Battletech Bridge - FAIL

Battletech Bridge
255min/15.4m/$1.17 (if it finished)
http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1419027

jdk201 made this amazing bridge you can use in the game Battletech.  I was hoping to print one to use in terrain and as gifts but I also knew this would be a real test for the Flashforge Finder as it is full of overhangs, and it is also very wide.

If a print is very wide, it has a chance of cooling too fast.  The cooler parts shrink as a result, but this can cause a flat surface to warp and lift off the build plate!  And this is exactly what happened to me.

I kind of knew it would happen but I had seen the PLA stick to the untreated build plate so well before and I just wanted to see what would happen.  So that's how I got 2 failed prints:

This is a great display of how something can get warped from cooling too fast.

There are a couple solutions for this that I tried over the next day.

Blue Painter's Tape:

I drove to Home Depot the night the first print failed and got the painter's tape.  Yeah the blue stuff.  I bet the cheaper stuff from Dollarama works the same but I'm going on people's advice and it is supposed to work really well.

TIP:  When you put the tape on, don't go left to right (like I did the first time), go up and down.  This is because you should not cover the black edges of the Finder baseplate since that part is clamped down when insert it into the printer!  Yeah my screw-ups = your benefit.

So I had great hopes and let it print for about an hour and got this failure:

What happened this time?  Something with the nozzle getting clogged at the top left of the print.  This is the base and the rest of it needs it so I had to cancel it.  I'm starting to realize that I also need to put rafts into the g-code.  I think the nozzle clog may have been a result of the nozzle being too close to the plate.  I should have leveled the plate again before the big print.

Rafts and Supports:  These are extra pieces of plastic you can print to make sure the print stays level and to prop up overhangs.  If something overhangs more than 45 degrees it is suggested you use a support.  The Flashforge software can do this for you automatically.

There are 2 downsides to this:

1. It uses more material.   The supports break off like sprue on a plastic model and you throw it away.  Kind of wasteful, but 3d printing isn't always going to be an environmentally friendly hobby.
2. You may have to finish/sand areas where the supports helped out.  They could leave little bits of extra plastic or even affect the detail in the area.

Elmer's Purple Glue Stick:

This is suggested by a lot of people and it is effective on ABS prints.  For PLA ideally you want a heated bed, but there isn't one available for the Flashforge Finder.

I got this as a 3 pack at Walmart for like $5 bright and early on Saturday morning.  You basically cover the area that will be printed on. It goes on purple and dries clear.  You can wash it off with warm water and soap and you will have to wash it off your model if it sticks to it.

Although you'll see other models where I had a lot of success with this, in this case I didn't.  It peeled right off again!  But this time I think the error was my fault.  I picked a model that did not have rafts or supports!  I was too excited just to go print this sucker.  Back to the drawing board, but this time with more patience.

TIP:  when you save your g-code, name it but make sure the name is short because the Flashforge display will only show the first 12 characters or so (I have to check that number).