. Adjust and try again. The paper slide is almost like a bite as I pull the paper away. But the bite is soft enough to allow the paper to move freely. I do this with a hot bed. after all the oozing of filament has completed. Or if you have not loaded the filament yet, Level your hot bed before loading filament. Glue, Hairspray, ABS juice, Painters tape and a few others are adhesion aides, but none of them will work if your temperature and printing profiles are not correct. Wanhao has a tips and trick site where they have some printing profiles, experiment with those and see what happens. Test with small prints that are wide, this will give you a better idea of how your prints come out before going into big jobs.
Lastly make an enclosure for your printer, this helps with wind drafts. Use PVC board it is cheap and easy to cut. The front you can make a door with Plexi glass. As far as hardware, I use duct tape, no screws. and the door open upward when done printing and lays on top of enclosure.
Keep going at it, Been there done that, and still wearing the T-shirt
Hi Scott, Have you printed the gcode files that came with printer? Make sure that the material used is the same for the gcode. So example if you use ABS on a gcode for PLA your print will have issues. Check temperature on gcode, particularly the bed temp. PLA is gonna have a lower temp than ABS. I don’t know what you print with, but try to keep your filament dry. If when you print you hear popping it could be moisture on filament. Yeah so check that the filament matches profiles. Key in on bed temps. If you want I can send you some example temps for filament I use and even profiles for specific filament that work for me.
Thank you, I think I did mess with the fan settings a few prints ago because someone said to have the fan on low on the first layer, will change that.
Scott,
So check it out. Make sure your bed is leveled the best you can. Take a measurement of the Z axis on both sides make sure they are even. Use a level on your bed to make sure it is even both X and Y axis orientation. Then level using the paper with a hot bed. Once all is good, give it a shot at printing. Here are some example I use for printing.
1.75mm filament on a .4 nozzle FLOW 100%
PLA
Layer Height .16
Shell Thickness 1.2
Enable Retraction True
Bottom Top Thickness 1.2
Fill Density (your preference)
Print speed 40 (yeah its slow but it produces nice prints)
Printing Temp 200
Bed Temp 60
Fan speed 100%
1.75mm filament on a .4 nozzle FLOW 100%
ABS
Layer Height .32
Shell Thickness 1.2
Enable Retraction True
Bottom Top Thickness 1.2
Fill Density (your preference)
Print speed 40 (yeah its slow but it produces nice prints)
Printing Temp 240
Bed Temp 100
Fan speed OFF
1.75mm filament on a .4 nozzle FLOW 100%
HIPS
Layer Height .16
Shell Thickness 1.2
Enable Retraction True
Bottom Top Thickness 1.2
Fill Density (your preference)
Print speed 40 (yeah its slow but it produces nice prints)
Printing Temp 220
Bed Temp 105
Fan speed 40%-50%
BRIM or RAFT is user preference. If using brim it is easier to use 5-6 lines vice 15-20, it will give you same results. The bigger the project the more lines can be added. A Raft in my opinion is usually best used on smaller items. But do you really need to use these. Folks tend to say that it is a waste of filament. TRUE. But whatever works for you stick with it.
Also once you get a Profile to work save it on your desktop, Name it I3PLA for example. That way you know it works and you can open it up on the Slicer you use and it gives you a peace of mind once you start. Always stay close to the printer, On its first layers it is key to determining whether a print will work or not.
Scott, I forgot to tell you that I use a glass bed so your temps may be a bit lower. Use increment of 5 degrees when testing on yours.
ok thank you, I have all the stuff to put a glass bed with PEI on but I keep procrastinating because I dont want to mess up my printer lol
Im home Trying a new print added a raft, fiddled with a few settings leveled the printer hot and increased the bed temp to 80c looking good so far crossing my fingers
Awesome, let us know how the print did.
I will post pictures after work but this is how it went, the Raft laid down like a dream it looked perfect, then when the print started… I curled and bubbled just like when there was no raft, it makes not sense, but the difference being, it stuck to the raft, mainly because I pushed down on the curls as it did the first layer. In the end the print came out ok and my Dice tower is finally done.
Take a closeup pic of your extruder also.
Take a look at 3dprinterwiki.info. select Duplicator i3 Factory Documentations & Files Then scroll down to Articles and select First Layer Settings. Good read and well explained. May help you out some.
I will check my settings thank you. Im going to print my design of a 6 sided D3 tonight 6 sided die only 1,2,3 on it for D3 rolls). That may be my initiial layer problem. because I didnt have that problem before. and I did change the layer height a couple times for different prints.
Good deal. You are almost on the home stretch.
I don’t know about that lol, You buy one of these things and you have to pretty much know how they work inside and out. I got some new filament in too.
Printing my die, I changed the first layer to 90% and it is working great I really think that was my problem, I think 
That print looks really good. Tweak that first layer and you should be good from here on out. Nice job.
In my opinion, I think you should go with .3 for your initial layer thickness. It for some reason is what Wanhao profiles are showing. It is what I use for PLA, HIPS, and ABS, and I usually get good results. I know that the 3dprinterwiki.info web site says otherwise, but try both and see which one fixes your air bubbles.
Awesome, see how it goes with that. Save that profile, for future use.
Good luck
I get that if i have the fan on for the first layer.
I have found if I Set extruder to 205c and the printbed to 70c it seems to lay down filament fine but the edges of the raft curl up not all of them but like one or 2. Then I was printing a Microsoft Band (stand) it printed fine (except for the raft lifting in the corners) then about 3/4 the way up the neck the neck was all messed up like it had been chewed on, I tried this twice with different results but both times the neck was messed up to a degree, Im also finding that When the filament covers over the filler (triangles) it doesnt cover smoothly or properly, what would cause this?
sembra che il piano non sia livellato bene, dove fa le bolle sei più distante dal piano e quindi il materiale non è spalmato bene e lo strato risulta più grosso e non ancorato al letto caldo.
Prova a fare il primo layer più basso con il piano livellato meglio. Porta in temperatura il piatto caldo prima di fare il livellamento anche il vetro si deforma con il calore e si deve assestare.
I have leveled the bed again, I have not installed the glass and PEI yet, Has anyone installed the Z brace Mod I bought the hardware. Is it difficult?
Scott,
Hi listen the Brim or Raft is set up by the slicer. So if it is not working for you then the temp, fan use or printer leveling has got to be off or even your filament has got some issues. I don’t want to think your extruder has issues, because you mentioned you only had the printer for 2 weeks…
If you have not changed any of the settings of the Brim or Raft then check those other items. If printing with ABS check your fan settings. Remember you fan for ABS have to be OFF or if it is a specific small item, Like the Marvin then setting your fan at 40-50% is appropriate. If Printing with PLA your fans are a good thing because PLA needs to cool down its layer so the next one sits just right. Check out the BRIM or RAFT settings you will see what I am talking about. Keep at it, eventually you will hit the right settings.