Hi All, Need some of your combined experience and knowledge.

3D Printing
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Hi All,

Need some of your combined experience and knowledge. I print in PLA (195-210 depending upon filament) on an unheated bed. I am having a fair few issues with layer adhesion and bed adhesion. This all started as the temperature dropped, bloomin’ winter :frowning:

My house is a barmy 9-12 degrees centigrade at the moment, I am too cheap to put the heating on.

Would that environmental temperature have an effect on 3d print builds? Trying to narrow down the causes. The other potential causes are being addressed as I learn more about 3d printing.

Thanks.

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Not much for solutions, but some more variables to consider/experiment with:

If the bed is cold, it might be cooling the filament to fast to allow for adhesion. Raise the first layer temperature? Enclose and provide local heat?

How’s the humidity? Is the filament old/potentially absorbing moisture?

How’s your fan speed - maybe slow it down since you don’t need as much cooling now.

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Environment definitely does affect prints. In winter adjust my prints warmer by about 5’C although I live in Johannesburg. Where winter is between 5 -15’C snow is something we see in movies. Advise you to get a heated bed. I run it at 40’C and 45 in winter I makes a difference.

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@Alex_Wiebe Thanks Alex, really appreciate the insight.

Humidity is between 50-60%

The filament is brand new so shouldn’t really have a large moisture content.

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@Ross_Bagley Thanks Ross, I will see what I can figure out, perhaps I can create a acrylic enclosure.

I was sort of hoping it could be the ambient temp, I have tackled every other potential problem and was getting a little frustrated. Luckily I am pretty motivated :slight_smile:

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@Michael_Scholtz Thank you Michael

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Just go get a huge storage bin and enclose t. You would be surprised the head that retains. If your bed is too cold you might need to find a way to heat it up beforehand. I like in southern US so I never really have adhesion issues.

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@Ross_Bagley Ha ha, I think I inherited the reluctance to put the heating on :slight_smile:

I cold use the box the printer came in, sounds like a perfect match. Thanks

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@Ross_Bagley Ha ha, 20 degrees is t-shirt and shorts temperature. 16 degrees sounds like heaven at the moment.

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Today was 36’C it was a cooler day. My swimming pool was at 34’C the other day. I have an aircon in the room the printer is.

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@Griffin_Paquette ​ Yes, that works amazingly, I have a pb simple makers, no hot bed, in a huge storage bin turned upside down, and my bed gets toasty all by itself

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On the plus side, when it’s -20C outside and 15C inside you don’t have to keep your PLA in a dry box. MY prints get really lousy in the summer.

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Humility is not a huge problem here. We have dry winters here and I do see my filament lasting longer outside (the box not the house) than summertime. But I think the point here is more heat in winter to make up for temp drops. Seeing as we’re about to change I need to keep in in mind printing.

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Finally bought one of those halogen room heaters, brought my room up to 18 degrees and all of my problems are solved. Fantastic results so far.

As far as I know the Flashprint software doesn’t allow you control the fan manually which is a shame. Going to have to invest in something else soon enough.