I have been printing a lot on my new K1 MAX and for the most part the prints are great but a couple of days ago I knew something was out to get me. I started a print of a bevel gear (printed gears work OK for low stress use and have been used as change gears on lathes) just to see if it would work. About 10 min. into the print the printer stop, no error code, no nothing. I chalked that up to gremlins and stared over. Half way through this print the power blipped for a couple of seconds. In a panicky run to the printer I found it stopped but the printer had gone into power lose mode, which generally isn’t good, the tip fusses to the print but I resumed the print and it actually started up and there wasn’t any joint line or other artifact. So just about done the print popped of of the bed. Sometimes the universe wins.
P.S. I have had three prints come loose now, from the flat flexible plate that comes with printer. Not impressed. I use glue as instructed and 15MM brims. I never had this happen on glass.
Hmm maybe check the cable you are using, or try plugging it into a different outlet. Seems like it is getting starved for power for some reason.
Also, for the plate, what temperature are you using? I have been using PEI sheets for years now and never in a million years would I ever go back to glass! There has to be something funky going on with the sheet that is on it now.
I have never tried PEI or any other surface except the flexible one that came with the printer. I still think glass and glue are great and this might be the Cr-magnon in me but it holds hard. It is a pain to remove prints off of it, if you flex it your probably are going to slash your wrists. I rarely had a print lift or had warping on the corners. I will admit it is probably me still learning that is causing some of the problems but the plate does not hold the print that good…
Very important to make sure it is kept clean, which I’m sure you have heard 80,000 times now ;).
Another trick I like to use is to raise the temperature a little bit, usually I will go 10 degrees hotter than what you use with glass. So for PLA you would use 70C instead of 60C, the reason for this is that when hot PEI creates a polymer bond with the plastic which is why it holds so well, but as soon as it cools those bonds break allowing the part to just pop off. In fact before they used spring steel and magnets, when it was just a adhesive sheet of PEI that you would stick to the build plate, I was able to pick up the printer by the print when the bed was hot. But as soon as it cooled down all you needed to go was give it a light tap and it would pop right off!
By raising the temps a little bit you can increase the strength of those bonds and allow proper adhesion. On all my machines at home I run the build plates clean, I never use any glue stick or anything (for PLA at least). I usually just make the 2 changes of keeping them extremely clean (IPA wipe down before every print) and then I use a bit higher temperature. But some gluestick never hurts, I just hate the residue it leaves on the bottom of the print lol.
If you are interested in a glass build plate for it I would probably recommend going with garrolyte or carbon fiber as they are much lighter than glass!
I don’t have a PEI sheet on mine, it came with a plain flex sheet. On my last print I cleaned the sheet well put glue on it according to the instructions that came with it, ran the calibration before printing and when it hit the 85% point it came off again.
I’m waiting for a bed levelling adjustment set and then the glass is going on it.
The main reason that I will switch to glass is that the bed on my printer is warped (the mag plate is shimmed all over so it is usable), glass should help flatten it out.
Scrub crap out of stock flex sheet with an IPA soaked soft-side-sponge
Heat to burn off excess IPA
Let cool completely
Put bed weld on stock sheet
Bake in bed weld
