PLA Lifting In Cold Garage, Which Solution Should I Go With?

Bambu Lab P1 Series
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I’ve had my P1P for 5 months or so and have been very happy with it overall. The past few days I’ve tried printing some playing card holders for my dad that are curved and just fit in the bed, while somewhat tall and skinny. I’m having trouble with both ends warping and lifting enough that it then causes some layer shifting and poor layer adhesion. My filament is all dry, PEI sheet is clean (regular soap & water, IPA between prints) and adhesion is great for most things I print. I usually wait for the bed to cool (Home Assistant alerts me when the bed has cooled) before removing parts so I don’t have to fight with getting the thinner parts off the bed.

Aside from being taller and narrower than many of my prints, the other big variable is the ambient temperature in my garage. The past couple weeks it has been hovering around 50F when I am printing and I am thinking that may be a part of the problem, especially since the P1P isn’t enclosed. I’m thinking that the upper portions of the part are cooling to fast while the base is staying warm and flexible, eventually prying it up.

I generally run the bed at 60C but have tried 65C. I’ve tried different brim settings all the way up to 10 rows and 0 separation. The brim is always stuck down but the ends of the part have torn away from the brim, so I don’t think any level of bring is going to change it.

I’m debating between getting the aux cooling fan or enclosing the P1P. I understand the aux fan is there to cool more evenly to prevent warping, but I think given the relatively cool ambient temperature that it may only make things worse.

My other thought is to use acrylic and laser cut one of the enclosures out there to help keep the chamber warm during the winter, then remove it during the summer. Maybe that would be enough to help keep a more even chamber temperature and prevent warping?

My last though is to do the acrylic enclosure but then attach a small PTC heater at the bottom to assist in heating the chamber. I have a small PTC heater that I put in the laser bed when it isn’t in use to ensure the tube doesn’t freeze and that is attached to a temperature control relay.

Outside temperatures have been hovering around freezing but will get colder at times throughout the Pacific Northwest winter and I would really like to be able to keep printing.

I only print PLA and PETG, sometimes PLA-CF and have no plans to print anything else. I already have acrylic and the PTC heater so the only options that would really cost anything are the aux fan or the P1S upgrade. I also printed the 4 corners of the P1P “Vision” enclosure as some of my first prints for rounded corners and some color, but hadn’t ever planned to do the rest of the enclosure.

Which option would be best?

  1. Aux Cooling Fan
  2. P1P “Vision” Enclosure
  3. P1P “Vision” Encloser + PTC Heater
  4. Full P1S Upgrade?
    Thanks
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Before you waste a lot of money chasing the wrong solution. I would first spend a few $ and time on verifying your ambient temperature is the issue. You might find that just by increasing the temperature on both the plate and the hotend might solve the problem.

Corrugated box material is a superb insulator. Bambu exclusively uses double-walled corrugated boxes, and I never discard them. Instead, I cut the cardboard into useful stock pieces for various projects. Start with a low-tech approach to tackle the problem, and don’t hesitate to use temperature sensors on your machine to gather precise data about the issue. Keep in mind that much of the online information you encounter is bullshit and don’t trust anything you read that you haven’t test yourself, that includes this post I am writing now. :yum:

I have a P1P with a pegboard enclosure so there is very little insulation. However, I have been able to successfully get it up to 110F using simple cardboard the saved the bubble wrap from the plates purchased since then. They are about the size of the side of the P1 series. I hold them in place with magnets.

Check out this thread from earlier in the year. There’s a lot of low tech innovation on display there including one where someone used a sweatshirt to insulate the chamber.

Remember, you can purchase a the skins for the P1S and still not have much of an improvement. I purchased the P1S front and back bezel only because they were cleaner and allowed my glass door to seal better.(purchased before the P1P-P1S upgrade was offered) and

Here’s a picture of my approach using the envelope one of my build plates came in. It was when experimenting with ABS. Note that I placed magnets behind my pegboard mod precisely to allow me to hold this on. I was able to get the internal temperature up to 110F with a room temp of 70F so YMMV.

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This is a cheap Hygrometer and thermometer that runs on batteries. I didn’t much care for it as it is hard to see in dim light plus I thought I’d want to measure humidity but that turned out not to be as important.
https://a.co/d/36o6BXN

I love this one because it has two probes, one I put near the top of the chamber at the same height as the printhead and the other external to the printer so that I can measure the delta between internal and ambient. Plus, you can see it across the room but it requires USB power.
https://a.co/d/0ExB8mm

If you want four sensors, try this one. BUT… Be careful where you place these because the printhead will bang into them. There is no room except at the bottom and the very top where these sensors will be free of damaging something if it bangs into it. But what’s nice is that you get four sensors including humidity. 3 that are portable and one inside the unit itself.

https://a.co/d/14r5dzN

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Thank you for this. I tend to keep cardboard for prototypes in my laser and do have some very heavy duty stuff left from my TV that I may try before acrylic. I like the bubble wrap idea also and have some of the thermal bubble wrap from some shipped food, I will give some of those a try. I have a few extra temperature sensors laying around that I plan to hook up to ESPHome so I can monitor the temperatures with Home Assistant.

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If you still have the box the printer came in, you can turn it upside down and put it over the printer, and then let things warm up a bit before you start the print.

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BTW: I just found this material called “Thermopan” joist liner which is used for ductwork and itself is actually laminated cardboard. It’s an ingenious use as a makeshift enclosure easily. I have new ideas as to how to permanently thermally insulate my peg hook mod plate in such a way that has minimal change and maximum effect at only a few dollars.