I was getting annoyed with the click/clank sound the chain/tube assembly made when it reached the front-left corner of the case, especially when it moved fast. Obviously the PTFE tubing ‘slid’ forward (momentum/inertia) and hit the glass top. Suggestions were to add a ‘bread’ twist tie there, but I noticed the tube had to sllde sideways over the chain links near the hotend. So I instead added one halfway between the rear rubber boot and the clip BL has provided on the chain. That worked, but I didn’t like the improvised look and the tubing was still sliding too freely. So I downloaded the P1P chain which included a snap-on clip and printed it. However the clip nedded to be trimmed (about 1mm at each end) on the clamp part and the tube insertion part, just enough to snap on better and let the tube snap-in too. The tube now follows the chain nicely and there is less forward movement at the stop and no ‘clank’.
I wish BL would include another link with a top clip in the chain right there. Unless they have a reason not to and I am unaware of that reason.
It’s hard to visualize what your referring to without a picture but I think what your looking for may be addressed by this printable clip. It worked for me at least when having PFTE tube issues. But I am using the Bambu chain that came with the P1P upgrade kit so YMMV
www.printables.com/model/442381-bambulab-cable-chain-clip-p1px1c-pfte-guide-update/files
https://www.printables.com/model/442381-bambulab-cable-chain-clip-p1px1c-pfte-guide-update/files
Yes. those seem to be the types that are currently attached/glued to the X1C chain. Currently the X1C only comes with one clip.
what I was refering to was this one:
https://www.printables.com/model/558542-bambu-lab-original-cable-chain-clip
It could possibly be ‘snapped on’ the X1C chain if forced, but I didn’t want to damage the chain so I shortened the ‘lips’ by about 1 mm and it would snap on. Also the PTFE tubing would only slide through. I didn’t want to disconnect it from the hotend so I also widened the top guide ‘slit’ a bit so the tubing could also snap in. I like the length of the ‘guide’ part better. It is longer and more compact. I have not glued the clamp on. Let’s see how it holds up to the movement. So far it’s fine. btw the X1C chain vertical dimension is about 15,5 mm.
I printed the 15 mm clamp type you pointed out and the snap on easily and are seem to work also. They seem to be very similar to the one the X1C came with.
Thanks for sharing that data. This is quite helpful for me personally. I’ve never been a fan of the number and distribution of the clips on the Bambu version of the chain. I hadn’t seen this Printables version, I missed it. Either way, the jury is still out as far as I am concerned intil I see more time on the latest PFTE tube I just swapped out. I’m using a 3rd party product that is substantially longer than what Bambu sells and allows me to experiment with tube travel.
BTW: I don’t know if others have experienced this but the one item that really pisses me off about any company is when they are evasive and do NOT give a straight answer. I have a simple question:
“When should a PFTE tube be replaced?”
It’s not like I’m asking where’s the cure for cancer.
At any rate, below is a picture of the feed-end of a PFTE tube I replaced this week when I was replacing the clips and needed a longer tube. I submit to you all that the Bambu PFTE tubes are roughly 50-60mm too short and that their own advise is just simply wrong. Their installation guide calls for 13-18mm of extension beyond the extension tube on the back of the machine for solo filament feed. That is just plain wrong based on my empirical observation.
Here’s a picture of what a tube that is worn looks like. Sorry for the crappy pattern but this was zoomed in digitally.
From their YouTube video. This is just plain bad advice. I have found that at the very least, this should be 20mm and that’s after one installs a PFTE coupling which Bambu ignores. Without the coupling, the tube wants to migrate back inside the case.
From the YouTube PFTE installation video
This is what it should look like in my opinion
Wow that’s some impressive wear. How long did this take to get that far and how much CF-infused filament are you using percentage-wise? Or are these examples, not your own tubing? Anyway your printer is a P1P so the ‘inlet’ is designed for an external spool. With the X1C+AMS people (so do I) use a Y-splitter to accommodate both the AMS and the external spool. There is a coupler initially that is rermoved then. As for the PTFE tubing length, the one that goes internally to the hotend, a spare is supplied with the X1C (among others for the AMS, pre-cut to fit). It’s length is 55 cm. I also ordered a 4 meter long spare tubing that BLab sells for only $9.99 (good deal) to have plenty of extra, in case I mess up with installing or cutting. Or to experiment.
So if you want to experiment also with the length of the feed tube I suggest to get that 4m of tubing and you’ll have plenty to spare. As far as how much should stick out from the rubber boot is up to you then. You can cut a 60cm or 65 cm piece to have 5-10cm more stick out from the rubber boot. It’s up to you and you can have a little bit more slack ‘inside’ the printer’s build area if you think you need it.
btw there are some good external spool holders on Printables I found to replace the bracket-type one that came with the X1C. More rounded and less friction, some even come with ball bearings. I went ahead and modified one of these into a 10mm threaded bolt to accommodate the bearing-style universal spool holder I had from before. Works well.
I was thinking, perhaps to judge whether a PTFE tubing needs to be replaced will depend where the wear has occured. One can not assume that the wear is uniform throughout the length of the tubing. Where it matters most is in the hotend/extruder portion, I think. If there is some wear at the input end it is probably due to the more extreme feed angle it is exposed to at that end. The same might be true to the more ‘curved’ portion of the tube just before it enters the hotend assembly. The critical aspect, and that is true for all 3D printers with Bowden feeds, is the seal where the Bowden tubing meets the metal parts of the hotend. I think Bambu Lab has done a better job to take care of that critical juncture (I hope they did) to prevent clogs by having the extruder at the end. It’s like a direct feed. The tubing before that is just for guiding the filament, pull not push with a remote extruder (older generation printers). With that system the tubing would be under a lot of heat and frictional stress in the hotend. But with this ‘pull’ system, it’s like a direct feed system, there would only wear to be concerned with. So that end of the tubing would be the first to inspect after some time of use and suspicion of tube malfunction. The other end not so much.
To answer your questions. With regards to use, I haven’t been real disciplined about recording the exact amount of filament I’ve been using and a lot of the filament I have is also in a partial state of use. So if I count up the empty spools since I first first installed that tube, I would estimate that the wear you are witnessing in the photo is roughly between 20-25 rolls of PLA, 7-8 rolls of PETG and 3-4 rolls of PC.
On the subject of the extra PFTE, yes, I purchased a fair amount of it for exactly what you described.
As far as the wear pattern goes, I followed Bambu’s guidance and that’s the reason I posted it this originally, to ward people off of following the out-of-box recommendations when using this kit. They gave out bad advice in my opinion.
I also reattached the original coupler on the back which, in their instructions, Bambu specifically directed you to remove when you upgrade with the through-hole tube grommet for the chain. The chain was the main reason for my upgrade, I did not like the tube rubbing up against the glass and sides, it just invited unnecessary wear.
I believe this method pictured below is much more sound. One can’t avoid wear and tear on the feed entry. However, isolating that wear onto the original pivoting feed component means only needing maintenance on a 20mm-30mm of tube rather than the entire length since the entry point received the brunt of the wear.
As for the wear pattern you saw, yes, they were definitely not uniform wear. Had I been supplied with the correct length to start with, I would have simply snipped off the end. That tube certainly would have survived a 100+ more spools. The wear was confined at the very edge of the input tube where it had the most amount of friction upon filament entry. Note that I’m not tossing that tube, I will simply cut it into lengths and use it for the sacrificial segment you see in the photo.
With regards to the side mount spool. I don’t favor such a solution for my use-case. I have the good fortune of having access to 3 sides of the printer in my office so it is by far much easier to access the rear than the side. Having said that, the skins I put on the P1P were the pegboard skins and I did print a set of side spool holders but that is used solely for momentary spool swaps so I don’t have to leave the other spool lying about.
That was pretty much what I thought. The idea of a ‘sacrifical’ short length of tubing is exactly what I have with the Y-coupler where on one end the AMS is attched always and the other end I have a 10cm piece to feed the external filament into.
i had no idea that the initial P1P didn’t have a guide chain and rubber boot attached to the back. I just recently bought my X1C so I’m a ‘Bambulab newbee’ but by no means a 3D printing one. The priniples in 3D printing are pretty much the same and the only new thing is the new hardware to get used to.
As for the spool attachment, things are different when you have anAMS also (and new problems with the AMS). I used to have a 4-spool tower from which I fed filaments in manually, like a manual A1 mini AMS type, lol. But a filament swap was a pain in the you know what (it didn’t ‘poop’ so I had to be the proctologist and pull the poop or print/push it through, hahaha/ugh). So I finally invested in the X1C+AMS. And even the external spool swap is pretty smooth, as you know.
BL, in terms of 3D printing tech came in late and could take advantage of all the lessons learned by others. We are benefiting from that. But the techology still has some room for improvement. And nobody gets it right the first time, thus upgrades, updates etc. What pisses me of is when I just bought a new model and then they shortly after come out with a better one, for the same price, without option for a free upgrade.
That happened to me with the P1P and the P1S. I wasn’t pissed about the P1S. I was pissed when I purchased the upgrade kit and then three weeks later, they came out with a P1S conversion kit. The P1S has a too short front bezel to accommodate the door easily without a gap.
That sucks. They should have offered you and everyone else a trade-in at a substantial discount, because you helped them ‘get started’. Instead they passed out a ton of these free units to all these Youtube’ talking heads. But don’t be bitter and try to enjoy what you have at least. It’s pretty much like my initial printer. I spent more than I payed for it in upgrades until it even worked basically. And it was still a pain to work with. I learned a lot though. Except 10 years ago there was less support and a flood of more or les worthless so-called upgrades from China. So I gave it a rest a while ago and concentrated more on my RC helicopter and drone hobby. But this X1C seemed to have opened possibilities and I can concentrate on the software and CAD design without having to worry if this thing even prints when I turn it on. There will come a day though…forget it I don’t want to jinx it or think about it.
Have fun and be creative, for hobby or professionally.
Can you find any way print that rubber thing or buy one and how would i set mine up like yours
Welcome to the community.
By “rubber thing” are you referring to the through-Hole grommet?
I’ve moved on from this design and printed a PETG passthrough which is hard screwed into the frame. I then use two PTFE tubes for strain relief. I got sick and tired of Bambu’s crappy design which pops out too easily if you are let’s say feeding from a dryer box.
This is the solution I use today.
https://www.printables.com/model/348617-bambu-lab-p1p-ptfe-tube-bracket-remix
This is a wonderful design that Bambu should have started out with. Note, these are divided into two pieces by the designer so that they print flush. In my case, I used acrylic cement to weld the two parts together as one unit. I made the hole undersized using the X-Y hole compensation in the slicer and then enlarged it. I then I used a drill to enlarge the hole slightly so that the PTFE tube would pass through more easily. Used PTEG filament to ensure that it would not warp due to chamber heat and for strength.
Here it is in action. You’ll note that I placed a PTFE tube through the interface hole and secured it with PTFE hydraulic fittings on both sides to prevent the tube from slipping out. The PTFE tubes provide sufficient strain relief, frictionless flow, and the rigid plastic allowed me to secure the whole setup using screws, unlike the floppy mess caused by the rubber grommet.
Note: You may need to drill screw holes through the steel case. My unit had partial holes, possibly due to the P1S back panel retrofit. An X1C or P1S may have these already pre-drilled. I used an M3 tap for threads and screws, but you could likely self-tap the screws. I tapped threads for easier servicing.
Interior view
Exterior view
Tools an accessories used.
Here are the items I keep on hand as part of my everyday 3D printing toolkit that were used to create this solution.
Tap kit. I used this for cutting threads in PC and PETG in lieu of heated brass inserts. For M3 and larger screws, it’s actually stronger than brass when placing threads close to the thin outer wall of the model.
These are Philips head screws that are seen in the photos. I find Philips head more convenient because I simply have more Philips head screw drivers lying around my lab and shop.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07C6J6FXF/
But if you want to give it a more authentic Bambu “Factory Look”. These are the hex button screws that are used in various parts of the printer.
Here are alternates that include M2.5. I couldn’t find a button head set but these will do in a pinch if you lose a Bambu factory supplied screw.