Brand new Cool Plate SuperTack arrived today. It did okay with the flow dynamics calibration. K-value 0.4. But then I tried to Flow Rate calibration and this happened:
Been very careful to keep from touching the surface. Especially baffling is that I had JUST successfully completed the flow dynamics, and it stuck well enough I had to carefully peel it off with very gentle scraper usage. (The thin labels would sooner tear than peel off the plate, so that took some doing. There were a few places with minor adhesion issues, but not enough for the print to fail.) No damage at all to the surface of the plate.
I’ve got the printer vented to the outdoors out a window with an in-line fan so I don’t have to inhale the PETG fumes. Creality white. Bone dry here mid winter. Never had any problems with this filament. On REALLY windy days the fan is overwhelmed and I wind up with headaches from the fumes and I have to exit the room, but the P1S soldiers on and prints just fine with this filament with no problems on the included PEI textured plate. Today’s very mild. So I’m certain it’s not that. And just to be sure there’s NO other variable at play here, I did the EXACT SAME calibration using the EXACT SAME filament, settings, etc, changing out ONLY the plate on the same day. It’s going swimmingly with the PEI so far:
So what on earth could this be? Why would I be getting blobs instead of rectangles using the cool plate when I didn’t touch any settings? Not a failed bed leveling because that test line printed fine.
I’m using .2mm bambu nozzle if that makes any difference. Been using it for about a month just fine printing a variety of functional things and a detailed Miku model. OH. Could it be that BECAUSE the plate is new, the nozzle rubbing on the back of the plate as part of the cleaning phase of the automatic bed leveling, the coating rubbing off caused a temporary clog?
I think I’ve ruled out the clog. Left is the calibration that finished on the PEI plate. Right is a calibration cube’s 1st layer with about 20% adhesion success.
I guess the fluke was that anything ever succeeded on the new Cool Plate SuperTack. I got this thing since I heard it’s the easiest plate for PETG, but apparently the opposite is true. I’m holding off on washing it since I have a sneaking suspicion that customer service will tell me I really shouldn’t have done that. (Plus, I’ve never touched the surface, so it shouldn’t have to be washed right out of the box, right?)
Found this video. Exact same problem. But I can’t use his solution because my P1S doesn’t have plate auto-detection.
Bambu Cool Plate Supertack - Fix problem with filament not sticking to buildplate.
Toffypops
Found a forum post on manually adjusting the Z-offset. Found the following G-Code at the very end of my P1S startup sequence:
;===== for Textured PEI Plate , lower the nozzle as the nozzle was touching topmost of the texture when homing ==
;curr_bed_type={curr_bed_type}
{if curr_bed_type==“Textured PEI Plate”}
G29.1 Z-0.04 ; for Textured PEI Plate
{endif}
Double-checked that the stock plate is the exact same .02mm thickness as the SuperTack. Tried adding the following after it:
;===== for Cool Plate , lower the nozzle as the nozzle was touching topmost of the texture
when homing == ;curr_bed_type={curr_bed_type} {if curr_bed_type==“Cool Plate SuperTack”} G29.1 Z-0.04 ; for SuperTack {endif}
Didn’t make any difference. Still behaving like it’s printing about 1 layer too high.
UPDATE: I’m printing on the Cool Plate SuperTack with PLA and PETG now.
The Good: Customer service was EXTREMELY polite. And were HUMAN! Lordie how good it feels to interact with actual human beings willing to give clear and detailed suggestions! “Here’s exactly the custom g-code we want you to try, and here’s screen-caps of precisely where to enter it in.” Etc. We tried eeeverything.
The Bad: They were unable to find the problem and resolve it.
The Ugly: Chance alone fixed the problem. My Bambu brand .2mm nozzle clogged on some generic PLA i was using on the PEI textured plate. I couldn’t un-clog it with my shaky hands. So I had to swap back to the stock .4mm nozzle that came with the P1S. Magically, the Cool Plate SuperTack simply worked from then on! I’m still mystified that the .2mm worked just fine on the PEI plate.
So um… yay!
Tiny rant: No cleaning information on the Cool Plate SuperTack came with it, nor could I find any on the store listing. Customer service said I shouldn’t clean it with soap. But fingerprints DO, in fact, kill adhesion. I’d say it’s about as sensitive to fingerprints as the stock PEI plate. But I’m not supposed to wash it?? Luckily, I’ve discovered that generic glasses cleaner and microfiber cloth does the trick.
