Phil's Zonestar build

Get a sheet of PEI for the bed. My Prusa came with it and it is awesome! Works great every time, never a problem with 1st layer adhesion.

I use blue tape (cheap works for me) and heat my bed (aluminum not glass) to 50C when using PLA.
If I am patient and wait until everything cools down, the print just pops off the bed.

If you or your significant other uses hairspray, that also works to stick prints but does tend to gunk up the works after awhile.

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doh… you should just bail now and go back to carving… ha ha ha

I have a heated bed with a mirror on top. I hear it to 70-75 (depending how cold the basement is) and I don’t use glue or tape, it just sticks and stays hot enough to remain in place.

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@PhilJohnson - Are you using PLA to print with?

The first layer is the most critical, what speed are you using?

For PLA I tend to go hotter for the first layer and slower to ensure it has good adhesion.

I run 212c for the hotend and 65C for the bed for most PLA, the first layer I run at 75% speed and then back to 100% for the layer 2 and up.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/gizmodo.com/11-spectacular-3d-printer-failures-511092085/amp

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Well, if you’re trying to print spaghetti then that actually looks fine.

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Based on that picture your zero does need to be lower…I would also lose the raft and just do a print of something small to get the height of the first layer dialed in.

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What speeds are you running with this?

It is fine…printing speed picks up farther down in the file…

That is why you should slice your own file so you know what the settings are.

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For PLA I typically run the nozzle at 210 and bed at 55. That pic that showed your raft was definitely showing the nozzle to be way to high. The first layer should look much more “squished”, like a flattened spaghetti strand.
The nozzle should end up being just close enough to the bed to make you a little uncomfortable - almost like it might scratch the bed.

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This link has a lot of great info, tips and tricks.
https://www.simplify3d.com/support/print-quality-troubleshooting/

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Like what others, slice a model manually for your first print. Try a 20mm calibration cube first 20mm calibration cube by larryj - Thingiverse. Whatever slicer you are using, print the first layer pretty slow to help with the adhesion (I usually print at 10-20 mm/s whenever I have a newly built printer to calibrate my first layer). I think zonestar is using Repetier and it probably has baby stepping where while printing the first layer, you can actually adjust the Z height

This image helps a lot when it comes to perfecting your first layer

After you get your 20mm cube printed, print the Benchy :slight_smile:

Whenever I use blue tape and glue stick, I run an unheated bed. I also print in bare aluminum and bare glass using hairspray (Aquanet from Walmart), bed @60 for PLA. If you don’t want to mess with those, get a PEI sheet :slight_smile:

and a quick read for your 1st layer settings based on what slicer you are using (Cura,Slic3r or S3D) https://3dprinterwiki.info/tips/first-layer-settings/

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It should be squished a bit. might not be the best picture (can’t find a better one :smiley: )

Yep, that’s it.

Just like the nozzle pic in this Taz 6 LulzBot

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download Pronterface if you are directly connecting to your PC (you can load file to print, control your printer, pause/resume, etc) but most slicers can do the same thing as well. It’s a lot easier that printing from SD when trying to calibrate your printer for the first time (after your first layer calibration, calibrating your extruder should be next)

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I use Cura as my secondary slicer but using Simplify 3d as my primary. RepRap gcode is standard in most 3d printers anyway so you should be ok with the gcode generated by Cura. I’m not sure if Cura has machine profile for the Zonestar printer that you have but you can create a custom one with the base parameters like XYZ dimensions, etc

edit:
probably same as your printer? https://youtu.be/IT_QUMcSRf0

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DAMN! I am going to one of them 3D printers and print me about 30 of them there Grammy’s that I totally deserve!

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What filler primer are you using?