Hello guys,
I recently got a TAZ 5 a couple of weeks ago, and I’ve been trying to print with HIPS. After screwing up the bed leveling royally on day 1, I finally got it leveled out. I had a lot of trouble using the Cura bed leveling wizard, so I finally hit auto home, disabled the steppers, and moved the head to each corner and leveled it that way. I’m pretty sure that it is spot on with leveling now, but I continue to have some pretty bad warping issues printing HIPS. I have tried more infill, less infill, higher/lower bed temps, higher/lower extrusion temps, and tried with/without brim. Nothing seems to work for it.
I’m currently using:
3.00mm diameter
235c extrusion
95c bed
Brim (5?)
and Elmer’s glue stick
Could my Z height be affecting it? I think my head may be a little close to the bed on the bottom layer, but other than that I don’t really know what could be causing it. Any suggestions??
Have you tried without the glue stick? Maybe bump the heat bed up a few degrees. And finally a quarter turn on the z-stop to get the nozzle closer to the bed.
Is there a pattern to the warping?
I haven’t tried without the glue stick yet. I figured it would only get worse. I did try some Bedhead hairspray stuff last night that my wife has, and that seemed to help a good bit. I tried adjusting the z axis and bumping the temperature up like you said, and it helped a lot. Thank you for that advice.
Mostly the warping starts towards the front right of the build plate and then starts moving to the left until it pulls free.
Is the printer in the garage or unheate workshop? Warm ambient temperatures while printing helps to reduce shrinkage of the part as it cools… I’ve never used HIPS, but the ambient temperature affects finicky ABS. Hence all the talk about enclosures.
Try printing with a brim to help “seal” the edges to the bed. Air getting between the project and bed usually causes the warping… the edge loses adhesion to the bed and allows the contraction from cooling to essentially take over. Especially in corners where there is more “build-up” of material.
Another means of getting the nozzle closer to the bed is the z-offset in your slicer software. Before using this software adjustment, make sure to get a good initial z-stop setting with a business card or two sheets of paper. Make sure they slide between the nozzle and bed with some resistance (more for the business card, just a tad if using two sheets of paper as the feeler) when the nozzle is homed. If the adhesion is too good, use a Z-offst of .1 and if the adhesion is not good enough try a z-offset value of -.05.
The PEI bed is pretty awesome, try to print bare… maybe someone else can chime in with their experiences. The following page has some good starting temp recommendations:
https://www.lulzbot.com/support/taz-slic3r-profiles
Hope that helps!
The printer is inside my apartment, but speaking of ambient temperatures, I’ll bet that the air conditioner and heater running are affecting it. I could creating a makeshift enclosure. And on the z axis, I had been using one sheet of paper. That may be part of the problem. The nozzle is probably dragging across the print some too. Thanks for all of the advice!
Yeah, both my printers have moving beds… which creates more airflow around the part. Warping usually happens on the leading edges of the part in the direction of the movement.
Ample brim (5mm or 8-10 perimeters) helped on my other printer before adding the PEI top sheet.
What are perimeters? I’ve seen that mentioned in a couple of other threads.
I should have wrote perimeter layers… basically the number of times the nozzle lays down filament for the skirt.
Update:
I have done about 5 prints since you gave me all of that advice, and the difference is phenomenal. After re-calibrated the z axis particularly, using your method, the change was unbelievable. I’m also making sure to print using brim on everything and have since created a makeshift enclosure. The difference is unbelievable. Thank you so much.
Awesome! Glad it helped.
I’m also in the process of making a enclosure from 24x24 .25 acrylic sheet… We’ll have to compare notes. 
I’m a noob, but found that a bed temp of 115C drastically helps HIPS stay stuck to the bed. Having the same warping issue on parts that lean over after 20-30 levels.
Heating the bed more definitely seems to help adhesion (at least for ABS).
Try a 5-10C increase in extrusion temp for the print. That should help layers bond better further up in the project.
Thanks for the tip! I also plan to put an enclosure around the printer the next time I try HIPS.
I like to use HIPS quite a lot for my test parts. I’m curious - what are the size and shape of your parts? As with all plastics, once they’re heated and cooled (whether extruded or molded), they’ll have a tendency to warp according to part geometry.
I’m running into a similar issue with my larger parts - 10.5" L x 5" W x .5" H (support frames) in particular. I get about .1", or almost 3mm of warp at the center of the long edge of the part. I’ve tried CURA and Slic3r, and have ended up using CURA with ‘Tweak at Z’ plug in to adjust my extrusion and bed temps at 5 different levels. I do have my Taz 5 in a cabinet, and my temps stay within 1° during the print, so i’m sure temp change isn’t a factor.
My generic settings for HIPS @ .25mm are:
1st layer: Extruder 258°c / Bed 110°c / Fan off
2nd layer: Extruder 256°c / Bed 110°c / Fan auto - usually kicks in at about 35%
3rd layer: Extruder 252°c / Bed 110°c / Fan auto
~.5mm: Bed 105°c / Fan is at 90% (max) now
~1.0mm: Bed 100°c
I ended up going this route due to slight discoloration of the base layer when I printed items over ~15mm tall. Bed adhesion is GREAT. I actually forgot a piece on the table once, and after about 2 hours, it popped so loud I thought something broke! That was when it finally let go of the bed, and the part warp won the battle. It was funny, but I almost needed a new pair of shorts…
Back to the topic, if you have any more tips or suggestions to toss in the mix, I’d love to hear them!