I wanted to see how my printer was doing so I created a 230x230x.2mm file and printed it with the same PLA on both my smooth plate and the textured plate that I purchased with my P1P in November of 2023. I maybe have 100 prints at most on these.
if you look at the pictures, the bottom right is the smooth plate, it is nearly perfect.
the top left is one side of the textured plate. it is really really bad with bed adheasion. the two on the left is when I flip the bed over. I clean the plate with warm soapy water before hand and no glue stick. Is this s plate issue or would glue solve this?
thanks
It is highly doubtful that a plate as new as you state would have these kinds of issues.
This is a known issue that sometimes may be explained by small unevenness in the plate itself. You’re on the right approach, what you did is called a “first layer” test and by making it so thin, you show all possible defects either in the plate or the bed leveling. But before you fire you build plate for incompetence, try these things first.
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It’s very easy to overlook but bed leveling on your print should be checked. Rule out that so you know don’t have a bed leveling issue, if the bed is warped it could cause the problem scene in the upper right. Bed leveling will improve it if not completely eliminate it. This I found is especially true if you switch out plates frequently. Bed leveling really needs to be done each time you swap plates just to ensure calibration of that plate.
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I know you said you already did this but clean your plate using this method. With degreasing dishwashing soap and use “very hot water” but don’t make the water soapy as you said; that’s what you rinse with. You need clean water to ensure no residue is left behind; soapy water by definition is itself contaminated. Instead, use your fingers to take the dishwashing soap and smear an even thin coating on the plate. Then let your sprayer run at super hot temps and rinse off the soap. By using a sprayer and a thin layer of soap evenly spread, it will be obvious when you have all of the soap off the plate, and the glycerin in the soap will make the water bead up on the plate. Then shake the plate dry and pat down with paper towel. Perform this task twice.
For good measure after the plate has completely dried, you can try 99% IPA. You’ll likely have to buy that online as the local stores only carry 75%. Believe it or not, cheap 75% IPA may also have it’s own contaminants which is why 99% can alleviate that problem.
If you have hard water, you may even have to resort to a bottle of very hot distilled water from the supermarket to ensure that your tap water isn’t contaminating the plate, although as unlikely as it may seem. The bottom right plate looks like a classic contamination due to fingerprints or residue left behind by filament or, less likely, glue, as you stated you were not using. No matter how clean you think you have the plate, you’d be surprised.
After you make sure you used the methods above as anal-retentive as they might appear to be, only then can you be certain that you’re plate is at fault. Truth be told, I have never had a plate fail yet but I have had plates that I would have sworn were clean only to tell a different story after I used the method above.
You’ll want to note that contaminants on a plate build over time and often cannot be seen. That’s why the first layer test is so effective, it is unforgiving.
Good luck🍀 and let us know how you make out.
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You were not kidding. I do auto bed leveling on all my prints, 5 to 6 minutes is nothing to make sure the bed is level. I took my plate and washed it with Dawn soap and hot hot water and dried it. I then put on a thin layer of Bambu glue stick just for good measure and it came out beautiful. Not a blemish on it. I never though a dirty build plate could cause such a dramatic change in print quality.
thank you so much!
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Thanks for sharing your success and for the record, Dawn is what I used too, it is far more effective at degreasing than those so called “Mild” soaps. I learned that the hard way when my dishwasher broke down during COVID and I had to wash by hand, Dawn was the only thing that would break down grease.
I’m glad you found success and thanks again for letting everyone know the outcome. At the very least, you didn’t throw away a perfectly good build plate. 