Hi everyone,
I’m running into a frustrating issue on my Bambu Lab A1 and I’m hoping someone might have some fresh ideas, as I’ve hit a bit of a wall.
The Problem: When printing in “Spiral Vase” mode with Bambu’s own PLA Matte filament, a small blob of material slowly builds up on the side of the nozzle. After printing for a while, this blob inevitably gets deposited onto the side of the print, ruining the clean single-wall surface. The rest of the print quality is perfect.
My Setup:
- Printer: Bambu Lab A1
- Filament: Bambu Lab PLA Matte
- Slicer: Bambu Studio, using the “Spiral Vase” option
What I’ve Already Tried:
I feel like I’ve adjusted all the usual culprits, but the problem persists. Here’s what I’ve done:
- Lowering Temperature: The default profile is 220°C. I’ve tried printing at 215°C and 210°C. This seems to reduce the speed at which the blob forms, but doesn’t eliminate it.
- Adjusting Flow Ratio: I know the default for this filament is already 0.98. I have tried manually setting it lower, down to 0.96 and even 0.95. Again, maybe a slight improvement, but the blob still eventually forms and detaches.
- Reducing Volumetric Flow: I’ve tried lowering the “Max Volumetric Speed” in the filament settings, thinking it might be a pressure issue, but this had no noticeable effect on the problem.
- Cleaning: The nozzle is cleaned externally before every print, so the surface is clean.
- Speed: I have tried lowering the outer wall speed, with minimal success.
I’m starting to run out of ideas. It seems like there’s some micro-oozing that’s collecting on the nozzle no matter what.
Has anyone else experienced this specifically with PLA Matte in vase mode?
Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks!!!
I dont think this is only a problem in vase mode. I get this issue in any mode. Any infill. Etc.
I think the actual issue has something to do with retraction, speed or length, or with one of the settings which governs how the machine lifts from one spot to travel to another and start printing there.
But I don’t know how to deal with that stuff, so instead I did two things which does not completely but partially eliminates the issue and I get a successful print most of the time.
-
Increase the Z offset. For me this was set to a negative value and I think I went entirely the opposite direction to a positive value that was the same size. This is kind of annoying to find, you have to go into your device settings, then into the GCode and edit a couple numbers, whose exact purpose individually is very confusing to me but I made them the same. If you copy past the entire startup gcode into ChatGPT and say “I want to change my Z offset and leave everything else exactly as is what numbers should I change” it will tell you which ones they are. They are about 75% of the way down, close to each other and look like Z(-.08)
-
I think Bambu is wrong about their temps for matte pla. Max temp is too high. Make it max out at 225. You have to change this in a couple places.
1 Like
Velereon, during a vase mode print, the extruder will never retract. All those issues you described might happen as well, but don’t have any help for a vase mode print.
OP, what is your outer wall line width and nozzle size?
Higher widths than nozzle size do more “squish” which might be too much overflowing out the sides. I’ve had good results up to 150% nozzle width but not much farther
1 Like
Hi @Velereon and @Bullocks,
Thank you both again for the input.
@Velereon, I appreciate the follow-up. As @Bullocks mentioned, those settings aren’t really a factor in vase mode, but I’ll definitely keep your advice in mind for other prints.
@Bullocks, thank you, and my apologies if I’m being dense here, but I think I’m slightly misunderstanding your point. Let me try to clarify.
You’re suggesting the overflow blob might be caused by too much “squish” from a line width that is too wide. However, you also mention that you’ve had good results with widths up to 150% of the nozzle size.
This is the part that’s confusing me. Are you saying that a certain amount of increased line width is good, but there’s a tipping point where it becomes too much?
I’m asking because the default line widths in Bambu Studio are already wider than the nozzle (e.g., 0.45mm line for a 0.4mm nozzle), but are well below the 150% value you mentioned. If I’m having overflow issues at these “smaller” default widths, I’m hesitant to try an even wider line, as it seems like that would make the problem worse based on the “squish” theory.
Could you elaborate on your thinking here?
Thanks again for your patience and help.
Sorry if it was vague, I meant that if vase printing with a 0.6 nozzle, I tend to run it at 0.9 wall width (global process → quality). When I ran at 1.0mm+ wall width (60% more than nozzle) i tended to get what you got, weird bulging lines on one side or the other as it moved around. It was like the nozzle tip carved a V-shaped valley as it extruded, since it was extruding so much material it expanded up beyond the flat aperture of the nozzle.
If you say you’re using default (0.45mm w/ 0.4 nozzle) then you probably aren’t running into the same issue.
Good to see that this issue is real and not only happening with me.
Recently i find many posts about this with matte filament.
I have printing with .8 nozzle 1.2mm width.
All other filaments are great no issues at all some of the matte are works too after calibration but, bone white, desert tan, terracotta is causing issues always as you described i tried all settings even applying slice enginering plastic repellent paint but no nothing helped… (and i having this with my bambu with elego printer i didnt notice such issues…)
Were you able to solve this? Having the same issue with my A1 Mini and Bambu Matte PLA.
I’m experiencing the same issue. I noticed it started happening when I switched to a different PLA material. With my previous material, the issue was still present but occurred less frequently.
I’ve tried adjusting the flow ratio from 0.98 down to 0.90, but it hasn’t made a significant difference—the material still builds up at the nozzle tip.
Currently, I’m using a 0.4 mm nozzle with a wall width of 0.6 mm. I’m not sure if this setting might be too high.
