After nearly a year of trouble-free printing, I have an issue with my A1, probably due to user error. I switched back to the 0.4mm stainless nozzle and started getting rough prints. Turns out I did not put the sock on correctly and it ended up blocking the nozzle and enlarging the hole in the sock (see picture). I took off the nozzle, cleaned off stray filament and replaced the sock. However, I still get rough prints and the poop looks different. Instead of a nice clean gumdrop, the filament looks thin coming out and forms weird poop (see picture). The bottom layer on textured PEI looks normal, but the sides and top surface look rough, and not fully extruded. Did the sock problem clog the nozzle, and if so, can it be restored or is it trash? Thanks for any help!
Yeah, That is a massive under extrusion. Looks like a nozzle clog to me. Check if there is a clog, and if so in clog it.
Thanks,
OTpandy1
Sorry for my late reply.
Happy printing!
Thanks OTpandy1! I did some searching and everything points to a clog. This prompted me to try the hardened 0.4mm nozzle in the set I purchased, and that is printing fine. I will try to unclog the nozzle and report back if there is anything unusual worth mentioning.
you can try unclogging it by doing an atomic pull
Thanks rowenrohan! I did a cold pull as explained in the Bambu wiki. When I reprinted, the quality was still poor so I did another cold pull. I did another print and still had poor quality. Then I realized the surfaces had zits and the A1 was overextruding. So I did a flow rate calibration and got a recommended flow rate of 0.808 instead of the nominal 0.98. This produced a pretty clean print. All prints used black Bambu Basic PLA.
I am not sure if the clogging event (misplaced sock) or unclogging (I also tried using the unclogging pin tool) altered the nozzle, but the moral of the story is you may need to do a flow rate calibration after unclogging.
does the extruder click
I had not noticed the extruder clicking. I will listen for it if the prints start having problems or the flow rate changes.