RE: printer perfect for 7 months now nothing will adhere.
The biggest confusion for me (staring with my 1st Mk3 in April 2018) was the amount of information out there on 3D printing in general that was often applied to the Mk3. Sanding PEI is a prime example. A rough-and-ready sanding that works on a slab of PEI several mm thick can create a mess on the thin Prusa PEI surface. Slathering glue and hairspray on glass is the norm for other printers, but generally only creates a mess with the Prusa spring steel sheets. I always feel for the poor souls that post a picture of a print they're trying using a raft and other guidance they found from guides dating back several years.
Yes, I noticed fairly early on googling for solutions of my initial trouble with printing that a lot of the advice I find is ancient and in many cases blindly repeated lore that no longer applies (*). That is also the prime reason why I question every bit of advice about 3D printing and try to verify or falsify it.
I spend a lot of time here (well, used to) as well as on the various 3D printing reddit groups, and see a lot of new users get into serious messes following "conventional" 3D printing advice, so I always try to describe in layman's terms how to get a good result. The "science" may indicate these aren't the best methods, but I lean towards fool-proof as much for myself as for others seeking help getting started. I'm certainly no expert, but I've made a lot of mistakes! I'm all for supporting data, but do want to distill it down to practical "here's what to do" advice in the end. I appreciate the obvious expertise and effort you, tim and the rest of this community contributes.
It always hurts me seeing people fighting with their first first layer and all the other problems that seem to be ever repeating on the forum. Where simple advice can make such a huge difference. Your pages on printing and printer maintenance are an excellent and very much needed resource in this regard. My nature is, however to try to further that knowledge, test and understand how it was gained, because without that I cannot contribute to it. And sometimes that means challenging it, too. 🙂
(*) Take stepper smoothers as one example ... they did make sense at one point in history, they don't now and are still sold and recommended.
RE: printer perfect for 7 months now nothing will adhere.
(*) Take stepper smoothers as one example ... they did make sense at one point in history, they don't now and are still sold and recommended.
Slathering of goop on glass and magic layer heights seem to persist. Valid for a lot of other printers, but not the Mk3. Although I coincidentally wound up with a lot of the same layer heights going with 80% of nozzle size, which may still confuse some new users. The "all top layers" advice for printing miniatures with Cura seems to still be floating around, even though it was shown to be a bug that was fixed.
I almost pulled the trigger on buying a Monoprice Select Mini or PowerSpec Duplicator i3 Mini just to get some experience with the opposite end of the quality spectrum.
RE: printer perfect for 7 months now nothing will adhere.
I almost pulled the trigger on buying a Monoprice Select Mini or PowerSpec Duplicator i3 Mini just to get some experience with the opposite end of the quality spectrum.
A friend has purchased the Anet A6 as his first 3D printer. Cheap on eBay, Banggood and everywhere else. I never imagined how far the opposite end of the spectrum could be. I'm trying to give him printing advice, but with that printer he needs to get over all the obstacles of the last decade before he gets a successful print.
RE: printer perfect for 7 months now nothing will adhere.
I'm always amazed when someone wants to claim their $200 printer is just as good as a Prusa, and the 1st thing recommended out of the box is updating firmware and making hardware modifications so it doesn't burn the house down. There are some really bad and dangerous products out there now. I'm surprised the insurance industry isn't being more vocal about these threats... though I suppose they're off the hook if a non-listed device causes a fire.
It took me a while to fully appreciate the different between mesh bed leveling and simple 1st layer calibration. Having to re-level every time I remove a print if it requires any force would drive me nuts.
RE: printer perfect for 7 months now nothing will adhere.
I feel the next step is to order a new spring sheet but, im not convinced its that as one side is fresh and never been printed on!
Any help would be greatly appreicated as im struck as where to go now
So, have you tried printing on the second side? If you still have problems then i would guess that the problem would have to do with lotion or something similar on the surface. If it sticks to one side and not the other, then i would suggest a scotch pad (the green things you use to scour pans with) lightly on the non sticking surface. just enough to help clean it off a little.
RE: printer perfect for 7 months now nothing will adhere.
just thought of one other possibility. is the print fan shroud drooping? is it dragging on the print?