I’ve been having some bed adhesion issues with the PEI plate and the generic PLA profile. It is particularly bad during the extrusion calibration section which makes a complete mess. The built in Benchie won’t stick past about the first layer. Looking at the profile, the PEI plate bed temp is way higher (55C) than the others. On a lark, I turned the temp down to 45C and that seemed to clear up the problem (I say seemed because 3DP is still a lot of voodoo to me). My reasoning is that the other beds want cooler, why not PEI. The extrusion calibration came out fine. I have not tried a benchie test but will at some point.
Am I just flailing or does the make sense to anyone?
The “cool plate” bed temp is set at 35, as that’s what is thought to work best with that particular surface. Heck, I remember when it was common to not have a heated bed at all for PLA. That said, I don’t use the “cool plate” at all - the plates I use are all set to use “High temp plate” settings and I have no issues.
PLA’s “transition temperature” is around 60C, so it’s possible that for some formulations, a bed temp approaching that may cause it to soften and release. Use whatever works for you.
The whole point of getting an X1C was to avoid flailing. I have an old prusa 1 clone that I had no end of issues with. Just too fiddly for the benefit. Finally gave up on 3DP for about 5 years until I learned about the great progress in usability.
I did a 3 hour print with a 45C bed and it held ok but with a tiny bit of corner lift. Barely noticeable. It came of the plate pretty easily though. The foot was 120x80mm so a smaller one may have broken free prematurely. I may dial it down another 10C for the next one. Sigh, ratholing again…
For PLA set the bed at 60C if you do not want to mess with different settings for different filaments.
When using the textured PEI plate the most important thing is to make sure to set the correct plate type in the settings. The printer uses the plate type to adjust for texture during the machine start G code.
and if you print on the structured PEI, its possible that the automatic flow calibration ruin your print…bad adhesion…or wrong dimensions. with some time you better do some manual flow calibration on your daily use filament and then it produce top first layer on the pei too.
I haven’t had any adhesion issues using the recommended temperatures for the various plates. I’m skeptical that reducing the temperature improved things - there could be other issues.
Give your plate a wash with dish soap and warm water, dry thoroughly. Try a test print without glue stick.
I did wash the plate. Then used IPA for a final wipe down. It was squeaky clean. No glue, hairspray or other gunk.
All I know is with a spool of no-name PLA at the default temperature (55C) even the test calibration extrusions failed to stick (and went all over the bed) and the stock benchie came loose after one or two layers (I tried several times). But, at 45C, I have been able to make 5 parts that came out exactly as intended. Several with a pretty small footprint. They released fairly easily so the bed adhesion is still relatively low. It seems like it’s right on the edge of working. Note that the default PLA temp for other plates is much lower. That spool of PLA is finished but I have another but doesn’t fit in the AMS or on the external reel holder so I need to rig something up to use it. sigh.
Everything else was the same, even the same model for the first successful run, so I’m not sure what you mean by “other issues”. Care to elaborate?
FIrst, try some more name-brand filament. I once got a box of what claimed to be PETG in assorted colors for review, but nothing I could do would make these stick. But in the end, the defaults are just that, and it’s not unusual to adjust them for particular filaments or beds.
No problem with the bambu labs PLA. I am using up the stock of filament from my previous printer and plan on using bambu labs filament when that runs out. The point of buying the X1C was that it didn’t require tinkering but I can’t bear to just throw out the old stuff.
I have not bought a single spool of Bambu PLA. All I print with is “old stuff” or filaments I bought from other suppliers. Even the cheap, generic Chinese PLAs print fine. Heck, I’ve been printing with some Deltaprintr filament that must be six years old by now - it’s fine.
Tried another PLA with the generic PLA defaults. It printed fine with none of the problems with the extrusion calibration lines popping loose that the previous PLA had.
It’s still a game of physics and chemistry, and given the myriad of different filament types, brands, and formulations combined with the mechanics of heat, speed and pressure, there is going to be tweaking involved.
While the calibration routine and built in profiles help immensely to take out the starting point guessing game, you yourself introduced another variable with the textured pei plate which is disclosed to not be compatible with the filament calibration.
If you want to stay as close to possible to a zero touch experience, use the Bambu branded filament. Using up other stuff will not universally work with the generic profiles because there is too much variation in product.
Yeah, that was the plan all along. But, I see no reason to toss filament I already have. Though, if the fiddle factor gets too high for a given filament, it will get the heave-ho. Life is too short.
FWIW, I don’t blame Bambu for this - they get a gold star for working to make it simple.
I came from a Creality printer and so I had a lot of filament that I wanted to use up before I purchased the Bambu brand. In particular I primarily use Polymaker PLA Pro, die to its high quality and consistent prints, even across different colors. I found that when I use a PEI sheet that I must have a bed temp of 55 degrees. The default gcodes that come with the printer try to use very low temperature because they assume you are using the cool plate with glue.
A few times, I have printed one of those items on a PEI sheet and forgot to raise the temp, and almost everything, the print either warped, or released from the bed.
That is exactly what happened to me 2 days after I started using the X1C, while printing the filament holders from the internal memory. The print released from the PEI sheet and created a spaghetti failure, but the printer did not detect it before it bent my nozzle. Thankfully, I had the spare and it was easy to replace.
I personally have great prints with the flow calibration and bed leveling turned on. I know some people have had trouble with it, but so far, I have not.
So to sum it up, when printing PLA on PEI, you must have a sufficiently heated bed (about 55c), or you will have trouble.
My PEI bed took a fair bit of cleaning with iso propyl alcohol when it was new. I’ve marked the sides so I can tell if it’s a cleand / used / new etc… as I haven’t cleaned the other side yet.
After it was really cleaned I had no problems with a 55c bed temp with PLA. I only use eSun PLA+ as I’m happy with my calibration settings. I have occasionally give it a very light spray of 3DLAC if I’m doing a big print or low bed contact area prints.
The PEI doesn’t seem to need cleaned as much as the cool plate, but its worth doing.
I remember when I first used my P1P the bed temp was 60C. For some reason it started jumping up to 100C and I was having adhesion issues. Thanks for confirming my suspicions. What is the default nozzle temp?
