Edge of print curling

[cpunches]

Just to further display my ignorance..

I promised my wife that the first thing I'd print was a fan for her. So I found this on thingyverse: http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:27733.

I'm using 1.75 PLA for the print.

I started printing the first blade of the fan but had to kill the job when about half way through both ends detached from the glass and the nozzle just pushed what had printed around the bed.

On the second print I put more of the glue solution on the glass and made it through the entire print, with significantly better results. There was still a lot of curling happening at the "small" end of the print and it had detached from the bed during the final layer. I'm guessing (because I really have no idea) that this is probably due to the piece cooling and shrinking during the print. Anyone have any guidance on getting around this? Increase the bed temp, or slow the print speed?

*edit* I have a fan blowing on the bed (because I read somewhere that I should have a fan blowing on the bed.. ), I also have a fan running to blow on the peek. I have the hot-end set to 190c and the bed to 80c

Thanks.

[Jimustanguitar]

That's a long piece, I think it's shrinking on the build plate, yep.
You could try increasing the bed temp by 5 or 10 degrees. That would be my uneducated guess.


(and sorry, I forgot to look up those pins for you last night. I'll do it this evening.)

[cpunches]

No worries on the pins, I found what I needed, thanks.

I'll try increasing the bed temp and see what happens.

[geneb]

cpunches, do you have a layer fan installed? It'll make a HUGE difference.

g.

[cpunches]

cpunches, do you have a layer fan installed? It'll make a HUGE difference.

g.

Gene,
I'm not sure? lol

I have 2 25mm fans that blow on the peek and are software controlled. I have another larger fan that I have blowing across the print surface that runs when the power to the printer is turned on. I can manually rotate it away if I don't want it to blow on the bed. I will be adding a switch for it this weekend probably.

[geneb]

You only need one 25mm fan on the PEEK section. 2 is probably overkill.

If you've got a fan blowing on the print and you're having curling issues with PLA, you might want to slow the print speed down a bit.

g.

[cpunches]

Thanks, I'll give that a shot.

[cpunches]

Still getting this curling and I end up killing the job. Other than what's already been mentioned, anyone have any ideas?

[geneb]

What bed & nozzle temp did you use for the print?

g.

[cpunches]

I seem to be really struggling to get any prints (beyond the calibration cube) out of my printer. I spent Friday night and most of today starting from scratch and re-calibrating the tower heights, delta radius etc. I also made sure that I calibrated the extruder and making sure the steps per mm were correct. I'm confident that all the mechanical stuff is correct (or as correct as I can get it anyway) now.

I also realized that I wasn't using PLA at all, I've had ABS filament on there the entire time. I'm kinda surprised I've had any success actually So, I thought I'd have an easy time since I knew that the mechanical side was calibrated. I should just be able to turn off cooling, pump up the heat to the extruder and bed and I'd be in business. Of course I haven't been that lucky.

I'm getting a LOT of blobs and it seem like the flow isn't consistent leaving gaps (like a dotted line). Is it possible that the nozzle is clogged? Like I said I've calibrated the extruder and measure that I get 25mm if I click 25mm.

The printing the current object at 230c and the bed is set for 90c. Oddly I seemed to have better luck when I thought it was PLA and printing at 180 to 190 with a fan. Very frustrating, but I feel like I've learned a lot so far this weekend