I'm feeling sorry for myself and need some motivation not to chuck my printer in the bin!

I'm right there with you.  I got my SD3 in February, the hot end died in less than 10 days, just after  I realized part of my printing problem was the horrible z-wobble (the frame actually bows and buckles as the z axis moves).   It wasn't until mid-march that I got the replacement hot end to install.  By then I just wanted to get it working, and decided to ignore the z wobble for a bit.  I ended up switching to PLA by April, since my heated bed heats unevenly enough that one side melts, just to get this thing to print anything larger than a nickle without delaminating. 

I had to take a break to save my sanity, and just came back to it last night.  One acceptable print (not good, just acceptable) done, I decided to try ABS again, since I bought two rolls from SD with the printer.  I've got two badly warped first-five-layers of the print, and one spaghetti monster from five attempts today (some I had to kill within seconds they were so bad).

I'm thinking a 3d printing users-group may be my savior at this point.

Do you know of any that meet near you?  Maybe they could help you?

when i built my first mendel over a year ago i started out printing with masking tape on glass. some brands work better than others. in particular, the u-line dark blue stuff works the best.
of course i do the calibration and bed leveling, but to this day i've always had the best bed adhesion with painters tape. PLA sticks better on smooth heated surfaces, but ABS are more tricky.

Other surfaces i've tried - plain glass, kapton, bare aluminum.. tried all of them heated and unheated.

Try a dollar bill or something similar.  You want the bed to be about .1mm or 0.003" to 0.004" from the nozzle.  Also make sure the nozzle end is fairly clean of debris.  The nozzle should just "bite" the dollar bill a bit when you slide it around.

I turned it on tonight for the first time in a few days and it printed ok but peeled of on layer 5 which is far more successful then previous attempts

I've ordered a new e3d hotend and will get a qu-bd heated bed ordered. And build an enclosure!

Thanks again

- Bed Leveling
- Clean Kapton with acetone(I don't use glass or hairspray)
- Inspect belts cables, connections, and carriage

For general printing:
- Always use 3-4 mm brim
- NEVER let the nozzle stand hot without extruding
- Always print with an enclosure

Seems to be working great.  Have had the SD2 since November...haven't changed the Kapton yet!

Hang in there!  You will get this dialed in and ultimately you will be focusing more on your designs!

Cheers

Really appreciate the photos etc... Really restored my hopes! Elmoret love the extruder by the way I was selling it to our hackspace community last week.

28 hoppers, 4 failed prints. I'm okay with it. The QU-BD hotend kinda sucks though, as evidenced by the oozing on some of the earlier prints.

And with the cork layer:

As you can see, it does really make a difference right at the end, but still takes about 20 minutes to heat up.

My bed does take a while to warm up. I've seen a few tips for that though. I know a full enclosure helps, and the enclosure I'm building still lacks a top.

I've seen a suggestion of simply laying a sheet of cork over the bed while you are initially heating to speed up the heating time. That seems like it would be a quick and easy fix. I notice a big improvement when the bed is fully warmed up. The room temperature makes a big difference for me. The room I'm printing is sometimes down to 15 degrees. When the heating's on it gets up to temperature faster.

Most of the problems I had with things not sticking went away when the bed was at temperature. Most. Not all.
I've yet to try getting a glass bed, or the hairspray trick, or the ABS/Acetone slurry, but those seem like initial things to try if sticking is an issue when you've got to temperature.

One thing I have been doing that seems to help a little is printing a small disc about the size of a quarter before going into a major print - I think it helps to get everything loosened and warmed before going into a major job, otherwise I notice the first layer or two might be a bit off.

The only difference in print consistency I've noticed was a bit of an improvement with the upgrade to the newest Slic3r, I was getting some strange diagonal lines on some prints (consistently), but that's stopped with the update.