All of a sudden my PLA prints are having major issues sticking to a textured PEI plate and it’s ruining every print. Today it was not the actual print but one of the supports. It’s one of those “kind of” odd ones that don’t actually connect to the model itself until the print is pretty tall. It moved, causing all kinds of spaghetti. ABS-GF is not a problem. I actually have difficulty getting that off if I don’t let it cool, first, but once it does it has no stick at all. I have washed the plate w/warm water and dish soap, but the issue continues. I’m still really green at this so I’m unsure if I inadvertently reduced it, however, I did set the recommended levels of 210-230. Then for the first layer, I read that I need to set the higher temp first, and the ensuing layers to the cooler temp. Still, something has changed because this used to not be a problem. Any advice?
Clean it with dish soap or 99% isopropyl + microfibre cloth and avoid touching the surface with your fingers in the future. The real advice is to get a Frostbite or Kdeavi plate and these kind of problems will be a thing of the past for PLA, PETG and ABS/ASA.
In addition to what Maxim3D has already written, it could also be one of the following:
You may also be using settings that aren’t optimal. For example, using an infill pattern such as grid, which constantly bangs against the object being printed and ends up knocking it over. You might think this is a problem with adhesion, but it’s actually a problem with the settings. To determine this, however, we would need to see some photos.
In some cases, the nozzle may have come loose or the screws may have come untightened.
Another possible cause is that: Your filament has become moist and/or is stringing, causing strings to form. This could be the reason for the issue.
As you can see, there are many ways to narrow this down. Photos would be ideal.
In the meantime, you can try cleaning the plate again (yes, we know it’s annoying), checking that the nozzle is secure and tightening the screw on the toolhead - and also try using a different PLA filament.
Most importantly, take photos.
H2D First-Layer Printing Optimization Guide
Build plates are considered consumables and the PEI plates are a good example. Mine also lost stiction for filament/models after a while and became essentially unusable. Nothing would stick long enough to print.
You can try roughening the surface with steel wool or sanding but that’s only hitting the high points and may change the appearance of models printed on it.
And isopropyl alcohol is only recommended with caveats. If you let it evaporate on the plate, any oils it was carrying get redeposited. If you use IPA, you have to flood any contaminated/used IPA off the plate.
I have yet to need to use IPA to clean my plates. Dish soap is all that’s ever been required though I have tried IPA. I just use dish soap.
You can sand/buff the plates or buy new ones to get back the proper “stick”. I just use glue. I have two textured PEI build plates that can’t hold squat without glue but with glue perform like champs.
I use Bambu liquid glue on textured PEI and Bambu glue stick on smooth PEI. If I want a nice matte surface, I use liquid glue on smooth PEI.
It’s an extra step, some consider it messy, and I get that it may not really even be practical in production applications. But it protects the build plate, protects the model, keeps models from basically welding themselves to the plate and provides an upper limit on how hard it is to remove a model, and keeps big and small things stuck down nicely.
But glue seems to be a personal preference. My PEI plates are shot but still work great with glue.
I appreciate the input and will be referring to it in the future. I think it was a combination of wiping with alcohol and upping the plate temp by 5°. I had a successful 13hr print with eSun filament. It gave the “snap” sound when releasing from the plate this morning so it had good adhesion. I’ll be curious how it does with Bambu filament again. I have less than 300 hours on this plate, so I don’t think that has worn out yet.
wipe with paper towel with acetone to “refresh” after washing (make sure plate is cool)
Acetone can clean the PEI surface, and to some extend re-juvenile the PEI surface.
However, on a Textured PEI plate, this is not recommended.
On a Smooth PEI Plate (which has a thick layer of PEI), you can use acetone, but also here I would advice to use with caution. To much will eventually degrade the top layer.
Typical reply generated from people that have never tried but just repeat what they have read somewhere. Because manufacturers cover their ■■■.
Actual fact: no degredation after repeated uses. If it ever does itll be replaced like the consumable that it is.
I have used Acetone, more than once on a smooth PEI sheet, and my plate never suffered from it.
Regarding the Textured PEI, which is a coated plate, the layer thickness of the PEI is definitely influencing the life of the PEI coating.
I also used Acetone on Textured PEI plates, but not a lot. Partially, because I read more about the effect of Acetone on PEI, and on the other side, I have mainly better results with a simple dish wash cycle.
You might not know this since you’re new here, but there are countless posts on this forum from users who didn’t clean their printer plates with the right cleaning solution and ended up destroying them.
Just throwing out blanket “advice” without any context can be counterproductive, because it always depends on the manufacturer as well as the specific print plate. Just throwing “acetone” out there as a single sentence in the forum is simply irresponsible, because it also depends on how long you let it sit. Newcomers, in particular, tend to soak their print plate.
There’s a reason why Bambvu explicitly mentions this in their wiki - because enough users have ruined their print plates as a result.
My advice: Start by checking out the forum, learning about the chemical reaction behind it and understanding why you shouldn’t make a statement like that without providing any context. Otherwise, it’s bound to happen: a beginner will drown their printer plate in acetone because you didn’t explain how to use it properly.
In the broader context, this also relates to your earlier advice that people should ignore warnings on the printer.
