I’m printing a lot of .2 nozzle prints that run from 8-16 hours on my X1C. Usually 4 colors of PLA. What I am finding is about 30% of the time, the purge blobs will catch inside the chute somewhere and clog everything up. The purge will fill up the chute. The machine will stop with a error message. How it knows the chute is clogged is impressive in that I believe there is no sensor there. Regardless, I was looking to see if anyone has come up with a fix for it. I thought it was the purge backing up in my waste bin but it is not. It clogs up before the bin, still inside the machine in the chute. The blobs that it creates may be the problem. They kind of look like radishes. It’s too bad Bambu chose to not allow photos on here or I would show one. I believe this problem is particular to the .2 nozzle. I have not had it happen with the .4. Btw, I have two X1C’s and they both do it.
Hi You will notice a red light blinking in the chute. There is also a sensor in there. When it can’t see the LED it gives you the interlock and alarm.
Ah, very good. Thanks. I read somewhere there was no sensor.
I too have the same problem on my X1-C…I have tried replacing the wiper as well as ensuring the the nozzle tip is clean and clear when starting…I am running the .4 nozzle and generic PETG
I looked around for more info on this. There are many people that have problems with the nozzle wiper. Which I’m thinking is part of the chute clogging problem. There are many alternate wipers out there. Many using silicone sheet instead of the roller. In addition to my chute clogging up, my machines also launch those blobs into the chamber. There’s about a dozen under my plate right now. I’m going to order some of that silicone and give the alternate wipers a try.
Edit: I just printed something that came out fine. But I noticed on the “Complete!” Window that pops up on the machine display, it has a few check boxes to check if the print did not come out good. And one is “Purged filaments pileup in excess chute”. That certainly sounds like the issue that caused me to start this thread. Which doesn’t give me hope that it will ever be solved. Bambu engineering has been outstanding overall on the X1C and if they released this printer knowing that was a problem, then it is a hard problem to solve.
As I said I would, I printed out one of those replacement nozzle wipers that use silicone sheet from Maker World. And I bought some 1/8” sheet from Amazon. I used the double wiper(3mm size) that also still uses the stock roller at the same time. It’s provided a remarkable improvement for me. I’ve run many 12 hour, .2 nozzle prints with this setup and only once was a purge blob left on the build plate. And it did not stop the print. To go along with that, I have not had the chute clog up either. I guess there is a direct relationship to how well the purge blobs are wiped off the nozzle and how well they clear the chute. I am frankly shocked at how well this has worked. Sometimes you get lucky. Ha
Wow! thank you for performing the tests and coming back 12 days later with your experience. Would you mind putting in information about the model you chose to use?
Sure. This is the one I am using. There are many others and they probably work as well. Just search for “nozzle wiper” on Maker World if you want alternatives.
This is the silicone sheet I bought:
so mine has a problem with the purging actually curling up on itself making like a hanging ball of ABS and not making it over to the wiper at all. is this not what you have going on?
Well what do you know, you can post pictures on this forum.
I get that blob of filament you see on every color change when using a .2 nozzle. Sometimes it sticks to the nozzle and when it does, it can launch it on to or under the plate. A few times it has stayed attached and created a monster blob. But since I went to the silicone wiper, all that has stopped. The blobs are now civilized and will drop into the chute as they are supposed to. Life is good once again.
I used an older roll of PLA and it was brittle, but while out of the box it worked great…
Over nite sitting it cracked and I had to disassemble the AMS and get the broken part out.
not a big deal but a delay…and I had the chance to get familiar with the insides of the AMS…
so…if you use a new OLDER roll, unload it and remove completely from the AMS overnite …
My first instinct on this is to stop blaming the machine and look at what your purge settings are set to.
Stopping the clogging is a balance between the actual physical purged filament, the speed at which you’re trying to crank out the print, and the amounts you have set for the purges.
The only time I have pile-up clogs is when I try to use a narrow chimney-style chute, or, like a dope, I forget to dump the purge bin. Since it sits behind the machine, I tend to forget that it’s there.
I DID have screen shots to show the settings, but the forum will NOT allow me to share the images or even links to the images.
But a breakdown:
Purge volumes starting at 121 at the bottom left corner and 433 at the top right corner in the Flushing Volumes dialog.
My Speeds:
Init Layer:50
Init Layer Infill:75
Outer Wall:500
Inner Wall:550
Small Perims:50%
Small Perim threshhold: 0
Sparse Infill:550
Internal Solid Infill:550
Top surface.500
I tend to have VERY few print failures at .20, .24 and .28 layer settings. the failures I do have are either by a poor slice, poor support or bad filament, eg: brittle and old.
I would say that almost ALL of my prints are VERY good quality that match or better those done on other vendor’s machines at .20 or even higher resolutions.
I have made no attempts at improving the purging on my machines. So the issues I had were with the machine as purchased. Therefore I feel justified blaming the machine. And I proved to myself conclusively my clogging was in the chute, unrelated to any purge waste bin used. Again, as I mentioned, upon completing a print you are presented with a popup for possible failure reasons. With one being “Purged filaments pileup in excess chute”. Which to me clearly points out Bambu is and was aware of chute clogging as an issue. That said, all that is in my rear view mirror. Adding the silicone nozzle wiper eliminated the problems for me. Time to move on.
My printer never had any issues with this till just recently. I never adjusted any settings to believe it is something I did to make it change. I changed the wiper. The only thing I can think of that could have changed how it operates is updated firmware.
Hey @oldsneakers
So we’ve had some reviewers state it helped them with a related cause of purge build up/clogs on our “Poop Chute Boot” model. Although this simply goes over the purge door lever it’s more stable and rigid than the silicone one printers come with today (printers purchased prior to july 2023 do not have this)
I’ve done extensive testing with multicolor prints to study how the chute door opens and closes and what exactly triggers a pile up. I’ve reached out to Bambu Labs Support about my investigation with some feedback. While diagnosing a different issue on the toolhead of an X1C, upon removing the (Rear Cover) I noticed it was cracked exactly where the Purge Lever makes contact. I then stated this within the same ticket and without question support sent a new rear cover along with the original issue I started with.
They requested more information regarding the rear cover so I tested some theories more with the cracked versus new one. After doing so and sending them photos it does appear to generate some effect although still not 100% of the cause because the use of various filaments and purge settings change.
But using PLA strictly & with (Cracked Cover) pile ups would be 100% caused due to lever and door not completely engaging and purging to catch between door and chute so sometimes it’ll release other time not so much and only takes 1 not to and bam chute clog.
With a (New Rear Cover) door is fully engaged filament is purged at the angle so when the shake & wipe occur filament is properly chuted out of the machine.
Conclusion is unstable due to various filaments I didn’t test but support didn’t rule out passing onto engineering about this finding. Ever since though I modeled a sleeve for the top portion of the lever as well using our boot for the foot of the lever and haven’t encountered chute clogs even after 24hr+ prints. The rear side showed a lot of wear from the thousands of times moving to that position so I’d hope a change from engineering at the least comes from this because the cover shouldn’t be a consumable and it definitely looked like it after 1500hours.
Sorry for the long post but wanted to help the best I could.
Here’s the link to the “Poop Chute Boot” if you want to give it a go. If anything it helps dampen the purge sequence as well. Best of Luck!