Giant Plastic Blob. Is my printer ruined?

I started a print, went to sleep and in the morning I found this (look at pictures).

The giant blob of plastic is stuck on the print head. I can not remove the front cover.

Is my printer ruined?

How can I get the giant blob of plastic off?


did you heat up your hot end ( Assuming PLA I would heat to 250c or so) and let it sit for a little bit to soften the plastic. then you should be able pry off the blob.

You nay need a new silicone sock for the hotend after. Once the blob is off I would check your hotend and make sure it isnt clogged. Or if so inclined, just replace the nozzle with a new one as they are relatively cheap.

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Welcome to the community.

Short answer: No, your printer is not ruined.

This is a fairly easy repair as repairs go, it’s just time consuming. You likely won’t need to replace any parts beyond the silicone sock - a consumable you should keep on hand anyway. The printer is designed to be self-maintainable, and even if you need to replace something like the toolhead cover, it’s inexpensive and meant for user repair.

First things first:
Do not panic or rush into trying every fix you’ve read online. That’s how people ruin their printers. Slow and methodical wins here.

Do NOT try to remove the blob by heating the nozzle. While it might help at first, it will leave behind a sticky mess. Your goal is to reduce the blob’s mass first. If done correctly, much of it will snap off cold.


Step 1 - Cut away the excess

Use side-cutters or snippers to remove as much plastic as possible. Cut small pieces - do not try to clip off the whole thing in one go. If you don’t already have good cutters, here’s a search:
https://www.amazon.com/s?k=wire+nippers


Step 2 - Free and remove the cover

Once you’ve cleared enough plastic to move the toolhead cover:


Step 3 - Clean around the nozzle

You only need to remove enough plastic to get the nozzle out. Once removed, it’s much easier to work on it at your desk. Here’s the video that tells you how to change a nozzle which includes all the steps you’ll need to affect this kind of repair.

Tips:

  • Cold filament is brittle. Try freezing the nozzle for 5-10 minutes. That should be enough to make exterior filament snap off easily.
  • Silicone sock damaged? No problem - cheap and replaceable. You can test the printer without it (but don’t run it that way long-term).
  • Ceramic heater wires break? Also cheap and easy to replace - don’t stress.

Useful links:

Silicone Socks:
https://us.store.bambulab.com/products/silicone-sock-for-hotend
https://www.amazon.com/s?k=bambu+p1+silicone+socks

Ceramic Heater Replacement:
https://us.store.bambulab.com/products/ceramic-heater-thermistor-p1p
https://www.amazon.com/s?k=bambu+p1+ceramic+heater

Hotend Assembly (if you want to replace the whole thing):
https://us.store.bambulab.com/products/bambu-hotend-p1-series


If you’re inclined, this is a great opportunity to learn how to maintain your printer. But if you’d rather skip the hassle, the full assembly is available.

Good luck and let us know how you make out. :four_leaf_clover:

7 Likes

Looks like you forgot to put the bed in? I’ve done that on my P series as well. That is one really nice thing about the X series that has saved me countless times. It will throw an error if the bed plate is missing or wrong.

No, I just threw the messed up print in there to take the photo.

It was printed with the golden textured build plate that came with it.

Also, I don’t really understand how to get the cutters inside the enclosure to actually cut the plastic off.

Do I have to lay on the floor and then have someone hold the bambu on the edge of a table so I can see and reach up into it to try to cut the plastic?

Also, how do I “heat up the hotend” to soften the plastic.

All I know how to do is click print in the bambu studio.

Use the display on the printer to set the nozzle temperature.


Or via Bambu Studio

If you remove the glass lid you can carefully turn the printer upside down and rest it on a table. The printer will function for the post part inverted. You can heat up the nozzle and this will allow you to hopefully clear the blob easier.

The upside down trick sounds hilarious, ill try that next time. I usually put it on a low coffee table and bend over the open top like a surgeon

Agree w/ others - heat it up, give it some time, pick at it. Wear gloves, the nozzle is hot. Make some tea, dont rush it. Move the plate to maximum Z and the toolhead to a comfortable spot to work on. Dont snip at anything that looks like a wire, there are a couple, mostly behind the nozzle. Make note of the plastic housing of the fan at the bottom of the toolhead, a blob that size may have damaged it. If it’s just cracked you can get away with lots of basic plastic repair strats. If it’s deformed, you may need a new fan piece. Not that expensive.

Silicone sock is probably dead too, but also just a dollar or two. You might have even gotten a spare in the original package, but I don’t recall. It’s a nice spare part to have on hand.

There is a step by step wiki article for this.

I’m following the linked wiki article but nothing happens when I set the nozzle to heat using the control panel (the first number stays stuck at 0)

In your photo you have the speed selected, I assume that is unrelated to your attempt.

  • Use that screen, select the first entry (showing 0/270 in your photo).
  • Press the central select button
  • You now see the value screen
  • Use the control directions to increase the value
  • When you have the value you want, press the central select button
  • The printer should now heat up the nozzle
  • You can use the back option to go back a few stages

If the nozzle won’t heat up, it’s likely that the blob severed the heater/thermometer’s wire[s]. You’ll have a harder time cleaning this out, and definitely have 1 part to replace :wink:

If you have a soldering iron that goes low temp, you can set it to ~200C and use that to apply heat. Once its heated, it will pull away easily, but since you have to attack it from the outside (instead of inside like from the nozzle’s own heater) you will need to use a lot more patience. You’ll get it. Once you find metal, touch tips and let the heat flow from soldering iron → nozzle → blob

A hair dryer / hot air gun can work too but be extra careful of not frying everything around it. Theyre incredibly inaccurate in where they throw heat, and you really want to apply heat to only that blob.

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I would rather throw away that nozzle assmbly, buy new hotend and be done with it. The next possible damage is the front cover and the fan duct, but I doubt the fan duct would be damage. It seems to be high temp plastic and not likely to weld to filament.

The trouble is the big blob trapped inside the fan duct make it very hard to remove the front hotend cover.

I think, the best way is to use solder iron to stab the blob at where nozzle is until touching the nozzle. Keep it there for the whole nozzle area soft enough to remove the front cover.

Once, cover removed, it is a lot easier to go from there.

Heat up the nozzle and try to remove as much as the plastic as possible. I would probably even replace the hot end just in case some if it is still clogged. Cut away anything that is still stuck and make sure it is not clogged anywhere. Hopefully this helps!

Also see this thread: