No more sharp edges. HELP!

[Drexel55]

Hi all,

I need help with my X1C, and a recent problem that I’m just not sure how to solve.

I’m relatively new to printing and am a couple months in. The X1C is my first printer, and I was attracted to it mostly because I was told how easy it was out of the box, and the high-quality of prints with default settings.

This was all true until this past Thursday, when I experienced my first extruder clog. Something caused the spool in my AMS to stop turning, which prevented the filament from feeding. For some reason my printer didn’t detect this, and the end result was a completed print where the final few layers looked like a slowly fading mess of thinner and thinner layers that felt like a verticle layered spider web.

From that point, I wasn’t able to print anything, and had to resort to the “easy” method of unclogging the extruder by sticking the pin into the extruder a few times to unclog it. After a few attempts this worked, and the filament started flowing again.

Unfortunately, from that point things took a negative turn.

What were previously very sharp and precise edges on my print were now coming out as lumpy, bubbly, and protruding. This all happened without me changing any settings in the Bambu Studio slicer from the old settings to the new. The only difference was the clog happening.

The other thing I noticed is that the top layer just isn’t as smooth as it was before the clog. I never used the ironing feature, so although I’ve come across posts saying that’s an option, it doesn’t make sense to use it to fix this problem if it wasn’t a factor prior to the clogging.

I’m printing in Black and Purple, both Bambu Lab Basic PLA brand, and I am using a 0.4mm nozzle, with the only custom settings that I’ve applied being the layer heights at 0.1mm, and prime tower width at 10mm ().

This is amazingly frustrating, as the printer was working fantastically fresh out of the box for over a month (with a few failures, sure, but nothing like this). I’ve tried an Auto calibrating the Flow Dynamics and I am now running a Flow Rate calibration as well, but otherwise I’m stumped.

I’ve gone as far as ordering a new 0.4mm extruder from Bambu today, just in case something has happened to the one I have now.

Would appreciate any insights that anyone might have on this.

Thanks!

Original Good Quality:

New Bad Quality:

[Olias]

This problem is caused by either poorly calibrated pressure advance or sometimes it can be caused by the carbon rods needing cleaning. Since cleaning is simplest, try that first.

How to clean the carbon rods for Bambu Lab Printers

For pressure advance. I addressed this issue in another most where someone had a similar issue with corners.

P1S is printing round corners

What I haven’t seen mentioned in this thread is whether you’ve tried recalibrating the filament. It’s easy to assume the hardware needs maintenance, but more often than not, the filament is the simpler thing to adjust. Also, if you’re not experienced with hardware maintenance or lack the proper tools, you can sometimes make things worse. That’s why I suggest starting with the easy fixes before jumping to hardware adjustments. The issues you’re experiencing could be hardware-related, but even in…

[Drexel55]

Thanks!

I haven’t printed with anything other than PLA since getting my printer. I’ll try cleaning the carbon rods tomorrow morning (I’ll need to pick up some IPA and a cleaning cloth first).

Unfortunately there’s no Pressure Advance option in my Bambu Studio installation, so I can’t change anything there.

Any recommendations on where to download tha tpressure advance PA Pattern test that you posted?

[Chris1974]

Before you go on a wild goos chase changing all kinds of settings that worked perfectly before… First check if your machine is in good working order.

You said you had a clogg and you managed to clear it. Might it be that it is partially cleared and now the standard pressure advance settings (that worked perfectly before) are not working on your partially clogged nozzle?

If you have another nozzle it might be worth changing it out and see if all is good again…

[Olias]

Download Orca Slicer and ensure that the advanced features are enabled.

Releases · SoftFever/OrcaSlicer

[EnoTheThracian]

Wirh the X1, the Auto-calibration essentially takes care of PA.
If it is off, check your extruder, nozzle and ptfe paths (again).

[silver118822]

Try following BambuLab’s cold pull method tomake sure it isn’t partially clogged.

[Drexel55]

First off, thanks again for everyone’s help so far! It’s good to find a community of people who are quick to assist, knowledgeable and friendly about it.

I checked all the paths, and completed a cold pull this morning. I just did a reduced size test print, and I think the problem may be solved (fingers crossed). The normal print takes up a lot of filament, so I’m going to give that a shot shortly and see if the problem is solved.

One thing I didn’t mention, right after the clog I ran out of the purple Bambu Labs filament. I had a refill and restocked, and noticed that the colors weren’t 100% the same. It’s the prints with that new filament that were coming out off. Could it possibly be an issue with the filament? It was brand new, fresh out of the box and vacuum sealed bag.

[Olias]

@Drexel55

One thing I didn’t mention, right after the clog I ran out of the purple Bambu Labs filament. I had a refill and restocked, and noticed that the colors weren’t 100% the same.

Thanks for sharing that tidbit. May I ask, was this same spool also Bambu and if so, how far apart did you purchase the two spools? Did you notice anything different about the plastic spool itself? What part of the world were you ordering from?

I ask these questions because we’ve had more than one report whereby it would appear that Bambu changed suppliers and/or formulas mid-stream. If this happened to you, it would be also noteworthy.

[Drexel55]

Yes, this was a Bambu refill, purchased about 4 weeks apart from the previous spool I would say. I’m attaching the label from the box the spool shipped in.

[Drexel55]

Sorry I just realized I didnt answer your other questions. I didn’t notice anything different about the spool when I first unpacked it, and I’m located in Canada.