I got a Bambu X1C last week.
At first it printed perfectly out of the box. Now recently I started having adhesion problems on the front left corner / left edge of the prints. See photos:
The first layer only separates after 5 - 10 layers have been printed, the first layer itself looks completely normal to me. This didn’t occur previously with all the same settings and materials.
The plate is a Textured PEI plate, the filament is Bambu PLA Basic Silver, using default settings (55 °C hotbed, 220 °C nozzle temperature, auto bed leveling enabled before every print).
What I’ve tried:
- Cleaning the plate using water + soap, then using alcohol cleaner.
- Completing the manual bed tramming procedure, since the issue seems to only occur on one side. This one is really difficult to judge whether I’ve done it correctly, and I’ve tried it multiple times.
The only thing I’ve changed is that I put the printer up on a table, previously it was just sitting on the floor. The table vibrates during printing, along with the printer itself. Could that influence the print?
Are there any other things that could be causing this?
Is the Auxiliary fan turning on after the first couple of layers and cooling that side of the part down. This could cause the part to lift as you have shown.
You can also try adding a brim and this will usually fix lifting corners. Set the object-brim gap to 0.
I’m using the default settings for Bambu PLA Basic, which includes 100% part cooling fan and 70% auxillary fan after the first layer. The chamber fan stays off because I keep the door open.
It makes sense to me that the fan cooling from one side could cause this issue only on one side. But I’ve read that PLA needs cooling, so I’m not sure if turning the auxillary fan off keeps the PLA cool. But it’s something to try.
And I’ve considered adding a brim, but that’s more of a workaround than a solution to the root cause. It worked before without a brim.
I think I’ve fixed the issue.
First, I did the manual bed tramming, complete calibration and cleaning of the hot plate again. This time I really scrubbed it with a sponge, hot water and dish soap. I think my previous attempts at cleaning were ineffective. This helped the first layer adhesion and I got a much better print. However, there is still some warping and separation visible that occurred late in the print:
Again, only on the left side. Thanks to @JonRaymond I looked up the auxiliary fan and found other people with the exact same issue: PLA warping with auxiliary fan.
So, I turned off the auxiliary fan (and increased minimum layer time accordingly):
And, lo and behold, no more warping:
My guess is that the amount of warping depends a lot on the size, shape, and positioning on the plate of the part, which is why I didn’t notice the issue earlier. But turning off the auxiliary fan for PLA really seems like the way to go.
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If you have a model that has overhangs or other parts that need cooling, you can turn the fan off at layer 2 (it is already off at layer 1), then turn it back on at a higher layer when you need the cooling.
In the Preview tab, slide to layer 2 and right click the plus icon then select “Add Custom G-code”. The slider can sometimes jump down when you right click it so be careful of that.
Then add this to turn the auxiliary fan off.
Then at a higher layer, right click and add this G Code. The example below sets it to 50% (127). The value goes from 0-255 (0-100% speed)
I didn’t know you could add custom G-code to individual layers. Thanks for the tip, that’s good to know!
You can achieve the same outcome by using the filament settings option and setting the number of layers the cooling fan should remain switched off.
The custom GCODE option provides more flexibility when it isn’t as simple as the first n layers.
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To clarify this, M106 P1 SXXX controls the part cooling fan, M106 P2 SXXX controls the auxiliary fan, and M106 P3 SXXX controls the chamber fan.
The setting “No cooling for the first X layers” controls both the part cooling and the auxiliary fan.
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I updated the pictures with the right fan ID
