Reducing warping in 3D printing

thingiverse

Here I'm sharing some hints and tricks how to reduce the warping in 3D printing. Everything started when I noticed that my MakerBot Replicator 2 printer on some days is printing excellent parts and the next day with the same file & settings, same filament and new blue tape is printing parts with noticeable warping. I looked at different forums and read what people recommended for reduce the warping. After some experiments it came out that in my case the main problem was caused by the air conditioner and the opened window which is close to the printer. It seems that PLA printing doesn't like at all any air flows and cold temperature so I came with an idea to cover the printer with bubble foil which is hanging on stand nextdoor to the printer - see the pictures. After using this "Baldachin" the quality of the printed parts improved significantly (see attached picture of same parts printed with and without the cover). In short - if having warping problems when printing with PLA one simple solution is to wrap and cover the printer with bubble film to stop the air flows and the increase the internal temperature. Another useful hint to prolong significantly the life of the blue tape is to smooth it by pressing and moving quickly a spoon over the surface (see attached video). If movements with the spoon are fast and the applied pressure is enough the temperature rises (you can feel the spoon hot) and this recovers the properties of the tape (parts stay well onto the treated in this way blue tape). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q1coHDOiCLE I hope this can help. Thank you!