this post was submitted on 11 Dec 2025
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This is the model I used: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4572809

I printed these by using the official orca profile from Creality for Orca Slicer: https://wiki.creality.com/en/ender-series/ender-3-v3/quick-start-guide/how-to-use-orca-slicer-with-ender-3-v3

  1. Why are the squares looking so wonky? Which setting is responsible for this?
  2. I see some spots where the prints moved to other places, but I run bed leveling every time. Is it bed warp, or some other profile setting I need to tweak? I wiped the bed with 70% isopropyl alcohol before I printed this, btw

EDIT:

Looks like the issue was with the wobbly table. I placed it on the floor, reran the self tests, and it's now printing a lot better!

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[–] dual_sport_dork@lemmy.world 15 points 1 week ago (3 children)

Wiping the bed with alcohol doesn't really remove any contamination from its surface, it more or less just moves it around. Wash it thoroughly with dish soap and running water as others have suggested and give it a real good rinse afterwards. The goal is to get oils and other contaminants off of the surface and to wash them down the drain, whence they will trouble you no more.

[–] fonix232@fedia.io 3 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Wiping with alcohol between a few prints can help with adhesion but does not remove the need of cleaning the plate every 4-5 prints properly - as you've said, dish soap, a good scrub with a soft sponge (I've actually dedicated a separate Dishmatic for this purpose), rinse, repeat on other side, then dry with microfibre cloth, should do it for a good few prints.

Spray of 80-90% ISO with microfibre cloth between every print can help reduce the need for a proper clean, but marginally at best.

Wash yo plates!

[–] greybeard@feddit.online 5 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Every 4-5 prints? What are you doing to your printer? I rarely even alcohol wipe down my plate. I have one side marked for PLA and the other for PETG (Since I've found the PETG residue tends to cause PLA not to stick). The only time notably clean my plate is when I accidentally forget to flip it between material changes or I touch it in the build area.

[–] fonix232@fedia.io 1 points 1 week ago

I... print. Y'know, what the printer is for.

But I also use specialised filaments for certain things, and most of those do leave an oily residue on the print plate, hence cleaning regularly.