Prints won’t stick!

[Caleb_HD]

Hello 👋🏼 I am new to 3D printing and have recently purchased an Ender 3 V2. I have set up everything and have checked it twice to ensure that everything should print correctly but I am having trouble even getting a test print down. My trouble seems to be coming with the very first layer not wanting to stick to the brand new bed at all. I have watched multiple videos and have leveled the bed, most recently the exact way that DrVax has suggested. At first my X carriage was significantly un-level but after loosening the screws on the bottom of the base I was able to correct that and level the bed again but still no luck with the test prints sticking.
Now i dont know if the wasn’t the smartest thing to do but I decided right off the bat I was going to upgraded the extruder to aluminum and replace the bed springs with stronger compression springs and metal hand knobs. Was this a mistake before making my first test print?? Should I take these off and try again?
Also the only other two issues that I have noticed is that my glass bed came with a weird looking film over the top (looks like it’s supposed to be there) however, it is very poorly cut around the edges and have many spots that overhang the glass. The other thing that I notice happens constantly is the nozzle is leaking filament every time the nozzle is heated up. I’ve taken the whole hot end apart and have used DrVax’s suggestions on cleaning and unclogging it and have still had no luck.
WHAT AM I DOING WRONG PLEASE HELP I have spent at least 8 hours total leveling and adjust the entire printer to make sure it’s perfect and I’m just not having any luck at all

[Gramps]

Are you trying to print with PLA? What temp for hot end and bed? The black stuff is suppose to be on the glass plate, my edges however don't hang over. When I bought my E3V2 my bed was loose and wobbled used the concentric rollers to tighten it up. Recently I noticed the rollers on X gantry were loose so I adjusted them the same way. You should not be able to turn the rollers by hand when then are adjusted properly, yet should move freely when you push/pull the gantry.

Wash the build plate with some dish soap and water. I wipe mine with rubbing alcohol before each print.

I'm inclined to say put eveything back to stock, make the adjustment and get the printer working. Afterwards you can change one thing at a time checking print quality each time. This being said I would use the yellow springs over the stock ones but with the original wheels, I see no advantage to the metal ones.

[Ender5r]

I agree with Gramps: it's always best to get things working with the default setup before making changes.

What do you mean by "loosening the screws on the bottom"? Are you referring to the large adjustment knobs/wheels, or something else?

I think you should be fine with the new springs.

As far as the glass bed goes, have you tried flipping it over & using the other side?

[Caleb_HD]

Gramps Ive tried the last few prints with the provided white PLA and have ran the Hot End at 200 with Bed Temp at 60. I also have tried PLA+ not realizing it needed to be ran 10-15 hotter. I haven’t had Luck with either sticking to the bed but instead bunching up around the hot end as the printer tries to make its pass. I’ve cleaned the build plate with alcohol before trying each print but I’ll try soap and water as well.
Ender5r the X carriage was sloping towards the front of the printer at about a 15° angle, so I tilted the printer to the side and there are four screws underneath the base that I was able to loosen, then straighten the x carriage, and re tighten the bolts to hold it in place again. That seemed to fix the slope that the carriage has and in return I was able to get the bed leveled properly. Before doing this I could have the front bed knobs completely tightened and the back ones completely loose and the bed still wasn’t able to be leveled properly. I haven’t tried flipping the glass over, I didn’t know I was able to do that since the front side has the film and the back side does not. I’ll give that a try as well and see if it helps the prints stick.

thank y’all for helping, I will try these later on and see if that helps! Would the leaking hot end be causing the prints to not stick for some reason? I have tried cleaning it out completely and it still leaks. Could that be the aluminum extruder upgrade causing this?

[Ender5r]

filament bunching up around the hotend could be caused by the nozzle being too close or too far from the bed. You can do what I often do: adjust the Z Offset dynamically. I start a print of 4 1-layer squares in the corners of the bed. As it's printing, I look at the filament being laid down. If there are gaps between the lines of filament I set the Offset more minus. If the print looks translucent, I set the Offset more positive.

[Alan]

Welcome to the art of 3D printing! Don't get discouraged.

I'd leave the new springs and new extruder on as the printer wasn't debugged/working when it had the OEM equipment. Why do it twice?

As you have a new extruder, calibrate the e-steps first. Here is a good site for this (and more): https://teachingtechyt.github.io/calibration.html

Next make sure your bed is flat by running a straight edge across it and look for light underneath it.

It sounds like you have already checked and adjusted the belts.

Next double check and mechanically level the bed, i.e., make the plane of the bed parallel to the movement plane of the hottend. You've done this already but it would help us if you explained what you did and the results.

Once you are happy with the "Post It Notes" results, I'd run a first layer test print and adjust the z-offset (the distance between the nozzle in the home position and the bed) live to get the right amount of "squish". Typically, this is where prints "do not stick" because the z-offset is too big. Lower the offset (make more negative) in small increments (I do 0.05 mm but maybe an Ender user can weight in here) until the lines of plastic stick but the nozzle doesn't hit the bed or is so close that the plastic lines have ridges (see the "First Layer" section of the link above). If doing the adjustment live, allow time for the g-code commands in the buffer to execute before entering a new z-offset. My printer slightly hesitates, but YMMV. As Irv notes in his videos, you can tell pretty quickly if the print lines aren't sticking, so you can stop the print, enter a new offset, and print again if uncomfortable with live adjustments.

I'm assuming you are using PLA with a bed temperature of circa 55 C and a hotted temperature of circa 200 C. Please let us know if otherwise. I wouldn't worry about some oozing as it is probably a result of from hand loading and the waste/purge line would take care of a blob. Most slicers add a few mm of retraction at the end of a print job to reduce oozing.

Good luck!

P.S. -- Sometimes a picture is worth a thousand words! 🙂

[Larry]

Hello 👋🏼 I am new to 3D printing and have recently purchased an Ender 3 V2. I have set up everything and have checked it twice to ensure that everything should print correctly but I am having trouble even getting a test print down. My trouble seems to be coming with the very first layer not wanting to stick to the brand new bed at all. I have watched multiple videos and have leveled the bed, most recently the exact way that DrVax has suggested. At first my X carriage was significantly un-level but after loosening the screws on the bottom of the base I was able to correct that and level the bed again but still no luck with the test prints sticking.
Now i dont know if the wasn’t the smartest thing to do but I decided right off the bat I was going to upgraded the extruder to aluminum and replace the bed springs with stronger compression springs and metal hand knobs. Was this a mistake before making my first test print?? Should I take these off and try again?
Also the only other two issues that I have noticed is that my glass bed came with a weird looking film over the top (looks like it’s supposed to be there) however, it is very poorly cut around the edges and have many spots that overhang the glass. The other thing that I notice happens constantly is the nozzle is leaking filament every time the nozzle is heated up. I’ve taken the whole hot end apart and have used DrVax’s suggestions on cleaning and unclogging it and have still had no luck.
WHAT AM I DOING WRONG PLEASE HELP I have spent at least 8 hours total leveling and adjust the entire printer to make sure it’s perfect and I’m just not having any luck at all

Could post a pic of what the bed of the printer looks like? Also when prints fail to stick it's usually that the nozzle is to far away from the bed. Try re-leveling the bed with more pressure on the paper movement. I know when I first started i didn't have the bed close enough to the nozzle and had the same problem you did. Bed leveling isn't really that its the distance between the nozzle and the bed itself. I had a hard time with it at first until i got the hang of it.

[Ender5r]

Especially a photo, or photos, of the test prints.

[Larry]

Just as a side note make sure you are leveling the bed with the hotend and the bed at whatever temp you will be printing at. For PLA that would normally be 200 for the hotend and 60 for the bed. This will make sure that you are leveling between the nozzle and the bed instead of dried filament stuck to the bottom of the nozzle and the bed resulting in the distance between the nozzle and the bed being to far apart and not sticking to the bed when you try to print. When i was first starting out i made this mistake more then once 🤔

[Geit]

This will make sure that you are leveling between the nozzle and the bed instead of dried filament stuck to the bottom of the nozzle and the bed resulting in the distance between the nozzle and the bed being to far apart and not sticking to the bed when you try to print. When i was first starting out i made this mistake more then once 🤔

It is more likely the thermal expansion of the hotend and the frame/bed did come into play. Thats why I never turn on a printer and just push print. Usually I preheat the printer for at least 8-10 minute, before starting to print. You may calibrate your printer in hot state, but when you just start printing with a cold printer you do not necessarily meet the same criteria you had when calibrating.

People often calibrate cold and it works great, because turning on the printer and hit start just works. The first layer is done before the heat creeped into all parts of the printer, so the first layer sticks. The second gets less squished as the gap do to the thermal expansion is there, but that even reduces the elephant foot.

The problem is when the room temperature changes between summer to winter. This will shift the starting point of the overall temperature. Also when you print more than one print you usually do not let the printer cool down. This also makes the second print "suddenly" not stick "for some reason". Then people start changing stuff and it just gets worse.

Having 200 or 220°C or a bed at 80°C or 65°C is not a big deal. It is the first 200/60°C that is having the most effect on printing the first layer.

So instead of tweaking the printer calibrate it once in hot state and give it a few minutes before the first start every time to get consistent results and a perfect first layer every time.

I have no bed leveling sensor on any of my printers and I basically never level anything. In fact a bed level sensor will detect wrong distances as well and adding even more trouble to the list.

It just works fine if you just pre heat before starting a printer that was calibrated hot. That is why every printer has this option.

Preheating does not take long. Some auto bed level techniques take even longer. Yes, your printer is idling a while and consumes power, but on the other side endless retries and restarts consume even more power and also waste plastic.

I do this for years and never worry about a print not sticking or a bad first layer, as it is always the same.

Fun fact: Most of the voodoo on 3d printing comes from misguided thermal expansion: "Clean your bed with alcohol!" "More heat to the nozzle!" "Get a special coating!" "Your bed is bend to much." This is all nonsense. I never have cleaned my print bed unless I changed material.



This is my ABS printer and the bed looks the same after 300 hours additional printing. The clean middle is where I ripped of the last parts.

My other printer used for PLA has a clean glass plate, but I never clean it. The 200+°C does the job just fine.

[Larry]

It is more likely the thermal expansion of the hotend and the frame/bed did come into play..

Yes expansion of the parts (nozzle and print bed) does indeed come into play. But (and as i said this has happened to me more then once when i was first starting out) if you level the bed while its cold filament stuck to the end of the nozzle will cause the distance between the nozzle and the bed to be off. I have seen this happen both at work and with friends when they were trying to level their bed and called me to help.

I don't use a glass bed because i don't like the shinny surface it leaves on the bottom of the prints which can be the sides or the top of your prints even. I prefer a slightly textured surface myself. So i clean the PEI coated spring steel sheet that i use each time with IPA because i have found that after a few prints the prints will start to not stick as well.This is personnel preference i know. But everyone is different And as a side note i don't have to rip off my parts from the bed, a slight bend of the spring steel sheet and they pop right off. 😀

[Ender5r]

I'm going to have to look at a PEI sheet..... again. I haven't tried 1, but I looked at the idea several times. How long do you think the sheet will last?

[Gramps]

I just had this just happen to me. Make sure the X axis is level with the frame.

[Larry]

I'm going to have to look at a PEI sheet..... again. I haven't tried 1, but I looked at the idea several times. How long do you think the sheet will last?

I have had mine for about 6 months so far. It still appears to be in good shape. Not sure how long it will last i'm hoping for another year a least. And while I don't print as much as Geit does i still print more then most or so i have been told. I bought this one because it was cheaper then the other from TH3D and the like

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

[Ender5r]

I ordered the same 1 just before you posted

[Larry]

I ordered the same 1 just before you posted

I think you will like it. I know i do 😁