Poor HIPS printing

[PeterT]

Hi folks, well, I'm trying my hand at HIPS and I'm having a heck of a time. I finally got it to stick to the bed (after 10 attempts) but for the life of me, I can't get a decent first layer...

I am using a Taz5 with an Aerostruder head. Cura (latest version) and Gizmodorks Black HIPS.

I've messed with temps (both head and bed) and bed clearance. Nothing seems to really improve it. Here's a pic...

All suggestions appreciated.

[zachah]

Have you printed anything with this tool-head before?

If not it's possible that your extruder e-steps are too high. A standard tool-head has about double the e-steps of the Aerostruder. So if that wasn't set when you flashed the firmware it's possible you are over-extruding.

What are you e-steps set to currently?

[PeterT]

Thanks for the suggestion, but I have printed in PLA successfully as well as PETG.

esteps are set to 420.

[3dRiffs]

Tardy response here, but I find that slicing using the old version of Cura works far better for HIPS than the current version. Something changed in the printer profiles (I haven't dug into the details to find out what) - but bed adhesion in particular is much much better.