I had some problems with warping as discussed here.
I wanted to write up some notes for the next person.
The problem: I had a large flat print in ABS that had a failed top layer which probably came from warping.
I tried several things at once and got a clean print. I don’t know which of the following were necessary, but together they worked.
In general, warping apparently comes from uneven cooling of a piece as parts of it cool at different rates, creating warping forces. This insight helped.
- Google “3d print warping” - there are a lot of good overviews.
- Adhesion
- Use a brim to help create adhesion
- Use Layerneer Bed Weld - this stuff is unbelievable. SO much easier to apply and stronger than glue sticks. (It has such good strength it is actually a pain to get the piece off.)
- Infill - don’t use cubic. Apparently this creates bad forces. I switched to gyroid which is also strong but more uniform forces.
- Top & bottom shell - Concentric - I don’t know if this helped but it makes a lot of sense. From watching my failed print, it looks like it failed as half the top surface was printed and maybe started cooling before the other was laid down (printing a diagonal from one corner). So using concentric, it changes the forces to be more even. That said, it doesn’t look great so it is a problem if the appearance matters as much as function.
- Holes in the body - I had a large, uniform flat piece. I put several 1" holes in it which was functional for my purposes. This has two benefits: 1) It reduces the amount of area that is undergoing strain; 2) it adds circular walls around each hole, acting like scaffolding. You can see the holes below.
Good luck.
