Is the clicking sound when extruding normal?

Bambu Lab A1 Series
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There’s a clicking sound I think every time the extrusion happens - ie. every time the dots behind the plastic dome rotate. Is this normal?

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Not normal. Possible causes off the top of my head.

  1. If you chewed some filament at some point, the small grooves in the extruder wheels can get clogged and will start to slip.

  2. The screw that puts pressure on the lever arm inside the extruder may be too loose causing slipping. This engages the filament to move it.

Look up a video on upgrading the extruder and nozzle. It will give you a step by step process on assembly and disassembly so you can take it apart and check the 2 things I listed.

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Doh! I was hoping not to have to delve into the workings too soon :(. Only been printing 2 days and am totally new to all this.

It seems to be printing fine still. I did have some teething problems when loading the filament initially as wasn’t aware of the correct procedure so I lowered and raised the extruder a few times to try and load the filament which gave a clicking sound all the time. I wasn’t aware of the loading procedure which asks you to just push it in a little and then it does the rest.

Would it cause more issues if I leave this as is?

Thanks for the help!

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Disassemble the extruder and clean it. Use a brush or compressed air to clean dust (if you blow into it then do it outside, there may be fibers if you print anything with carbon). I then use a copper brush and rag for gears.
Try rotating everything in the extruder, if there are any snags then it is possible some debris got into the bearings. I used a bit of WD40 on those to get gunk out and then a bit of silicone+PTFE oil for lubrication and they now spin noticeably better. Don’t get oil on the feeding gears, just one drop into the bearings is more than enough.

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Im wondering if Im just not used to all the various sounds and things that get made. I changed filament and am now printing the bed scraper and the click doesn’t sounds as noticeable. (before I was printing the nasa chain mail thing and it was a lot more noticeable).

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This is the clicking sound im referring to if it’s any help. I dont think im going to do any ‘machine surgery’ just yet as things seem to be printing ok. Maybe its a sound thats expected - I don’t know

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No, it’s wrong. You have to disassembling it and clean. Should be easy. Other option is that some debris is in the nozzle and it causes extruder to work too hard. You can do so called cold pull, heat up nozzle, cut the filament, disassemble only the nozzle and while it is still some kinda warm/hot don’t know exactly how much, pull the sticking out filament with pliers.

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:frowning: Would you know of a good video tutorial link possibly? There’s a lot of stuff out there and ill need as much hand holding as possible :upside_down_face:

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maybe A1 Series Extruder Module installation tutorial | Bambu Lab Wiki for start. You must be careful because there are some sensors with flat cables. I mean by that that removing filament “hub” can destroy some sensors already. I would dissasemble like in the video but without taking it out from machine. Much easier is to take out nozzle module and inspect nozzle, I think.

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The sound in the video is likely not the stepper skipping. This should not have any effect on your prints. This is due to some play that the extruder gears introduce.

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is it happening when it calibrates the flow at initial phase? These printers do some quick retractions and almost at the same time small fillings, that might sound similarly, when some small areas are filled with PLA, usually at the end of print when last layers are even out. You can see retractions in preview in Bambu Studio. But it sounds too often to me. For example with simple shape like rectangular box, on initial few layers there shouldn’t be any sound like this, even during mid print. Try printing that.

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it seems to be noticeable only on very intricate prints where the head moves back and forth quite quickly (it seems to coincide with the spinning plastic disc thing at the front turning). On slower, larger prints I dont seem to hear it.

After looking at that video im certainly not going to open up the extruder module and risk making anything worse /breaking something.

thanks for your feedback. I guess in time when more critical things go wrong I’ll have to get my hands dirty. But ive only been printing on it for a few days so dont want to risk anything :slight_smile:

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I have the same clicking on my new A1 mini, started on the 3rd day of printing (yesterday). It ticks every time the extruder changes direction, so usually when doing retractions.

I hope it’s just some broken off bit of filament that gets thrown around in there. Will report here in case I ever do something about it (I don’t notice negative effects either so far)

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Oh! Good to know thanks. That’s a much better description than I was able with I give :upside_down_face:

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I’ve been watching MandicLab’s A1 unboxing stream today

Around here https://youtu.be/mmTNXG3k1zY?t=7799 some clicking can be heard when printing the text under the benchy. Maybe it’s normal.

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I couldn’t hear to be honest. Just out of interest, do you get a repeated clicking sound whenever you raise or lower the extruder via the touch screen?

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Your first post didn’t mention you had an A1, which is why you were getting responses regarding the P1?X1 at first.

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Sounds like you don’t really want to do anything to resolve your issue. So why even ask here?

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ive had various bits of feedback, ranging from - ‘dismantle your extruder module and clean it out’, to ‘it’s fine - no need to worry’, and seeing as though im not currently seeing any adverse issues with my prints im not ready to dismantle the module and risk making things worse (as im not really the most confident at that type of thing).

Im asking just to gauge opinion (of which there are many of course) hearing that im not the only person with the issue and others are also not seeing any adverse issues gives me a little more confidence to continue as is.

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I didn’t see anyone actually post a link to the video showing how to open the extruder.

Here is the page with full detailed instructions:

This link is directly to the step by step video explanation. Keep in mind this is for a complete disassembly. There are some parts you don’t need to do.

NOTE: You probably only need to go up to time stamp 1:33. Beyond that I think is for a full disassembly. It sounds like you just need to take the cover off and make sure there isn’t any debris or dirt in the way

NOTE: You also probably don’t need to completely remove the “Filament Sensor”. I would just pull it back a bit (not pull it off) just so you can see if there is anything stuck in the channel.

NOTE: You also don’t need to pull off the filament cutter, unless you plan on replacing it for some reason.

Don’t be afraid to do this process. It is a very common process and needs to be done from time to time for maintenance, and for issues you are describing. This is almost equivalent to replacing an ink cartridge on a 2d printer.

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