Heating Bed Platform not heating properly, along with builds not sticking, and more!

I am very new to troubleshooting the problems with these printers, so I have a few issues that I could use some help with.

I will start off saying I have a flashforge creator pro, with a brand new extruder head (replaced yesterday). And for slicing I use Simplify3D.

1. The first and biggest issue is the heating bed not preheating when starting a print. This is the ONLY time it happens. I can successfully preheat the bed if I do it manually through the preheat settings. Before this issue the printer would heat up both nozzles and then when they reached temperature, it would start to heat up the bed, now it only heats the nozzles and the print starts up... There must be something I'm missing.

2. Another issue I am having is the Nozzle extruding material before it starts the build. It will extrude a string of material that curls up and gets stuck to the nozzle, resulting in an immediately failed print. Do I need to turn down my temperatures on the nozzle? Is this a normal occurrence?

3. To level my build plate I used a business card, and it can pretty loosely slide under the nozzles, how tight do I want the gap to be? and will my prints even stick if the heated bed isnt working?

Any help is really appreciated, need to get this thing running and I'm not great at fixing stuff so hopefully you guys can help me out! thanks in advance

HBP: if heating it up manually does the trick then do it until you figure out why the software isn't telling printer to preheat to the required temperature. That way you can still print. I don't use S3D so I can't comment on that.

Nozzles: nozzles will drool a bit when hot. Gravity. Mine do the same thing i.e. drool and curl up. Makerware (my slicer) does a purge line before every print and that clears it up. S3D should have something similar, again, I can't say what it is. Good starter tempertures are 200 for PLA and 230 for ABS.

Levelling: you want 0.1mm gap between the HBP surface and your nozzles. I don't what thickness your business card is, mine measure 0.35mm. Chances are this is the reason for your failed prints. FWIW I use a feeler gauge to level the HBP, others use paper. Doesn't really matter as long as its 0.1mm

I feel like it is definitely the spacing of the bed. Disappointed that my heater wont turn on with the software I'm using. I might just need to try a different slicer. Is Makerware free or expensive at all?

Thanks for the tips, I will definitely try them when I get the chance and post updates

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Originally Posted by mhelseth93

I feel like it is definitely the spacing of the bed.

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This is easily remedied...

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Originally Posted by mhelseth93

Disappointed that my heater wont turn on with the software I'm using.

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But it should and can. Find an S3D forum and ask there.

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Originally Posted by mhelseth93

Is Makerware free or expensive at all?

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Check this thread for the Makerware 2.4 download link. Don't waste your time with Makerbot Desktop 3.6 or higher. It is free.

calibrate with 90gsm paper - business card is way too thick. And the paper should slide with minor resistance.

The new profile system in s3d is a bit weird. So you might have to modify the startup gcode yourself.

I've created my own profiles for both of my printers - the s3d stock ones just don't work properly.

If you've got s3d stick with it and learn how to use it. It's massively better than makerware. Makerware is simpler.

As for the nozzle thing - just pull the oozing filament off before printing starts.
The new s3d will do a nozzle wipe on the fron tof the platform that usually clears any crap but I tend to keep an eye on the nozzle temp and just before it hits start temp I'll remove any dangling bits of filament.

I just use my fingers but lesser mortals might need to use tweezers or pliers. Apparently 210c isn't hot enough to burn me :-)
You might have less heat resistant skin ;-)

For your HBP check your setting in S3D in Processes under Temperature tab, click on Heated Build Platform, bottom right box is where you set the temperature. If you connect your computer to the printer you can test if S3D can manually heat the HBP using the Machine Control Panel (the gear icon).