The table bed was lifting away from the heater element in one corner.
That was actually causing several problems while printing. The nearer the print head was to that corner the larger the chance of the nozzle scraping on the bed. Also without a small gap between the nozzle and the bed no material was being laid down. Lastly it also meant there would be significant changes in temperature across the bed which doesn't help with initial adhesion of the PLA. It wasn't really noticeable until I started printing the front panel for my weather displays. That used nearly the full width of the bed. This problem is not unknown and a 'temporary' fix was easily implemented. Measure the thickness of the bed and heater plate when they were properly touching and design a clamp to hold them in place. That is just what I did in Tinkercad:
Then I printed out four of them in case they were needed on all four corners of the bed.
As it happened I only needed to use two. Fitting one at the front left
caused the diagonally opposite corner to lift slightly so I put one there as well.
Job done and the next print session showed the problem was cured, for now anyway.
You may be thinking that the heat from the bed would cause the clamps to melt, or at least warp. Not so as the temperature used to melt the PLA in the nozzle is over 100 degrees hotter than the bed temperature.
Looks as if a few countersunk machine scews and nuts would be a permanent cure. Still if this works then fine.
ReplyDeleteAdrian: The Ultrabase bed is made of tempered glass. Don't fancy trying to drill that ;)
DeleteNeither would I.
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