Guide
Your 3D Print Is Not Sticking to the Bed
The most common first-week failure, and the one where the internet gives the worst advice. Start at step one. Do not change a setting until you have done the free things.
By Scooter M. · Published · Last reviewed
The short answer
Clean the plate first. Nine times out of ten a first layer that will not stick is a plate with fingerprints and oil on it. Wash it with dish soap and warm water, or wipe it with isopropyl alcohol, and try again before you change a single setting. The second most likely cause is a Z-offset a fraction too high.
Why this page is ordered the way it is
Search this problem and you will get a list of twenty possible causes in no particular order, mostly written by companies that sell printers. A manufacturer explaining why your print failed has an obvious interest in the answer not being the printer, and that shapes which causes get emphasized.
This list is ordered by two things instead: how likely each cause is, and how much it costs you to test. Work down it. Do not skip to step six because it sounds more technical — step six is almost never the answer and it will take you an evening to find that out.
The fixes, in order
Wash the plate. Free, two minutes, and the answer most of the time. The oil from your fingers is enough to stop plastic bonding, and every time you pick a print off the plate you touch it. Dish soap and warm water in the sink is the thorough version; a wipe with isopropyl alcohol is the quick one. Let it dry fully.
One caveat worth knowing: alcohol removes oil well but does not remove everything. If a plate has been in service for months, soap and water is the better option.
Check the Z-offset by watching the first layer. Free. Watch the nozzle lay the first line. It should be squashed slightly flat — a flattened oval, not a round string sitting on the surface. If the plastic looks round, or if it drags along behind the nozzle, the nozzle is too high. If it looks scraped thin and translucent, it is too low.
On a machine with an automatic Z-offset this should be right, but “automatic” means measured rather than infallible. Most machines let you nudge the offset while printing. The Z-offset page covers what the number means and how to set it.
Re-run the automatic bed leveling. Free, a few minutes. The mesh the printer stored may have been taken with a dirty nozzle or before the machine settled. Running it again after step one is a genuinely different measurement.
Check for a draft. Free. An open window, a door that gets used, an air conditioning vent, a fan. Cold air across a printing part makes it contract and lift at the corners, and it is invisible as a cause — people spend a fortnight on settings chasing a problem caused by a vent. Move the printer or close the window and print the same file again. Where to put your printer covers the placement decision properly.
Raise the bed temperature slightly. Free. If your filament’s published range allows it, add five degrees. A warmer plate keeps the first layer soft against the surface for longer. Overture publishes 25–60 °C for its PLA, so there is usually room.
Slow down the first layer. Free, in the slicer. Most slicers already print the first layer slower than the rest; slowing it further gives the plastic more time to bond. This costs you a minute or two per print and nothing else.
Add a brim. Free, in the slicer, costs a little filament. A brim is a flat skirt printed around the base of the part, attached to it, which massively increases the contact area holding it down. It peels off afterwards. For a tall part with a small footprint this is the single most effective setting on this list.
Glue stick. Cheap. An ordinary purple washable school glue stick, thinly, on the plate. It works for PLA that will not stick, and — counter-intuitively — it also works for PETG that sticks too well, as a release layer that protects the plate surface.
Try a different spool. Cheap if you have one. Wet filament produces bad first layers along with popping and stringing. If a spool has been open for weeks, this is a real candidate — see storage and drying.
Replace the build surface. The expensive last resort. Plates wear: PEI coatings lose their texture, and a plate that has been scraped with a metal tool has damage that no cleaning fixes. If you have worked through everything above and a known-good file still fails, the surface is a legitimate suspect.
By machine
Bambu Lab A1 and A1 mini
These ship with textured PEI plates and they are excellent, with one well-known quirk: they stop working when they get greasy, and they get greasy from handling. If your A1 was fine for two weeks and has started failing, wash the plate. That is almost always the whole answer.
Both machines probe the bed with the nozzle to set the Z-offset, so a nozzle with a blob of old plastic on the tip measures wrong. Wipe the nozzle when it is warm before running a calibration. The A1 mini publishes an 80 °C plate ceiling and the A1 publishes 100 °C, so both have room to add a few degrees for a stubborn part. Full write-up: the A1 mini review.
Creality Ender-3 V3 SE and V3 KE
These use CR Touch leveling with a strain-sensor Z-offset, and the most common issue is that the stored mesh is stale. Re-run leveling after you clean the plate rather than before, and re-run it if you have moved the machine.
The other Ender-specific thing worth checking is the plate itself sitting flat on its magnetic base. A crumb of plastic trapped underneath produces a bump the probe cannot see, because the probe measures the top surface and the bump moved it. Lift the sheet off and check underneath. Full write-up: the Ender-3 V3 SE review.
Elegoo Neptune 4
Elegoo publishes a 121-point leveling mesh on this machine, which is denser than most in its class. If it is still failing on a large first layer after a clean plate and a fresh mesh, that density is doing its job and the problem is elsewhere — look hard at drafts and at the filament. Full write-up: the Neptune 4 review.
Anycubic machines
The Kobra line ships with a textured coated plate and the guidance is the same as for any coated surface: soap and water rather than aggressive solvents, and never a metal scraper. On the multi-color Kobra 3 Combo there is one extra thing to check — the purge block is also printed on the plate, and a purge block that has come loose can be knocked into your part mid-print and drag it off.
By material: PETG
PETG’s adhesion problem is usually the opposite of PLA’s. It sticks extremely well, sometimes well enough to take a layer of PEI with it when you remove the part. So:
- Use glue stick as a release layer, not as an adhesive. A thin coat means the PETG bonds to the glue rather than to the plate.
- Do not squash the first layer as hard as you would for PLA. A slightly higher Z-offset is normal for PETG.
- Let the plate cool before removing the part. PETG releases far more easily cold, and forcing a hot one off is how plates get damaged.
- Check whether the spool is wet. PETG absorbs moisture much faster than PLA, and wet PETG has poor first-layer behavior along with heavy stringing. The PLA against PETG page covers the rest of the differences.
When the print starts fine and lifts later
Different problem, same page. A part that adheres for an hour and then lifts at a corner is warping, not adhesion failure: the plastic is contracting as it cools and pulling itself off. The fixes are a brim, a warmer plate, and removing whatever draft is cooling it unevenly. If it is happening with ABS on an open-frame machine, that is not a fixable setting — that material wants an enclosure, which is why every open-frame manufacturer rates it as not recommended.
Questions people actually ask
+−Why is my first layer not sticking?
Most often a dirty plate — oil from your fingers is enough to stop plastic bonding. Wash it with soap and water or wipe it with isopropyl alcohol before you change any setting. The next most likely cause is a Z-offset slightly too high.
+−How do I clean a 3D printer build plate?
Dish soap and warm water in the sink is the thorough method; a wipe with isopropyl alcohol is the quick one. Let it dry fully. Never use a metal scraper on a coated plate, and avoid aggressive solvents on PEI.
+−Should I use glue stick on the bed?
It helps in two opposite situations: PLA that will not stick, and PETG that sticks too well — in the second case the glue acts as a release layer protecting the plate. Apply it thinly. It is not a substitute for a clean plate.
+−Why does my print lift at the corners partway through?
That is warping rather than adhesion failure: the plastic contracts as it cools and pulls itself up. Add a brim, raise the bed temperature within the filament’s published range, and remove any draft. For ABS on an open-frame printer it is not a settings problem — that material needs an enclosure.
+−Can wet filament cause bad bed adhesion?
Yes. Moisture in the filament turns to steam in the nozzle and disrupts extrusion, which affects the first layer along with causing popping and stringing. If a spool has been open for weeks, try a fresh sealed one as a test.