I have been experiencing a problem with my 3-D prints that are long-term 3, 4, 7, 12 hrs… And always when printing overnight.
I don’t have adhesion problems. I don’t have clogging problems. I don’t have bed leveling problems. I don’t have worn nozzles. I don’t have bad filament. My filaments is dry.
There are times when I’m printing pieces of models that take many many hours to complete and run into the overnight hours. In these cases at some point during the night, the nozzle or the printhead will strike the model and push the print bed completely off of the magnetic platform, sometimes knocking the doors of the enclosure open and then just printing spaghetti in the air till it finishes. I have had this happen on multiple occasions and I wonder if this is possibly due to power fluctuation during the night? Has anyone else experienced this? I’ve seen it mentioned in other post, but that’s always goes off into a discussion about bed adhesion. This is not a bed adhesion problem. The model is adhering to the bed well enough that when the model gets struck, it pushes the print sheet off of the magnetic base. This always happens at night.
The issue here seems to be a cooling problem. Especially if you’re using any filament that requires a higher heat. Make sure your HVAC or any fans are not directed at your machine. The cooler nights might be making your heater blow over the printer, cooling it a bit slower (in the case of PLA) which allows it time for edges to curl upwards. The curled up edges, then catch the nozzle during travel movements. It could also be an issue with the fan in your printing module unable to cool the plastic fast enough.
If you’re using PETG, ABS, ASA, or other ‘functional’ plastic, then you need the opposite, you need to slow the cooling down. However, this usually happens more to warp up off the heatbed.
You can try putting binder clips on the front and back of the buildplate to help keep it in place. However, the best solution is to ensure there’s no stray breezes blowing over your printer. Maybe find a large box to put over it, but with holes to allow excess heat to escape.
EDIT: Somehow glanced over that you have the enclosure, go brain.
Pop open one of the doors so it doesn’t build up too much heat. Running the exhaust fan can help as well. Again, this is if you’re printing PLA only. All other higher temp plastics need the opposite.
Adding to Skreelink’s remarks: The magnetic print sheet is not held in place too well by the magnets, so even relatively slight collisions of nozzle & print can move the print sheet off the bed. I’ve recently read that someone added magnets to the platform and achieved much better stability. Here’s my solution to the problem: Magnetic print sheet fixation - #10 by Hauke
Another possible solution is to increase the Z-hop distance when the head moves without extruding.
I beg to disagree: This will not help. As soon as the nozzle needs to lay down another layer on a warped or overextruded part, the nozzle will still catch the print the hard way.