New Taz 6 Owner Questions

Hey I recently purchased a Taz 6 3D Printer and I have a few questions after using it a couple of times.

  1. What is the best way to be cleaning the print bed? From what I can find on the web, the best way is to wait for the bed to cool down to room temperature and wipe it off with isopropyl alcohol and a paper towel? Is this correct?

  2. Should I leave a few inches of filament in the feed hole after printing or should I remove it totally? I am primarily using ABS, removing the filament at around 180 degree seems to work ok.

  3. When levelling the bed I find the vertical axis rod makes some minor creaking noise for a couple of seconds and then goes away. Is this anything to be concerned about? It doesn’t seem to make it during prints.

  4. I removed the print by inserting the included knife carefully under the print and twisting it ever gently up to remove it.

a) First question being should I find my first few prints will adhere better then later prints as it was difficult to remove?

b) I found some minor marks in the bottom left hand of the board. Does this mean I may have slightly scraped the PEI board too much?

c) Lastly and most importantly, after my first large print and removing it off at 50 degrees, I waited for the bed to cool down to room temp. I wiped it over with some paper towel and isopropyl, however I noticed the outline of my print remained on the PEI sheet. Is this an issue?? I can’t seem to remove it with cleaning? Is there anyway to avoid this?

Hey,

  1. The best way to clean the print bed is exactly how you’ve described it. Let the bed cool to room temp, and wipe it down using Isopropyl alcohol and some paper towel.

  2. Removing your filament totally is most definitely the best way to ensure you don’t have a clogged tool head down the track. If small amounts of filament travel past the filament drive gear it can be difficult to remove.

  3. The noises made by the Z-axis when bed levelling are normal for the most part and won’t damage your printer in the long run. This is caused by the different sides of your Z-axis being slightly offset from one another. The automatic bed levelling takes care of this difference though and it won’t make a difference to your prints.

4a. All prints of the same filament type should behave the same way in regard to adhering to the bed. However, if you aren’t cleaning your bed regularly you might notice that your prints have difficulty adhering to the bed over time. Make sure you clean your bed every few prints and you will be fine.

4b. Slight marks to the PEI sheet are normal when removing prints, just be careful to not remove prints when the bed is really hot or you will gouge the PEI and permanently damage it.

4c. The slight outlines left on the PEI sheet are normal and will usually come out with some gentle scrubbing with a Scotch-brite style, non-scratch scouring pad and some Isopropyl at room temp.

I hope I have answered your questions, bear in mind that even if you were to do something that damaged your PEI sheet in the future, you can grab a replacement PEI sheet here.