So new guy here with a couple more questions as my printer arrived today. First off, hats off to Bambu for a masterpiece of packaging. One of if not the best I’ve seen for a consumer retail product from China. Arrived in perfect shape! Also love the Bambu Academy, did several chapters but didn’t want to get to far ahead of myself yet.
So I did the the setup and initial calibration (that was quite interesting to watch), and then an electrical storm rolled in so I shut it down and will wait out the storm. I’m not frying my new printer. LOL
Anyway here we go:
1- After the initial calibration (took about 35 minutes) I realized I want to move the printer over a few inches. I know if you move the printer you are supposed to calibrate again. What constitutes moving the printer? If I just picked it up enough to take the pressure off the rubber feet so I can slide it a few inches, is that moving it enough? Probably yes would be my guess, but this is my 1st 3D printer.
2- I watched a lot of You Tube videos and one of the first things many tell you you to do is print a riser. I built a nice work bench with plenty of storage inside and a tool box just for my 3D tools etc so I don’t need storage drawers or containers/clutter hanging off and over the sides of my printer. Maybe a riser with the shutter vents might be useful but I have no idea, when would I even use that? and doesn’t having a vent defeat the purpose of the Hepa filtration it comes with? Sure I like the clean look, but I’m trying to justify what my need would be for it. I like to give credit to the engineers as they know more about their printer than me, and I would think if there was a needed purpose for shutter vents they would have that, unless the lawyers told them no keep it closed. LOL I dunno, What do I need a riser for?
3- Desiccant boxes for the AMS. Are printing 2 for the back of the AMS sufficient like was designed to use from Bambu (I live in the prairies so not too humid)? Would putting another 5 containers of desiccant along the front of the AMS not affect the air flow if you are printing and drying etc? How do I know that loading the AMS up with more little boxes of desiccant will not have negative effects for internal air flow? That’s it for now, thanks.
Welcome to the hobby, and congrats on the new printer.
No, I wouldn’t recalibrate just for sliding it a few inches on the same bench. If you lift it, tilt it, move it to another surface, or start seeing issues, then recalibrate. But if you want to, it will not hurt.
I wouldn’t print a riser for an X2D. Most of that advice you are seeing likely came from printers that needed more help with heat and venting. Run it stock first.
Start with the desiccant packs that shipped with it in the back. Monitor your humidity and adjust as needed. The little boxes are a fun print but not necessary.
Enjoy your printer for a while before worrying to much about what you hear everyone else is doing.
Generally i agree with Ulade except regarding the LID riser. I suggest you print one as in stock form the PTFE extruder tubes rub the inside of the glass lid . This eventually damaged the tubes , causes friction and also makes a mess of the inside of the glass and the PTFE smudge marks left are a pig to remove
Your filament would damage the inside WAY earlier than any meaningful damage to the external would happen. No, it doesn’t cause any additional friction.
Yes, smudge marks are visible, but you better lift the glass and wipe it from dust or haze residue from printing anyway… so what’s the problem here?
Desiccant probably couldn’t be more misunderstood if it tried.
It can absolutely help keep filament dry in an AMS but carries some very important caveats.
Silica gel is reversible. It can absorb water if the humidity is “high” but can also source water if humidity is “low”. It’s used by archival storage and museums to control humidity at fixed values - not reduce it to as low as possible. I mention it because silica gel is so easily reversible.
This means if you don’t keep silica gel more dry than your AMS, it can work against you and supply water to the desiccant pouches in the old AMS and add load to the drying feature of the AMS II. It works the same with filament because it is also a form of desiccant (just with very low capacity). If you let the silica gel pick up too much water, it can actually hydrate your filament. You need to keep track of the AMS humidity and regenerate or replace the silica gel whenever needed.
All adding extra containers of silica gel does is increase water holding capacity. It will help hold humidity down with that extra capacity but it’s more beads to regenerate.
Humidity is a great way to get a handle on water. In a closed container like an AMS or filament storage poly container, filament, desiccant, and silica gel will all equilibrate. Once it equilibrates, you can take the filament out and put it in a poly box with a hygrometer and it will read the same humidity. Same for the silica gel or desiccant pouches. Humidity can be used as a measure of water content even if we don’t know the actual water content.
But that equilibrium thing is why if you add silica gel to an AMS or any storage container, it needs to be more dry (at lower humidity) than the filament or any other desiccant or it will give up water to the filament or other desiccant until everything is at the same humidity. It’s the opposite of what you want.
So if you use silica gel (and it definitely helps), you need to keep it more dry than anything else or else it just donates water and it does it pretty easily.
Also, with regard to humidity, air flow isn’t a big deal. The random movements of air molecules at room temperature are plenty good to keep things mixed inside the AMS. As an aside, a water molecule at atmospheric pressure (1 atm) and room temperature (25C) is moving at almost 600 m/s (almost 1300 mph) but can only go about 50 nm before it hits some other molecule. There’s lots going on that we cannot see.
There is one more contender: wet filament. Everyone and their mom behave like filament is a wet noodle and can’t handle any moisture; sure there some materials that truly can’t stand the wet state, but it’s so freaking hilarious to see boxes of sealed containers with PLA in it.
Thing to remember is moisture level in filament depends on the humidity it’s exposed to. Those with higher ambient humidities can have higher moisture contents in their PLA and it absolutely can be enough to where even PLA needs to be stored in sealed containers after drying. That’s how it is here for me. If I don’t keep my PLA dry, I also see moisture effects in my PLA prints.
That’s the thing many don’t appreciate - not everyone has the same temperatures or humidities where they store and print and because of that peoples’ experiences are frequently different.
These prints were using black Bambu PLA before and after drying. Same print and same machine. The only difference was if the spool was dried or not. It was a new spool of PLA that I had just opened and it had enough water to ruin the top surface of the print back in the back of the printer. After drying that same spool you can see the difference for yourself.
Please… That talk about wet filament is way overblown. Yes, it is a good idea to store filament in a dry environment to prevent hydrolysis. However… that damage is irreversible and will not be resolved through drying.
I’ve seen your photo circulating here several times, and I can assure you - this is not due to a wet filament. With wet filament you can expect elevated stringing in case of PLA or maybe minor zits; not heavy under extrusion or sagging like on your sample. Saturated PETG will for sure experience a lot of surface imperfections, but also not to the level like you posted.
Looking deeper at this photo - I see inadequate number of top layers or low infill volume. Wet filament would create a lot of stringing in these round cutouts, which I don’t see.
But if you think that, I am some sort of dum dum - maybe an actual filament manufacturer would be a better source?
TL;DR - Wet filament and drying everything is overblown; yes it is a problem for some materials. However, the whole craze is artificial, since some filament manufacturers (like garbage sunlu) and some printer manufacturers (like Creality and BL) found a new source of revenue by spreading BS that everything needs to be dried five times like yo granny in order to have good results. Nothing more than another marketing gimmick.
For suah! Although, I’m not sure it’s really an issue on X2 anymore; so far around 500 hours and it’s round enough. I did have that issue on P1, where it grinded against the collet that held tube in place.
I would agree. You will not get any meaningful benefits from the riser with respect to the PTFE tubes - unless you decouple them from the plastic chain. Even then, only when printing stiff and brittle engineering materials like nylon/carbon fiber.
What the right riser can do for you is get the AMS off of the glass so you can remove it easily without having to take the AMS off.
Use Activate Alumina. This stuff does a great job of pulling moisture out of the air, down to 10%, and can be refurbished in an oven.
I initially printed boxes to install in the front of the AMS for desiccant but found they didn’t do a great job. Search Makerworld for ‘ams desiccant spool”. I used Silica Dryer Spool by Pork3D.com - Free 3D Print Model - MakerWorld. If you have an open AMS slot, just leave it in there. Offers much more dessicant volume and is doing a great job of keeping the AMS at 15%
Another thumbs up for Activated Alumina beads. However, consider the recharging temperature required. Slice Engineering requires 250C for two hours. I also have 4A Molecular Sieve and it works extraordinarily well, but requires 550C for 2 hours to recharge, which is more than my blast oven can do (max for my oven is 250C). I might try running it for 4 hours and see what happens. You can weigh it before and after to see how much moisture is removed.
The Activated Alumina should last both longer and drop humidity lower than silica.
Best of Luck to you, as this is what is most needed.
Best to maintain your individuality and choose the models which most appeal to your taste.
For my two cents; monitor to AMS riser has been the best tool I’ve printed for my set up; I picked one which allows the AMS to tilt back and give full access to the top of the enclosure, but again, play to your taste.
The only other advice I have is this; do not trust the models are going to work; read all the comments before printing. Aside from this, have fun, as fun is the best thing to have.
Thanks again everybody, I sure appreciate your help. After seeing the tubes rubbing on the glass (that bugs me) I did print a vented riser. Hec its a good way for me to test a 10 hour print overnight.
Am I just a little warped to feel great about putting my printer on an “all-nighter” while I sleep peacefully.
Anyway it turned out great, fits perfect, and so I will try it out. Sliding the printer over a little has had no negative effects and I printed a couple desiccant boxes for the default spots to try out in my AMS 2 and HT.
For x2d I am not sure how the riser will stay in place as it is very jerky and even with AMS on top everything is shaking around. So for me for x2d everything on top is big no no, or it should be very well attached.
I have not print much since adding the riser, but it seems to work without issues. I would prefer to move the AMS to a shelf above the printer and probably will at some point. Four full rolls of filament adds a lot of mass and subsequent inertia once the printer is swinging like Tarzan.
I think In this case added mass could be helpful. As it actually counteracts the head movement.
I am looking around for some options to make it stay on place and swinging like this. Maybe with adding much wider feet and some heavy weight to the base. As the whole XY mechanism is on top.
How do you actually attach the riser? Just slide on place?
