I recently had two print failures on my Ender 3 Neo. In both, it looked like the part came free from the heated build plate after about an hour or so of printing. Both had good starts in the first 15 minutes or so. I had a successful print finish two days ago.
It has been hot and humid here today, and my printer is in a non-AC shed not connected to the house.
I’m wondering if I should wait to kick off the next print until this evening when it should be cooler. Do I need to clean the build plate? I’ve not done that at all, other than make sure these isn’t any filament left on the plate when it finishes.
UPDATE: It’s apparent the problem isn’t the heat, but the fact that I haven’t cleaned the build plate since… well, ever. Adjusting the title to reflect that.
Your print doesn’t come off from heat, its the opposite. If you never cleaned the build plate that is 100% the problem. I clean mine before every print.
OK, good to know – just did an alcohol/dish soap wipe and restarted the print, will check it in a bit, and do the cleaning after every print.
If you do it before every print, you also get rid of the dust that settles inbetween prints
Yes. You need to clean the build plate thoroughly after every print with alcohol. You have layers of built up plastic schmoo that is not letting new plastic adhere.
Humidity will degrade your filament too, and cause it to get stringy and warp more severely. Make sure you keep your filament in an airtight box ideally with desiccant.
I bet worst schmoo is grease from fingers tho. Either way alcohol or soapy water does the trick
I’d heard about needing to keep the filament dry, but it hasn’t been an issue for me yet. That said, I’ll get what filament isn’t still sealed into a dessicant loaded container ASAP - thanks!
Wipe down the build plate regularly with IPA to help keep it clean; I do this as part of my pre-print workflow. That and scrubbing the nozzle with a brass wire brush to help keep burnt filament getting into my print.
How hot is your shed? Depending on your shed temp, some filaments actually like it hot. I have a PLA filament that likes to print at 220C and in an ambient enclosure temp of 90F.
If your shed is near 120F-140F, its perfect for ABS/ASA (be mindful of VOCs); maybe consider switching filaments while its hot out - making lemonade out of lemons and all that.
cheers
Heat is ~28C outside (90F or so), more in the shed. I’ve no ABS since I’ve I read it’s tough to work with and I haven’t had an application for it yet. I just did a cleaning on the plate, and I’ll see if that makes a difference.
Yeah mate clean the plate, I wipe my glass with 60% alcohol before every print. Most people recomend 90% isopropyl alcohol and sometimes dish soap and hot water for deep cleaning.
I dont think you have problem with too hot room, but you might need to lower bed temp a bit to get the same actual surface temp. What temps are you using? Printing pla?
Too hot bed can help with adhesion, but can cause lifting, so I print first layer at 60 and rest on 56 C for example. Big prints are more likely to lift mid print, its not bad to use brim and maybe even mouse ears. If you surface is not clean it might be painful tho
I’m printing PLA+ at 200C nozzle, 60C bed temp. It’s been fine so far with a few failures I’ve filed under “User Error”.
OK, now I’m curious how I change the bed temp settings after the first layer – something in the slicer? I’m using Ultimaker Cura, and have just recently been digging into the advanced settings.
Yeah you can change the settings in cura. I believe it’s under the materials section after you injure the setting
Its called initial layer bed temperature. You can tune different settings for initial layers (temps, speed, fan speed etc). You deffo need 0 fan on first layer as well.
Alternatively you can use Change At Z script or just manually change temp on your printer lcd
To answer your question from title:
Too hot is when your stepper driver is overheating and skipping, or when stepper motor is too hot to touch. There are more, but if you can be in the same room its not likely. Tbf using AC can only ruin your prints with uneven cooling. You want stable room (enclosure) temp
