Because it makes other people (such as myself, and probably reddit management I'm guessing) think you aren't very serious and you'll come crawling back to reddit after you get bored of this protest.
Do prove me wrong, because I'd really like to see reddit die. But I'm not counting any chickens until they hatch.
I assume as long as people keep going to reddit (for whatever reason, does not really matter), reddit can show ads and make money. Reddit will only start having problems once the visitor numbers go down. So far (?) that seems not the case.
Yeah hair spray/glue stick and bed leveling lol. I bought an auto bed leveler and still can't get anything to stick/not curl up towards the nozzle.
There are those hidden gems on Reddit though that aren't the typical response, replies that suggest that your plastic filament has absorbed too much moisture and that you need to dry it in an oven.
Yeah those issues can be really frustrating. I find textured PEI sheets to be the easiest to get working, if adhesion suddenly stops being good, I first try washing with soap and water, then I try adjusting the z-offset, then drying the filament and playing with bed temperatures, curling can happen in both cases of if the temperature is too low and too high. Additionally, with corners lifting on certain prints, you might just need a brim.
I had a BLTouch for a few months, but I found it to be way more trouble than it was worth (probably mostly due to its temperature sensitivity and the heated enclosure). I ended up switching over to a Klackender probe, which has been more reliable to me.
Try a Garolite Bed. Get a sheet about 1 to 2mm thick. Yes, that is PCB material. It is fantastic!
Use the smaller sized office clamps to hold it in place. These can be placed on a few sides. Check that they do not collide with your printhead.
Then, prep it with a light ScotchBrite scrub. Just enough to see the light abrasive marks and a bit of texture in the surface. Finish with high purity isopropyl and a dry cloth buff. If you want, you can do prep away from the machine. I do because I disturb the level less. You can use a fresh, green type found in the grocery store for cleaning dishes, and or the more industrial purple. Just need to scuff the surface a tiny bit.
That gets rid of dust, oils and such. And the light abrasive gives the polymer a better mechanical bond.
Set your bed height to about one half of your nozzle diameter.
0.4 nozzle = 0.2mm bed to nozzle tip distance. Ordinary weight printer paper is about this amount.
Level your bed using the paper at all four extents. You should feel just a bit of drag resistance between nozzle and paper.
For most PLA, heat the bed to 65, maybe 70C and set your first layer height to half your nozzle diameter. 0.2mm again.
I like to print a skirt around the part to let flow settle before the first layer is made.
No glue stick, hairspray or anything needed.
Gatolite grips many other polymers when warm, releases nicely when cool.
I prefer G10 type.
For glass, do all the same things, skip the scotchbrite and add pvb gluesick in an even coating in the region your part will be. Let it sit a bit with bed at temp, then kick off your print.
Regarding wet filament, it can cause some problems. If you doubt your filament, you can quick dry some. Unspool a few meters, turn your bed heater on, set to 50C and lay it on there. Cover with light foil, put a small hole in the middle, wait an hour, then try printing with it. You want the foil just sitting over the filament, but not tight. Some light airflow is good to carry moisture away. It will come in through the sides and out the hole.
Use exact same settings to troubleshoot this moisture idea. If it sticks, dry your filament. If no change, your problem is not moisture.
That same idea applies to everything. You need to isolate problems to materials, settings, machine, environment, etc...
All this assumes some open bed type home machine, like a Prusa, or Creality type.
Once you do get adhesion, archive that gcode and process. When you have trouble again, pull that filament out, repeat exact process again to baseline your setup.
Always baseline when introducing a new idea.
I like to use some little cubes, say 9 of them, spread across the build surface. Run that job, make sure it sticks, then run parts. A good baseline takes roughly an hour, maybe a bit less once you have done it a few times.
Some notes about my setup: Ender 3 v2 (textured glass bed), added a CR Touch, swapped out the bronze for a hardened steel nozzle, and installed Klipper firmware. I have PLA, PLA+, and PETG, I dried the PETG at I think 140F (convection oven) for 6ish hours, and then was finally able to print a Benchy boat if I set my first layer print speed to 5-10mm/s. I tried to print something that had small shapes on the first layer (small circles for a bolt to go into) with no luck. I was never able to get PLA or PLA+ to print, now even with the same gcode I can't get PETG to lay down properly. Eventually it just curls up towards the nozzle, then gets dragged and clogs. Can't even print a raft. The only adhesive I have tried so far is a mixture of wood glue and water. I've cleaned the bed with soap, acetone, alcohol, you name it.
I live in a very humid state, but I wouldn't expect my PETG to reabsorb moisture in the 2ish days after I dried it, can't print a Benchy or even just one of those single layer square tests you use for testing your leveling.
I just soaked basically my entire printhead/extruder/nozzle in acetone to clean it out, I tried doing cold pulls with all 3 materials, but the filament would just snap off instead of give me that clean nozzle shape you are supposed to get.
All that info. doesn't really inform my question for you, but I kind of wanted to rant a little bit :)
Is G10 better than say a textured PEI sheet for first layer adhesion? Ideally I would like to primarily print everything in PETG for its physical characteristics (heat, water, strength). Is it true that G10 can easily be gouged by the nozzle? I am a bit worried by that considering the cheapest I can find a G10 sheet for on amazon is $30.
There is a PTFE tube in there that's supposed to help guide the filament and it is damaged. If you can't do a cold pull nothing will work because the shape of the filament will change inside the feed path and it will bind up.
Some hot ends do not have the PTFE tube, but they have metal parts that must be mated together precisely in order for the polymer to flow through. If there are gaps the polymer flows into those forms little nuggets and it can't work.
If I were you I would replace your hot end, and make sure your feed path is factory spec all the way through and try again. Clean the feeder gears, make sure you got nice Boden tube on there, the whole thing.
Pet polymers take on water very slowly. And many plas will work whether they're wet or dry. I do not believe that's your problem. If you've got super aggressive Snap Crackle Pop when purging some material through maybe. But I would look elsewhere first.
If I were you, I would also get a known setup that just prints a 1-in cube. And work that until it's perfect.
The Telltale here is the curling up around the nozzle and the clogging. Your machine can't sustain a flow rate. Once the filament is moving it's okay but once it stops part of it is solidifying in there and preventing movement from then on.
Once you get it all working, if you have replaced your hot end, you can then compare that one to the one you have now and probably fix it.
The cold pull is with the PTFE tubing taken out but yeah, I didn't realize how cheap it was to replace/upgrade the hot end, I will just do that. Thanks for the tip!
Also, with those materials there's no need for the steel nozzle or the hardening. They will work fine with the brass nozzle, and I would use a new one.
I have used glass garolite pei and a number of other things.
The garolite and the Pei are similar. I prefer the G10 because it's stiffer and it doesn't wear away as easily and it seems to be a little more consistent in how it behaves. But either can work.
