Gouging Plates, Bending Nozzles, Air Printing, Z Axis Failures

Hello everyone, I purchased the X1 Carbon about a month ago and ive been trying to figure out what is causing my issues with no luck. After the initial calibration it started air printing on the boat benchy. I ran another calibration and then it printed fine for a few prints. It keeps getting worse, It has bent 5 nozzles, and gouged both of my plates.

I have done the following:
Verified the bed is not contacting the poop tray thing.
Adjusted the bed forward
Verified all bearings are seated
Lubricated all of the Z axis screws and rods.
Removed the back panel and verified there is not screw making contact with anything.
Put a machinist square on the rods; they were not perfect so i removed the epoxy and adjusted… this got rid of the noise the z axis was making but did not fix the other issues.
I replaced the z axis motor; this didn’t fix anything
I reverted to an older firmware; this didnt fix anything.
I have factory reset i dont know how many times; no help

I am currently trying to figure out how to upload the printer videos…

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These are not typical problems. Bent nozzles are not unheard of but they are rare, and five in a month is ridiculous.

Have you started a Support Ticket with Bambu?

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I did start a support ticket but honestly i gave up with them. It takes 3-4 days to get a response every time. Its not like… wait 3-4 days and we will pickup your case… its wait for every single response. I got frustrated because the responses were telling me to do what i had already said i did.

I am at the end of the road so i figured i would try with the community before i throw it in the trash.

I fully agree with @lkraus . Definitely a case for a support ticket.
In the meantime, do the z-rods sit properly in the heat bed bearings? They can pop out a little when cleaning. Of course that also translates into an uneven heat bed with the potential for collisions and scratched plates. But they can be reseated by simply pushing them back.
Following that, it may be neccessary to tram the bed.

As for the air printing, what material were you using at which chamber temps? Newly dried PLA? That should be OK on the benchy up to around 40°C chamber temp. Beyond that, heat creep is common. 35°C max when using ironing or having many retracts.

Regarding the bent nozzles, there’s usually a reason for that. The most common ones are warping, curling and poop chute clogs. A bafly seated build plate and a badly trammed bed can also be at fault.
The first two can be avoided by rule #1: Dry (especially) new filament!
In some cases it is not enough though, but slowing print speeds and/or reducing layer heights are quite effective additional countermeasures.

:four_leaf_clover: & :crossed_fingers:

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I have not paid attention to filament humidity; i will do some tests and make note of temperatures. I am using Bambu Lab PLA Basic through the AMS.

I will look into tramming the heat bed…

Would filament issues cause the machine to not know how close the print head is to the bed? I assume the sensors in the bed provide this info but when it does the calibration it touches down nicely so i feel like the sensors are working… It will run a print and then drag back through what it printed.

Indeed not. But filament moisture can cause parts of the print to warp and curl upwards into the nozzle’s movement plane.

Considering the amount of work you have done on the z-axes, I’d look at the z-rod seating in their bearings and the straightness of the heat bed first though. And if neccessary do the bed tramming.

Do you use the auto-bed levelling?

:four_leaf_clover: & :crossed_fingers:

Thank you very much for the replies and advice.

I just did the Tram procedure. Now it’s running a calibration… then ill test print.

Yes, i do use auto-bed leveling. I have tried with and without it. What would you recommend?

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I do hope that the tramming helps. Usually, auto-bed levelling captures plate distortions, but I did have it a couple of times that my z-rods popped up during cleaning and the print having characteristic defects despite ABL. So there are limits above which the bed tramming is required.

I always use the X1’s ABL and auto-calibration. It is better than I can do with the manual calibrations. But saying that, this is my second X1. The first one was a lemon, replaced under warranty.

Also keep in mind that a good troubleshooting approach is to do things a bit more slowly. Going in silent mode for example will reduce collission forces on the nozzle while also reducing the likelyhood of individual errors.

If problems persist, some pic’s can really help troubleshooting. Print, slicer previews and machine (z-rod tops, heat bed t-rod bearings, overall set-up, hot end, …) would be helpful. But lets hope we are closing in on the problem.

:four_leaf_clover: & :crossed_fingers:

I did the Tramming and got it dialed in, then did a calibration but it did the same thing. Printed just over the plate.

I took everything back apart and used a Dremel to remove the epoxy from the 2 holes that retain the rear screw and guide rod to allow me to re position it. i moved the bed up and down and slowly tightened the screws back up.

I’ve done a calibration and so far, it is printing correctly. Going to do a few more test prints and ill update.

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It made a few good prints and now its back to printing on air just above the plate.

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So I assume the bed is level?

Can you provide some further information?
Like pics’s of the failed print, the printhead/nozzle, etc?
Are you printing from an AMS or the rear spool, what material are you printing (has it been dried?), open or closed top/door?
Is it more like a blocked/bent nozzle with a near normal distance but no flow or is it dragging filament across the plate? Or both?
Can you post slicer previews and settings? Material, Quality, Speed,…

The reason why I am asking all these questions are a number of very different possible root causes which we need to narrow down.

BW,
Eno

PS: The nozzle screws are fully in and tight?

I cant seem to figure out how to attach a photo or video. It does let me attach the file that i just tried to print. 2nd to maybe 3rd layer was in the air.

WĂĽrfel.3mf (578.6 KB)

Does this work? I made a dropbox link.

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/da76skxl9v1fvjo3rruf5/AMd2A8Eo2HpyDnA_hOIItG0?rlkey=oab90uoq9raojgoby2nzxgqsy&st=vb2axz5j&dl=0

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After watching the video of the cube… the bed did a huge jump after the first layer… i don’t know much about reading the G code, other than what juvenile told me.
Do you see anything in the G code the calls for that big of a step?

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Das hört sich an als könnten wir auf Deutsch schreiben :wink: But let’s continue in English in case others have similar issues.

You can just copy-paste from, for example, the explorer straight into the text. If not, you may need to enter a few more forum topics (10 total) and scroll through some individual posts (30 total). It is part of the Discourse spam/bot protection.

Printing that cube should not pose any particular challenges. That is a good sign as it means we can go through the basics and common issues step by step.
The changes from defaults that I spotted should not have caused any particular challenges. So if you encountered air printing already at the second layer, something fundamental seems to be wrong.

Things we (think we) know:

  • The bed is straight and level
  • With the first layer printing, we probably do not have any AMS and Filament path issues

Things to check:

  • Build plate adhesion: Did the first layer detach anywhere? Did the air print have a blob at the nozzle?
  • Nozzle damage: Since you mentioned repeated nozzle problems, is your current nozzle bent? Even slightly? Taking a picture from the front and one from the side can help with that.
  • Heat creep: Do you print with the top open? What was your chamber temp? Above 39°C, heat creep is very likely to occur. For larger, flat surfaces, ironing or for prints or when using moist filament, it can happen with as low as 35°C.
  • (Partial) Nozzle clog: When you extrude filament manually into the poop chute, does it work? Does it flow straight or does it curl? If it curls, you need to perform cold pulls on it. Preferably the hot hex key method as the “simple” cold pull has a good chance of leaving residue in the nozzle. Do 2-3 in a row.
  • Extruder clog: Especially after major issues, different types of extruder clog can occur. When doing the cold pulls, it is a good opportunity to check the extruder gears for abraded filament and clean it. In a worst case, abrasion can be seen on the filament.

A few further basics:

  • Especially new filament is moist. Those bags are not moisture proof, they are only moisture retardant. But they have spent weeks on the seven seas… So the only safe assumption is that new filament is moist. And that can have rather drastic consequences on thermal and rheological properties which high speed printing is much more sensitive to than prior generations. So best dry new rolls of filament before using or storing them with plenty of dessiccant.
  • Build plate adhesion on the Textured Plate can be lost very rapidly and surprisingly. It is a sign of the “valleys” of the Textured Plate clogging up with dust, etc. That dust, etc. needs to be properly scrubbed and washed out with plenty of water, dishwashing liquid and a stiff, clean brush every once in a while. If that first layer (partially) looses adhesion, it’ll be picked up and dragged around by the nozzle. Worse, high speed collisions can transfer sideways loads on the nozzle.

There’s more of course, but we do need to narrow down the field of possibilities.

:crossed_fingers: & :four_leaf_clover:

Addendum:
Many thanks for those pic’s. On one hand, it looks much better than your description led me to believe.
I’d start with the basics. Not build plate adhesion, that looks good, but, well, yes. Dry that roll of filament. That’ll make getting a good print much easier. Remember, new rolls are frequently moist.
While it is doing that, you may want to close up the rear panel again to avoid warp inducing drafts.

When you are ready to try again, probably also use some glue stick on the Smooth PEI, take a 1/8 to 1/4 of a paper towel, soak that towel and use it to first dissolve the glue stick lines and then distribute an even PVA/Water film across the plate. Dump the paper towel with the excess PVA after that (which is why you only want to use a small one :wink: ).

That should already take you a long way. If problems persist, I’d look at speeds and/or flow. That single high speed, high flow line at the bottom leads to weaker layer adhesion while those fast, high flow layers at the top promote curling, generating sideways forces on the print from nozzle collisions which can rip off the print. Especially if there’s moisture in the filament.


I was initially concerned that layer time may be an issue, but there’s nothing in the preview that I consider a smoking gun.

A further note, the print must have remained (reasonably) attached after layer 2 and only fractured right at the end. Otherwise, you would have printed a birds nest (literally) rather than a locally pretty good, but torn off, cube.

While there’s clearly something seriously wrong with the high speed, high flow layer number 2 (where also the fan kicks in, but playing with that is opening Pandora’s box and usually not neccessary with PLA), there’s some warping already visible on layer 1. Another sign that the filament is properly soaked.

:crossed_fingers: & :four_leaf_clover:

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No, that looks good.


But 1st layer curling can force some serious bumps when that fast nozzle runs over them. Also, that open back panel really promotes thermal issues.

Wow. Thank you for all of the info. I will first go through and dry the filament and close the unit back up. I did order some Bambu Glue so i will give that a try also.

I’m printing now and i disabled the 1st layer inspection, so far it is printing nicely.

Again, thank you for your time and i will definitely go through your suggestions.

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So over the last few prints things have been “okay” until now. I have printed this file 2 times without issue. The link to the photos shows what it does when it bends nozzles. I immediately cancel the print from the touch screen, but it will not stop until i pull the power cord.

I did re install the back cover and my humidity in AMS is around 30%.

Here is the link to videos… they are titled Bending Nozzle 1 & 2

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/da76skxl9v1fvjo3rruf5/AMd2A8Eo2HpyDnA_hOIItG0?rlkey=oab90uoq9raojgoby2nzxgqsy&st=cazo70pf&dl=0

Update. I gave up on that machine and ordered a replacement. The new machine prints absolutely perfectly. Over 30 hours on it and not a single issue. The first machine failed on the first print which was the boat benchy.

Currently i am shipping back the first printer and hoping that there is no trouble with a refund.

Thank you all for your help.