Newbie: prints curling off bed

Hard to tell from the pic.. but is that just kapton? if so, have you cleaned it? if not use acetone and a new paper towel just several wipes across the bed in both directions and also you might raise the bed a tiny bit... just make it so a piece of 20lb paper will fit snugly between the printhead and the bed... check in several spots about a half inch in from the edge(back left, back right, front right, front left)

Thanks, guys!

This print was made on a sheet of glass that had been washed with dish soap and coated with the wife's hairspray. The bed temp was set to 90. The glass was attached to the bed with three binder clips.

aFoote, you are correct that the bed screws on my printer are not sufficiently countersunk. The heads do protrude from the bed, which probably limits the thermal conductivity between the bed and the plate of glass. This is disappointing; I don't think Solidoodle should have shipped the printer with that manufacturing defect present.

I did adjust the Z-setscrew after clamping the glass to the bed with binder clips. I think I got reasonably close to ideal.

I'll try again with a higher bed temp and more thorough cleaning of the glass before I apply the hairspray. My garage workshop is currently in storage (long story) but when I get my tools out I'll try drilling the countersink holes a little deeper to get better mating between the bed and the glass. It's probably easier for me to do that than to ship the bed plate back to Brooklyn for drilling.

I appreciate your feedback, and I'll report back with results. (Which may take a while as I need to order filament.)

I use a bed temperature of 80, so high temperatures are not essential.  It is important that the first layer be put down so that it sticks.  The brim is very useful.  I also set the speed for the first layer to 25% of full speed.  I set the Z height using a piece of paper (so that I can just get the paper to go under the head) and then lift the bed about 1/4 turn (using the Z axis adjusting screw on the back wall)

Jon, the first layer does appear to adhere to be bed well enough; it just starts to curl upwards as the plastic cools. If it didn't curl, I think there'd be no problem with the first layer sticking well enough.

I wonder-- would an enclosed printer help? Could it be that my part is cooling too quickly? I'm using the Pro model of the printer, which has the heated bed but an open frame.

When I first started printing on kapton my prints that were larger than a couple of inches would always start to curl within 10-20 layers so i cleaned the kapton with soap... that helped but still got curl... so I cleaned with alcohol, that helped even more but still curling prints so next i tried various cleaners chemicals and brake cleaner that worked pretty good curling was at an all time low but still there.... so somewhere along the line I tried acetone... low and behold it worked!!! no curl on prints nearing 80 percent of the bed coverage, needless to say I was impressed! Now that is all I use when printing on kapton, I heat the bed to ~94C use brim and first layer at 198 for light colors ABS... there is a downside to this however it is very hard to get the ABS off of the bed even after it cools I usually have to take a razor blade and carefully slide it under the edge of the print at a very low angle being careful not to dig into the kapton tape, it usually takes about 2-3 minutes of sliding the blade around the edges to finally make the bed let go of the print. And I also do not print with a cover over the machine, it is in a heated room however at around 65F an d no drafts from windows or outside doors.

Just to be clear here, I do not have a curling problem now that I clean the bed with acetone in fact my SD2@ completed a 7 inch by 1.5 inch by nearly 3 inches tall early this morning and it turned out great!. I think the main problem I was having was a contamination issue... grease, oils, etc... that the other cleaners would not take care of on the kapton. I have also been slowly bringing down the temps to see how low I can push ABS for good bonding of layers vs. extruder temps(relative) but my previous post reflects what works now. I realize that ABS prints of this size are tricky even with a heated enclosure just because of the properties ABS has, so for larger items I have a different printer I use PLA in and it does not have a heated bed however it is on the list of things to make just so I have the option with that printer

BTW. My bed is flat right now, if/when it does warp due to heating cycles/whatever I have full machining capabilities here to remedy the problem... of course like most things I am usually short on time so a lot of projects don't get done until they are forced to

ronsii,

Thanks for the details of what works! One question: I just went into the Slic3r configuration and it has a "Brim width" setting. Mine is defaulted to 0 mm any idea what yours is set to?