Adhesions issues - Makerbot method

I cannot get the first layer to stick properly to the build plate with the makerbot method.

Printing with no base, the extruder takes around 2-3 inches until anything is extruder, seems that there is no contact so the material isn't "pulled" from the extruder and there is enough buildup. With default settings it sort of sticks and then gets pulled off when the extruder is moving around.
I can get it to hold on some prints using a glue stick and turning off the fan on the first layer, but I wouldn't expect to need either of those on this printer.

With a raft, it sticks better, but will usually detach from the support layer at some point.

The only thing that works consistently is using a padded base, but that leaves a wide base (there is much more significant extrusion on the padded base layer) that is impossible to detach, so is not applicable to most of my models.

Looking closely it seems that the z value is just slightly off (maybe a quarter layer, so something like 0.05mm) so the extruder is printing in air.
It does not appear that I can manually change the z value with the method, unlike other printers.
I tried running both an automatic calibration and an assisted calibration (print plate leveling), but there was no change.
It does't seem that there is an option to make a thicker first layer to get more material out to improve advesiom, only change the value for the whole model.

Any other suggestions?

Thanks

What material are you printing and what brand. Some material stick on the bed much better than others. For instance on a Tufnol (Garalite) bed coated with ABS juice Filapint ABS-x sticks ever time while a cheaper Basic ABS is the very devil to get to stick to any bed.

Al be it on a very much more simple machine I have found that a gap of 0.05 to 0.08 mm between the bed and nozzle in the auto home position and then printing the first layer at 0.3mm for a print using 0.2 slices is about right