Hi all, only a few days into my CTC Dual and have had three or four successful prints after testing different temperatures of nozzle/bed etc.
Ended up with a 210*C nozzle and 110*C bed on PLA filament, but after a successful print it’s now just all sticking to the nozzle, what’s going on?
Help!
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I’ve looked through the troubshooting elsewhere and it looks like its down to parameters. I’m guessing that after the first few prints it needs re-adjusting as the heating will make things settle somewhat?
Sorry - i will retype my post. I tried to do it from my phone and it’s obviously gone wrong.
The problem you have is that the extruded plastic isn’t sticking.
PLA doesn’t stick very well to kapton. You should use painter’s tape (masking tape in the UK) - they blue kind. Stick some on top of the kapton and re-level the bed and try again.
I prefer to use a feeler gauge to level the bed, it’s more reliable. They’re so cheap, i’d recommend it. Level to 0.1mm.
110 degrees is way too hot for PLA. Try 50 or 60 degrees, with the tape, and it will work fine.
Fantastic, thanks so much for the help. Will pop out and get the tape now and give it a try!
210 for PLA is ok but on the upper range maybe but 110 on the bed is way to hot. Try 70 and work down a bit. 60 is recommended unless you use glass then 70. This is what I go with.
Affixed the tape, bed set to 60*C, levelled with feeler gauges to 0.1mm.
And still the same result 
It’s odd given that the test line that it prints at the front is fine. It’s just when it prints and moves around that it sticks to the nozzle.
Really wishing I’d just bought the Makerbot5 instead now!!
Also, is it normal for the nozzle to ‘weep’ as its warming up? As in I get a slow ‘worm’ of PLA coming out before printing
very normal.
are you levelling cold, or warm?
you should set your preheat temperatures to match your HBP and extruder, then preheat before you run the levelling wizard. The HBP in particular causes the plastic build platform arms to sag and it will go out of level. (this also means you need to relevel if changing filamant temperatures much).
It might be that your build platform is warped, but my money is still on it not being close enough to the extruder.
This a flat out a “first layer not sticking to bed issue”.
#1. Do yourself a favor and get some glass and use Aquanet hairspray on it. PLA sticks very well to this, and glass is level.
#2. Make sure you are leveling your bed as follows: Using a piece of printer paper, crank your front down until the paper barely moves. Then do the back until the paper barely moves. Then do the front again. Leans toward squishing your first layer.
You will get it. Once you do, leveling becomes second nature, and all the starter frustrations will be history!
Try wiping the tape with some alcohol ( not whiskey!), but I would level at .1 cold. You may still be to high. Watch the speed also, slow it way down to start with.
Try using some paper glue on the tape, a thin layer should be good enough, if it doesnt work try putting a bit more and according to this , you can maybe adjust the Z offset. You can try setting the first few layers to be printed closer to the bed (Z axis offset). Let me know if you need any help with any of the above.
Thanks. I’ll give all these things a try in the morning. I’ve added a layer of hairspray to the blue tape and have re-fed the spool in.
Reset all settings and levelled whilst warm using feeler gauges.
Fingers crossed!
I personally had bad experience with hairspray because to get it work properly it needs to be really strong. This varies for everyone but just try both options (If the glue is strong, even a think layer is enough)
