I went to print a picture frame (which I have printed a few of already) using my SUNLU black PLA, which I have also used a bit by now, and all of a sudden this happened!
How can I clean this up without damaging anything, and how did it break in the first place?
Also, I thought this expensive printer was able to detect malfunction (which is does alot of them) why couldnt it detect this, especially when the print head fell off?
Any help is greatly appreciated, thank you!
That IS a nightmare - but hopefully fixable:
Set the nozzle to 240 degrees Celsius and wait…
Then wait a bit longer…
After about 20 minutes the heat should have crept far enough to soften the plastic around the hotend.
The rest should only be pushed against everything but at a too low temp to actually bond.
CAREFULLY check if you can wiggle the blob loose.
If not but it does move a bit, wait a bit longer.
Sometimes the soft plastic got into places where is dead stuck once cooled.
Your image seems to indicate you should be lucky…
Do not be tempted to just increase the temp in the hope it will come loose…
The only really stuck area should be around your hotend.
Only what was close enough to it would have been able to bond .
Just be patient and don’t use brute force.
If nothing is hard wedged the blob and probably the silicone sleeve will come loose like your gumboot in deep mud - slow and steady but with a gentle pull…
So I heated it up and was able to get the face plate off of the head, but the blob was stuck in the cracks. I heated it up with a hair dryer and was able to wiggle it off, but I think it got inside of the face plate a bit and broke some of it??? Hopefully not too bad, seems like its still functionable, also the rubber head for the extruder is stuck in the blob.
What causes this, and how can I prevent it in the future?
that silicone sock can be bought here
Silicone Sock for Hotend | Bambu Lab EU
bad first layer bond. I watch the first layer of my prints (especially petg) , even when I’m away I check on studio to make sure it is good. This problem occurs when for some reason on your first layer the molten filament doesn’t stick to the bed but start accumulating on the nozzle itself. By watching how the first layer goes down will help you avoid 99% of the blob problems
last month I forgot once to put the bed in and started a ~40min petg print, just as the print finished I realised what I had done. The auto-homing process was done on the heater without a bed, only the prime line was printed on the heater itself and the whole print was a blob on my nozzle but I was able to remove the blob/failed print very easily as it was still hot and relatively small.
As said above…
The first layer is what counts, if it fails nothing works out.
And if fails really early, like in your case the plastic won’t stick to the bed but keeps coming…
With next to no meaningful gap it starts rolling around with the head…
Make sure you get proper bed adhesion and still watch the first layer happen.
Any sign of lifting, peeling of lines looking weird and abort…
Clean the bed, apply some glue if need be and try again.
Is the silicone sock that important? Do I need to replace it right away?
Also, the camera doesnt show up in bambu labs studio (on my PC) but I can watch live on my phone, how can I get it to work on my PC?
What can I do to make sure the first layer sticks next time?
Also, one side of the face plate is now bent and doesnt fit flesh onto the head, is that ok?
Yes. It helps to keep the nozzle temperature constant and shield it from the part fan. Without it the PID control be affected.
It’s one of those things you need to keep and eye on for the first couple layers.
In my opinion…
Yes
I wouldn’t print without it.
Maybe entirely unrelated as it does work on your phone.
Your bed needs to be clean. If you are using materials other than PLA, PETG, and TPU on the textured plate or a smooth plate, your problem is likely a build-up of prior print stuff and possibly fingerprints.
You should clean the plate with warm water and dish soap every once in a while. You can test your surface by using your one first layer test, someone else’s or my one.
If you are using the cool plate or other types of material, look at the product information from BL to see if you need glue variants to keep your work stuck to the surface.
So far, I have only used PLA, PETG, TPU & ASA and never used glue to keep the model stuck to the surface.
Wow thank you, all this information is very helpful!
I have been cleaning it after every few prints with soap and water, and drying it with a paper towel, but I can still see the shape of my past prints, does that mean its not fully clean?
For future reference, this kind of issue can be almost completely avoided by just watching the printer until the first layer is complete. If the nozzle is going to peel up the print, that’ll be evident in all likelihood long before the first layer is anywhere near complete.
Doesn’t happen to me often, but I’ve always caught it when it did. Start the print, wait to see the first layer finish before walking away. If the first layer looks at all ratty, abort and try something to fix it (clean build plate, add glue, make sure Z height calibrated correctly).
Ok, I’ll have to be better about watching the first layer, was just hoping there was something else I could do to help prevent this.
Thank you so much for your advice!
Just because you tried so hard and saw some minor damages I will give you free and quite secret tip…
While we should NEVER encounter such bad blobs they can happen, even mid print in some cases.
Happened to me a few times on my dual head printer and after cleaning it up twice I had to find a better than wasting a few hours with a tiny heatgun to literally dig out my print heads…
The secret is to first waste some time to PROPERLY clean everything inside and around the head, like those plastic covers and such.
I my case it was much easier than on our Bambu machines as I could remove the entire dual head within a few minutes.
Anyway…
Since you can do this:
Get a can of silicone spray that has a straw going with it.
Wrap the end of it with a bit of cotton and then spray the stuff into a small cup or jar, preferably something you can put a proper lid on.
What you can off you take off and then give a light silicone spray.
Wipe ‘dry’ and ‘polish’ using some lint free cloth.
Those parts impossible to qickly take out you treat with a fine brush or some cotton swap - making sure to use as little silicone oil as possible to prevent run off’s.
Remove the silicone sock from the nozzle and place some foil inside, then push back on to provide some extra protection.
Trust me, the last thing you want is getting silicone oil on your nozzle…
Remove all excess with some cotton swabs, don’t forget to take the foil out of the sock and put all back together.
IF you get another blob happening the plastic won’t have a chance to stick to anything except the last bits of your hotend, and that will have the sock over it 
