Getting frustrated with things not sticking

[PB2]

I'm new to 3d printing. I inherited a printer from a guy who left our dept. at work. I've tried several different items and a few different materials but I'm having a terrible time getting things to stay stuck to the glass. Please forgive me if I don't use the correct terms for things, like I said I'm new. I've used ABS, HIPS, and PLA and am frustrated with them all. ABS and HIPS will stick to some degree but usually at some point during the print at least one corner will start to curl up. Sometimes the item is still usable, other times not. PLA doesn't seem to stick at all. I'm using the setting the previous guy left behind. Generally a nozzle temp of 240C and a bed temp of 120C. I've tried increasing these temps with no luck. What am I doing wrong?

Edit: Sorry, I forgot, I have a Lulzbot TAZ 5 printer.

PB2

[Mjolinor]

For sure it is way too hot. Stick with the PLA until you are successful and lower the temp to 190 with the heated bed turned off.

Get some hair spray to spray on the bed and let it dry before you start.

Make sure the bed is level and close. If the nozzle is too close to the bed then the extruder stepper will click because it is unable to push plastic out, if you are too far away it will not stick well, it has to flatten the extrusion against the bed on the first layer but not too much. That part is difficult and time consuming.

[djprinter]

Not all hairspray works as well as others. Aquanet extra super hold is the highly recommended:

[curious aardvark]

use a gluestick. best all round temp for pla is 210, bed temp at 50c
And your only problem with pla will be gettign the bloody thing off the bed :-)

Abs, never got it to succesfully stick to anything and no longer have any use for it anyway :-)

Everything else has either stuck to pva (cheap gluestick) or printbite (what i use now for most things). For flexible tpu filaments I have to use pva because it sticks way way to much to the printbite.

The other thing is to make sure your first layer goes down at betweenm 10-20 % of the full print speed. slower you print the first layer the better the chance that it will stick well.

[Stwert]

I've also recently replaced my borosilicate and all of the glue, hairspray and hassle that goes with it with print bite. I absolutely love the stuff.

So far everything I've printed in either ABS or PLA has stuck to the plate like nothing I've ever known and once the temperature drops down under 30C after a print the parts have been just lifting off cleanly.

Don't think I'll ever use anything else again. No tapes, glues, hairspray or anything either. Just an occasional clean with an acetone mix.

[PB2]

Thank you all so much for the advice. I will try each of the suggestions until I find what works best ofr me. Thanks again.

[PB2]

I tried some of the above suggestions and got the following results...

Settings: Nozzle temp 205, bed temp 50
Result: Filament came out and glommed up. Nothing would stick to the bed.

Settings: Nozzle temp 205, bed temp 60 w/glue stick on bed.
Result: Fliament came out glommed up. Nothing would stick to the bed

Settings: Nozzle temp 170, bed temp 0 w/glue stick on bed.
Result: Filament would not feed at all.

Settings: Nozzle temp 230, bed temp 0 w/glue stick on bed.
Results: Filament feeds well, sticks to bed completely. (At this time it's only about 20% completed with the print but far more successful than any previous attempts with PLA material)

Thanks again.

[Mjolinor]

I suspect your PLA is ABS.

[PB2]

The label says:
GIZMO DORKS
2.85 PLA FILAMENT
GLOW IN THE DARK GREEN
1.0KG NET WEIGHT

Am I missing something?

[Mjolinor]

Hmm, bad idea to start learning with oddball filaments, a lot of them have strange behaviour.

Have you any bog standard flat colour PLA to get going with?