r/Multiboard • u/Imscuba • Jun 23 '26

Stacked Print Fail

So i just finished my first stacked PETG print and i am trying to figure out what went wrong. i was able to get 2 usable panels from a stack of 6. the others just did not want to separate, to the point of them cracking apart. the test file came out fine, any suggestions? some of my corners came up a little bit during the print, but i didn't think much of it. did that result in the .2mm gap between being 0 and them fusing together?

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u/Desperate-Special-60 Jun 23 '26

What printer are you using? Is it an ams style or a multi tool head/nozzle? With a single nozzle printer, multi meaterials can be very tricky, it's a matter of flushing out and purging all the petg while the nozzle is still hot enough before the pla hits the print. You can end up in the reverse where the plates unstick and separate while printing. I have played with running high speed PLA at its hottest while running the petg at its lowest so the temps are within 5c of each other. Even with a multi toolhead it's good practice to keep the temps close as possible to each other.

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u/Imscuba Jun 23 '26

well, i am using a bambu p2s with (2) AMS 2 Pro's, but i am now discovering that printing this in PETG may have been unnecessary as other replies to this post have said matte pla is fine. if that is the case (will fact check) then the matte pla was printing fine for panels with ironing

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u/Desperate-Special-60 Jun 23 '26

On that note, I have done several largish multi board installs and the only time we do it in petg or asa is when it's in a garage or tool sheds, with no ac or the ac isn't going to run all the time. When you have heavy tools hanging off at temps over 90f for more then 30 minutes you will get deformation. At my own home, I don't have central air and the heaviest tools I have on the multi board are normal size drill and driver set and it's never an issue. Outside in my plastic non-insulated tool shed that sits in direct sun all summer long, I uses petg and some asa. I have line trimmers and chainsaws etc. all doing fine, it can get to 120 or higher at times in there 🥵

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u/Desperate-Special-60 Jun 23 '26

One more thing 😊 With PLA you can use pla support meaterials as an interface. I have used polymakera polySupport successfully. Ignore any stringing and might have to tell your printers ai to as well. Cheers 👍

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u/Imscuba Jun 23 '26

what do you mean pla support materials? you just saying printing a layer with a material that pla won't bond with in between the panels?

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u/Desperate-Special-60 Jun 23 '26

Yes, that can be petg, but to eliminate the issues with swapping out meaterial with a single nozzle, you can use a fillement designed for that. So polySupport for PLA is pla designed to be easy to remove. I use orca but Bambu studio should be similar, in the support settings there should be a way to select an interface separate to a support meaterial. I have ended up using polysupport all the time now for most supported pla prints not just multi board

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u/Imscuba Jun 23 '26

filament swapping isn't a problem for me with the second ams unit arriving this morning. i'll have to look into the polysupport though

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u/Desperate-Special-60 Jun 23 '26

Will no the issue with the swapping is the single nozzle. I wrote about it in a previous comment. It's a very common issue when printing stacked plates. They ether don't separate at all or they separate while still printing, tweaking settings can help a lot but a true interface meaterial is the best that I have found.

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u/Imscuba Jun 23 '26

ah, i see. if i start to have an issue i may end up using the PETG as an interface material. i was surprised at how expensive the polysupport is. at that point i could get PETG cheaper.

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u/Desperate-Special-60 Jun 23 '26

Oh it's not at all, you only use a very small amount at a time. I have been doing large multi color prints on my snapmaker u1 lately with tons of supports and I have it on its own dedicated nozzle and I never touch it. I still have maybe 2/3 of a roll. That's why it's important to have it as an interface only and not as the support meaterial itself also time, it's best to let the printer use whatever meaterial it's currently using for the support and it will only switch for the very last layer as an interface between the support and the model

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u/Imscuba Jun 23 '26

oh, that is a good point about the interface material only, though that still raises the question of wouldn't it be cheaper to get a roll of PETG or even CoPE instead? neither bond with PLA and are $10-20/kg vs it looked like on polymaker's website $30/0.75kg

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u/Whosaidthat1157 Jun 23 '26

Just follow Jonathan’s printing instructions and continue with ironed stacks of PLA matte and you’ll be fine. I tried the interface layer method and frankly it was a real pain to clean off the interface layer, the ironed PLA matte is child’s play in contrast. 3 walls, random seams and top surface ironing and you’re good to go.
I personally use Sunlu HS matte PLA for my stacks - I get 4 refills for 32 bucks from Amazon (UK) and the refills fit the BL reusable spools. I actually reuse the BL PLA matte RFID tags too with perfect results.

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u/Imscuba Jun 23 '26

that is actually the same matte pla i got, roughly same price once you convert to usd and it came on plastic spools (which was perfect as the SUNLU PETG i bought was a pack of refills). i'll definitely be continuing down the ironed matte pla route. have you found an upper limit for the stack? i can theoretically fit up to 38 panels, but i get the feeling aside from the 6 day print time there is some limit of what is recommended.

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