Detailed Keychain Prints Not Working

[Futz34 2]

I've got an Ultimaker 2+, running a .4 tip at .15 mm and using 3DUniverse PLA material. I'm trying to make 4 keychains in this build, they measure roughly 3.5 inches by 1.5 inches. Tried running this tonight and I had the material completely melted inside the tip and all around the heating core inside the extruder! Basically the print lifted up from the bed and got caught on the tip. After cleaning all of that out and starting on a fresh calibrated and cleaned bed, I watched it like a hawk. I brought the bed temp up to 65 degrees and slowed the print speed down to 95%. I'm still having issues though! I shut it down after it printed the brim so I could get some help from you guys. The letters aren't anything real fancy, just block text, but aren't printing that great. You'll also notice on the corners that the material is still lifting up and warping. Need some help and suggestions! Thank you in advance  

[kmanstudios 1,120]

At first glance, this looks like an adhesion problem as the thin parts are just peeling off. Besides heat, how are you sticking the parts down?

[Futz34 2]

Just the basic glue stick that came with the printer. I do notice it dries fast. Should I be using something else?

[geert_2 557]

That should work; I have done similar text and key chains with success. And without brims. Try my "salt method" for bonding PLA. Or try gr5's method (10% wood glue dilluted in water), or neotko's method (hair spray), depending on what you like/dislike most. As first layer, I use 0.2mm, and a good bed leveling, so this first layer is pushed well into the bed.

For my salt method, see: https://www.uantwerpen.be/nl/personeel/geert-keteleer/manuals/

 

Another option would be to make "watermark text", totally inside the model. Then you can have a 100% filled base layer without issues. Like this. Print this with the text towards the glass. But of course, this requires transparant or translucent material, and the top layer should be less than 0.5mm for best results.

[Futz34 2]

Thanks guys. I'll try the hairspray trick along with washing the tray off with saltwater. Ever since I washed the bed off with tap water for the first time, I've been having trouble with it. So that may be the cause. Any specific brand or type of hairspray that works best?

[gr5 2,167]

salt trick is different from pva glue.  Don't combine them.  Try one or the other.  Although I think your issue may be you aren't squishing the bottom layer enough.

 

Rather than use a .4 nozzle and tell the printer to treat it like a .15, you should instead put a .25mm nozle on there.

 

And definitely your bottom layer is not squishing well.  There are ways to do this with glue stick only.  You don't need to do hairspray.  more info here:

 

[Futz34 2]

Just wanted to follow up with everyone's advice they've given me. It was a good exercise to try some new things here. I've found that the wood glue/water mixture works the best. The keychains turned out great. Also to use the brim feature when there's not a whole lot of surface area touching the bed, in the case of a ring model I just printed.

 

The guy in the above video was all about scrunching the first layer and getting the tip very close to the bed. I tried his technique of tapping the bed during calibration and not using the card. Although all it did was smear material around the first layer and make a big ol' mess for me. It just didn't work for me on my machine but maybe it has worked for others.

[gr5 2,167]

I'm glad you are seeing success.  Do whatever works and stick with it until it doesn't work.  I'm the guy in the video.