Hey all, seeking some advice re: my (IP) progress about printing the Core
I am using my Elegoo Neptune 3 pro, using some gray Elegoo PLA that I had on hand. This is the largest print that I’ve done in quite some time, and while it is still ongoing, it is clearly warping off the bed. I’m going to let it finish, but I was wondering whether the resulting print is likely to be usable, and/or how I might get better results were I to reprint it. Details follow:
Elegoo Gray PLA
Extruder temp: 205
Bed Temp: 70
35% Rectilinear infill
Printed with a brim
Printed in my unheated garage, but inside an enclosure to prevent drafts.
I haven’t had problems with warping in PLA before, and have had generally good experiences with this PLA brand before, but I haven’t printed anything this large in quite some time.
That’s too bad. Your print quality is looking really good. Sorry, I can’t tell you if it’s going to be an issue. I know that’s a long print so you might just try assembling it to see if you actually have issues.
Also have you tried any bed adhesive (i.e., hairspray, glue stick)?
I had less severe lift on my core, and it was useable. If you have to print again, I would consider making a temporary enclosure for the printer to keep the ambient temps up, as this has helped me in the past with similar issues.
Edit: Just read that you used an enclosure. I would move your printer inside, and also use the enclosure.
Having noted that, your bed temp seems too high to me for PLA.
I have issues with PLA adhesion if I go over about 55C with PLA on my printers, especially if there’s a significant temp difference to ambient.
With that high bed temp, do you run a low first layer speed?
(I run first layer at 50% which seems to work well for me with PLA)
An enclosure isn’t that much help if there’s a really big difference between bed temp and outside ambient temp. Do you monitor the enclosure temp? What was the temp in your garage?
I note that the brim in the back right doesn’t look quite well extruded- I see discrete lines and maybe a hint of a gap/crown hinting that you may have a bit of a bed leveling issue as well.
More questions/suggestions:
Do you run a part cooling fan? Was it on full for the whole print?
Everyone has different results with bed adhesives, but I’ve had really great luck with a specific really cheap spray product I’ll try to show below. You may need an adhesive if you can’t get the warping to stop.
Others swear by / at other adhesives.
Thanks Jim. As I was studying my own post, the bed temperature DID seem too high, and checking my CURA settings, it appears that it was a default that I’m inheriting somewhere other than the default for the material. I suspect it works okay for small parts that I’ve been doing, but for larger parts like this, it’s less good. I suspect a default more like 50 or 55 would be better, I’m doing a test now, and probably will retry this again some point in the future. Not sure where the 70 value is coming from, Cura claims “This setting is shared between all extruders.” and appears to be overriding material settings for their generic PLA.
For bed temp, I normally do 60C for first layer, and 55C for all subsequent layers. I run enclosure, with printers located in a conditioned space in basement. I seldom have warping issues. Occasionally when I do, it seems possibly down to an unusual filament being used.
Update: the original print eventually failed by popping entirely off the bed.
I readjusted the bed temperature down to 50C, which is what I thought it should be, and after several hours I see no hint of the print rising. I also put a small thermometer inside my enclosure, and the temperature is 84 degrees currently, which seems fine to me. I’ll post an update when it finishes sometime tomorrow.
