New nasty noise from my X1C ... any suggestions?

Bambu Lab X Series Bambu Lab X1C
1

Hello there! I’ve been loving my two X1Cs for (almost) year, but today, one of them started making a NASTY noise with certain movements. I captured it in the video here, and when it started happening, the first thing I did was clean the x-axis carbon rods, and lube the z-axis threaded rods, and also the y-axis steel rods.

It is really weird, and any help/suggestions would be appreciated.

2

Could be loose belts… ??

3

If i hear that noise i clean the carbon rods and check the belts. If it still does it after cleaning. I would do both again. At least the carbon rods until no black on cleaning cloth. Make sure to run the toolhead over very wet carbon rods.

This is my way of getting rid of that noise.

4

Interesting you have developed thiss recently, my printer, only 3 weeks old - has has a similar seriously loud \ bad rattle and I have been back and forthing with support since day one.

I presume, in that year, you have done the regular maintaince, buit if not - and providing it here for anyone else that doesnt, I regularlly follow this wiki.

  1. Backed off idle pullers at rear - dont remove screws fully.
  2. Clean Carbon Rods with IPA - ‘drenching’ the rods was the term, and cleaning with cloth until spotless\all black\carbon soot removed. I put plenty of towel inside and all around printer internals, over bed etc, but yeah smased it with IPA. Probabily back and forth over the rods for 15 mins or more, until no longer getting black … then another 5 - back and forth with more IPA.

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People will say “dont spray into the printer” - well thats EXACTLY what support told me to do - really drench it and work the toolhead along to get the IPA cleaning the self-lubricating bearingfs. They DIDNT say take the precautions with a towel, but I didnt want IPA all over my hot bed , other lower areas etc.

If you dont want to spray everywhere- thats fine , just make sure your cloth is REALLY wet with IPA and regularlly change over the rang and introduce fresh new IPA to ‘wash’ it down. (I used 100%)

  1. You should have done it during #2, but ensure you Move the tool head all over the area, to full extremess of all horizontal axis, then bringing to back corner and tightening up the rear belt pulleys.
  2. Cleaned down all Z Lead screws - and fully regreased.
    I used something the ‘ROD Sloth’ and Superlube tube grease applicator to get it fully covered. (Rod sloth or similar makes the rear hard to get lead screw a breaze…
  3. Lightly!! coated the metal linear rails on the side with a light coat of same grease from leads screw. Check for any rust or wear at the same time.
  4. Lightly applied some same grease and ‘worked’ the vertical and horizonal rail bearings to ensure some grease works into the bearing cases… this is hard, its almost fully sealed, takes time - a small bit is all it needs.
  5. LIGHTLY! and CAREFULLY! Avoiding the actual belts, placed a small amount of lubricant greaes on the both edges of all belt pulleys \ flanges - 6 in total, 12 edges
  • 2 rear pulleys
  • 4 inside pulleys (top and bottom at each end of the carbon rods)
    , I used grease instead of oil as I i didnt have a fine enough applicator like this, and grease I could gently push in with a toothpick.

This ‘minimises’ general noise and is good monthly preventative maintaince (except maybe the idler pulley greasing, but I get the squeaks, so I do i HOWEVER - the extra loud rattle and issues I have is unaffected by any of my maintainence.

Hopefully it improves it for you. Depending on your material, eg ABS\ASA is worse than others for increasing the mount of debris and dust inside, so clean more frequently.

5

I have that exact noise on my P1S that I got exactly a week ago. I haven’t even run a full spool through the machine yet. I wasn’t planning on doing the rod cleaning until the end of the month but maybe I should be doing it weekly.

6

Yeah, I am still getting the noise, but it only seems to happen when there’s circular motions. I have done all maintenance, except re-tightening the belts. Support asked me for logs, but I haven’t had time to do this just yet.

It is very frustrating when it happens though.

7

You aren’t the only one - I’m having it happen too. Just happened on a circular tube shaped print the other day and I didn’t know why - I changed something in the slicer on a part that was running fine and the the next print started making that noise (I had been printing this same part before without any weird noise - It came loose and I needed to add a skirt to reprint it - at the same time I also got curious about arachne walls and turned that on, I was trying to preserve some small detail that was embossed in the side of my part - I can’t remember if I also changed the wall count at this point… more on this).

Today I’m printing some stuff (a sample part for debugging other problems on my printer that I’m working through) and although the print quality isn’t up to par it sounded ok… I printed 3 of them, and then on the 4th I made another change from my last - I only increased my “wall loops”, nothing else, in the slicer from the default 2 up to 4 and it caused that same grinding noise on the arc moves in the outer wall of the parts profile.

I’m in middle of troubleshooting other stuff so I can’t chase this one down at the moment - but you aren’t crazy and I think its related to something in the sliced code that’s running - not necessarily a mechanical issue with the machine.

When this happened to me the first time (on the tube part) I noticed that the arc moves were at/near the max flow for set for the material (also that part had 4 wall loops I was basically printing a tube of solid material) - the sound was even louder and a little alarming - my solution to get through that part was to edit the max flow and effectively slow everything down (I had to slow it down a few times to get to something that didnt sound detrimental to my machine). Today when this popped up again its the same thing, an arc move at/near max flow. Why/where its happening when I add the extra walls I have no idea (Its not happening on all the wall passes - it sounds like its only on 2 of the 4 loops its making (not on the outer, last pass, in this scenario - but the ones before)

Don’t know if that helps, and its not a complete answer. I still have no idea why - but I’m literally printing another of the same parts right now - I’ve gone down to 3 walls (and changed the order - so now its going in out in) and for whatever reason it sounds ok - and the “grinding” noise went away. It makes no good sense on the surface but maybe there’s something to it someone will pick up on.

8

Thank you for all of the detail on the process but I was curious about “soaking” the rods with IPA but not soaking your belts in it as well… do you shield your belts from IPA or do they get soaked as well?

Thank you

9

Just receive same Sound… X1C … yes details rounds … every 10 sec… will translate this forum

10

I recently had the same issue come up with my X1C that’s about a year old. I narrowed it down to the z screw in the back. I sounds like it’s coming from bearing on the bottom of the screw, but I can’t figure out how to take it out to clean it. The bearing is probably just out of grease. It is sealed but they wear out over time still.

Anyone know how to take the z-screws out?

11

A good place to start would be the wiki. It’s not exactly what you want but it should give you enough to figure it out.

12

I had the same “sound” but only on Z-movement. It sounded like Z-bearings or roods were messed up.

I had to replace the Z-idler and put some grease under the pulley. When the pulley doesn’t move smooth this sound can be generated by the belt and the whole enclosure will act as an amplifier.

13

I have the same issue. My friend’s 2 printers also have the same issue within 2 weeks of owning with very few print hours. It kinds sounds like a wider spread problem

14

I didnt cover them in a cloth or anything, but I tried to also not “directly” spray on them. I liberally ccoated the rods and drenched the rod cleaning cloth, but I a msure some got on the belts. After wiping down with a clean cloth several times, always turning to a clean side, once no more black came off the rods, again using final clean dry microfibre cloth I wiped the belts once for good measure.

15

Is this with the Bambu PC filament by any chance?

16

I’m having the same issue, on mine it seems to happen when the x and y axis reverse direction together.

18

I am also having this issue. When printing curves or tree supports it does a loud humming kind of vibration sound. It’s pretty damn loud. I’m at 492 hours, and have had this issue for a week or so now. Has cleaning the rods helped? Does Bambu ever pop in here an offer solutions?

19

My printer is having the same noise. I have tried a few things to fix it, like the belts and cleaning the rods but no look. Anyone figured it out yet

20

I have not had any issues with any other prints since. I clean the carbon rods regularly and thoroughly with alcohol… Not sure if that did the trick, but my general printer hygiene is much better as a result.

21

The video in the first post is pretty clear - resonance…
It does not always mean the initiator is the carbon rods, it can be the belts as well.
At just the right speed a tiny bit of free play somewhere will then be transferred onto other parts and areas of the machine.

Finding the source of the sound…
Check the sides and the back of the printer when it happens !
Check how those belts move! If they rub against the top or bottom of the tensioner too much adjust this.
Ok, no luck to locate it as it seems to come from everywhere ?
Use a garden hose…
NO, not like this!!!
Just the hose, one earplug and the hose on the other ear.
With the other end of the hose you can now ‘get a close look’ and eliminate noise from other areas.
Looks silly but works well.

You probably found some totally unrelated part making the noise, like some plastic cover or such…
Or you found that the entire housing starts to make the noise…
If you can fix the noisy part you need to find the source of the vibration that caused it.
Ideally using some model that creates those noises often.
Change the print speed slightly to see if the noise changes.
Not using the buttons, I mean actually reducing the speed setting by 30 or so mm/sec.
No luck, then try the same with the movement speeds.
One of these WILL change the noise or might even eliminate it.
How does this help ?
Well, once silent you can increase the speed in small increments until the noise becomes barely audible.
In most cases you will then find that the noise comes from a different area than in the previous test.
Usually around there is the real culprit.

Dry rods can be problem, a dry Y-axis creates binding and turns sticky - resulting in possible vibrations.
Belts rubbing, even if only on occasion, can transfer this as noise or in other words vibrations.
If it is not the rollers and tensioners check if there is something stuck somewhere - poop and strings land in all sorts of places you can’t imagine…
Those carbon rods can wear out, those sleeve bearings used in the head even faster.
The more play you get here the higher the chance things get transferred either from the head, belts, rods or transferred through them - like the nozzle dragging over the print…
Problem is that we can’t really feel the free play…
By the time we can we need new rods and sleeves…