Hi, me and probably a lot of people over here are new to the Bambu X1.
So to all the experienced people:
What are your tips and tricks for us? What secrets do we have to know to get the best out of our machines. Slicer settings, machine settings, or anything.
Heard the X1 really benefits from a tile under the printer so it will be more stable, stuff like that helps the newcomers haha.
I wouldn’t call myself an experienced user, but the one thing I wish I had known up-front is to get the gold PEI plate and the liquid glue (with the caveat that I don’t print much PLA). It’s all I use: I’m careful not to touch the plate with my fingers (fingerprint oils) and smear a small amount of glue over the footprints left by the previous print. It’s so easy and has worked great for me.
My best tip is this: Use the reccomended settings Bambu Lab provides in Bambu studio. They really work well!
Only change something when you have a specific reason to do so.
If something doesn’t work like you think it should, make sure the basics are covered first. Slicing settings, fillament is dry etc.
Same goes for “upgrades”.
My tip: I use the cool plate with PLA+,
it’s really hard to take of the PLA lines, I already have scratched the plate with my nails,
what I do now: I put in the cool plate in the printer and set the bed temperature to 100 degrees,
wait a while, and then I can remove the PLA very easy in the printer with my scrapper.
I couldn’t say better. Take your time. Enjoy it with the default/recommended settings, and if it fails, you may look for a solution, such as a filament calibration … “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”!
Some minor tips, which are specific for the X1C or BL printers:
Are you new to Bambu Lab printers or 3D printing?
If you have a hard time removing PLA (or anything else) from the build plate try this trick. Has been working great for me so far!
from me with best wishes:
- read the Wiki - all of it !
it covers many, really many subjects which are usually asked here and elsewhere.
Not new to printing, had a CR-10S pro and some Ender’s. But nothing like the X1C, feels like a completely new world haha. With the Enders and CR’s it was always about the next upgrade to make them perform a bit better.
Heard about High-Flow extruders that did wonders for the X1C, but hearing you talking about “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” might be more sensible to live by haha.
Just tried it but luckily I don’t have the problem of it being stuck yet. I use the windes trick right now, saw some vids on YouTube about it and if works amazing. Always perfect first layers but they the print just pops off when you flex the plate. Feels a lot like the wambam’s
My tip - Don’t assume anything form prior experience – I am learning a lot - I started out with a pretty poor experience (X1C and AMS) and that was due to me “assuming things” based on how I worked with my Prusa MK3s printers such as different bed types, nozzles, first layers, temps, adhesion, z-index - and of course the slicer settings etc. After many failures - one thing I found when using the AMS - is I had the wrong materials selected when printing. I assumed that if you color with a specific AMS slot that it would carry over when you clicked Print Plate - NO - you must select the AMS slots that have your colors - this is fine if you have 4,8,12,16 different colors - BUT i had multiple shades and types of black and white. My prints were failing and I eventually realized the wrong material / AMS slot was selected when printing - I was just going by the color - so be aware of your basic settings and defaults and don’t assume anything from prior experience.
The other thing that is working much better for me - is using the Engineering Plate with PLA at a 55c bed temp instead of the cool plate. For some reason - with using the cool plate with glue and all default settings (i am printing very thin models (.60)) - It is a PITA to get the print off the bed. With the engineering plate - pops write off after it cools and leaves a nice slightly textured finish on the first layer.
My key lessons learned:
Here is another tip - I know some of this should seem obvious, but we are creatures of habit and fall into routines - so always, always, use preview in your slicer and use the layer sliders to inspect and identify the various layers to see how your model will print layer by layer.
I just had a spaghetti failure - but this time - instead of yelling at the X1C - I took a look at my (STL) model in the slicer (the same model I have been printing for years on my Prusa MK3s printers without any issues) - so when looking at preview - I noticed my first layer was actually only a small part of what should have been a much larger first layer, Therefore for what should have been a complete layer 1 - was printing in air about .14mm layer height as layer 2! - (a long time ago I was fusing various parts together and apparently one of the parts was not flush with the main part on the bed) - so I went back into my model software - fixed it and back into the slicer - and now the preview shows the full first layer as it should be. Hope this helps!