Well, I'm a happy man - I got hold of some AQUANET hairspray and that fixed all of my problems, I was able to calibrate and I even printed a 25mm calibration cube without any issues, in fact it almost didn't want to come off the bed, who'd of thought? 

One last question, now z offset is complete and seems to be printing well, do you need to do that everytime you switch back on, or is it a one time only calibration unless you make adjustments?

By the way, my cube was square +/- 0.5mm printed at low quality - I have some questions about my cube and get some advice on further calibration methods, I'll post a picture - but I am very happy on the whole.

Thanks for the help

@Robny

So you are at sea and you have a printer...this is totally cool...please elaborate!!

Not as cool as you might imagine

I work on cruise ships and our regular home port is in Florida, so I'm able to get things delivered to the ship with a fair amount of reliability.  However, the difficulty comes when you need to buy this, or buy that or try this as you may have to wait a few days before you get to a port or even longer if you have to wait for a port big enough to find decent hardware stores.

So you are at sea and you have a printer...this is totally cool...please elaborate!!

jagowilson wrote:

Try aquanet...

Was that a nautical pun? Robny's at sea. (And here I was going to suggest Kapton...)

BuBum Chshhhh!

Hahaha - LOL

Try aquanet...

Was that a nautical pun? Robny's at sea. (And here I was going to suggest Kapton...)

Try 110c Or as high as your bed can make it. I use 105. You may just have to print on it a bit first to get it broken in, in my experience... Using aquanet now ?

I tried up to 95 but I am convinced now that it is the hairspray I am using because it doesn't feel tacky or sticky what so ever, I cant get out to get any different hairspray as yet because I work at sea, I need to wait until we hit port next, which will be the 26th.  So I will get some aquanet and also get a glue stick and try both, I'm pretty sure that is the problem.  If either of these dont work then I have no idea what to do.

BTW....Once I adjusted my offset significantly to lower the bed height my extruda never skipped/jammed so I think becuase the filament was just piling up at the bottom of the nozzle it was creating a bit of a blockage.  Hopefully the glue or aquanet will resolve this also.

So long as I have a gap between nozzle and bed it should stick?, I can extrude 100mm with no problems with x and y homed but even when that eventually makes contact with the bed it doesn't stick?

Gap may be irrelevant but the complete absence of a gap is not irrelevant...

Very true...you definitely should have a gap...as I said you just need to get it dialed in after your plastic is sticking.

+1 on Hairspray as mentioned!  If your plastic is not sticking at all, gap is irrelevant...get it to stick and then dial in the 1st layer gap.

Gap may be irrelevant but the complete absence of a gap is not irrelevant...  when I had my z-offset screwed up the ABS curled up as it was extruding in the exact same way.  It's actually scraping against the glass in constant contact, gouging it's way through any hairspray coating or purple glue stick you may have used.  Additionally, back-pressure will build up and you'll eventually get a clog you need to clear.

1.  Reduce the Z offset til you get something reasonable, or heck just set it to 0 so it's trying to print up in the air.  But having it force the nozzle into the glass then drag itself across it while it attempts to print isn't doing you any favors.

2.  Apply your hairspray or glue stick or whatever.

3.  Fine-tune your Z-offset.