For the life of me I can’t understand why my Bambu X1C w/ AMS using both PLA (with external Sunlu heater) AND AMS driven PLA (different colors) BOTH are giving me random results with prints. I don’t understand how using the same settings will print one set of prints fine, then the next 3 seem to print terrible (see screenshots). I have tried adding support to hold the structure more down to the plate, adding 100% infill, slowing the print down to 50%, nothing matters. It still prints leaving holes in the grid structure as you see in the screenshots. For this quality of a printer I was expecting much better results.
I have now printed these parts over the course of 26-40 hours worth of print time, and I would say 80% of them all were unusable.
I even tried PETG in White and got nearly the same results.
It’s amazing how much filament I’ve wasted now trying to print these desiccant holders for the AMS. I do feel like they aren’t the best design, they don’t need as many slots all over the print to work, and it makes it tougher for the printer to handle, but still, why did it print 3 of them perfectly then 10 to 12 bad? Why the inconsistency?
I tried on 2 Bambu X1Cs, one a month+ old, and the other is literally 2 weeks old! They should be solid?? I ran calibrations many times now, and it prints other parts just fine, which is strange.
It’s hard to diagnose via remote control but have you checked the basics such as mechanical components that feed the filament? I say that because those failures look a lot like a problem I had when I had a filament drag problem.
Although it’s a long shot, if you’re getting uneven results and you’ve eliminated other possibilities, then Occam’s razor dictates the impossible must be true.
I recall something similar happening to me and as it turned out, there was too much drag on my filament because of something stupid I did to the printer. While I did find the remedy, I also made sure to modify my filament path with some enhancements to ensure it would not happen again after frustratingly wasting two spools of filament.
I can’t tell from your post but did you try it without your AMS? If not, why not bypass your AMS and go direct and see if the problem continues?
Here’s one mod that was brilliant that helped my filament drag problem.
Thanks for the quick response so let me clear some of it up I know I typed a lot up top. I used the AMS for 90% of these prints. Bambu filament (mostly PLA, a couple of times PETG). For troubleshooting I tried PLA in a SUNLU V2 heater bypassing the AMS just to see if having lower humidity and consistent temp on my filament would help; it did not.
I am printing the exact same part right now on BOTH my Bambu X1C’s, so I will share the results soon. This time I am printing Bambu PETG (grey) in my main printer (the one I’ve used the most), and I am printing with a brand new PLA (green) (same filament but brand new opened) in my backup Bambu X1C.
What’s interesting is that even doing a calibration on the main Bambu machine, something looks off. I have all these filament shreds all over my print sheet from the start of the print. I didn’t see it happen unfortunately (I do have a timelapse), but no idea what caused that? It seems to be printing the part fine though so far.
Both printers are 20% done, about 2.5 hours left, I will post the results and go from there.
I actually printed extremely similar desiccant holders from translucent PETG. I think they are probably the same base design.
I think that there was one major difference with my print settings though.
I usually print with speeds reduced to 50% (PLA) or even 25% (PETG). Also, I reduced the acceleration values down to 25% for both. I have found that does make a lot of difference to the quality.
In addition, PETG is actually rather tricky to print. The Bambu recomended settings are actually not so helpful as they have a very large range and PETG has three major problems.
A) It clings to the nozzle like nobodies business (hence recommendations to increase z-hop/-offset and to use non-crossing infills gyroid or hexacomb).
B) It is very prone to warping (hence recommendations to turn off part fan cooling and instead use 70% fan cooling and reduce nozzle temp IF strength is not an issue, overhangs over 75% are a nightmare which I have not yet solved for myself).
C) It is rather runny at temp, but looses interlayer adhesion quickly if printed at reduced temps (hence the recommendation to use a fast retract and enable coasting). The latter is particularly noticeable with the Bambu filament as it is optimized for flow.
I’m sorry youre having so much trouble, that’s really frustrating.
What speed are you printing? My speeds for PETG are around 120-150 with good results.
Also, I recall from product research when I was looking for a filament dryer that the sunlu dryer has no exhaust fan, it just has a fan that recirculates the moist air. Is that the case with your dryer? People in the reviews I looked at got around this by propping open the lid slightly.
Have you run an extrusion test on your printer to gauge what it’s maximum flowrate test and calibration? The problems your experiencing also look like problems consistent with over extrusion when maxing out the filament flow rate for your respective printers. There are too many variables to cover in just one short paragraph here but you can easily modify the max flow rate in the filament settings. Have you tried that? They vary quite a bit among filament profiles.
If you’re not using Orca, then you are missing out on the built-in calibration. The max flowrate calibration utility will give you an unambiguous reading as to what your setup is capably of doing. It takes up to 20 minutes to cycle through depending on how high you want to test but if you watch the shape it’s producing, you’ll quickly see that when the filament starts to shred and just stop the test and measure the height and follow the formula in the utility.
MODBOT probably has the better tutorial on what to look for in the calibration. I have the link set at 4:22 but in case it starts from the beginning, just fast forward to 4:22 and follow his explanation along with measurements. Then take whatever measurement you have and cut 15% off then try your print again.
One other things. As a matter of troubleshooting 101, I am assuming you’ve cut down your parts into test sections to see if you can reproduce the problem on a smaller scale. Right? If you can’t reproduce the problem then you’ll be chasing your tail trying to fix it.
Am I right to guess the first 1 or 2 print fine, and the rest are not working very well?
If so, my first guess would be heat creep. Looking at the pic with the clogs (the pic with the PLA balls and fragments all over), my guess is the machine is getting too hot in the chamber and the PLA is melting too early in the hot end and clogging. If this is the case, it can be easily fixed by opening the door or pulling the top glass off.
Sorry I missed this earlier, I was looking at the image on my laptop. Now that I’ve had a better look on a large monitor I can tell you that this is definitely a layer adhesion issue caused by incorrect temperature. While that could be your filament settings, I’m also going to suggest changing out the nozzle.
Look familiar? Well, in my case, the cause was not paying attention and having the filament set for PLA when in fact it was PETG. So both the temperature and volumetric flow were wildly off and they produce the exact same result you see in your printer.
Now mind you that it was my settings that were messed up but hardware failure can also cause the same issue if the thermistor is reporting the wrong temperature value.
I have no idea how long you have been printing so hear me out since I use to get the same results. Before you run up the super hwy printing, you need to do a few things first.
Bambu genetic settings for filaments are pretty good - not perfect - so run a ‘MANUAL’ calibration test on each new spool you are using. This does take time but saves you more time & materials in the end.
This is a biggie… Look at what you are printing. In this case you have overhangs, practically paper thin, flopping in the breeze. SLOW down the print speed. This print should be no faster than 50mm/sec through out - period, full stop.
It might take you 2x longer but you will have perfect prints.
For this print, I used PETG since I’ll be taking these holders in & out to change the desicant. Take your time and analyze what you are printing and what type of filament you plan on using…
For me; PLA + is great for testing out prints, checking out layer hights, etc… As long as these prints are not in the sun or where the temps are not high, PLA is fine on the shelf. Most hobbyists for 1x prints use PLA or PETG. PETG is stronger and can be handled a lot more.
I had similar issues with PLA from a new brand where there would be filament shreds on the buildplate from the print. What fixed it was calibrating flow rate and printing hotter for me. I printed 10 degrees hotter than what the manufacturer recommended but I was probably also printing with a lot higher flow rate also which means the filament has less time to heat up.
Looks like you need to calibrate your flow rate because you’re either over-extruding, or you are going faster than your hotend can melt the plastic. I would do a temp tower, find your max flow rate, calibrate your flow rate, retraction tower, then calibrate pressure advance. I know BL Studio makes you think it calibrated everything for you, but the calibration lines only work for pressure advance, not for flow.
I hope this helps, and if you didn’t know, I would check out the Ellis Tuning Guide at ellis3dpDOTcom
I have not done the extrusion test honestly every part I have printed for months now have been excellent. I’ve only had a couple issues so far with more complex parts as above (thin, curves, overhangs). I am not using Orca, I’ve seen it and all the features but up until now didn’t really consider using it b/c it’s been printing fine. I’m going to do the calibration you speak of and see if that helps. And also try Orca. All of this is excellent feedback and very helpful. Thank you!
So I was able to finally get all 6 of my AMS DryPods printed well enough but it took a ton of tries. I have done most of everything stated, like increasing/decreasing nozzle temp, and playing with fan speeds. I literally tried probably 8-10 different combinations. What seemed to work the best for me was adding support, most importantly, as I believe the part was moving ever so slightly with a weak adhesion, causing the nozzle to walk. That along with slowing the print speed down, and finally opening the door (PLA) worked.
Here are some updated pics. I also want to show some other pics where it prints most every other part damn near perfect.
I thought it may be heat soak or creep at first, but I tried waiting and still had the same issues. If you see my post above I was able to get them to print by adding support and slowing it down. The print was moving ever so slightly b/c the base wasn’t attached well enough. I’m not sure how common that is, certainly more on tall, very hight parts, but that worked for me!
See my response above. I am no expert, but I am very resourceful, so I am learning fast, and I have a background in software development and infrastructure for the last 25 years. So, I am picking this up pretty quickly, but it definitely helps to get feedback from all of you guys with expert experience. So thank you for that!
Basically, I added support. I thought about it…it always seemed to start failing way up towards the top. I realized the part was moving slightly and causing the hot end to walk off the path if that was explained correctly.
I slowed down the print speed. It’s more just common sense, I guess.
Finally, I opened the door since it was PLA, and that helped.
You are correct; common sense does wonders.
You can also use a wider brim to hold the prints in place. Liquid glue on the cool plate works well with the brim. If the pieces still move up top, slow down the speed more. Mine were doing the same.
I actually watched my second print of these holders and saw movement on the slots/angles. 3rd times a charm and really slowed the speed down.
Once you get the feel for the types of prints, it will become second nature.
Feedback from the community helps a lot.
Everyone here so far has been great. Really my fav forum for bambu. Appreciate the time to respond from you and everyone here. And you’re so correct each print I get more and more familiar and improving my printing skills. I come from 25 years in software, coding, web/win/mobile, have apps in the stores, an architect now doing mostly cloud architecture, so I love tech. I’m truly falling in love with Fusion 360 (have FreeCAD also, tried Plasticity but didn’t like it for me). So cool designing a part and then seeing it print before your eyes.
If you like Fusion360, try out Onshape.com. It is far more versatile and easier to use. This, coming from someone who admittedly has an aversion to cloud-based apps, but these guys got it right. What I realized is that Cloud=No Crash/No Hardware dependency when done right. This coming from a guy who builds and competes on having massive desktop computer resources as my other hobby.
I also use FreeCAD but I tell you that it is one software that shows where Open Source breaks down. FreeCAD looks polished and can do a lot but under the hood it is way too buggy and raw. Also, if you think this forum here is helpful, don’t go to the FreeCAD forum, you will be attacked by University Neck Beards sniping at Newbies because they feel that they are superior to all who do not know CAD as well as they do. That support forum is toxic.
Check out this video for a great side-by-side of Free CAD software. This guy has loads of tutorials specifically geared towards 3D Printing and CAD. He’s a high school teacher that you wish you had back in high school. he does a fabulous job simplifying things and doesn’t make you feel dumb in the process.
Full Disclosure: I use Fusion360 also but I find the free version too limiting and won’t pay for something I can get for free elsewhere. I also simply do not trust Autodesk. They have waffled back and forth between free and paid features too many times and I feel it’s only a matter of time before they do so again. If you are wondering why I feel that way, I simply point to their aborted on-again/off-again support of TinkerCAD and Meshmixer. Those were two very valiant efforts that Autodesk killed in the crib through a combination of benign-neglect, user-abuse and outright criminally negligent market sabotage.
Very high warp, under extrusion. In photo, you can see right to left, right bottom is stock settings and speed, middle was “silent mode” and upper left was massively over heating filament to 280C. This was even after mandering flow rate calibration. Returned all SUNLU garbage filament. I also had many days of print failures.
Even Overture PETG printed better and especially Bambu PLA
