I’ve been offshore for several months and have not been using my A350. I recently came back to it and tried to print some small pieces for an RC Aircraft. The first time I tried to print the PLA kept sticking to the print head so I ordered a new hot end. The second and third attempts at printing started fine but it seems like the brim, because that is as far as the print got, comes unstuck from the print bed. I cleaned the bed thoroughly with isopropyl alcohol (and let dry) as well as did a heated calibration before each print. (Whichever calibration had the most points) I will attach a picture of the bed after I removed the failed print below. You can see from the picture that the first layer appears to be sticking, in fact it seems like each time the print fails the first bead laid down seems to be curling up from the bed. I’m not sure how else to describe that. I think the print head runs into the already printed section after it curls up and then just makes a rat nest after that. I have never had this problem before so I feel like the poor adhesion has something to do with the printer sitting and not being used. I’m using the latest Cura: .16mm 15% infill, brim, What do you think?
Do I need to replace the print bed?
Is there another method of getting adhesion?
Is it possible the PLA has something wrong with it from sitting out? (Snapmaker 1.75mm black)
I had problems with fine dust on the print sheet, which Isopropanol did not solve/wash away, my prints not sticking well. I then used warm water and dish washing soap to clean the bed, dried it off immediately (some people claim the bed should not be wet too long… no idea if this is true) and had good print adhesion again.
If your PLA still is fine I guess depends a bit how it was stored. I have PLA that is now several years old and still just works - I store it with some silica gel (not sure if this is the same name in English - it is the desiccant that comes with many articles in the box, the small packages that say “do not eat, throw away”) - usually the stuff that comes with the filament on delivery. I also use the plastic bag the filament comes in with which has a zip for closing. I store it in my flat at room temperature and normal humidity.
PLA can get wet, which makes it brittle and can cause surface defects on prints from boiling away water. If yours is wet, you can dry it in your oven.
Snapmaker PLA itself I had bad experiences with - the spool that came with my kickstarter delivery was utter crap. It seems that Snapmaker PLA varies a lot in quality.
I had the same problem, and it was fine dust as @Hauke described. I was able to clean the bed by repeatedly printing a thin sheet across the whole bed. That’s a lot easier with my tiny Original, with it’s 125mm x 125mm bed. I didn’t try soap and water, as my bed doesn’t have the removable sheet. I found a sheet of paper over the bed when not in use works pretty well to prevent the problem. I eventually designed a cover that works for me, but I don’t know how well it would scale for a rectangular build plate. I suspect it would need to be re-created.
I don’t store my PLA well, although I do live in a relatively dry climate. I find that filament that’s loaded for a while will get brittle and break off. I just flex the filament and keep breaking off the brittle end until it stops being brittle. I usually end up breaking off all the filament that was in the open air until I get to filament that was wrapped on the spool. After that, it’s flexible enough that it doesn’t break when I load it. Although it sounds like you’re not having this problem. I’m now in the habit of unloading the filament when I’m done printing, as fishing broken filament out of the print head isn’t fun.
