How to do those custom filaments

[user_3026326371]

Being able to set your own filament can be very helpful or very frustrating.
Let me try to make it helpful for you

As you can see there isn’t much to see with my custom filaments.
Brand, type and that’s it, no colours, no fancy things.
This way you can keep things neat while also taking full advantage of those PA values we can now store so nicely.
No need to define colour or such in the filament section, this can be set on the fly in the AMS settings later, or in Studio.

A nice option to include all nozzle sizes you have…
But we are now at the point where things quickly get confusing if you don’t stick to the simple approach.

For ever nozzle size you added to the profile or already had as defaults in Studio there is now a dedicated section for all the filament related things.
Means in simple words > You can set all nozzle sizes you have AND set dedicated flow ratios for them in one single place.
Don’t confuse yourself by later adding more filament profiles you won’t need…

Ok, that looks fine now, you calibrated the filament and ???
Right… How to get the calibration to math those custom profiles ???
Take a look:

For each slot I have the filament calibrated.
But I do this the smart way

For the PA profiles you select the filament in question and save the calibration with a name that contains the value.
Makes finding and keeping them tidy much easier.
For example, if you often use different nozzle sizes or hotend you can include this in the file name as well.
So instead of just Siddament PLA matte you add 0.2mm in the name to later know for sure that’s the calibrated value for the 0.2mm nozzle.

You can go as wild as you like here…
When I first tried my luck with these new features I created all the profiles and for all the colours I had around…
The filament quality is good and consistent so the big advantage I had from this multicolour way was that I totally lost track.
Yes, there is such a thing as having too many profiles…
Once you are happy with your results please do export your profiles because Studio sometimes removes your profiles during updates and it is a pain to get them back in LAN only mode.

[Osian]

Hi, I’m relatively new to 3D printing and have been trying to hunt down settings for 0.2mm Siddament filament. Is there any chance you could share your configs pretty please?

[user_3026326371]

Unless you also have a E3D hotend of that size I doubt my settings will do much good.
The main parameter to get right is the flow ratio - and that might need fine tuning for every different colour and type.
Let me try to make it a bit easier to get right for your hotend >

Do the normal Bambu calibration.
Set a 0.2mm print profile and print some simple test cubes without infill and top layers.
Do this with one, two and four walls.
Measure the wall thickness - it should be pretty close to the combined (set) wall thickness.
E.g.: 0.84 for two walls printed in 0.42mm.
Reduce the flow ratio slightly if the measured thickness is far too much and increase it if well below.
Now you have a basic flow ratio established.
Print the cube again but this time a little bit larger (not higher) to check how the top infill comes out.
The goal is to get a surface free of gaps between the lines and free from any build up - need only tiny adjustments to make a big difference.

The print speeds are quite relative as they depend on the model as well.
The Bambu defaults works quite well if you don’t want to spend days trying to improve every single bit.
Other problem is the print temp.
With those tiny nozzle sizes it can be tricky to find the best working temp.
Plus > A nozzle temp change of 5º can already affect the flow ratio and might require checking/changing the flow ratio accordingly.
I really is best to first find a temp that works well without causing mushy small bit as otherwise you might start all over if you have to adjust the nozzle temp later.

Sadly Bambu does not really offer a way to directly calibrate for different nozzle sizes.
Instead they still like to claim their default calibration works fine for all nozzle sizes.
I know for sure it does not for 0.2mm and also that for 0.6mm all hell breaks loose unless you calibrate for it.
What really strikes me though is that once calibrated for 0.2mm the larger sizes should be working perfectly with that calibration but not even that works in the Bambu world…
A real bummer considering how limiting this can be in terms of getting good results out of the box.

[Bullocks]

Start by using a Generic PLA from your machines 0.2 machine profile.

If its PLA, it’ll probably be very good, if not perfect.

Adjust these knobs, if needed, in order of likelyhood of needing to be adjusted:
Filament → Temperatures/Cooling fan
Filament → Volumetric Flow, Flow Multiplier, Pressure Advance
Global Process → Speeds (some formulations have higher surface tension, just cannot print highspeeds without looking like its tearing, and at 0.2mm nozzle you can accidentally get to full volumetric speed easier than at 0.4mm)

Check your calibrations in orca for tests

[Osian]

Thank you for the reply! I’ll be sure to use all of this info!

[Osian]

Thank you too, I’ll keep this in mind!