Discussion/advice on 3D printing

Figured since we have at least 3 of us who are interested in / active using such things it would be OK to start a thread on it. So to begin with, I thought I'd kick off a with problem me and my friend have been having lately printing something.

The issue we are having is that one of our parts doesn't have a particularly large contact surface area with the print bed, and consequently, we've been getting some "lift" from the bed in the corners of the part. TBH, it isn't happening in all corners and in some to a lesser degree than others. My friend does think they've found a "cool spot" that might have been having an effect so one thing we might try is simply moving to a different place on the bed.

We have some other ideas too like combining 2 parts with a thin (cuttable) join which will greatly increase the bed contact area although this will of course add to the work needed in the construction phase. Apparently there are tricks like using hair spray or something but we are using co-polyester (I think!) which apparently won't be helped by that...

For reference, things we can't do is chop the part in two (and recombine later) to increase contact area or change orientation (we want holes to be in a certain orientation so they are actually round) and a flips would mean a ton of support material.

Any ideas? More heat? Slower print? Magical Dance?

We're holding off on the next try for now while I do a whole bunch of measuring to compare between the printed part, and the CAD. Annoyingly, when the thing lifts, it seems to be impacting other dimensions meaning internal components are not fitting. I'm trying to determine the extent of/exact cause of this.

Thanks in advance for advice
Wistrel

PS the printer is a prusa one. Apparently there is a "bed upgrade" available that has better temperature sensing/adjustment which my friend would like to get at some stage (it is also removable - helps with disconnecting parts), but just not yet.