Did you try clean Z axis rods?
Hi there - sorry to hear you’re experiencing similar! I never did get this figured out, no. I feel like your cause and mine may be slightly different, since my issue was present upon receiving the printer on day#1. But I can’t say for sure because I still don’t know why my printer is doing the banding.
Hi thanks for the reply! I did, yes. I cleaned with ISO and lint-free paper towels, multiple times.
Update for anyone who finds this thread at a later date: I haven’t figured out the cause yet, of this z-banding. I had to stop 3D printing for a while due to unrelated health issues that take up all my energy. I’m finally getting back to 3D printing over the next week or two and will have to resume my troubleshooting.
This is an incredibly frustrating experience for such an expensive printer, especially as my first-ever-printer. I can’t give up on getting this printer to work but I haven’t contacted customer support because I’ve read so so many stories about how support just gives customers the run-around and I don’t have the energy to go back and forth with Bambu support for weeks and weeks. Sadly I’ve had to discourage my friends from buying Bambu printers because of my experience.
What kind of filament dryer are you using? The reason I ask is that, IMHO, many, if not most of the filament dryers on the market, are of poor quality. Because PLA can’t be heated all that hot in the first place, without deforming it, then the task of drying it becomes even more problematic if the ambient humidity in the work setting happens to also be high. I myself ran into a much worse case of z-banding recently, and I’m pretty sure I traced the likely cause to inconsistent drying of the filament in the filament dryer. i.e. on this theory, some parts of the spool were relatively dry, and some parts had comparatively more moisture still remaining. As the filament passed through the printer over the course of the printing session, it presented the hotend with a filament whose moisture was not uniform, resulting in visible z-banding.
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i found out my isse. it was the roll of filament i was using. i measured it and it was fluctuating between 1.66 and 1.69mm nott 1.75mm
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I think most people don’t pay attention to these parameters that they can’t influence, e.g. the filament diameter or the uneven moisture within the filament on the spool. In terms of moisture, it might help a little if the filament is printed directly from a filament dryer, because then some moisture can be removed from the outer layers of the filament on the spool during printing before it reaches the printer. But there is practically nothing we can do about the diameter of the filament.
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Hi all! Quick update from me here. I’ve been working non-stop for 1-2wks on printing. I finally gave up on Studio and I switched to Orca and I’m never going back. The calibration options alone have been incredibly helpful.
I also gave up on PLA for now. I switched to PETG (SUNLU off Amazon). I still have a long ways to go BUT I’m finally getting acceptable prints every time.
Examples:
Here’s my current settings (I’ve adjusted some settings for the better since this screenshot, and will keep adjusting, but this is close):
Lowering my max print speeds for PLA and PETG helped (both individual settings for layer speeds and volumetric flow), as did adjusting fan speeds.
@djeZo888 had the most helpful comments for me.
I will say… I’ve still had PETG z-banding issues on layers with support interface, just like with PLA. Lower layer height still brings it out more clearly. From my experience with PETG so far, it’s making me realize the core issue may be mostly cooling related (not enough, too much, and every other possible factor). I have a lot to figure out still, and I’m honestly bummed about the entire experience thus far… seeing so many people brag about how they unbox their Bambu printers and “it just prints!” without drying or anything… makes me feel like I have a lemon. But at least I’m getting acceptable prints at this time.
I suspect retraction length/speed, PA, flow ratio, and cooling, are the settings I still need to tweak to get better prints at lower layer heights and to better avoid stringing with PETG.
I’ll update again when I have anything worth sharing. Thanks for all the collaboration on troubleshooting and everything! Please keep the comments coming, anyone who’s reading this and would like to share anything or add any feedback. Y’all are the best!
Edit: oh and to answer a question from above, my filament dryer I use is a $40 food dehydrator from Amazon. I haven’t bought a new IR gun yet (tldr had to toss mine) and I don’t have a way of precise measuring of how hot the dehydrator gets, but I think it’s fairly accurate in appropriate temps for PETG and PLA.
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Yes, you sometimes have to play around a lot if you don’t yet know the right settings for the materials. But that’s the only way to learn. I printed about 9 benchys until I had my first PETG print that was not only the most usable in terms of the outer skin and details on the print, but also in terms of strength. In terms of strength, I had to print very slowly and very hot (>250°C). I would never have thought that either. But sometimes you have to do a series of tests like this to learn something from them.
However, I’m still with Bambu Studio. This is probably also because, since I started 3D printing, I have always observed the printers (Anet A8, for example) during printing (how a layer is transferred from the nozzle to the model at temperature X and speed Y). I spent a few years like that. Today, I can recognize almost immediately what I need to do if the extrusion is not right when printing, which saves me a lot of searching and basically also the calibration prints. Of course, I only calibrate the filament as I need it before printing (and that also means that I sometimes don’t calibrate it if I think the default settings are sufficient).
Great work, keep up the good work! You’ll benefit from it in the long run.
Best regards!
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