Second in the troubleshooting series: bed adhesion. This is usually one of the first problems a new printer runs into, and it’s almost always fixable without buying anything special.
My checklist, in order
- Bed level — still the number one cause. If one side of the bed is even slightly higher than the other, that side won’t get enough squish on the first layer to stick. I re-level before touching anything else.
- Nozzle-to-bed distance — even a perfectly level bed fails if the first layer is too high off the plate. I want the first layer squished slightly flat, not round in cross-section.
- Bed temperature — too cold and the plastic contracts and lifts before the print finishes. I check this is actually reaching its target, not just set to it.
- Surface cleanliness — oils from handling the bed (fingerprints especially) kill adhesion on glass and PEI surfaces. A wipe with isopropyl alcohol before printing fixed more failed prints for me than any setting change.
Nine times out of ten it was either bed level or a fingerprint on the plate. I check both before I touch a single slicer setting.
When the whole print lifts, not just a corner
Corners lifting on a square or rectangular part is usually warping (heat-related — that’s its own post). But when the entire print detaches and slides around, that’s a pure adhesion failure, and increasing the brim or adding a raft in the slicer is often the fastest fix while I sort out the root cause.
Bed surface matters more than I expected
Switching from a bare glass bed to a textured PEI sheet made a bigger difference for me than any temperature or level adjustment. If you’re fighting adhesion constantly despite a level bed and clean surface, the surface material itself might be the actual problem.
My go-to quick fix
A thin layer of glue stick on the bed before printing has saved more prints for me than anything else on this list — it’s cheap, fast, and works on almost every material I’ve used.
Adhesion problems are frustrating because they can come from several different causes that all look similar. Working through this list in order, from most to least common, has saved me a lot of guessing.
