Filament question: Bambu PLA vs Generic PLA print speed

Bambu Lab X Series
1

I just received my X1C yesterday and have been printing a few upgrades. One thing I’m curious about, why does “Generic PLA” take so much longer to print than “Bambu PLA”? For example, I want to print a poop bucket. If I choose the Bambu PLA that came with the printer it takes 3hrs 5min to print. If I change the filament to Generic PLA and don’t change anything else, the print takes 4hrs 45min. That’s quite a difference for the same type of material. If I switch to PETG it’s even longer.

What accounts for that difference?

1 Like
2

If you compare the settings between the bamboo lab filament and the generic filament you’ll see that the generic filament speeds are slower and the maximum volumetric flow is a lot lower.

You can pretty much safely get away with bumping it up to match the bamboo lab flow and that will increase your print speed.

Best bet is to use Orca slicer and calibrate your non bamboo lab filament so you get perfect flow rate in speed

3

Thanks. I am using orca slicer. Can you say more about “use Orca slicer and calibrate your non bamboo lab filament so you get perfect flow rate in speed”? Do you mean the full calibration routine that the printer goes through before printing?

4

I suggest pushing your Max Volumetric Speed for your generic materials to 18 for PLA and 14 for PETG for now. Then focus on gaining a grasp on the machine and the Bambu Studio first. Once you have become comfortable that you can confidently identify how you would tackle a print you come across, then move on to Orca. More intricate prints and models you’ll see less and less time disparity with the material speeds as it comes down to printer speed. (These things are seriously fast) Enjoy and welcome to the forum!

5

I concur with MadGoat. You could help yourself a lot by reading a lot of the threads here as well.

Plenty of YouTube videos on Orca Slicer, and tuning the X1. Get yourself comfortable first then start going down the rabbit hole.

Insofar as the Volumetric Flow, it is in the filament settings and make sure the “Advanced” switch is turned on so you can find it.

6

Thanks all. I certainly don’t claim to be very knowledgeable, but I have several Prusa printers and am well familiar with Prusa Slicer, so orca slicer is already quite understandable. For now I will take your advice and bump up the max volumetric flow and tinker with other settings as I get familiar with the printer.

7

Sorry to dig up an older thread… But I noticed this speed difference too. I don’t see anywhere in the filament settings any overrides on speed. I only see max volumetric flow. If I change that to match the Bambu PLA of 21 my print times still are way different. Where in the filament settings do I find any speed overrides? I do have advanced turned on.

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oh… and I’m using Orca Slicer

9

Sorry to also bump this, but this was the top Google result when I searched for my problem, which is what you are all discussing. A relative beginner, this was very confusing to me.

Using bambu lab, I was able to make a new custom filament profile, based on the Bambu PLA profile and the volumetric flow went from 14 to 22. A print I was prepping went from 5.5 hours with my generic PLA to 4.2 hours, which is the same time reported for Bambu PLA.

Hope that helps future Googlers.

10

I also notice the same calculated difference in print speed as the OG commenter mentioned. I basically solved it by printing in sports mode (124% speed), which then gives me pretty much the same speed with generic PLA as Bambu PLA would do in normal mode.