I recently picked up the Bambu Cool Plate SuperTack for a long CMYK lithophane print I’m making for a family member. Bambu’s advertising suggested that the plate would help reduce warping on larger prints, which is exactly what I was hoping for.
However, I’ve been having trouble getting a good first layer. Every attempt has resulted in a scratchy texture that feels like a cat’s tongue — decidedly less than ideal.
Filament: Bambu Basic PLA CMYK Lithophane Bundle (dried for 8 hours at 50°C)
Bed Temperature: 45°C (Bambu Profile)
Filament Temperature: 220°C (Bambu Profile)
Ambient Temperature: 25°C
Relative Humidity: ~30%
What I’ve Tried:
Initial Setup: Out of the box, I handled the SuperTack plate with bare hands, so I cleaned it thoroughly with warm water, dish detergent, and paper towels. After drying, I attached it to my A1, set up my 0.2mm nozzle, and ran the system calibration. Then I sliced my model in Bambu Studio (making sure to select the correct plate) and sent the print off. This was when I first noticed the scratchy first layer.
Rewashing and Recalibration: I washed the plate again, ran the system calibration, double-checked my settings in Bambu Studio, and tried again. The issue persisted.
Preheating the Bed: I tried preheating the bed to 45°C before running the system calibration, as that’s the recommended PLA bed temperature. Sadly, the same scratchy texture appeared on the first layer.
I’ve made sure both my firmware and Bambu Studio are up to date.
I’m sure there’s something simple I’ve missed—maybe a setting or an adjustment that could fix this. I’m hesitant to use anything harsher than paper towels for cleaning the surface, as I don’t want to damage the plate.
Any suggestions or insights to help get me pointed in the right direction would be greatly appreciated!
I have since swapped back to the Textured PEI Plate that my printer came with and I am absolutely having zero issues. In fact, it is 9 hours into the 29 hour print now. Therefore, I am fairly confident that this is an issue with the new plate.
I have to say maybe I am way off base but it looks like you still have the plastic cover from the factory on the plate, take it off… Very thin sheet of clear plastic that needs to be removed first should be on there form the factory if it is like other plates.
The reason I say this is that you have this weird striping on the plate that looks just like a layer of saran wrap that has been flexed to lose adhesion perpendicular to the flexing.
I ordered mine the day it came out and got it within a week or so. I had the same exact issue. I went down the rabbit hole trying to fix it. Checked the stone screws, replaced the extruder gears, calibrated the filaments manually. It seems one filament was doing it really badly. Some filaments work perfect on it, others have that ripple effect in areas just like when the stone screws holding the nozzle are loose. I contacted support and went back and forth. They replaced the black and it seemed better but then I had the same issue with another filament. So if I have a print that the bed side is showing, I watch to make sure it prints perfectly on the first layer, if not I go to the textured plate that never has an issue. I really like the plate, it does its job of holding on tight to PLA. I only print larger objects I can flex off the plate since its so sticky, thin objects are a pain to get off.
That Bambu Basic PLA Black was really bad though, I have never seen a filament like that, one minute it would have perfect flow then the next it would be totally off, then all of a sudden it would start stringing really fine strings, then go back to normal. That’s why I thought it was my extruder at first. No other filaments do that on the plate.
I’ll try it with some other filament in a couple of days. I’ve got some Hatchbox and some Elegoo filament I can use. As well as some Bambu PLA-CF. I’ll report back soon!
I was having a similar issue. Especially trying to use a third party smooth plate. I was having first layer issues for a lot of different prints though. My issue turned out to be my 0.4 mm hardened nozzle, was no longer held secure by that spring latch. I put my non-hardened 4 mm nozzle, that came with machine, on and it gave me a flawless first layer. I didn’t realize this until after I read a post about the hot end being somebody else’s problem. And then I thought back to my .2 .6 and .8 mm nozzles, all worked fine.
I also ended up just adding a +.025 mm layer offset in Orca slicer for when I use my third party smooth plate for cymk prints. I just had to lift it a little bit farther away from the plate.
Yup same here. I unboxed it, handled only the edges very carefully, and can’t get a good first layer. It was able to print the default benchy fine but anything else I tried with Bambu filament simply doesn’t work.
I switched back to my textured PEI plate and model I’ve been selling, no issues.
Yes, Dried it, Manually calibrated flow and pa and saved as a new filament. The issue was it was changing while printing. Like the spool was uneven or something odd. It would print normal sometimes, then other times over extruded, sometimes stringing. They replaced it and the next roll didn’t do that. I still get the issue from time to time with certain filaments where it bubbles like that though. Then others its perfect.
Hey folks, just wanted to give you an update on this issue. I gave the plate a real deep clean this time—steaming hot water and Dawn dish soap. And guess what? It worked! I managed to get a solid print with no issues. I printed a 250mm x 250mm x 0.3mm square using my 0.6mm hardened steel nozzle, and it came out immaculate (except for some ambient cat hair that was attracted to the black plastic).
Interestingly, I didn’t use Bambu Lab PLA Basic for this print. Instead, I went with Bambu Lab PETG HF, and it still stuck down perfectly.
One thing I noticed, though, is that the PETG HF seems to have the same bed preset temperature (70°C) as the other plate presets.
Could it be a temperature issue rather than a filament one? Seems strange, considering Bambu says the plate holds PLA at 45°C just fine.
I’m incredibly curious now, so I’m going to run the same print again but with same Bambu Lab PLA Basic and set the bed to 65°C (like the other PLA presets) to see if that makes a difference.
I’m still a bit confused about the different experiences with the A1 mini and the X1C. While with the ladder I got often issues with the adhesion, the A1 mini is printing like hell on the Supertack (with the same filament and the default settings each). Could it be, that the surface of the X1C plate is somehow worse? Or could it be, that the “open mind” of the A1 mini with better natural cooling effect is the root cause? I’m leaving the top open with my X1C while printing PLA/PETG, but not the door.
You mean the bed leveling or flow calibration? I did both and I’m doing always if I switch the plate type or filament.
Need to investigate more on the Supertack, because I like the surface finish.
