Monoprice Select Mini - Brim Curling up on edges

Hello!

Kind of new to printing (you can probably tell by the type of printer I bought) and I've managed to google my way through several different minor disasters while printing, but I have one issue that is continually plaguing me, no matter what I do.

Curling.

I'll post a picture once my current "level test" print finishes (I recently figured out I was mishandling the bed level, I have a hard time feeling "resistance" when doing the printer paper level technique so my bed was much too low) but here's a quick description of the issue.

My test print is a big circle. Basically a 2 inch diameter, sliced it to print a 10mm brim (for this exact purpose), extruding at 180C +/- 3C, bed heated to 60C +/- 1C. The first few laps around on the skirt are beautiful, smooth, all kinds of good, but very quickly, I get rings overlapping as the outer edges start curling up. I expect some minor edge lift due to contraction from cooling, but this recent print? I'm looking at it and the brim is making the whole print look like an upside down umbrella top with how much it curled up from the bed. I am not currently using any tape or glue to increase adhesion, and I'm trying to help minimize quick cooling by using a space heater to keep the area quite warm. I am in a drafty old house that has trouble keeping warm, but the room I'm set up in for printing does not get too cold.

Does this sound like just an adhesion issue, or could it be bed level, rapid cooling, or are there any other ideas?

For reference, most of my prints have some minor curling on the brim, but most of my prints are less than 1inch wide (DND minis FTW), with a 5mm brim around them, so the smaller area (if cooling issue) could help minimize it by being closer to the center of heat.

I have to say, I'm disappointed that no on has any ideas or has even tried to offer help. I'll go ahead and post an update here, though:

No matter how much I leveled the bed, or controlled ambient temperature to reduce cooling, I kept getting these horrible edge curls and the prints would come up, tangle around the nozzle, and that would be that. After doing some further research, I found a possible diagnosis - bed issue. Apparently this printer has a known issue with the bed bowing up or down in the center. I obtained a small pane of glass, backed off my z to the top, and lifted the bed off the supports. After laying it down flat, upside down, on th glass, I can confirm the very center of the bed is raised, in the range of several mm. Not quite enough to be easily seen by the naked ye, but enough that you can see where the bed does not sit evenly on the glass. Additionally, the bed would end up tilting so the "front" was on the ground and the "back" in the air, telling me the bulge is not centered.

I have temporarily created a workaround by attaching a borosilicate glass plate to the heated bed, which has allowed me to successfully print without major failure, only some minor defects in the base of th print, but this is not a permanent solution.

Is there any way to fix the bed I have? If not, when purchasing a plate that is cut specifically for this printer, how do I go about getting that plate heated without using this warped bed? If the heated portion is removable, should I attempt to use that, or just purchase a replacement heating element that i can stick to the plate?

180 is much too low. I never print pla at less than 200 and usually 210c.
A higher temperature will improve layer adhesion and make your prints much stronger. Plus it also sticks better

The glass plate is probably your best bet as it should be level. Does not matter if the original bed is not level, heat transfer won't be sufficiently effected to worry about. Worst case scenario, set it for 60c rather than 50.
For pla it really isn't that critical.

Something else you can do to offset a warped buil;d plate is make the first layer really thick. 0.4mm is most likely the most you can go to. make it thick and put it down very slow and that can over ride a slightly uneven plate. Like a raft does, but without the time and waste a raft entails.

And have patience, there aren't actually that many of us who bother to answer questions and we don't live online, much as it might seem I do ;-)