To many times I see posts with printer issues that are related to the

3D Printing
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To many times I see posts with printer issues that are related to the first layer. It is such an important yet relatively easy thing to get setup correctly that will save you alot of time and headache!

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I have read a lot about printing on different surfaces and how important it is to have a good first layer. I however had read a little while back that some people print right onto the glass so I picked that up and it has worked pretty well. I have to make sure that my bed is really dialed in but generally as long as my brim lays down properly, the print will turn out well. I have found out the hard way that if the brim isn’t going down how it should, I need to stop it and start over. Otherwise I waste a bunch of time and plastic.

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glass is my favorite surface to print on hands down. It sticks well (usually I use some hairspray) and I love the mirror finish on the bottom. I have a harder time sticking to aluminum which I really only use if I have to or on machines that have an auto level sensor

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Direct to glass risks pulling out pieces of glass. Adhesive on glass at worst damages the adhesive. I do PEI on glass and never needed to use a brim on it.

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@Jeff_DeMaagd I suppose this is true I have had one piece of glass chip in the thousands of prints I have run but it did chip nonetheless. Never used pei but have heard great things about it

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A precision built machine should have little issue with creating nearly perfect first layers (0.05mm variance). Its easy to level the bed and easy to get the base layer to stick. I only use a brim on features smaller than 5mm^2 and the two line skirt gives me an early indication of the print quality with the calibrated filament I have chosen. I get beautiful first layers on a 10 x 10 and 12 x 16 beds with nearly full area 30+ hour flat prints every time. No curling up or warping at all.

First layers are hardly a concern for me. My biggest issues are power failures and filament bubbles causing jams.

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@Jeff_DeMaagd what is pei?

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@Kevin_Danger_Powers An Amazon example: https://www.amazon.com/Gizmo-Dorks-Printing-Surface-Adhesive/dp/B01KGDTPQK/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1496452743&sr=8-2&keywords=pei+sheet

It’s available in all sorts of sizes/etc. These come with adhesive sheets too to stick it to your bed.

I run it on my MP Mini, and absolutely love it. It’s moderately self-healing, can be sanded if it does get gouged somehow, it’s cheap, flexible, gives you the glass-type bottom surface and gets IMHO much better adhesion while hot, and parts pop right off as it cools. Never need to use adhesives on the surface (hairspray/gluesticks/whatever). It’s really great to print on. I got a 12x12 sheet with the idea being that I’d have enough to do my bed four times over, so I’d be able to replace it when necessary… But even ~5 months of printing later, it’s still fine on the first one.

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@Derrick_Whittet_Wint Interesting. I may have to try that.