I can’t get ABS prints to stay attached to the PEI surface. I cleaned the surface with isopropyl but they still break loose after a few layers. If I use a glue stick on the surface as well they will sometimes survive the entire print but often one side still breaks loose about 3/4 of the way through the print.
I thought the PEI surface meant no need for the glue stick. At this point I am thinking of flipping the plate over and using the glass surface.
ABS can be tough to print with because it suffers from significant warping and doesn’t stick well to the bed. The most important factor when printing with ABS is temperature. To start, make sure sure your bed is around 110°C and that should fix a lot of the issues.
This article has a lot of other great tips that can help you: https://all3dp.com/2/abs-print-bed-temperature-all-you-need-to-know/
ABS has a huge reputation for warping. As it cools, it contracts and pulls away… typically pulling the corners of parts free of the build plate.
Part of this is sensitivity to the environment where you are printing (air temp, drafts, etc.) For this reason it is generally recommended that you use an “enclosure” when printing with ABS.
PETG is sort of becoming the popular material that a lot of people uses instead of ABS because it has properties of strength and toughness more similar to ABS, but is easier to print … a little more like PLA (not quite). But it doesn’t need an enclosure and isn’t as fussy to print with as ABS.
I have an enclosure and the print bed is at 110C.
I ma printing the same part on an Ultimaker 3 with just a thin film of glue on the print bed and I can get dozens of prints without issues.
Guess I will flip the bed over to the glass side and try glue on that
I’ve had good success with ABS on the modular bed.
First step is to prep the PEI by scoffing the surface with a green scotchbrite pad, Mr. Clean Magic Eraser sponge or sandpaper. I used a 45 and 90 deg cross-hatch pattern… many, many, many… many times. Don’t worry about markings on the the bottom surface, it’ll still be smooth just more matte than glossy.
Then adjust the initial nozzle height… easiest to adjust through the Z-offset in your slicing software. Once you dial it in, save to the machines EEPROM. Don’t rely it as a slicer setting because one day you’ll forget and go through this all over again.
A few more tips that help to reduce warping:
Hope that helps.
I am wondering if the print bed is not at the temperature the LCD says. I used an IR thermometer and not only were there large variations across the plate but the highest temperature was still 10+ degrees below the setpoint. I need to grab a contact thermometer from work and check with that.
At present I appear to have it working by doing the following:
Set bed to 115 C
Use Cube Glue (several bottles left from an old Cube Pro) instead of Elmers glue stick.
Use the Draft Shield option in Cura
I have the Printed Solid enclosure that came with the printer as part of a bundle.
I recently acquired S3D for use with the new Aon3D M2 (sitting uninstalled due stay at home orders) we just got but haven’t messed around with it much yet.
What is still confusing me is that I have an Ultimaker 3 sitting next to the Lulzbot printing the same part and it is doing just fine with a very thin glue stick layer on the plate. I can print for a couple days before I have to redo the glue layer
Try increasing the extrusion temp by a few degrees for the first layer.
The bed temp seems a little off on my printer too, but I’m okay at 110C for the first layer… adjusting the initial nozzle height is always the key to adhesion for me. During the print, after a ~10 layers I drop the bed temp to 100C and then to 90C after another 10-20 layers. The idea behind that is to let the initials layers cool and harden to resist warping.
What parts of the model are breaking away? Thin wall footprints? Or larger solid areas?
My ABS prints stick too well! Almost like PetG on pei without a releasing agent.
I use the ABS (Village Plastics) profile as my starting baseline profile
Build Plate Temperature = 110 C (default)
Printing Temperature Initial Layer 245 C (default)
Initial Print Temperature 230 C (default)
Printing Temperature 240 C (default)
Initial Layer Height .43 (.6 nozzle)
Layer Height .38 (63% nozzle diameter .38/.6 ; I don’t always print this thick, currently I am)
90% Flow
90% Initial Flow Rate (I found 90% to give me better dimensional accuracy; If yours is 100% all the better, more extrusion, more plastic)
Print cooling off (unless it’s a smaller print where lack of cooling will harm the print).
My Z-offset is set to -1.15 (seems a little high to me but it works ; using the Dually v3)
One other thing though, I did replace my pei sheet a few months ago, shiny side up pei sheet unlike Lulzbot’s dull side up setup. It’s been working real good! And about a month ago I hit it with a 3000 grit sandpaper. I thought that might be too fine but nope, I think it may have worked better and lasted longer than the 1500 grit sandpaper. Try that, sand your pei sheet with the finest sandpaper you can get a hold of. Also, wipe down your pei sheet with water, dry it with a paper towel and then repeat with rubbing alchol, clean and dry.
The only way I could get it to print was to use Cube Glue. Then it prints just fine. Since I am trying to turn out lots of these parts I do four runs - each at 45 degrees from the last and then redo the glue layer
Good deal! Glad you got it working! When you get the chance try replacing your pei sheet with a new one. This the one I got: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07FVL1SYF/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1
And it’s been working very well on PLA, ABS & PETG. I put down a layer of Elmer;s glue stick when I print with PETG.
I already have a new PEI sheet sitting on the shelf. This one only had maybe a dozen prints on it when I started this effort. I also have a replacement glass plate that I intend to try a Buildtak surface on