Does room temperature affect PLA printing?

I've been printing with PLA on heated bed covered by Kapton tape. It was printing great yesterday, when it was pretty chilly in my room (under 65F). Today it's 70F I can't get damn thing to print single thing without head dragging away first layer, it just doesn't stick... I re-leveled bed, using same settings as yesterday, nothing. Switched to ABS and it works fine.
Does room temperature really makes such a huge difference? What can I do to compensate? Decrease bed temp or extruder?
I'm printing PLA with Slic3r:
Extruder: 200/195
Bed: 65/60

No adhesive on the bed. No bed cooling fan.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/16/2015 04:41PM by Bratan.

When I printed PLA on glass, I had the same problem. I had to try it two or three times in the morning but then it worked like a charm all day long.
Maybe we just have to let the temp sink into the bed and printhead?
I started using lemon juice to degrease and sugarcoat the glass and it helped a lot.
I then switched to blue painters tape and the problems were gone.
-Olaf

Quote
o_lampe
When I printed PLA on glass, I had the same problem. I had to try it two or three times in the morning but then it worked like a charm all day long.
Maybe we just have to let the temp sink into the bed and printhead?
I started using lemon juice to degrease and sugarcoat the glass and it helped a lot.
I then switched to blue painters tape and the problems were gone.
-Olaf

Thanks! I'll try to add some adhesive as well... Glue stick seem to work great for ABS. Sometimes ABS sticks to bare Kapton tape, sometimes it doesn't, but when I added Elmer's glue stick on top of Kapton, it got super strong, I have real hard time prying part away form it when it's done Haven't tried PLA in this setup yet, hopefully it will overcome warm temperature and will stick.

Quote
Bratan
I've been printing with PLA on heated bed covered by Kapton tape. It was printing great yesterday, when it was pretty chilly in my room (under 65F). Today it's 70F I can't get damn thing to print single thing without head dragging away first layer, it just doesn't stick... I re-leveled bed, using same settings as yesterday, nothing. Switched to ABS and it works fine.
Does room temperature really makes such a huge difference? What can I do to compensate? Decrease bed temp or extruder?
I'm printing PLA with Slic3r:
Extruder: 200/195
Bed: 65/60

No adhesive on the bed. No bed cooling fan.

PLA can be very touchy about temperature but I don't think that is the problem you have described. I print PLA on blue painters tape and it sticks very well. I have peeling (sticking) problems when the extruder temp is too low. I always tried to print at 185-190. I have found that 210-220 sticks much better than the lower temperatures and also helps prevent warping. I don't know why the higher temperature affects the warping but it does in my case.
Good Luck.

I agree with gwc2795. Print with higher temperature. I use 230°c on first layer with PLA. After first layer decrease to 210°c. Heatbed is set to 75°c, print on glass plate.
Mirror smooth / flat surfaces!!! Without tape, hairspray etc...
Also when printing in 3mm height, first layer I print is 2mm. This is easy to set using Slic3er software (advanced settings).

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/26/2015 09:37AM by Nicken83.