Hi.
Very new to printing. I printed some Polymaker ABS using the built in presets in Bambu Studio and it printed amazingly well. I purchased some Bambu Labs ABS and the first layer isn’t laying down very well. Lots of globs. and stringing.
Can anyone give me a push in the right direction?
Thanks
Derek
Welcome to the forum,
Have you calibrated the filament?
I have not. I figured since it was from Bambu Labs the built in presets would be fine.
The preset temperatures and speeds will be set correctly but tweaking the flow calibrations are needed if you want to dial it in.
Also on a textured plate the nozzle is closer to the bed plate so it can “squish” into the texture. This can result in what looks like over extrusion on the first layer. If you let the print complete it will normally work itself out.
Hi Jon
Thanks for the help. I just checked in on the printing and it all looks good. Right now I only have the textured plates since they are out of the smooth. The textured plate makes the most sense since it did eventually work itself out. I wonder if there is a first layer tweak I can make to improve it. Structurally it can’t be optimal laying fresh filament over the globs as well as it induces a variable.
Then again it’s still a hot glue gun on steroids 
Start with calibrating your filament 
While the dual sided smooth PEI plate is out of stock, the single sided “High Temp” one is still available at a great price.
This is the same plate I have used on my printers for ABS and have over a thousand of hours on each. Suffice to say it is still currently my favourite plate. I would like to try the dual one once it’s available.
Oh and one minor point, keep the door closed when printing Abs. Resist the urge to take pretty pictures of it printing.
The globs/zits may be caused by moist filament. If it hasn’t be dried/dehydrated yet, this may help. A fancy drier is not needed - just put the spool on the bed and place a filament box over the top (cut the top off).
https://wiki.bambulab.com/en/filament-acc/filament/dry-filament
It was a brand new roll. I opened it, loaded it and hit print. Can I assume at this point that new filament is wet and best practice is to dry rolls before use?
Thanks
Derek
I have read too many reports that quality has improved after drying a brand new spool that has just been taken out of a vacuum bag that contains desiccant. It defies logic, but it’s easy to eliminate this one factor. A before and after Benchy with standard presets is the litmus test.
I’ve taken to immediately drying all new spools and then placing them in the AMS or a box with desiccant for my DIY X1C.
It’s standard practice on Stratasys high performance filaments like Ultem, for full and partially-used cassettes, using a vacuum oven, blast oven or even the Fortus build chamber. Partially used filament is resealed in evacuated foil bags with desiccant, but still dried before use.
Good to know. I can certainly see how moisture content is a hidden variable and easy enough to minimize with proper planning.
Thanks
Derek
You could try looking at the failed print with a microscope or magnifying lens and see if you see air bubbles in the printed filament.
Printing a speed benchy takes a lot less time than drying a roll of filament, so if you’re in a hurry maybe that’s your litmus test as to whether you can get by without drying it fresh out of the box.
That said, I’m changing my workflow to dry filaments when I get them and then store them in desiccant so that they’re ready at the drop of a hat. It requires a lot more prep work to make that happen smoothly and easily, but it seems like it may be the best solution.
I ordered a drier and scale yesterday. I’m going to weigh and dry the offending filament and then print it again and see how it goes.
I’m for sure going to dry and desiccant store all filament when it arrives from here on out.
In that case, you may find this thread to be helpful: What do you find best suits your filament storage needs?
With advice from people who’ve already done it, it helped me think up a good plan on how to do it.
So I bought the Eibos Easdry drier. The humidity meter is totally useless but that’s not a big deal to me. I did some empty cabinet temperature tests with my Fluke thermometer and a beaded probe. All the way up it was cranking around 76C. At the middle of the ABS scale it was right around 58C. I weigh the offending ABS filament and it came in at 1049g. I loaded it in the box and as expected the temp dived since I added a giant heat sink. I cranked the knob up a bit and over the course of an hour or so the temps started rising so I kept adjusting. I left it in for around 6 hours and the weight after that was 1034g. Quite a bit of weight. Not sure if the plastic spools are loaded with moisture as well as the filament but I was surprised at how much was shed.
Here is a shot of the same parts being printed at the same stage.
Big improvement. I imagine a smooth plate and better calibrations would make things even better but for now I’m calling it a win.
Thanks for all the help,
Derek
Edit: Had a showerthought. Weight the dryer and spool when I start and then I’ll know when I’m hitting diminishing returns without opening the dryer.
1049g-1034g= 15g! That’s anomalous.
That’s an interesting finding. Either it’s not normal ABS, or some other factor would seem to be in play. I wonder what the plastic spools that you’re referring to are made out of?
It was Bambu Labs ABS on one of their reels.
Edit: I just wanted to add I was very careful on weighing the spool. I weighed it twice before and twice after. I have a hard time believing all of that moisture was in just the filament but I’m way too new at this to have any kind of valid opinion. I dried a roll of black ABS and it only lost a couple of grams.
