Bambu ASA – BIG printing problems (X1 Carbon)

Bambu Lab X1 Series Troubleshooting
1

Hello everyone,

my first attempts with ASA from Bambu Lab are simply not working. I would like to print a birdhouse (for outdoor use – sun – rain – frost etc., which is why I thought ASA would be the right choice) but I just can’t seem to succeed.

I hope someone takes the time to read my text and can help me – below I will try to provide as many details as possible to get qualified help, thanks in advance!

This is now the fifth test print, and all have failed. I have already made several attempts to improve the situation, but unfortunately without success. The printer is also suffering greatly due to a cause of error during printing (audible) that I cannot identify, so I really need your help!

The first test print with PLA (2 layers and Blitz Infill - ran without any problems)
Build surface: 210 x 150 mm

First the pictures, then the description:

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First Print Details (Mood: Extremely optimistic, happy to have an X1)**

  • Bambu Lab ASA Gray – 45102, brand new straight out of the packaging (filament settings adopted from Bambu)
  • PEI Textured Plate
  • 3 layers, 25% infill, adaptive cubic (otherwise standard settings of 0.2mm @BBL X1C)
    Abort:
  • After the transition between the support structure and the full area on the third layer
    Part detached at the upper left corner (see orange arrow – Print:1)
  • The entire printer rattled when moving over it, hence the stop
  • I didn’t closely examine the red area and the overall poor print quality, just did a quick Google search on the side… As I said, my first ASA print… I should have heard alarm bells ringing.

Second Print Details (Mood: Optimistic, still happy to have an X1)

  • Everything remained the same
  • PEI Textured Plate ► This time with adhesive
    Abort:
    *The entire plate lifted from the magnetic bed
  • Adhesion between PEI-textured plate and part was great with adhesive

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Third Print Details (Mood: Optimistic, a bit mad at myself for not googling first, realizing ASA is not PLA - even on a X1…)

  • After googling, I dried the ASA for 12 hours at 80°C in a SUNLU, then printed directly from the SUNLU – filament was very easy to unroll.
  • Adjusted ASA settings – Cooling: fan at max 10% and the first 50 layers without cooling.
  • Preheated the build chamber for 2 hours with the heating plate at 90°C to 51°C.
  • PEI Textured Plate ► with adhesive
  • Changed from 3 layers to 2 layers and from 25% infill to 15% (less mass, more even cooling?), adaptive cubic (otherwise standard values of 0.2mm @BBL X1C).
  • New bed leveling and flow calibration before starting the print.

Abort:

  • After the transition between the support structure and the full area on the third layer
  • Sudden underextrusion in red area
  • The adhesive was good, but now the print plate detached from the magnetic bed on all four sides (seems not related to the underextrusion)
  • Extreme rattling from the printer whenever it moved over these areas ► OUCH! My POOR X1

** Fourth Print Details (Mood: ahhhhhhrrrrrrrr -.-)**

  • Performed immediately after the third print (so everything still warm and dry)
  • Reduced the Bambu ASA value (maximum volumetric speed to: 11mm^3/s – from 18), clearly visible in the slicer that for the first time, the “full” volumetric flow rate of 18mm^3/sec according to Bambu default is reached.
  • PEI Textured Plate ► with adhesive
  • Values remain the same
    Abort:
    Right in the second layer, the bumps are clearly visible ► PANIC on my part, thought something was knocked loose, broken, or otherwise after the last print. Waves are clearly felt during printing when the nozzle moves over the area…

So, back to square one, test part with PLA ► All good, no bumps, smooth operation of the print head, all good.

So, trying ASA again and now pulling out all the stops:

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5th Print Details (Mood: ******** - half a spool of ASA already in the trash, printer suffering, but trying once more…)

  • Did everything possible with calibrations (bed leveling, flow rate and dynamics – K ► 0.020); this time, instead of the Textured, I used the ENGINEERING Plate.
  • It started off really well, the first few layers looked quite good :blush:

Abort:
The same ******** as before, it starts at a certain height, these wobbles form, the print nozzle goes over them, my X1 suffers and feels like it’s almost falling apart… And now it has also ruined the plate – despite bed leveling right before the print! Nozzle pressed down too hard while cleaning and in the first layer -.-!

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I am really at my wits’ end and frustrated, I appreciate any qualified help,
Best regards, Sebastian

2

Same issue I’m having- as well as many posters here.

Nozzle starts dragging on the print, until it causes steppers to lose steps/position and spaghetti. It can also dislodge it from the build plate.

The same prints run fine with different filament profiles- (PLA-PETG).

On the plus side, from the troubleshooting I’ve done, it seems more of a calibration or slicer/gcode issue than a mechanical problem- so far atleast.

I don’t have a fix, sorry. I’m playing with extrusion settings currently to see if I can get improvements.

1 Like
3

Hi. Thanks for sharing such details.

Some comments and shared experiences that hopefully can help:

  1. For tuning the print settings, use a smaller but representative print to avoid filament waste;
  2. Calibration - if your nozzle scratches the print top surface, the first thing to check is the flow rate. What’s your calibration result? I am not using BL ASA, but generally, the FR is around 0.95 for most of my ASA filaments. Also, PA is slightly higher than yours. I am not affirming that yours are wrong, but I advise you to double-check.
  3. Infill - try gyroid. I used adaptative cubic with cura, but with BL slicer, gyroid seems to work better for surface quality. To avoid multiple changes, try a standard printing profile, e.g. 0.16mm high quality, instead of tweaking one. With a proper filament calibration, this should work great. Further improvements are solely necessary for details and complex print geometries.
  4. Drying - Don’t unquestioningly trust any dryer. I don’t have the Sunlu, but my experience shows I must exceed the drying time to get proper results. Also, the air temperature can be lower than indicated by the sensor (in my case, usually 5C) because the RTD is not measuring the average air temperature, yet the air temperature from the heater; this slight difference has a significant impact on drying time.

If I recall any further tips, I will add them.

3 Likes
4

As Infill better use Gyroid…

5

Gyroid infill doesn’t fix this issue.

1 Like
6

As you Wish. It only part of the fixing… :grin:

1 Like
7

Even though it sounds strange, it’s good to hear that I’m not alone with this problem (although I couldn’t find anything under the ASA context), but maybe someone who can successfully print with ASA will come forward and is willing to share their settings with us.
Thanks for your feedback. It’s just a shame because I’ve never had such a good printer for PLA as the X1, and I had hoped that it would work similarly well with other materials (in combination with the Lidar and Bambu’s own filament, etc.).
I would be happy if you could keep me/us updated :slight_smile:

8

I agree. Reading posts here I see quite a few print quality issues that all look like this same issue really.

I did a firmware update this morning to 1.8, no change.

Lowering the flow ratio in filament settings seems to perhaps make it better (less squeaking), but it does appear to effect outer wall adhesion/ part strength when its set low enough to make a difference.

The fact that it gets worse with the more material that is extruded per layer- Seems like this would mean it is over extruding? The over extruded material would accumulate layer after layer- and after enough layers- the nozzle would be pushing into the material- and squeaking. Once this is bad enough, it starts tearing infill, leaving blobs, and dislodging prints or skipping steps/crashing.

I’m going to focus on extrusion, perhaps changing the filament diameter a bit? If anyone has suggestions I’m all ears.

1 Like
9

Thank you for the feedback on point
1: At the moment, I’m a bit frustrated and still hoping for help from an experienced ASA printer here in the forum. Otherwise, I would start with a small series of test prints (as soon as I’m motivated to work with ASA again :D).
2: I also have a value of 0.95, just lowered the volumetric speed because i got good results on PLA if i need consistence surface over big parts…

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3: Okay, I’ll try using gyroid, but does the infill really have such a big impact on the quality within the layers? I’ve noticed a correlation between infill and outer appearance myself, but the problem here occurs within the layer during the transition to a full view. If I had problems on the outside of the part, I would try it immediately, but inside when filling a layer? Anyway, I’ll give it a shot. I’ve generally used the standard 0.2mm setting and only changed the number of layers, infill, and pattern. Could that really lead to such significant issues? Neither with PETG nor PLA have I had even the slightest problems due to this?
4:
For me, it was a double drying process. Generally, the filaments from Bambu are pretty dry upon delivery (at least, I keep them in a dry cabinet at 10% humidity, and when I add new Bambu filaments, the level only briefly rises to 15 or 16% due to opening the package but stabilizes back to 9-10% within the next 20 to 30 minutes. This is unlike cheaper filaments where the humidity in the dry area can rise and stay at 30-35% for over a day. Therefore, I’ve always assumed that Bambu filament is very well pre-dried, and my drying was intended as an additional measure (BUT THESE ARE JUST MY PERSONAL OBSERVATIONS).
For me, it was a double drying process. Generally, the filaments from Bambu are pretty dry upon delivery (at least, I keep them in a dry cabinet at 10% humidity, and when I add new Bambu filaments, the level only briefly rises to 15 or 16% due to opening the package but stabilizes back to 9-10% within the next 20 to 30 minutes. This is unlike cheaper filaments where the humidity in the dry area can rise and stay at 30-35% for over a day. Therefore, I’ve always assumed that Bambu filament is very well pre-dried, and my drying was intended as an additional measure (BUT THESE ARE JUST MY PERSONAL OBSERVATIONS).

Anyway, thanks for your feedback. I would really appreciate it if you could keep me updated as soon as anything new comes up :slight_smile: ! Thank you!

m still hoping someone here will share an ASA success story and can help. I believe we could all benefit from that :slight_smile:

10

Bassi,

Update!

After spending most of the weekend trying changes and test prints- I decided to revert back to PETG and try to ensure I wasnt crazy, and PETG prints fine.

The PETG printed great with 4 of the test parts on a plate. (I couldn’t print 4 without failure with ASA). I thought to try editing the generic PETG profile to run ASA. All I changed was nozzle temp (to 275) and bed temp (to 90).

Printing 4 of my test parts in ASA worked perfectly. No nozzle dragging/squeaking, just a perfect print.

You could go farther and edit the PETG profile fan temps to match ASA profiles, but I didn’t. Try this and let me know how it goes!

2 Likes
11

Just wanted to let you know: I tried with an edited PETG profile with correct temps, and cooling.

I didn’t work unfortunately. I still get crashing.

Gonna try a different nozzle tomorrow.

1 Like
12

Thx for the try ! going to start playing around with it in the next days and keep you updated

1 Like
13

I had the issue of the print head dragging into the model when printing ASA. After 2 failed attempts the thing that solved the issue for me was reducing the infill from 60% to 50% (Making a heavy duty part).
Not sure if it will work for all models or just the one I was printing.

14

I had the same problem, but after I moved my printer to a very small room,
where I could put the room temperature to 24 degrees, the problem was solved.
I guess that the printer cooled off and the object warped so the print head touched the object.
Maybe isolate the printer ?