Hi, purchased an X1C a week ago and have had nearly flawless PLA and PETG prints. Monday night I tried printing an AMS Spool weight with Creality PLA+ filament and it failed halfway through due to under extrusion or some type of flow issue (my thought at least). Tried an Overture PLA filament and had the same issue. Did some reading on the wiki and performed the cleaning and cold pulls as shown on this page (Nozzle/Hotend Unclogging Procedure for X1 | Bambu Lab Wiki). After that I was able to run a good print using the Creality filament. Tried running a second one and the issue came back. Performed the cleaning and cold pulls again and now each print starts well, but after 10-15mm it starts to under-extrude and eventually fails. The most recent ones I switch to Bambu PLA basic and was using the .2mm layer Standard profile. I also reduced the speeds and it didn’t help. I have only been running PLA and PETG, nothing with CF or GF. Hot end was the default at 220C and using .4mm tip. I have tried running the flow calibrations and they keep failing when I run automatically, even though the samples print decent. I live in a dry climate, so moisture is not an issue (AMS is reading a “1”).
I don’t want to keep tweaking settings if there is another problem I may be overlooking. Thanks in advance for the help.
Thanks for the reply, I forgot to touch on that in my OP. Coming from an Ender 5 Pro, this is my first printer with a chamber, so that was new info to me. However, after the initial hot end cleaning I did yesterday I have been leaving the door open with lid off. Chamber temp has been 28-29C. No change to quality.
Ok, not so long ago there used to be a nag screen stating the lid/door off but they took it away (should’ve been a tickbox to never show again but anyhow). Well your chamber temp around 30c should be fine, but it does look like a clogging. The dual colour filament sometimes can be erratic in diameter as a next thought, can you try a basic PLA colour to see if this still occurs? Edit. Just looked closer and there is basic in there too, there goes that theory :).
Correct, went back to basics (no pun intended) to see if the Rainbow filament was the cause. This was the second time using it, and first on the X1C. Running a little small spool stand/holder right now and pushed all the speeds down to 125 mm/s to see if that helps. The initial layer always came out well on the previous failures, so I thought it may be the other layers were printing too fast. I also read that these printers can tear up grid style fills, so using the gyroid style. So far so good! layer 7/50 below.
Anyone know if altitude has any effects on print settings? I live at around 5,200 feet… just curious/random thought…
I spoke too soon. Starting going bad on layer 14, and kept getting worse. I stopped it on layer 35 because there was barely any filament being extruded. enclosure got up to 31C.
I’m unsure whether altitude has any major influence, I’m sure there is something awry with the filament extrusion that looks like a blockage or binding. You’ve had a couple of good print examples above though and this goes across a few filaments so mechanical/heat seems more logical. Assuming the PTFE from the external to the print head is reasonably free running, it may be wise to be starting the support ticket process to get a headstart on a solution.
I’m sorry I can’t suggest anything more helpful at the moment
Don’t assume your filament is dry, be certain. Preferably with weight measurements on a digital scale before and after. When the weight stops changing, the filament is truly dry.
Thank you very much for you input. I agree its likely a mechanical/heat issue. I started a ticket Tuesday AM and they said to clean the nozzle and leave the door open… Had already done those. Decided to bring it to the community in parallel. Thanks!
Roger that, will try weighing and drying the Bambu PLA basic to see if it improves. I don’t have a dedicated dryer, does drying in the X1C work well, or should I not bother trying?
The X1C works fine as a dryer, just a little slow. Use a filament box with the lid removed as a cover, the printed Bambu model does not work any better. If moisture is the problem, drying on the heat bed will prove it.
I am pretty sure I have isolated the problem to the .4mm stainless steel hot end that came with the X1C after performing the following tests today. I decided to wait on watching filament dry for 6-12 hours, I put a hygrometer in the room the printer and filament are stored and in the AMS. Room is 21-23%RH and AMS is holding steady at 20%.
Sent an email to Bambu support seeking info or a replacement for the .4mm hot end, just wanted to provide an update here.
Removed .4mm hot end and installed brand new .6mm hardened hot end. Still using the Bambu basic PLA that came with the machine. Using the default filament settings in Bambu Studio.
Ran XYZ cube and a simple Spool Holder with no issues. Both of these failed yesterday using the .4mm with under-extrusion and spaghetti. (Pictures below)
Ran the AMS Spool weight with .6mm with no issues. (Pictures below)
Reinstalled .4mm hotbed, performed a cold pull and ran a wire through the nozzle. Flow looked good, no clogs. Ran flow calibration, looked good.
Tried running the XYZ cube and it starting failing on layer 2. (Pictures below)
I will also add that I tried reducing all the speeds to 125mm/s with the .4mm nozzle and it did not help the quality. Humidity in the room where printer and filament are stored is only 21-22 %, and I used the exact same spool for all of the above prints.
I am not sure what else to do or test, it appears the hotted that came with the machine is bad after only a week of use with PLA and PETG only. Let me know what else I should check, or can a complete replacement be sent to me?
This picture shows the spool holder printed with .6mm compared to the failed print with .4mm:
With dried filament and a single nozzle showing these defects, a partial nozzle clog is indeed the most likely cause. Similar error chains can also occur from bent nozzles or degradation of the the thermal paste of the thermistor and/or heater.
Although rare, the latter is an easy check/repair (just replace the thermal paste).
