So I’ve been attempting to level the bed and get a good first layer for 2 days now. My latest failure was looking good until the far back corner turned out to be way to close to the nozzle so the 1 layer test print smooshed in there so hard that I feel like I’m going to destroy the bed trying to scrape the damn thing off.
Any tips?
Well I re-heated the bed and peeled it off so I guess we’re good there but there’s some residue I can’t seem to remove. I think that’s how it is now. Oh well… onto attempt #57 to get this thing properly leveled…
I had the same problem with my monoprice mini, I don’t know what they coated the bed with, but damn does the print stick to the bed!
I have a couple, seemingly permanent, lines of filament on the bed, doesn’t seem to affect other prints
What type of bed are you using?
I’m using the Creality magnetic bed. It has similar problems, not because I didn’t level it, but because the underlying bed has a bulge in the middle. If you level the corners such that you get good layer adhesion, the middle will be squished.
As for the residue, don’t try to scrape it off too vigorously; that just wears down the surface and causes more adhesion issues. Instead, I made myself a square about 3 layers thick that covers most of the build plate. I use my least favourite filament to cover the build plate with and when you peel it off, it takes the junk with it.
I learned this the hard way when removing prints that needed a clean surface only to discover they had absorbed the residue:
Using the thin sheet describe above to clean the plate:
@LEGOManiac has that right! I do the same on occasion, Petg in thin layers I have a hard time with.
@SpaceMoose I would make a suggestion before the crazy happens. Get a metal ruler hold the edge along the bed (just the edge with the rulers width vertical ) and make sure the bed is flat. I spent day trying to level a bed drastically lower in the middle than the edges. If you find it isn’t flat then you can deal with that and then get the First layer right.
… genius… well done.
Okay I’m getting closer. After re-leveling (again) I start playing with the z offset. I surmised that my nozzle was too high and that’s why nothing was sticking (except in that one corner for some reason). Turned out it looks like i was right. Here is where I am now:
The back left corner looks not too bad:
But the other squares, less so. Here is the front right:
I’m going to do some more re-leveling, leaving the z offset where it is (though I was surprised at how much was needed - it’s at -4.10 now), and try a few more first-layer tests to see if I can get it dialed in… at least for this part.
Any thoughts or suggestions are welcome! Thanks guys!
