Gripe about people's suggested settings

Bambu Lab P1 Series General Discussions
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**Before you read this: this is mostly a rant. I am really just complaining (maybe because I don’t have any friends that are into this yet). If you have a real pearl of wisdom to share with me, feel free. I am great at taking advice. If you want to flame me (and I am sure there will be those bubbling over to just light me up while reading this), go ahead. I am pretty thick skinned. This is mostly intended to be a little comedic, so if you can make fun of me and be funny, go right ahead. This IS a rant.

The gripe is really with the language people use. The terms they suggest don’t match the names of settings in the slicers.

I am fairly new to all of this. Just bought a printer a couple weeks ago, but I’ve had it going pretty much non-stop since I picked it up.

So, here’s my gripe. I (like others) didn’t want to wait for Bambu filaments, so I’ve started ordering them off Amazon. Every time I get a new filament to try, I inadvertently, wind up looking up what others have found for optimal settings for them. I search things like, “Sunlu PLA+ settings for Bambu Studio.” Here’s my problem: The settings everyone gives, don’t match any of the settings in Bambu Studio.

The guy I am watching on youtube right now suggested:
Nozzle: 210 to 230 Degrees C
Bed: 60 to 70 Degrees C
Print Speed: 50 to 60 mm/s
Retraction: 1.5mm at 30 to 50mm/s
Tree Supports: Top Z Distance 0.3 mm
Use a Drybox

I load my Sunlu PLA+ into the AMS, and I open the config. I select the stock config for Sunlu PLA+. I go back to the preview screen, pick the 3 dots next to Sunlu PLA+, and I’m greeted with the filament settings.

So let’s start at the beginning.
First line: Am I setting the “Recommended nozzle temperature” under basic information to min: 210 and max: 230? Or am I setting “Nozzle” under Print temperature, to Initial Layer: 210 and Other layers: 230? We’ll set both of those to 220 to be safe.
Second line: I assume we’re talking about the plates. Are they all the same? He suggests 60 to 70. Is that 60 Initial Layer and 70 Other layers, or do I set 65 for both? Is it the same for all plates?
Third line: Print speed?! That’s not even an option. I searched for it. Is it “Max volumetric speed?” It can’t be that, because the default is 12mm/s which is no where near his recommendation of 50 to 60mm/s. Admittedly I eventually figure out that there is an entire tab called speed in the profile settings, but here again, where am I supposed to type in “50-60 mm/s?” Initial Layer, Other layers; outer wall, inner wall? Travel speed, Acceleration? I have no idea where to input this number. If I turn off “Advanced,” I lose the whole “Speed” tab.
Fourth line: Retraction. Oh good, we’re back in the filament settings. Because that’s not confusing to go back and forth between windows. Safe to assume the 1.5mm is “Length?” Stock setting was 0.8mm/s. He suggests 1.5mm/s. Small enough number but almost twice the size in reality. And speed he suggests a range, but I can only set one number here. Ok, lets go with the middle. 40mm/s.
Fifth line: Oh good, we’re back to a profile setting. Fortunately, here it is. The only one with a name that clearly matches.
Sixth line: Dry box. This one I get. Everyone says you don’t need to dry PLA, but this is PLA+ so maybe this PLA needs drying.

Alright. Let 'er rip. Fire off this project and lets see what happens. Ten hours later, quarter of a spool gone, and… a useless mess that belongs on the show “Nailed It.”

Why can’t we all use the same diction for this? Inevitably someone is going to flame me and tell me, I should run my own tests and find my own settings, yada yada. Or I should just stop complaining and learn organically. And before anyone suggests that I start with stock settings, generic settings, or the Bambu provided Sunlu settings, I ask you; which one? BBL, Generic, Sunlu, other? If you search you will find suggestions to start with each of these three and adjust to your liking. Also… I did. I tried starting with each of those. I made adjustments. I printed temperature towers (god knows my old eyes can’t see the difference from one level to the next). That was why I went searching for someone else’s settings. Because this is my third through sixth attempt on my own with this project. I just suck at this (I’ll get better). But I feel like 3D printing has been around long enough that I should benefit from some other people’s experience (read: pain). After all, someone has to have been able to make the Bambu Labs PLA Silk Dual Color filament work. I mean, for all my searching I can’t find anyone who’s had a successful print with it, but by gosh I wasn’t going to give up. An entire spool of that stuff fills my trash cans. Not a SINGLE good print from that whole stupid spool. All I can do is laugh about it. I debated sending all the prints back to Bambu Labs as a return. Anyone know how to return stuff to Bambu Labs?

OK. I’m done.
/rant

Thanks,
Josh

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To be clear, I bought this as a toy, and I am having a lot of fun with it. I do wish I had a little more success with it, but I hope everyone else enjoys theirs as much as I am enjoying mine.

This is the suggestion video I was using btw:

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This :slight_smile:

You are new to the topic. In a few months you look back and laugh about the fact, that you’re wondering about certain things like nozzle temps :wink:

If you are THAT new my recommendation would be, that you go with stock settings for the filaments from Bambu Studio. Why you are wasting your time with the settings of someone else? Then you could also use Bambus settings - they are coming also from someone else :slight_smile:

What works for the guy in the video doesn’t necessarily lead to good results for you. It depends on so many things - and not everything is the same. Not one roll of filament, not every printer, not the humidity you’re in, …

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Welcome to printing :grinning:

Do not worry too much about PLA settings. Looking at the speeds and the few settings mentioned in the video, I dare say it predates Bambu :sweat_smile:

PLA is great to learn as it usually has a wide process window, is available cheaply in a wide variety and allows you to learn about the most common issues. Just use the stock settings in the slicer and you’ll be fine. That allows you to concentrate on the print projects you really want to do.

As you gain experience, you’ll find your interests taking you into particular directions.
Design for 3D printing? There’s tons to learn. Print something in PETG that you printed in PLA already? Then there may be some setting work to do.

For now, just remember that Bambu’s big achievement was to greatly facilitate printing. The video screenshot indicates that it was from the time when we bought printers in order to manufacture printer parts that enabled us modify the printer in such a way that it prints as intended :sweat_smile:
Those days are gone :grinning:
You can focus on what it is that you want to print :grinning:

:crossed_fingers: & :four_leaf_clover:

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PS: 1st troubleshooting aid: Silent mode. It slows everything down, enabling you to better spot the error. 2nd troubleshooting aid: Look closely at the failures and post pic’s. There’ll be someone here who is likely to spot the root cause(s).

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What, no complaint about the interchangeable use of preset and profile? :smile:

I always start with the profile that best matches the new filament - the Bambu profile for Bambu filament, Generic for most others. If the manufacturer provides profiles, I might use theirs, but usually I do not bother to look. Their profile collections tend to include a lot of filaments I will never use and I do not want to sort through them or prune the list.

If I am in a hurry to print, I’ll just use the initial profile and see what happens. If the results are acceptable, I’m done.

More often, I run a series of calibration prints. Usually I’ll run tests to compare different nozzle temperatures, flow rates, and pressure advance. Those are the settings where I can most often make improvements. (except PLA temp, 220°C is nearly always OK). I don’t usually need to change bed temperature, retraction, or speed. A filament that is used a lot might also be tested for maximum volumetric speed, but most of my models are too small for big reductions in print time (no room to accelerate to top speed). I think I have needed to test and change retraction for only one TPU.

The tests I use are built into OrcaSlicer, but there are many individual tests available in your preferred model repositories. I end up with a profile that is optimized for my printer, not someone else’s. The key is to be methodical, testing only one variable at time.

When you know how to find your own settings, you don’t need to rely on the suggestions of a stranger. They may have been making random changes, so who knows if they found the best setting using a different printer, with unknown maintenance, in an different environment? Even different colors of the same filament can often benefit from different settings, but you cannot be sure without testing.

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Welcome to the forum. If you want to make the hall of fame for “Serious Rants,” you’re going to have to do better than that, my friend. :rofl: You haven’t even scratched the surface of what Bambu Labs—or the Internet—has in store for you. Here are just two great threads to give you a taste of what’s ahead.

Click for link to famous recent post

  1. Bambu’s request for feedback where the community has blasted them with loads of negative feedback and a 2.5 “poor” rating.

  2. Bambu’s announcement about downgrading the authentication system that won’t over like a turd in a punchbowl at a party.

Now in both those threads there’s ranting Gold!!! :+1:

The silver lining is that for the most part, a few jerks aside, this forum is largely run by hobbyists for hobbyists and you’ll find a lot of really good people here that are willing to help. The down side is that rarely does Bambu enter these discussions to help out themselves but that Okay because too often they get it wrong anyway. :rofl:

Happy Printing!

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I will echo one of your rant items: print speed. I see it recommended all the time and have no idea which one to change.

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You guys are great. I really am having a lot of fun with this.

I finished printing up the AMS Riser V2 in PETG, and it is completely worthless. It even broke because the prints warped and didn’t fit together very well, and I tried to force them together. So I super glued it back together just to see what it would look like complete. I am currently reprinting the third quarter of it now in Sunlu PLA+. It is coming out much better in PLA+.

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I did print the scale Tie Fighter in both Bambulabs PLA and Sunlu PETG, and they came out pretty similar. I don’t know why but that PETG print came out really nice. I will have to take some pictures of them. They are sitting on my desk at work.

I will be trying my first spool of TPU tomorrow (for the light glare shield thing for the Riser). I guess we’ll see how that goes.

I also learned how to use tinkercad to make my own adapters for some spool racks I bought. If anyone wants to see my first attempt at being creative, it’s here: Wheels/Connectors: Modular Filament Spool Storage by JKLMN - MakerWorld

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Here, you are confusing between (mm^3 / s) and (mm / s)

Volumetric speed is in cubic mm, which is calculated by
Vol (speed) = layer_height * nozzle_diameter * xy_movement _speed

And
print speed = xy_movement_speed

Print speed of bambulab printer is easily over 100mm/s or even reach 500mm/s if you crank it up to eleven. The question is, can the plastic keep up?

Print speeds or XY movement speeds of toolhead are defined in printer profile, while volumetric speed is defined in filament profile. I am pretty sure volumetric speed will override the max print speed, just put a sensible number in there, like 18mm^3/s or convert to max speed of 225mm/s (layer 0.2, nozzle 0.4)

Anyway, for PETG, print speed should not exceed 120mm/s for best layer adhesion. They add addictive to PETG to make it print faster like PLA but it change it’s properties as well.

Physic is fun, but sometime is a b*tch, like three-body problem.

PS: do not trust blindly things come from Youtube or anything from the internet. I am not saying all videos from youtube are just lies, but take it as grain of salt. Because youtube is mostly entertainment. Majority of content creators upload video for view, only a small number of them upload video because of they want to share their knowledge. So how can you filter out the good one and the bad one? Answer: Nope, you can’t!

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Yeah. If i want to put some letters on top of a print, I always change the volumetric speed of the filament from 22 to 2. Tiny letters will be clean and sharp if you go slow on them :slight_smile:

Sure you can also put on a modifier at a certain hight. But normally i print letters in an other color/filament, so the vol. speed change is faster for me.