3D Printing: Troubleshooting poor adhesion at the edge of the bed (2 Solutions!)
Channel: Roel Van de Paar
Date: 24/06/2019

3D Printing: Troubleshooting poor adhesion at the edge of the bed


The Question: I've been printing for a week now on my new printer and have been getting great
results, including great adhesion. However, most of my prints have had a fairly
small footprint.
Now, I'm stepping up the types of items I'm printing, and I've started to run
into a problem. Long, thin parts are starting to lift off the bed, especially
at the edges of the bed.
I've read https://3dprinting.stackexchange.com/questions/61/why-do-the-corners-
of-my-abs-object-lift-off-the-bed and realize some (most) could apply to me.
However, I'm printing entirely in PLA on a non-heated bed.
My question is: What is the best way to go about troubleshooting this problem?
In which order should I attempt fixes to narrow down the problem most quickly?
Printer: Monoprice Maker Architect 3D (Very similar to Makerbot)
Material: PLA
Heated Bed: No
Bed Material: Something similar to BuildTak on top of an acrylic bed. (The
sheet of material came unlabeled with the printer and I haven't been able to
track down exactly what it is.)

Solutions Sample (Please watch the whole video to see all solutions, in order of how many people found them helpful)

== This solution helped 10 people ==
There are several things you could try without spending much but even PLA will
warp on an unheated bed. I had a Legacy Kossel that I switched to an acrylic
bed and had many issues with warping and prints pulling off the bed.
Some cheap things to try would be...
 1. Adding a brim to the print.
 2. Blue painters tape on the acrylic, remove the other material if doing
 this.
 3. Place cheap piece of glass/mirror on bed and use hairspray/gluestick.
 4. Use hairspray/gluestick directly on acrylic. You must be careful here
 because first layer height is very critical to prevent damage to the
 acrylic from the plastic welding. A layer of hairspray or glue should
 prevent it but dial in your height before printing.
 5. If you aren't currently using a fan, you could try sealing the sides to
 prevent drafts. I doubt this would change much since you are using PLA
 but it's an option.
 6. If these are your designs, there are steps you can take to reduce warping
 as seen http://hackaday.com/2011/11/15/a-technique-to-avoid-warping-on-
 large-3d-prints/
Also many other suggestions http://www.makerbot.com/blog/2011/06/23/12-ways-to-
fight-warping-and-curling

With thanks & praise to God, and with thanks to the many people who have made this project possible! | Content (except music & images) licensed under cc by-sa 3.0 | Music: https://www.bensound.com/royalty-free-music | Images: https://stocksnap.io/license & others | With thanks to user tjb1 (https://askubuntu.com/users/233), user Jeff (https://askubuntu.com/users/212), user Dimitri Modderman (https://askubuntu.com/users/264), and the Stack Exchange Network (https://3dprinting.stackexchange.com/questions/271). Trademarks are property of their respective owners. Disclaimer: All information is provided "AS IS" without warranty of any kind. You are responsible for your own actions. Please contact me if anything is amiss at Roel D.OT VandePaar A.T gmail.com.