PLA not sticking

[jimc]

Not really. When it binds up the filament would just strip out on the gear. Do you have some pictures or a shirt video of this first layer going down?

[Levi8than]

OK, I leveled the glass, and checked the gap between the head and glass at .006". I cleaned the glass thoroughly and applied a coat of glue stick. Tried a print at 215 for the print head and 70 for the bed, and it would NOT stick. Could I be having a feed problem or a clogged nozzle? I had the filament bind up on the reel just before all this started. It tried to run for 15 or 20 minutes with the filament bound so it wouldn't feed. Could this have caused a problem?

If you are having a filament feed problem, you will hear clicking as the extruder motor is skipping on the filament. Also, if you back out your filament and look it, there will be a groove cut into it and it won't feed at all.

Make sure you haven't over tightened the drive tension screw (right side of the extruder mechanism). For pla you need only tighten it barely past making contact.

Did you run ABS through this nozzle prior to printing PLA? That's the only way you are likely to have a real clog. If so, crank the heat on the hot end up to 240 or so, and extrude about 50 mm into your hand. If you see any of the previous color, you'll have your answer. If not, and it's extruding cleanly, then that's not the problem.

Bring the temp back down to 215, and try printing again.

If all else fails, take a video and post it.

[Explorer71]

I did try ABS before. I try clearing the nozzle as you suggested

[Explorer71]

OK .. I tried running filament through at 244 and then tried another print at 215. This is the result. Any ideas?

[Levi8than]

It looks like you just aren't close enough to the glass.
What is this? And what slicer did you use? S3D or Slic3r or something else?
To rule out a slicing artifact, try one of the prints on the SD card that came with your printer. You don't need to print the whole thing, just the first layer or two to make sure it adheres. Try the bigfoot head maybe.

If that looks good, and you are using slicer, try setting the extruder offset to -0.2. Last tab in the settings. My guess is that slic3r is assuming you are dead on the bed, while you've adjusted to be 0.2mm above the bed. So when slic3r lifts a little more to make room for the first layer, it's now too far.

[jimc]

I agree you are too far from the bed but you also have something else going on there. I dont like the little
Lines and dashes its leaving. Might be a problem or it might nit and just be a result if being too far away. What kind of filament is that. Looks like bronzefill or some special metallic filament. These can tend to print very strange and require different setting and also can clog a nozzle very easily.

[Levi8than]

It tried to run for 15 or 20 minutes with the filament bound so it wouldn't feed. Could this have caused a problem?

Sorry I missed this before. Worth a look, check the gear on your extruder motor. If the teeth are all chewed up, it could explain the morse code you're printing.

I'm really curious about this. Is this a brand new printer? Have you ever gotten good prints out of it? If it's brand new, send an email to Josh or Rick and makergear support directly, rather than posting here. One of them is probably going to be better at helping get your first print to print correctly.

[Explorer71]

Ok .. apparently it is something messed up in the process for this piece I'm trying to build. I went back with everything exactly the same and ran the Bigfoot demo .. and it ran perfectly. I'm using S3D, so now I need to go in and see what has changed between Bigfoot and this Koi I'm trying to print. Thank you everyone for your help

[jsc]

If your process looks good, it might be your model. If you look at it from beneath, does it touch the bed with a decent contact patch? Some models I've tried to print on thingiverse have very subtle curves that reduce the bed contact to a single point, and every other layer begins trying to lay down in mid air.

[Explorer71]

I can't read the M2 demos. Can someone tell me what the settings should be for Simplify3D? It is definitely something wrong in the process. I redid the gcode file for a cap that printed fine the first time and it did the same thing as before. The print head appears to be lifting too high for the first layer, but I don't know how to change that.