Clogged filament or something else?

Bambu Lab P1 Series Troubleshooting
1

I have 3 P1S and the new one is having this issue…

I am getting an issue where very little filament is coming out, and when it does it seems to come out maybe unevenly.

I’ve tried taking the Extruder a part and cleaning it out. It wasn’t even that dirty since the printer is still pretty new.

I’ve tried cleaning out the hotend with the pin. It seems clean when I’m done.

When I have the extruder manually extract the filament it does come out, but it seems maybe thin, clumps some at the tip of the hotend and and I think it might not be coming out evenly, hard to tell, maybe it micro stops as it comes out.

And when I try and print something, the print is very thin, nothing, or just a thin stringy mess.

The printer did this one time before and I cleaned the hot end and it seemed to be ok. But this time no matter what I do I can’t fix it.

The last 2 times this happened today when trying to figure it out, after unloading the filament I look in the hotend and filament is broke off.

Any help? Thanks!

2

Has your filament become (or always was) overly brittle? Long ptfe snake tubes with overly brittle filament will cause no end of trouble like this. When it continually breaks in the line, theres only the pressure applied from the AMS roller to feed, and sometimes it isn’t enough. If its enbrittled, direct feed it with the top glass off or maybe the material just aint it

3

Hmm… nothing strange about this setup, it’s the same as my other 2, just standard setup. All 3 P1S sit on a table next to each other.

Although I’ve only used a recently ordered batch of Bambu PLA Basic Black on the new printer. I can try another filament spool that works fine on a different printer and see what happens.

4

As you have more than one of the same printer, you can do a test to rule some things out.

  • Swap the filament from a working printer onto this one and swap the one from this one to that printer.

    • Do an identical test print on both printers
    • Does the problem move to the other printer?
    • Do both printers fail/succeed the same?

  • Swap the nozzles between the two printers.

    • Do an identical test print on both printers
    • Does the problem move to the other printer?
    • Do both printers fail/succeed the same?

If the problems shift, it is the filament or the nozzle.

If the problem remains, it is the printer.

If the problem did remain:

  • Remove the AMS if there is one, and connect directly using the external spool

    • Load the filament
    • Do another test
    • Did it work?

If it worked, the problem could be the AMS.

If it failed, the problem could be the gears.

Some things to try ^^^.

5

Thanks for the reply, appreciated. A few more troubleshooting steps to go. But given everything it’s “feeling” like Gears. About to do the filament test.

1 Like
6

It could be a good time (if you haven’t already) to swap out all the printers to hardened steal gears.

There is a parts sale on right now.

7

Interesting, I’ll take a look. Wasn’t on my radar. Thanks.

8

Filament test failed on problematic printer. So it’s not the filament.

9

I’ve got a ticket into support, but no word back yet. I assume they will need to send me replacement part(s).

10

Try swapping the complete hotend between the working and problematic unit.

11

Apologies, notifications aren’t working right now.

Good plan.

Keep us updated.

I assume you realised I meant the whole hotend when I said nozzle. I can’t imagine you disassembled the nozzle itself, as you have two working printers and taking the whole hot end is far easier than the mess of just the nozzle.