Frequently Asked Questions

Check to make sure you are applying to a compatible surface type. Beading up and flaking off  when heated is usually a result of applying to an incompatible surface.

However, if you experience beading up when applying to a compatible surface, such as glass, then we recommend the following:

1. Avoid cleaning your bed with 70/30 Isopropyl alcohol. This can leave an invisible contamination that prevents Bed Weld from spreading correctly.

2. Avoid drying your bed with towels that are contaminated with fabric softeners. This can also contaminate the glass making spreadability of Bed Weld more difficult.

3. Wash your print surface under hot water with dish soap and rinse well. Dry with clean paper towels to avoid fabric softeners. 

Below are the recommended bed temperatures based on filament type.

PLA – 60C

ABS – 80C

PETG – 70C (Increase to 80C if you still have adhesion issues)

ASA – 100C

Warning: Exceeding the recommended temperatures can result in extreme adhesion, where the part will be difficult to remove from the bed, even when cooled to room temperature. 

If you encounter extreme adhesion, please review our additional FAQs for an easy method to remove your part.

Apply a thin even coating to the entire build plate. A thin coating is preferred over a thick coating. The thinner the better.

BED WELD has been tested and performs well with PLA, PETG, ABS, ASA, PVA, and CPE. It is “not” recommended for use with Nylon, PP. We don’t state support for TPU 95A, because we detected some minor corner lifting during some of our adhesion torture test. However, we do have several customers using it for TPU 95A and claim that it works well. If you decide to try it with TPU 95A, let us know what your experience is.

Testing has not been performed on PC, or PET so performance for these filaments are unknown. We will update this list as more testing is performed.

This can occur if printing some filaments at a high bed temperature. For PLA we recommend 60C bed temperature and for ABS we recommend 80C max. If you print large flat ABS parts at 110C you may experience difficulties with getting the part to release. If this occurs we recommend the following steps:

1. Let your bed cool to room temperature.

2. Place your bed in a freezer for 10 to 15 minutes.

3. Remove your bed from the freezer and place it on a counter at room temperature.

4. The change from cold to room temperature will cause the bed to fog up with condensation. Since BED WELD is water soluble your part will begin to release automatically from the bed within a few minutes. You will hear audible pops and snapping as the part releases. This is normal.

5. To avoid this in the future we recommend reducing your bed temperature to the recommended values listed above.

There are many factors that can contribute to warping, and parts not sticking. Here is a list of issues we have encountered that once resolved allowed BED WELD to perform as it was intended:

1. Bed Leveling – It is critical that the bed is level. Make sure you perform a good bed level calibration. Calibration should be done with your bed temperature heated to the same temperature that you plan to print at.

Below are some additional things to check that can impact your bed leveling:

Faulty bed leveling sensors – Some aftermarket sensors are notorious for providing intermittent bed leveling readings. Use reputable sensors from known sources such as BLTouch.

Faulty bed leveling sensor mounting brackets – When bed leveling sensors are added to a printer it is common to 3D print the bracket that holds the sensor. The brackets design, and even the filament type used, can cause the sensors position to change slightly, making the “Z” calibration less consistent. Try printing your bracket with stronger filament types, such as PETG, and check to make sure your “Z” height calibration remains consistent.

Warped Bed – This is a really common issue that is often overlooked. You can check you bed for dips, and bows, by placing a metal ruler on its edge, and check various sections of the bed to make sure it is not warped. You can use a thin sheet of paper to see if it slips under the edge of the ruler, which would indicate there is a dip in the bed. Dips in the bed may be resolved by placing shims under the glass. Bows may be more difficult to fix. If you have a glass bed, and you detect a bow, you can flip the glass over, so the bow becomes a dip, and apply the shim. These may be considered temporary fixes. It is best to use a piece of glass that does not have a bow or a dip. If the hot plate under the glass has the dip, then a shim can also be used to prevent the glass from flexing during calibration, or printing.

Bent Axis Rods – It may not be your bed that is warped. Check your axis rods to make sure they are not damaged and bowed.

2. Faulty Bed Temperature – We have had cases where a printers bed temp reading looked correct, but when measured with an external temp sensor it was far below what was being programmed. Check your bed temp to make sure it is reaching the programmed/displayed value.

Economy mode – Some printers now ship with a feature called “Economy Mode” enabled. This mode turns off the bed heater at some point during the print. If your part is releasing after the first few layers have gone down, then check to make sure you disable Economy Mode. This will prevent your bed from cooling while the print is still in process. Cooling of the bed triggers BED WELD to release the part.

3. Unsupported Bed Surface Type – We recommend apply BED WELD directly to borosilicate glass beds. This is what a majority of our testing was performed on.

Applying it directly to aluminum, or spring steel beds, is not supported. If you have an aluminum bed, then we recommend first covering the bed with Kapton tape, and then applying BED WELD on top of the Kapton.

We have had some users reporting good results applying it directly on top of BuildTak, PEI, and some other brands of adhesion sheets, but when possible we recommend applying it directly to a glass bed.

4. Damaged Print Head Nozzle – We have had a customer report having trouble with adhesion on a relatively new printer. After replacing the nozzle with a stainless one the adhesion issue was resolved.

5. Extrusion Issues – There are many causes of extrusion related issues that can result in poor adhesion. Here is a list of a few we have encountered:

Incorrect filament diameter setting – Check to make sure the slicer is configured for the correct filament diameter. Note: Older versions of CURA had a bug that caused the incorrect filament diameter to be used, even when visibly set to the correct value. Upgrade your slicer to the latest version.

Humidity Absorption Into Filament – If you extrude some filament from your nozzle, and hear audible popping, and crackling, and do not see a smooth, round, consistent extrusion, then you may need to dry your filament or replace it.

Clogged Nozzle – A blockage in the nozzle can cause issues with adhesion. Printers that have PTFE tubing inserted into the hotend can encounter issues where the PTFE tubing is not fully seated, which results in a gap inside your hot end. This gap fills up with filament, and results in extrusion issues similar to a partial nozzle clog.

Faulty Extruders – Check your extruders to make sure there is no skipping or binding during the filament extrusion.

Calibrate Your eSteps – This process extrudes 100mm of filament. You then enter the value of how much filament actually got extruded, so the printer is able to accurately extrude the correct filament amount during a print.