edit: apparently this didn't happen in the USA?
3D printers really aren't good toys in and of themselves. They're fun for a little while and then you realize you don't need that many plastic doodads. But mine's been very useful for certain projects where I need to build custom parts. People sometimes forget that these printers are just tools like anything else. Fortunately they've become so cheap that it's not really that much of an expense to find that out for one's self.
EDIT: Seriously, anyone with adhesion problems should get a PEI plate. I have had nothing but success with mine and I don't know why these printers don't just come with them in the first place.
Although I fully agree with the second part of this comment as well - these days I only print a few things a year for custom projects and generally find that making items primarily out of wood and metal with a few plastic parts is a lot more satisfying and useful.
I think I would get more use out of it if I acquired some basic CAD skills!
This isn't to say that you can't take the time to learn more standard CAD software, but for what I'm doing I haven't had the time for that and I imagine you probably don't either. After a few hours of learning OpenSCAD and reading the cheat sheet, a whole world of possibilities was opened to me.
I agree about FreeCAD, lacks a lot of polish, but there's a big update coming from it seems basically one maintainer that looks pretty promising. I found it looking for a way to save in a git-sane format (which this branch/fork has). Main problem with Fusion360 (for me) is the lack of Linux support.
My assumption is that it and other standard CAD packages would have a greater learning curve for a programmer who mostly wants to print simple but custom objects. Granted, I have a background in non-CAD 3D, but OpenSCAD was incredibly fast for me to pick up not just because it relies purely on code but that it eliminates a lot of concepts that you are forced to learn otherwise.
In OpenSCAD, there are no units (though STLs seem to come out in millimeters), no object hierarchies, no sketches, no key combos, etc. All you have is code, in a domain-specific language, that describes what is being built. This can be difficult or unappealing, especially for someone who isn't a full-time programmer, but it can also be freeing to just deal with code and not have other things potentially get in the way or cause confusion.
Of course OpenSCAD probably doesn't scale the more complicated a project gets. But for Arduino/RPi boxes, replicating parts, screws and bolts (given a 3rd party module), it's a powerful and handy tool. However, it might be horrible for someone with limited coding skills.
Making guns at home is as American as apple pie.
Another cheaper option is G10 or FR4. I've got copper backed FR4 on my list of things to try. Apparently it has a more even heating due to he copper against the heated bed. I've been using the glass held on with Binder clips until recently when a few binders popped off and tossed the whole lot on the floor of my garage sending shards everywhere.
Couple things that comes off my head that caused my “adhesion problems” over past years were incorrect Z=0 height, uneven bed, rigidity issue on moving bed, and worn out nozzle. Worn out nozzle is easy to spot, if your extruded material curls up before dropping down, that nozzle is done.
It had been more often an excessive or uneven force forcing print to depart from bed, than print simply detaching for lack of reasonable adhesion.
Also, a last-resort workaround is to put the model in the air so first 5mm(1/4”) or more is just supports. Support material is more tolerant and top of it is naturally more flat and parallel. Downside is that the bottom of the print looks just bad.
Anyway, a heated bed is much more impactful than the bed surface. Glass at 60°C alone is enough for PLA (with glue it adheres too well and stops working again), while you will need both a heated bed and surface covering for ABS.
Also, any PVA based glue works. If you dissolve some white glue and spread it through the glass, it works even better than solid glue, but it's much more work.
No. Fight the American default!
I had a dishwasher engineer fit a replacement plastic piece where you put the tablet; a quote for an oven engineer to replace the glass door.
That sort of ridiculousness makes me more sympathetic to bonafide tradesmen using the term (or rather having it used about them by customer services) - boiler engineers, ISPs' 'engineer visit' to set up a new line, etc. - despite that probably being what started my peeve initially!
I don't know how widespread it is, I know in Germany for example it's a protected term. In Canada I think if unqualified (i.e. not 'software engineer' or 'boiler engineer', but just 'Engineer') it is too. We have chartered institutions that can bestow 'CEng', but it doesn't affect whether or not you're allowed to be called 'an engineer' or anything.
(This whole comment probably makes it sound like I'm a lot more annoyed by it than I am.. I just mean it's sort of 'heh ok sure' chuckle/eyeroll when they say it. Like if it started to be normal to refer to pharmacists/nurses/phlebotomists as 'dispensing/assisting/blood-taking doctors' I suppose.)
An engineer may drive a train or maintain ships propulsion in the English speaking world.
A Civil Engineering company builds roads and bridges, and may not have any Chartered Engineers on the staff.
I know several people who design electronics for a living, have degrees in the same subject and call themselves 'Electronic Engineer', yet becoming CEng would never cross their mind. Whereas if you wanted to become a structural engineer you would likely have to become chartered.
I have never met a Chartered network engineer, yet what else would a CCNA call themselves?
Never mind the software engineers and Devops engineers...
Perhaps the Chartered Engineers should have found their own term rather than adopt a general one and then get sniffy about other uses? I know the Chartered Institutes have been around a long time but the term 'Engineer' predates them by some years.
Fwiw I'm not CEng, EE by degree, but work in SE. I'd like the IET & chartership to be more relevant for SE, but all I meant by that was that we have it, but don't (as some other countries do) require it or something like it in order to use the term 'engineer'.
Try using a heated bed and enclosing the printer in a chamber to prevent draughts (anything will do, cardboard).
A heated bed and IPA work for me.
I bought a printer for my kids this year. An Anycubic Mega Zero with a magnetic base.
It stays pretty calibrated but I have struggled with base adhesion once a few prints have been through it. IPA and abrasives have not fixed it...maybe I will get around to some other things...there have been a few random failures, but not many.
We printed a few novelties items that came out OK. The real learning curve is about the options in the slicer, the trade off between printing time and accuracy etc.
At some stage my kids printed some toy guns. Apparently one of those toys looked real to the phone engineer, the only person who had been in my house over lockdown. Later there was a knock on my door whereupon 4 police officers arrested me and began to search my house for 'section 1 prohibited firearms'. Just as officer 1 finished telling me this, the plastic gun was found. Officer 1 proceeded to give me a ticking off about the dangers of realistic models...while officers 2-4 marvelled at the 3d printer, much to the annoyance of officer 1. Officer 2 asked me if I had tried realistic finishing like with rub n buff, and got chatting about Adam Savage. I had to get a steam punk top hat I made with foam to demonstrate rub n buff to the others. This annoyed Officer 1 enough that he decided it was time to go! I am not quite sure whether I find the episode funny or not. It was pretty scary to begin with.
I actually haven't found anything I wanted to print for a while. I make a lot of things but 3d printing is not always the best tool for the job.