ABS Wont Stick to Build Plate

[Zwheat 0]

Hi All,

 

Recently my boss got a UM2+ for work projects, and we have been printing things recently in PLA, just kind of getting a feel for the printer and how it prints and works and such. Today we tried going to printing ABS on the printer, but I cant seem to get the prints to stick to the build plate. I am using a brim, and an adhesion modifier called wolfbite. We have had good luck with wolfbite on our previous printers.

 

As the print was going, I was watching the buildplate temperature, and noticed that 1) it takes a long time to get to our desired build plate temp of 110C (We have had good success using this temp with our filament and getting prints to stay down), and 2) when the printer does get going after taking forever to warm the plate, it doesnt seem to hold that temp. It slowly works it way down to about 85C and just hangs out there, and then the filament shrinks and curls off of the bed till it comes off.

 

Is there a reason it takes forever to get hot, and why it wont seem to hold the temperature? I cant sent the build temp in cura when i select the UM2+, so I have to manually set it once I start the print. Is there a setting somewhere that I dont know about?

 

Thank You!

[gr5 2,173]

20 minutes ago, Zwheat said:

It slowly works it way down to about 85C a

You need to cover the front and top of the printer.  It's really important to stay above the glass temp for ABS on the bottom 1mm or so.  Glass temp is about 99C for most ABS.  And lower the fan to 30%.

 

This will give you an added benefit that the air temp will rise to about 35C (in addition to keeping the bed above 105C).

 

For now you can just use saran wrap or a clear plastic bag to cover the front and for the top use one of those boxes that used to hold many reams of paper.  They fit the top of a UM2 or UM3 perfectly with no tape or anything needed and they leave room at the back for the bowden.  Eventually, if you print a lot of high temp materials like nylon (abs sucks - i'd stay away) you should get a front door/cover.

 

Oh - and the 35C air temp is important also because if you don't do that you will likely get bad layer bonding (newer layers of ABS won't fully melt the layer below).  Bad layer bonding isn't always obvious until you break it and notice it splits along layer lines.  plastic should NEVER split along layer lines - they should be just as strong in all directions (no "grain").

 

[Zwheat 0]

12 minutes ago, gr5 said:

You need to cover the front and top of the printer.  It's really important to stay above the glass temp for ABS on the bottom 1mm or so.  Glass temp is about 99C for most ABS.  And lower the fan to 30%.

 

This will give you an added benefit that the air temp will rise to about 35C (in addition to keeping the bed above 105C).

 

For now you can just use saran wrap or a clear plastic bag to cover the front and for the top use one of those boxes that used to hold many reams of paper.  They fit the top of a UM2 or UM3 perfectly with no tape or anything needed and they leave room at the back for the bowden.  Eventually, if you print a lot of high temp materials like nylon (abs sucks - i'd stay away) you should get a front door/cover.

 

Oh - and the 35C air temp is important also because if you don't do that you will likely get bad layer bonding (newer layers of ABS won't fully melt the layer below).  Bad layer bonding isn't always obvious until you break it and notice it splits along layer lines.  plastic should NEVER split along layer lines - they should be just as strong in all directions (no "grain").

 

So if I were to cover the printer and get an enviromental case or housing to seal it up a bit, that will obviously keep the air inside a more consistent temp, but how will that keep the build plate temp from falling? The printer is supposed to upkeep the temperature to what I set it to and it isnt...

[reibuehl 42]

15 hours ago, Zwheat said:

So if I were to cover the printer and get an enviromental case or housing to seal it up a bit, that will obviously keep the air inside a more consistent temp, but how will that keep the build plate temp from falling? The printer is supposed to upkeep the temperature to what I set it to and it isnt...

 

If the printer looses too much heat to the outside, the build plate heating element might not be powerful enough to keep up with that heat loss over time.

[reibuehl 42]

I print ABS quite regularly and have been successful most of the time with a door (no top enclosure) and glue stick as adhesion helper. I used the standard heat bed temperature for ABS from the UM2 firmware - I think it is 90°C but I can't verify that at the moment.

[Zwheat 0]

6 hours ago, reibuehl said:

I print ABS quite regularly and have been successful most of the time with a door (no top enclosure) and glue stick as adhesion helper. I used the standard heat bed temperature for ABS from the UM2 firmware - I think it is 90°C but I can't verify that at the moment.

My problem is, This is the most expensive printer that we have bought for the company to use for making production ABS parts. Its supposed to be top of the line stuff, but it wont hold a build temperature. I have 2 Makerbot replicator 2X, an Airwolf HD2X, a Prusa i3 mK something... and none of those need to have an enclosed space to make ABS, and they are all significantly cheaper. Im just at a loss as to why they wouldnt build it to make abs right out of the box...