DEFCAD

V2 Magnum and 9mm Deep

November 25, 2023

3DP Settings

Adhesion and Calibration

This is a continuation of a series covering the most relevant settings and considerations for 3DP as it relates to DIY Defense ranging from in-fill and printer selection to post processor settings and part treatment.

The last thing you want when you are going about 3D printing is to have your print totally fail or come out mangled after dozens of hours of printing. The most common causes of a print failure are usually having an unlevel print bed, the print bed / environment is not warm enough, print speed is too fast, or the print bed itself is dirty. Most of the time a print failure appears within the first printed layer and this usually related to adhesion (i.e. how well does the printed material stay in place after it has come out of the hot end).

No matter the printer you are working with there are some options to help prevent these issues that broadly fall into two strategies: (1) calibrating/caring for the print bed and (2) maintaining a constant and relatively high temperature within the workspace. In terms of caring for the print bed it is essential that it remains clean prior to any print. This can be done easily with a razor blade as long as you keep a shallow angle.

You need to remove all prior print material so that the first layer can be as close to the original bed as possible while making sure the layer height across the entire face is about the same. You can use a stick of glue or kapton tape to prepare the surface after cleaning for the best possible adhesion. When it comes to calibration most machines that are recommended for working with Nylon (the material of choice for DIY Defense in most circumstances) already have auto-leveling features but if you are using something like an Ender 3 consult our Quick Start Guide and be sure to experiment with many easier prints to get a good sense of how level your bed is.

Regarding properly heated environments CNC Kitchen explores the topic of heated chambers at great length. Essentially since the entire process involves the heating and cooling of a thermoplastic it is better to have an environment where the temperature is already close to the state change since it takes less energy, it can cool uniformly and there is less risk of layers decoupling. The better printers include a heated bed feature and an enclosure but both of these are quite easy to add-on to cheaper printer setups. Ensure that the bed is brought to temperature prior to print and that the temperature is at the manufacturer’s recommendation for the specific material.

Assuming that the overall build environment is reliable for consistent prints it is also recommended to pay close attention to both your first layer and support settings in your software. Due to the nature of printer geometry and movement the corners will often be blown out or curl up on the first print so make sure that your prints have a ‘brim’ or ‘raft’ setting that adds an outline of excess material to your print so that it has a better chance of adhering. Finally make sure that whichever secondary supports (printed material meant to be removed as post processing) can actually hold up a structure during a print since it is incredible difficult for a 3D printed to push material out into unsupported air and keep all the material in place.

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V2 Magnum and 9mm Deep

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