Reply To: Hobby Weekender 15/03/2019 – The 2000's

[evilstu 15298xp 1]

@blinky465 ah ok, bit more detail in your second post. So sounds like it’s a combination of 2 issues – build plate adhesion and heat creep.

Heat creep – as you suggested try switching from ABS to PLA. I use PLA with a build plate temp of 50 degrees and hotend at 210 with no issues (Presently running a Prusa I3 Mk2). Had terrible issues however with heat creep on my first printer years ago (an I3 clone kit) – Inside in the tube in your hotend there should be a teflon sleeve. If there is additional heat buildup above the hotend then it could be that this sleeve has been damaged/split and the heat flowing back up the feeder tube and  most likely melting the plastic before it can even reach the hotend, stopping anything from feeding out on longer jobs. May need replacing. Alternatively, maybe try mounting an extra fan or heat sink on the hotend to dissipate some of the surplus heat? Although for a few dollars for a small roll of PLA I’d probably try that first before you went modding your hotend…

For the build plate adhesion it looked from your earlier shots like you were printing a raft under the model, possibly using slic3r? If you have Cura (or are happy enough losing the couple of hundred meg of drive space to download and install it) try printing a job with build plate adhesion selected – it adds a small skirt to the bottom of the model to bind it to the build plate and reduces chances of the corners of the model retracting as the layers cool (switching to PLA may also help a little as there’s a lower temperature differential to the ambient environment). Just bear in mind that the model may be harder to remove than you are used to – I usually heat up my build plate to 55 degrees (again, I’m using PLA) and let it sit for a few minutes, then using a small sharp chisel carefully slide it under the corner of the model and lift off the build plate.

To get things to stick down I’ve tried painters tape, several glues (some will improve adhesion, some will make it nearly impossible to remove the job from the print bed once finished…) and finally settled on a cheap can of hairspray I had kicking about to use to varnish parts mid-paintjob. If you are going to use hairspray use very sparingly – a quick two tenths of a second spray to the centre of the build plate from 40cm back will likely be more than adequate – any more and you will have a great print result aht you have no way of recovering from the print bed 🙂

Aside from that I’m guessing you have checked all the usual things – relevelled the print bed, checked Z axis alignment etc?

But yeah, maybe try some PLA before you pull the trigger on a new printer. Worst case scenario it ill give you a bit more info with regard to what you are seeking when you upgrade.)

Best of luck, please let us know how you are getting on!