What are your thoughts on built plate temp vs initial temp? I found that setting my plate to 80c (actual temp is about 65c) that I get really good adhesion but after that it seems like it’s too hot for the rest of the plastic to cool and the top layers kinda of mush together. I’m currently printing a part with an 80c base and 60c for the rest of the print to see how it goes. I still need to design up some kind of fan system for my nozzel. I can tell I want one and I’ve never even used one.
Ive heard tape works really well.
Ideal build plate true surface temp for preventing warping STRESS of most filaments is about 10C below the glass point of the filament. If your temp is too high, the base of the print is soft and doesn’t provide a stiff foundation to resist warping stresses accumulating in higher, colder parts of the print. But that’s not necessarily the temp that provides the best ADHESION. That depends on your filament and surface. It’s pretty common for people to start the print above or near the glass point (which gives good adhesion) and then drop the temp a bit to stiffen up the print foundation.
@Ryan_Carlyle gotcha. Well I’m going to let this run and see how it goes.
I set my prints to 70 degrees plate temp and start cooking from the second layer. Paired with the tesa browntape it is almost the best solution for me. The tape costs about 10€ here and is big enough to last several months. The only better adhesion for me so far is filaprint but it is too expensive for rough use in means of breaking it.
@Professor_Fukyu well adhesion isn’t my problem. I can get it to stick just fine. I print directly on the glass with NOTHING on it. Just straight to glass. As long as I wipe the dust off it’s good to go. My issue is that the rest of my print (small prints usually) stays kinda mushy as the print head keeps running over top of the part. I figure dropping the build plate temp would help with this. Usually my parts stick just fine until it’s below 40c. Keeping it above 40 should cool the plastic faster but yet be warm enough to keep the part on the plate.
Per your original question I start at 60C for my bed temp to get good adhesion (for PLA) and at 0.5mm in height I drop it to 45. This solidifies the bottom layer to keep it from warping but still sticks it to the bed. The upper layers cool rather quickly (especially with a part fan) and above about 2-3mm in height the low bed temp has little effect on them. Above those levels when the upper layers are mushing together it likely means the heat source is from the nozzle and not the bed.
With small parts you can turn on the minimal layer time or have two parts that the extruder moves back and forth between to let the last layer cool enough before you print the next one. Part fans help greatly with these types of issues.
@Jeff_Parish I’m working on a fan. I’m probably going to print the shroud part and then also a mount once I order a fan that should work with my printer.