Hello! I have been having trouble with my P1P since February and I am running out of ideas. As the title states, the printer seems to be randomly clogging/failing, with no pattern as to what layer it will fail on, nor how long a print it will fail on. I have had the printer for almost exactly one year, have kept up on regular maintenance, and have only ever used Bambu Labs Basic PLA. It seems to stop extruding filament at random intervals. I have tried printing on various qualities and speeds, printing at different temperatures ranging from 215 to 230 degrees, and have replaced several parts, including: extruder assembly (both with and without the hardened steel gears), extruder motor, nozzle (once with the extra 0.4mm nozzle included with the printer and recently with a 0.4mm hardened steel nozzle), PTFE tube, build plate (now printing on Cool Plate Super Tack), and the cutter blade. I have tried three different rolls of filament, all with the same results. I have performed many unclogging procedures, including needle, cold pulls, and hex unclogging. Sometimes, it will print one or two perfect prints after unclogging before it fails again; sometimes, it will still just continue to fail without printing anything successfully. I have also tried rolling back the firmware to see if that was the issue. I was in contact with Bambu Support for several weeks, and their last suggestion was to replace the extruder motor, which I did. At this point, I am extremely frustrated and ready to bin the machine. I bought a Bambu Lab printer because I wanted a printer that is a tool for my hobbies. If I wanted to fight and tinker, I would have stuck with cheaper brands. I have included pictures of several of the failures below (ignore the warping on the first picture; I took it off of the build plate when it was still warm). If any of you have some sage advice, I would be most grateful. Take care!
As a note, I have also run many, many calibrations, one of which failed utterly, as you can see.
Are you using the AMS?
Have you tried directly feeding from an external spool?
Sometimes the buffer gags and stops feeding filament to the nozzle.
I am not using an AMS, just the external spool holder that the printer came with.
First, check your PTFE tube feeding the extruder, if it’s worn that can cause feed issues.
Second, are you printing with the door and top open or closed?
Third, when you have a problem, resist the urge to start doing “stuff”. Learn how to troubleshoot, understand, and think about problems before acting, if you don’t want to fight and tinker, don’t take an approach that involves fighting and tinkering! There are so many troubleshooting steps that cost nothing and can be done in minutes and would have ruled out a ton of the things you wasted money replacing…
Shooting the parts cannon at a problem is on average the slowest, most expensive, and most frustrating way to solve problems because it relies on luck.
The PTFE tube is new and looks fine. I do not have an enclosure. I appreciate any advice for further troubleshooting.
Unhook your PTFE from the extruder, cut a length of PLA, heat up the extruder, load the filament directly into the extruder and feed it through and listen for any skips or clicks.
If the whole thing extrudes through, print a benchy or other simple part using filament fed in as described above.
By the way, how and how often do you clean your build plate?
There was no clicking, but I have heard the clicking before. This time, it just stopped extruding after a few dozen mm. I pulled the filament out, and it was pretty chewed up. The gear also had filament dust on it, which it didn’t before. As for the plates, I clean the one I am using about once a week. 91% Isopropyl alcohol for the textured PEI plate, warm water and dish soap for the Cool Plate Super Tack.
Update: I did some unclogging (I’ve gotten pretty good at that over the last few months, lol) and it started to extrude again. Ran a benchy, as suggested, and it came out okay. It isn’t perfect, but considering the speed it printed at and the fact that I can never tell if something is going to work. I’m pretty pleased. I have included a few pictures. Do you think the issue might be with the PTFE tube? Thanks again for your help.
