3D Printing Group

Created by Abe Gladstone on 15 February, 2018

little help needed please

Hi ya Guys, I;m very new to 3d printing but doing okay so far.
Okay what is the best way to start a 3d print as to when i do i nearly pull my finger nails off getting it off the be
I have the Voxelab Aquila X2

thanks in advance

3 Answer

Some bed materials are worse than others when it comes to releasing a part. One of the biggest no-no’s is to try to pull the part off the bed when it isn’t cool enough. I am not familiar with your printer but I can tell you what happened with my Creality CR10S Pro using the stock bed it came with. That bed lasted exactly 1 print! After printing my part I let it cool down to room temperature but the part didn’t release. I even put the bed plate in a freezer for 1/2 hour but the part was still firmly attached to the bed plate. I used a little more force and actually destroyed the build plate when a large chunk broke away from the plate (still firmly attached to the part).
So I learned that the initial layer needs to be spot on in it’s thickness. This is accomplished by adjusting the nozzle height. I probably had the nozzle too close to the build plate which firmly cemented it to the build plate. I learned that the initial layer should be the same thickness as the layer height from your slicer software (Cura in my case). My layer height is set to .2mm so I started a print using a skirt with 6 lines, then stopped the print after the first layer. I waited for the bed to cool to room temp then pulled the skirt off the plate and measured it. I adjusted the Z layer height using the “Adjust” settings on my printer (baby steps) until I got the layer height correct.

I also replaced my build plate with a glass build plate (one side is glass, the other side is textured) and use a liquid glue to aid with adhesion. I also had to readjust my home position because the new build plate was thicker than the old one. After the build plate cools the part is usually completely released and I just have to pick it up. I have been using this configuration for over a year and it works very well.

Things to check;
Z Home position (distance between nozzle and build plate)
Layer height on first layer (don’t want too close or too far away)
Make sure build plate is at room temperature before attempting to remove a part.
Build plate temp (make sure it is not too hot for the material you are printing)

Hope this helps.

Wow alot of detail answers. Here is the fix. Make sure when you lay down the first run the bead is not to tight. I use duet wifi and it allows me to adjust the layer height on the fly. I watch as the raft or skirt is being placed making micro adjustments to the bed also.

The printer you choose use isnt really a concern.
The most important thing is the bed size and the resolution it prints at.

Next comes to the CAD you want to print.
Primarily the file must be an stl, have no holes in the geometry where multiple surfaces, fillets, edges or blends meet. This is controlled by tollerance settings.

Secondary the CAD must have a thickness. So you have the A Surfaces, these is all of the outer surfaces. B Surfaces, these are often the drafts and flanges coming off the A Surfaces and in manufacting are determined by tooling requirements and the thickness of the material or parts.

So this relates to 3D printing as the B Surfaces create the thickness required for the STL. You can skip the above process altogether if you just make the part solid body like a cube or sphere is in its basic form.

Lastly once all of this is done you need to export your CAD and set the resolution. This converts the CAD data into triangles and defines the detail that is kept. So if your printer has low resolution there is no point in exporting an STL that is perfect resolution in some cases as your printer can produce that definintion. I mention this as Some of my STL exports can be huge file sizes and kill weak machines.

Thats the basics and as general an explanation as i can make to cover everything. If you have any further confusion or questions feel free to ask and ill try to help.
Best