The perfect first layer, every time

If you fix one thing on your printer, fix the first layer. Almost every failed print people bring into the Swansea showroom traces back to it — and it is nearly always Z-offset, not the settings people spend their evening changing.

What a good first layer looks like

Slightly squashed rounded lines, touching their neighbours with no gaps, no ridges where the nozzle has ploughed through. If you can see the plate texture through the plastic, you are too high. If it looks glassy and smeared, you are too low.

The routine

• Heat the bed and nozzle to printing temperature and let them soak for five minutes
• Clean with warm soapy water, then IPA — skin oil is invisible and fatal
• Auto-level, then adjust the live Z-offset in 0.02mm steps during the first layer
• Save the offset to the printer so it survives a restart

When it is the plate, not you

PEI wears out. If a glue stick instantly fixes a plate that used to work fine, the surface is polished and a new sheet will solve it permanently.