That “squished” bit of print materials that occurs right where the print touches the heated bed -that’s what we call “Elephant Foot”, and if you are a very detail oriented user, or if your specific print, and it’s after print use requires of you to be very precise, you may want to use a few tricks to limit this imperfection. Elephant’s foot usually occurs on larger prints; because of the physical characteristics prints with smaller footprints are normally very limited in this occurrence.
One simple mod to lessen the chance of Elephant Foot creeping up is to make sure that your nozzle is leveled well with the bed. If it is too low you are just begging for, even preemptively manufacturing, this imperfection. By raising the nozzle a little higher than instructed to do so, you may eliminate the chance of elephant foot a little, but you also may bring on a few other unwanted characteristics in the process.
You can also create a “raft” under the print. A raft is an extra detachable print extension which you can easily remove after printing is finished. Check out the print settings in CraftWare under “Slice” and then the tab “Foundation; you will see a little box next to the word “Raft”, check the box and CraftWare will work it’s magic and make a custom raft just for your print.
Another method for eliminating elephant foot in your print is to modify the design of your first layers so that you have a slight bevel dipping in at an angle; if you compensate for things correctly the ooze will extend even with the side plain, but this is up to your experimentation.
