Hello! I’ve done a few prints on my new supertack and noticed 1 issue. The bottom of prints has a significant gap between the lines. Is this normal or is it under-extrusion. I’ve never used a smooth plate (only used textured PEI before) so not sure if this is to be expected.
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Just to be sure: You have selected the super tack plate in Bambu slicer (app), havne’t you? Sometimes, by mistake, I select the wrong plate (textured plate), which leads to really bad results on first layer.
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Yes! I’m having exactly the same issue. It seems like it’s trying to print the first layer too far away from the bed.
If you look in the machine start G-code, there’s already the following in there for the textured plate
;===== 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}
As the comment says, this compensates for the slight bumps and ridges in the textured plate. The Supertack plate doesn’t really have those ridges, so I don’t know why it is printing so badly. The z-homing is done by pressure sensing the bed as far as I know.
As a test, I’ve tried adding my own G-code in there for the Supertack plate, so it starts slightly closer to the bed.
{if curr_bed_type=="Bambu Cool Plate SuperTack"}
G29.1 Z{-0.04} ; for Bambu Cool Plate SuperTack
{endif}
What is strange, is that it all seems hit and miss. Sometimes it prints miles above the plate. Sometimes it’s fine. It’s as though putting the Supertack plate on there messes up z-homing sometimes.
What I can say, is that in my opinion, my Supertack plate is garbage. If I can get it to start the first layer correctly, 99% of the time the print will come unstuck. Even on a small 25mm x 25mm x 100mm solid with little infill, the corners will curl up.
At the moment, I’m chalking it up to experience and sticking with the smooth PEI plate.
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Did you try a different filament? Just to rule out the filament having too small a diameter.
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I my case, the same filament prints beautifully every time on the Smooth PEI.
I’ve had nothing but trouble with the new SuperTack plate.
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Here’s a comparison of the first layer of PETG being printed on the SuperTack on the left, and PEI Smooth on the right.
The only change in settings between the two is to set the plate type in Bambu Studio. Everything else is stock settings.
Additionally, although you can’t see on the picture, the corners were already starting to warp on the SuperTack. At the end of the print, it could be picked off the bed easily. Indeed, a strong breeze could almost have blown it off. The PEI smooth was rock solid. I had to wait for it to cool a little to have a chance of getting it off.
I should add, the SuperTack plate is brand new. It has only had one successful print. The PEI has had dozens of prints on it (and also really could do with a clean 
).
The SuperTack is also repeatably awful.
Here’s a photo of two subsequent prints on the SuperTack, with the underextrusion (is it?) is exactly the same pattern.
And here’s a comparison of two SuperTack prints with the PEI print on the right.
Notice there’s weird zits on the SuperTack prints. The PEI print is (virtually) flawless.
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Yep tried out a few different Bambu filaments and 2 nozzle sizes, all have this issue.
This is exactly the issue I’m having, thanks for the comparison.
Also in regards to your adhesion issues, my plate was not sticking well when brand new and fully lost adhesion after like 3 prints (flipping it over to the other unused side didn’t help). I was able to fix it by washing it with warm water, not sure how effective that is in the long term though.
Thanks, I’ll give washing it a go.
I was reluctant to, since I’ve read elsewhere on the forum that washing them has had the opposite effect.
I guess I have nothing to lose!
Haha looks EXACTLY like my PETG on supertack. I had to use liquid glue to get it to stick.
The default Bambu filament profiles usually have a flow ratio of 0.95 but I’ve had better prints with 0.97-0.98 for Bambu PETG HF. I was having gaps on the top surface too with 0.95. Did you run a flow ratio calibration?
Mine is garbage too. The first layer adhesion is inconsistent. Even when it does start well, it breaks loose at about 5 mm high.
I was able to print one of those silly staircase adhesion tests, but not much of anything else will print on it.
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I can get good outer walls but the infill is rough on the first layer. Even if I slow down the initial layer print speeds to 30 and 30. After the first layer, everything prints fine. I have bumped my plate temp to 45 for supertack and use brims to stop the warping. I have had a lot of successful prints and haven’t washed it in a while. I tightened the 4 screws on the back of the nozzle bracket today to see if that would help and it seems a little better. I am going to clean the plate with hot water and soap and start adjusting the flow rate for the filaments since the auto-calibration didn’t help. If that doesn’t work, I may try moving the nozzle up a bit in gcode since mine seems to be rippling the initial layer as it prints. White Kingroon had a lot of adhesion issues on my textrured plate but prints better on the supertack…
Here is my experience with Supertac plates, I bought 3 of them. 2 for X1C and A1 and one for A1mini. Haven’t used smaller one, but have used 2 of bigger ones on X1C. Oh yes, story was when I got my order one of larger ones were missing but after a Ticket BambuLab sent me another one so very pleased with support here. So… I haven’t tried PETG on it yet so all I can say is my experience with PLA. Was very excited when started to print first prints, but got very disappointing results. Printed not so big of my Multiboard boxes and they warped badly on corners and all the next prints went the same. What’s interesting when you trying to get that print from the bed it is quite a challenging as it keeps on plate very strong. But corners are warped. Washing does not help. So I put it a side get back to my PEI plates and didn’t even took out new one from packaging. Now after a good while I’m starting a bit large printing run (storage/dry boxes for my spools, around 20 of them). As you can understand there are lots of prints with very large under surface area. So I decided to give that second plate a try. And my surprize. It sticks like hell. I have done several boxes (around 10 prints covering more than half plates surface for each part). Not a single warping issue. Sticks like hell. My only complaint here is that it sticks even too strong as it is really hard to get them large prints off. I have even damaged one of part trying to get it off. I’ll give a try recommended method on next ones by warming up plate to 50C. Print surface quality is perfect.
So I’m not 100% sure but it is possible that there was some flaw manufacturing those Supertac surfaces and maybe there was a batch with bad ones as I have two and they acting like day and night and nothing helps to make a first one stick right. Believe me I have cleaned it as much as it could be possible with warm water and Fairy (European Dawn version)
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Ok, small update here. Printing them spool boxes few days now. And what can I say, All goes 100% super well. No warping, no deformations. (Oh yes, printing with SUNLU Meta PLA). And YES!!! I Do now and can only recommend method of Warming UP Supertac Plate before taking off prints from it. Maybe not that necessary for prints with small plate surface, but larger prints covering large plate surface is must. Only thing, on Bambu site they recommend to warm plate to 50c but I found 55c is a bit better. And I use a large and wide plastic scraper to lift print off. It is still quite strogly bonded to the plate even from warmed, but release is much easier. Tried to peal one more time without warming up plate and it teared off lots of strings from first layer again.
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I can underline this. You have only to options to get the print from the super tack without damaing anything:
- a few seconds after the print has finished
- after heating the plate up to around 50°C