I’m having a hard time with adhesion on the Cool Plate. I’m trying to print Hatchbox PLA, and I’ve found that increasing the temperature helps, but I have to get it to about 50C. Lots of print failures at 35C. I am cleaning the cool plate with 99% IPA before each print.
Any suggestions?
eSun PLA+ no problem with adhesion on the cool plate at room temperature. Had to use hair spray to help get the ites off.
I’ve had no problems with PLA on the Cool Plate at 35C. I clean the cool plate with dish soap and hot water, making sure I don’t get greasy fingerprints on the plate, then I swipe on the glue stick leaving about an inch of space between the swipes. With a slightly damp paper towel, I spread the glue evenly all over the plate. The glue layer is so thin that it is hard to tell there is glue on the plate. For each print, I try to place somewhere different on the plate from previous prints. Once I’ve printed everywhere on the plate, I clean the plate and apply glue again. I’ve had the printer for 2 months now and this process has worked every time for PLA. I’m using Bambu Labs, CCTree, and Overture PLA.
That is what I do. Usually I will set the PLA bed temp around 55C and that will do the job without giving you too much elephants foot
In my experience 35C bed temperature works well for the Bambulab PLA, but not for the other brands i am using. I put the bed temperature at 55C for all my PLA prints.
The last couple of weeks i stopped using anything on the bed, no glue or anything. This works great for PLA. It stick really well at 55C and after cooling down the objects come loose after a bend from the build plate. I only still use glue for Polymaker PolyTerra since this sticks way too well and does not want to come loose without using glue (i found out the hard way…)
But, try this at your own risk! BL advises to use glue stick as a release agent to prevent damage to the (cool) plate. My cool plate is about to reach its end of life so i thought why not do this experiment. When i found out that this worked well i also stopped using glue stick on my new spare cool plate, with the same results.
Thanks! I set it as 45C and it’s much better. I want to avoid glue stick as it’s messy and adds a lot of time between prints. The Bambu filament that they shipped seems to work well at 35C, but the Hatchbox PLA that I have doesn’t adhere well at that temp. I didn’t want to go too high since I’ve seen that the sheet will bubble.
EDIT: I’m coming from a Prusa with the smooth PEI sheet, and after a good alcohol wipe, it was very good with PLA, and almost TOO strong for PETG and ABS. I’ve never used a glue stick in my 6+ years using 3D printing.
I should add, that I had the same issue with ABS on the “Engineering Sheet” until I set the temperature to 100C. The stock setting wasn’t sticky enough.
I use either the Bambu glue stick or Elmers washable glue stick
You don’t need much, just a thin layer and you don’t need to apply it every time you do a print
I wash my plate after about 10 prints with dish soap and hot water
It is a good idea to print the applicator squeegee tool in the internal memory, after I wash the plate and dry it I’ll place the build plate on a table and firmly iron over the decal with the applicator tool I printed
You can’t always see them but if there’s any small bubbles in the decal you’re going to have issues printing nicely
A couple of times I could hear the bubbles of air popping away as I pushed them out to the edges of the plate, the trick is to find the correct direction yo push the bubble out rather than just ironing over the same spot
Hope this info helps, it works great for me
My experience with printing PLA with the cool plate.
I’m not a fan of using glue stick, however, the adhesion is much better with a light coating of glue stick.
My process, clean plate with dish soap every 10 prints or so.
Apply a quick light layer of glue stick, I then wet this and with my hand smooth the plate so a thin layer is over the plate, this will then last for about 10 prints. You can feel when you remove the prints that the adhesion gets lighter as you print more. And it’s time to refresh.
I have since purchase the textured plate and the high temp plate.
And exclusively use these now, depending on whether I want the texture on the print determines plate I use. I use IPA to clean between prints.
I’ve been using Esun PLA+ run the cool plate at 55Deg and don’t use glue. prints stick and pop off.
Also had no issues with the sticker coming off. only clean it with Iso when i see my greasy finger marks on it.
I’m using Overture PLA almost exclusively. I’ve had a few issues (3 - 4?) with adhesion, usually it’s due to the object having a fairly small base, a brim fixed these. At first I was way not interested in the whole glue stick thing coming from an Anet A8 with a Fulament PEI build surface. I rarely had issues with adhesion with that setup and wanted the same easy work flow with the X1. Then I saw BVD3D’s video on applying glue, it looked easy enough so I calmed down and just used it. Then I got lazy and only reapplied every 3 or 4 prints. Then I got lazier and wiped it with a fairly wet paper towel every 4 or 5 prints, not trying to clean it but instead to make the glue layer even and reflow any areas that have had too many prints in the same spot. I’ve only washed it completely once in 25 - 30 prints.
BVD3D’s video link, Dress (the bed on your Bambu Lab X1 or X1 Carbon) for Success! - YouTube
I use BL and PolyMaker PLA, l have never had an issue with parts sticking or parts printing. The X1 printer prints great. The BL Studio slicer will put brims on automatically if needed. Also, the reason you put glue down on the Cool Plate is not for better adhesion but to help remove the parts after printing. You should not be heating up the Cool Plate. If you are having such issues with different brands of filaments then perhaps in get a brand of filament that actually works with the Cool Plate and Printer that you own such as BL’s or PolyMakers’
I’ve printed all kinds of PLA on the cool plate without any problems all seem to adhere well. I’ve never used glue sticks or glue I just spray all my beds with Aquanet hairspray. And I use 91 and above percent isopropyl alcohol to clean it off when the hairspray gets too thick. Then spray and do new prints never had a print not stick. I just fex the plate to get prints off and use the supplied scraper.
The first print i used the glue stick and didn’t like it much, now i use 3dlack spray and its really nice. I got also a energetic PEI with an smooth (gold) and a textured side (black) i use only the smooth side without any problems and without any additive. Filament as now Esun Pla+ and Bambu Pla, standard setting aka generic & bambu PLA
I run Esun PLA+ at 55deg with no glue, parts stick and pop off no dramas…
Some PLA stick worst than other, that’s why I always lower my first layer speed (infill about 40/50mm/s) and increase build plate (45/55), I loose some time for first layer but I also never have surprised with PLA that unstick.
Also : be sure to disable cooling on first two layers
EDIT: isopropilic alchool is not the best choice, simple soap is perfect
Just tossing my experience in on an old thread.
When I got the printer stock settings a little glue stick and the pla that shipped with the printer were great.
I just ordered some replacement pla from bambu, and a .6 nozzle. Now nothing will stick despite fanatic cleaning and glue stick application.
I think they have some process variation on the pla and some of it really doesn’t like 35c on the cool plate.
I’ll try messing with the print settings and report back.
I rarely/nearly never have PLA sticking issues but I use higher temperature, about 40/45°C (EDIT: and no glue at all)
I got only one filament that was really not well sticking, a black silk one, I just slowdown first layer infill to 30mm/s
If you have any problem of first layer sticking, use those safes settings :
First layer Infill : 30mm/s
Bed temp : 45°C
I was able to fix my adhesion by using higher temperatures. This goes for both PLA as well as ABS. I get very good results with ABS now, provided I crank up the bed temperature and give it a thorough cleaning after each print. I use IPA, but may consider simple soap/water as mentioned above. IPA is convenient as it does not require rinsing and dries fast.
I was surprised that the stock profiles from Bambu had such low bed temperatures, in comparison to my Prusa printer.
I use oem profiles for pla, abs and petg. I have an old engineering plate that is smooth. I just bought a second one which has a matte finish. Which I like. But all my prints stick very good. I also only wash my plates with 60c water and soap. Dry with lint free cloth.
You can literally hear the print crack off the plate. You just lift off the print, no scraper. My prints are not perfect (I am a hobbyist) but they do stick very good.