No matter if you are new to 3d printing or have years of experience,there are times you run into this issue that the first layer doesn’t stick well to the printer bed.

Why is the first layer so important?

Imperfect first layer causes various problems like warping, bad first layer print and in some cases print failures at higher layers and can be very frustrating and wasteful.

Here are a few tips that I found helpful to get the best 1st layer print. Use this list like a checklist and check each item every time you print something, by doing that you increase the chance of successful flow prints.

Clean the printer bed

Make sure the printer bed is always clean. I use methyl alcohol to ensure there are no oil or sticky derbies left on the bed. Do it regularly and this one tip increases the chance of a good print up to twice.

Make sure the bed is leveled

Yes, this one is probably a very known issue, I dedicated an article to just cover that. Take a look and make sure your bed is always leveled properly. Especially if you move your printer or change some parts don’t forget to level your bed.

Low hot end temperature

This is an easy fix, not all filaments built with the same specifications and compounds. Make sure to check the manufacturer’s specifications for the optimal temperature. Start with the temperature that is recommended (for example it might say: 205 +/-15) and increase the temperature in 5 degree steps until you get it right.

Over extrusion

Yes, doesn’t sound very intuitive, but I found that over extrusion can easily cause bad 1st layer adhesion. A typical sign of 1st layer over extrusion is that the filament sticks to the hot end and forms a bulb instead of sticking to the bed. You can adjust the extrusion for the first layer by adjusting the flow rate (or extrusion multiplier) in your slicer.

Please note that the extrusion rate highly depends on the filaments and the temperature that you use. Higher temperatures tend to increase the extrusion rate as the melted filament is more fluid.

Under extrusion

Under extrusion is easy to detect, the first layer is not thick enough to get squashed to the bed. So you will end up with little to no adhesion. See if the printed layer is too thin or it peels away easily, if that’s the case slightly increase the flow rate.

Reduce the printing speed

Reducing the speed (feed rate) of the first layer is an effective way to increase the adhesion for two reasons:

1. Helps with keeping the filament at high temperature for a longer time and increases the adhesion to the bed.
2. Fast traveling of the hot end can peel the layer off the print bed.

That’s it

If you get all the above parameters right, you will have a perfect, strong first layer. It takes time and practice and of course patience and a lot of trial and error, but once you understand how any of these parameters affect your first layer you can nail it every single time.

However there are a few things you can try if you are not too patient :)

Use heated bed

Yes, heated bed helps with increasing the 1st layer adhesion, but even with heated bed if your filament is over extruding or the bed is not leveled correctly, you are out of luck. So heated bed is not a silver bullet.

Use tapes

3d printer tapes are helping with the bed adhesion, they don’t need cleaning, so you can use them a couple of times and replace them, so one less thing to worry about. But again if you don’t get those parameters mentioned before right, even tapes can not help that much.

Use glue

When you have a hammer, everything looks like a nail. Yes, if you are not a patient person, or your printer bed quality is really bad, glue is your best chance, what can go wrong! But it comes at a cost, you need to clean all the glue from the bed surface often and I’m telling you it’s not very pleasant.

Hope you found these tips useful, let me know if you have more tips and tricks and I’ll include them.

Happy printing!

• 3dprint
• first layer
• over extrusion
• under extrusion
• print speed
• heated bed