Z height, first layer and adhesion
Hi I'm new... 😊Â
...not entirely new to 3D printing (have been on it for ~2 years with an Anycubic i3 Mega with its "Ultrabase") but to the Prusa world.
After assembling the MK3s+ (with powder coated springsteel bed) I've had some issues getting the first layer just about perfect. I've watched a few videos about people doing the Live Z height adjustment (one by Josef Prusa himself 😋) on their MK3s and they made it look incredibly easy. I've gone through the built-in calibration at least 20-30 times until I reached a somewhat usable distance. It feels like the margin where the filament actually sticks vs. either not adhering at all/curling up behind the nozzle is extremly small (about +/-0.025)
The first few (somewhat successful) testprints I've done (using the Prusa PLA and default SD card files) all seemed to have issues with warping / corners lifting up, which ultimately made quite a few of them straight up fail (nozzle colliding with the print).Â
I've manually leveled my old Anycubic printer many times but never had issues with adhesion. Sure, the first layer may have looked ugly but adhesion was never really an issue, unless the distance between nozzle and bed was really off.
I've cleaned the bed thoroughly with IPA multiple times but didn't notice any improvement. Ultimately I gave in and used some gluestick on the bed and (it's currently printing, no lifting) so far that did the trick.
Now: Is it supposed to be that way? I've never in the past two years even owned gluestick or thought about using it for my other printer, since prints always stuck to the bed extremely well. I'm a little uncertain if I did something wrong during the assembly / in general or I just cannot print parts like this without a brim or treating the bed in some way on this kind of surface.. Maybe I'm just spoiled by the "Ultrabase"?
Looking at the marketing material "Our powder-coated sheets allow you to print [...] without applying adhesive/separation layers" tells me that this has to be a "me-problem" and there is a significant oversight on my part.
Any feedback is much appreciated, thanks for taking the time and have a nice day ❤️Â
RE: Z height, first layer and adhesion
A day and many failed prints later I think I can share a solution to my problem. Well not one but probably a combination of a few factors.
Long story short, this is what ultimately made prints stick:
First I went even lower with the nozzle. I read somewhere that the texture of the bed needs a slightly lower nozzle to make sure that the material actually gets squeezed into the texture.Â
Second... Cleaning the bed using the "everything but overkill is underachievement"-method. First I used a little bit of water to deal with the glue stick I put on out of desperation. (no soap) After that I placed a paper towel on top of the bed and soaked the entire thing in alcohol. Loads. LOADS of alcohol. After a few minutes I gave it some love with a paper towel. Two more passes of drowning it in alcohol and scrubbing the ever-living sh*t out of it.Â
Seems like the prints are finally sticking as I expected.Â
Have a nice day!