Ultimaker 2 Extended +: PLA, first layer always warping

[feferna 0]

Hello everyone,

It has being almost 6 month since we bought an Ultimaker 2 Extended+, and we were printing things without any problems. However, today I am facing a very bad warping problem in our printer.

The first layer of everything I am trying to print is warping.

I tried the following:

- Leveled the buildplate making the space between the nozzle and the plate smaller: This helped with the warping. However, the layer become too squeezed and the print quality decreased a lot.

- Changed the buildplate temperature to 40C, 50C, 60C, 65C and 70C: no difference in the warping.

- Used some glue: the warping has decreased, but is still present.

- Used a material from another brand: decreased the warping, but it was still present.

I don't know what else should I do. Any clues? Or my 3d printer is broken?

Here are some images showing the warping I am facing:

Edited July 25, 2016 by Guest

[neotko 1,417]

I would do this test:

Pla can warp also if the nozzle it's way too close. I can't see the first layer print well enough on that photos, and photobucket zoom it's quite bad.

But I think that:

- First layer way too close to the nozzle. This it's easy to see because it does 'small tidal waves' when doing the infill on the first layer.

- Print a taller 0.25-0.3 first layer height. More material helps adhesion.

- Print slower first layer.

- Flip the glass. Who knows.

- Some pla brands stick worse than others. For me colorfabb, faber, Smartmaterials never gived me this problem, but with some china pla I got very weird adhesion.

[feferna 0]

I would do this test:

Pla can warp also if the nozzle it's way too close. I can't see the first layer print well enough on that photos, and photobucket zoom it's quite bad.

But I think that:

- First layer way too close to the nozzle. This it's easy to see because it does 'small tidal waves' when doing the infill on the first layer.

- Print a taller 0.25-0.3 first layer height. More material helps adhesion.

- Print slower first layer.

- Flip the glass. Who knows.

- Some pla brands stick worse than others. For me colorfabb, faber, Smartmaterials never gived me this problem, but with some china pla I got very weird adhesion.

Thank you. I notice these "tidal waves" when printing the first layer. Looks like the nozzle was really too close.

For now, I got a good result. I tried to level the buildplate again making it a bit more loose and now the material have stick in the plate. Now, I got something like 90% good (I can still notice some small waves when the nozzle pass through some regions).

PS: I also flipped the glass, but I didn't notice anything different.

Edited July 25, 2016 by Guest

[valcrow 144]

Due to the lifting being so localized it looks like the glass may not be super clean. If you touch the glass, sometimes your finger oils can get on the surface and prevent your print from sticking in sections. If you find it not sticking to certain small spots on the bed, try really cleaning the glass well with some rubbing/isopropyl alcohol and it should be back to normal.

I would also level it just a touch closer, maybe 1/8 - 1/4 turn loosen each level screw.

Also that first layer looks huge. I usually have more success with smaller than 0.3mm 1st layers. or at least equal to my layer height.

[Wert 0]

Due to the lifting being so localized it looks like the glass may not be super clean. If you touch the glass, sometimes your finger oils can get on the surface and prevent your print from sticking in sections. If you find it not sticking to certain small spots on the bed, try really cleaning the glass well with some rubbing/isopropyl alcohol and it should be back to normal.

I would also level it just a touch closer, maybe 1/8 - 1/4 turn loosen each level screw.

Also that first layer looks huge. I usually have more success with smaller than 0.3mm 1st layers. or at least equal to my layer height.

Thanks a lot! It helped me in such case after a day of leveling the buildplate, changing nozzle and plate temperature, initial layer printing speed.

[gr5 2,004]

I disagree with Neo about nozzle being too close.  The closer the nozzle the better the material sticks to the glass.  But Neo's other advice is good.  I have a video for anyone else who is looking into this same problem.  It's long but I spent many hours editing it down to the essentials.  My parts always stick to the glass.  So well that occasionally the parts rips off a tiny piece of glass.

 

Edited November 30, 2016 by Guest

[neotko 1,417]

I disagree with Neo about nozzle being too close.  The closer the nozzle the better the material sticks to the glass.  But Neo's other advice is good.  I have a video for anyone else who is looking into this same problem.  It's long but I spent many hours editing it down to the essentials.  My parts always stick to the glass.  So well that occasionally the parts rips off a tiny piece of glass.

 

 

Too close too fast makes ripples. Layer height and speed can't be removed from the equation no matter how much glue you use. And making an overflat first layer creates elephant foot and accuracy issues.

[gr5 2,004]

> . And making an overflat first layer creates elephant foot and accuracy issues.

True. I don't call it elephant foot - I call it mini-brim but we are talking about the same thing. That's the tradeoff between sticking extra well and having no mini-brim.