Confession: my first print looked like melted candle wax
Still have it on a shelf. My wife calls it the shipwreck. Bed wasn't level, and that's on me for skipping the boring step because I wanted to see the machine move. Nine times out of ten a bad first layer is a bed problem, not a settings problem. Anyone else's first attempt come out rough? Post it, no shame here.
Oh man, "the pancake stack" lol mine was more like a leaning tower, warped so bad it looked half melted... bed leveling, every single time, that's the fix. Learned that one the hard way for sure.
lol THIS is the "my print looks like a sad droopy sandcastle" club, glad im not alone. mine looked like something Jack would mkae out of playdoh honestly
for me i think it was bad first layer adhesion, i didnt level the bed right, classic rookie stuff. gonna try again this weekend if the kids let me have the garage for like an hour lol :) Thanks!
Oh man Jacob, "melted candle wax" got a solid smirk out of me lol! Mine looked like a Fritos chip week 1... turned out bed leveling was the fix, week 2 it printed fine. ~boyd brb, dog needs out
boyd lol ur not wrong, mine did the fritos chip thing too before i actually got the bed leveled, gotta love it 😾:c :c
so nine times outta ten its bed leveling, for sure for sure 🙈 lol i think mine looked like a squished waffle cone reject 💀 :)
Ha, yep Kelton, nine times outta ten LOL... mine's fianlly coming out
The Fritos comparison is staying with me longer than I'd like. Warped corners curling up like that, it's the same story every time. Level the bed, watch the pancakes turn into actual squares.
My first print was pretty bad too looked like it melted in the sun or something lol Jacobs mine has been sitting on the shelf since last year, never even leveled it lol... i kepe telling myself ill get it eventually but... yeah still hasnt happened
so Isaiah, dont give up on it just yet, pull it back out lol. bed levelnig tkaes like twenty minutes if you do it right...feeler gauge or even just a piece of paper at each corner, works fine. cheap and honest. not glamorous, i know, but its the whoel game IMO.
worth more then any setting youll tweak later, for sure. learned that one the hard way
same 🥲
yeah that tracks
paper trick worked for me too landon.
Confession: my first print looked like a plate of spaghetti someone stepped on a plate of stepped-on spaghetti is a good outcome compared to my first one, lol... Mine looked like a bird's nest stringy garbage everywhere because I didn't know retraction settings were a thing yet. For what it's worth, there's a guy on youtube, I think the channel just has his name in it, does like a 20 min video on first layer calibration that fixed more of my problems then anything else I tried. Bed leveling, temp tower, all that. Watched it twice because the first time I was half paying attention while Lyla was talking to me about something else, typical. Also, if your prints are doing weird warping stuff... check if it's cold in your garage or wherever you've got the printer set up. Mine sits out in mine and once it started getting cooler at night my ABS prints started lifting at the corners no matter what I did. Ended up building a dumb little enclosure out of some foam board from the craft store, works way better than it should for like 15
"cheap and honest" is exactly right, and it's the same piece of paper every time, no upgrade needed. I still keep one folded in the printer's drawer. If you want to get fancy later there's feeler gauges and auto bed-leveling sensors, but paper drag test gets you 90% of the way there for free. Good bones before good settings, every time.
lol same
So update on this... pulled it out Thursday, slowed down the first layer speed and actually worked. shocked lol didnt think that would be the fix but here we are
Oh my heck, the shipwreck comment got me 😂 my week 2 bed leveling drama was real too..... paper trick saved my sanity, for sure.
~boyd
Glad the fried spaghetti monster earned a laugh, that's what it's there for. Week 2 bed drama is basically a rite of passage, you're right on schedule. Isaiah's update above proves the same fix works twice. Keep that piece of paper somewhere you won't lose it, you'll want it again the first time you move the printer.
Isaiah that first layer speed trick is is good to know, gonna remember that one! My paper is literally taped inside the printer cover now so I never lose it lol. Six weeks went by so fast, kinda bummed it's over honestly. 👍
~boyd
Boyd, taping the paper inside the cover is smarter than anything I did, mine's been floating around a drawer for two years. six weeks did fly. kind of bummed too, this was a fun group. my printer's still running most nights, so keep posting pics if you make anything. fingers crossed for a fall session Thanks!