How to Add Tabs to 3D Prints for Better Bed Adhesion

Sometimes it can be hard to get 3D prints to stick to the printer bed. There are many things you can do to help with this: glue, brims, rafts, supports, but these don't work for everything. For this project, I want to talk about adding tabs to your 3D prints to get better bed adhesion. This can work with many different types of designs, but I think they are particularly ideal for things that are small, delicate, and/or thin. The types of prints that can lose quality if you use one of the other options.

I'm going to show how to do this with my Molecule Ornaments where I always seem to get at least one pulling up from the bed when I print a set and I really hate waste. If I used a raft for these I could wreak the first layer look and using a brim is out of the question because getting it off would be a HUGE pain. So I just want a little extra help here.

There are ways to add these tabs right in your Slicer (depending on the Slicer) or in a CAD program. Today I'm going to talk about BambuStudio, PrusaSlicer, Cura, and using Tinkercad.

Now, this isn't a guarantee to make every print stick no matter what, but it can help in some instances where you need a little extra help and a brim or raft just aren't a right fit for the situation.

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For this, all you really need is your Slicer or CAD program of choice and your usual 3D printing tools (printer, filament, etc).

You can just tear these tabs off your print, but depending on the size of them you may want to carefully cut them off with a flush cutter so you don't cause any tears with the perimeters. I also find it helpful to use a torch to clean up where the tabs are torn or cut off because I feel it always leaves a little white residue left behind and using a torch or heat makes that go away! Just make sure you do quick passes and don't melt your print.

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You need to decide where the tabs are going to go on your model and this will depend on your model. If you've already printed it before and seen where it pulls up, you'll already know the weak points. For me, it was the small parts that hang off my molecules.

If you haven't printed your model yet and want to be prepared, look for little areas, thin areas, corners. Anywhere that doesn't necessarily have a lot of the model touching the plate.

I do have a longer and larger print that this did not work for on my A1 (where I have more issues with larger and longer prints), but I think I'll try again with thicker and bigger tabs and see if that does the trick next time.

Also to note, I have my tabs barely touching my prints and I think this will work fine for smaller and shorter prints, but the longer the print is, the bigger and closer to the print you might want the tabs to be to help them stay for the whole print time.

What is nice about adding the tabs in the slicer is they are not a permanent part of the design. They can easily be removed whenever you want without having to import a new design without the tabs.

This can be a pretty simple process and as you learn it, it will get even easier.

1. Import design
2. Right click to bring up the menu and click Add Part > Cylinder
3. Resize your cylinder to be about .3mm and do the other dimensions depending on your model and situation; here I am doing 5mm by 5mm
4. Lower the shape so it is touching the printer bed (you can slice it to check it and adjust up and down the Z axis as needed)
5. Move the shape to exactly where you want it. It should be touching your design enough that it isn't going to want to come apart from it (this will depend a lot on size of design, size of tab, and print time, my print is small and short so it doesn't need to be too close or too big)
6. Copy + paste it and move a new one to the next spot you want one
7. Repeat until you have as many as you want
8. Slice and make sure it is just 1 layer thick (you can have it more if you need it, especially for longer and larger prints) and they are all touching your design
9. Print!

Sometimes, if you click off your cylinder and try to click back on, you'll be selecting the cylinder AND your whole design, which you don't want. If that happens, just go over to the left in the Process section, expand the shape if it isn't showing them all individually, and click on just the cylinder.

The Prusa Slicer has the same process, but I'll still share it along with images to show how it looks there.

1. Import design
2. Right click to bring up the menu and click Add Part > Cylinder
3. Resize your cylinder to be about .3mm and do the other dimensions depending on your model and situation; here I am doing 5mm by 5mm
4. Lower the shape so it is touching the printer bed (you can slice it to check it and adjust up and down the Z axis as needed)
5. Move the shape to exactly where you want it. It should be touching your design enough that it isn't going to want to come apart from it (this will depend a lot on size of design, size of tab, and print time, my print is small and short so it doesn't need to be too close or too big)
6. Copy + paste it and move a new one to the next spot you want one
7. Repeat until you have as many as you want
8. Slice and make sure it is just 1 layer thick (you can have it more if you need it, especially for longer and larger prints) and they are all touching your design
9. Print!

Sometimes, if you click off your cylinder and try to click back on, you'll be selecting your shape and the cylinder, which you don't want, if that happens, just go over to the right in the settings under Name, expand the shape if it isn't showing them all individually, and click just on the cylinder.

For Cura, from what I can see, and for some others, you may not be able to add a shape right in the slicer. Instead, you can import a tab you designed that is the size you want it into the slicer along with your design.

From what I can see, Cura is not great for this, but possible if you are using little tabs.

Ideally, you want to merge your models so they don't intersect. As shown in the first image, if you just overlap them and group them, they still just overlap. If you try to merge them, the separate on the build plate for some reason. So, that leaves us with having them be separate shapes and only overlapping them a little bit so it doesn't cause a mess. This isn't guaranteed to work, but is a last resort if you can't use another method to add tabs.

Start by creating a shape that is the size of your tab in a CAD program. I am using Tinkercad and created a cylinder in the same size and brought it into Cura along with my model.

Arrange it the way you want it but try to only overlap the outer perimeter. Repeat this until you have all the tabs you want! Right click on the cylinder and click to Multiply it to make more.

Print and good luck!

The last option would be to simply add the tabs in Tinkercad or whatever CAD program you are using. As mentioned, this isn't ideal as you can't easily remove them in the slicer later if you decide you don't want them.

Much like in the slicer:

1. Create a cylinder that is the size you want.
2. Arrange it on your model.
3. Copy and repeat as needed.

Now you can export it and bring it into your slicer to slice and print as normal.

Like I mentioned in the Supplies step, taking these tabs off can be as simple as just tearing them off, but it will depend in the size of the tabs. It can be helpful to use a flush cutter to trim them off so you don't accidentally tear into the outer perimeter of the print. Also, after cutting them off, there is usually some light colored residue that a torch will take right off so just carefully and lightly flame it a bit to clean it up and you are done!

Here you can see the gold one is one that didn't have tabs and it pulled up and ruined the whole print.

I hope this helps you out on some of your troublesome prints and I'll be sure to update with future successes and things I've learned through experience.