Hi guys, hoping someone can help me before I yardsale this printer. I bought it around December 24 and it was printing great until recently. It started with bed adhesion which I fixed with a glue stick and cleaning the plate. Then the prints got fuzzy? is probably the best way I could describe it, so I purchased a new nozzle, did the calibration, cleaned and lubed everything according to the maintenance video and it works ok for a while, but I would still get the occasional issue with a print.
Fast forward to about 2 weeks ago and I cannot get through a single print anymore. I am having multiple issues including layers not adhering to each other, the print head slamming itself against the back right corner so hard the head comes off, and what looks like the printer just forgot to print a section of the first layers. I’ve attached a couple of pictures of the errors as well as the calibration results.
I’ve power cycled the printer, checked for updates, cleaned and lubed it, replaced the hot end, and calibrated the flow rate and dynamics. My AMS says my filament humidity is at 25% and that’s pretty constant. I also looked through the forums but I’ve been unable to figure out what is going on with my printer. Any help you all could provide would be greatly appreciated.
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The description of the print head hitting the corner hard, layers slipping, and “fuzzy” prints all sound to me like a belt has lost tension.
I’m new to Core XY printers too, having only used bedslingers in the past. That’s my disclaimer. But. Core XY printers have much more complicated belt paths for X-Y control than bedslingers, and the paths are much longer, which means losing tension is going to amplify problems fast.
Try retensioning the belts; instructions are in the BL wiki:
Good luck! Hopefully someone more experienced than I am will chime in soon.
You should scrub all that glue off the build plate which may be a chore in itself depending on the glue. With a scrub brush and some serious degreasing soap.
If the glue doesn’t want to come off, try IPA
That build plate looks bad. If it initially printed fine, chances are that if you get the plate back to clean, with no residue, it should print like it used to.
What filament are you using? Have you modified the printer trying to get it to print?
What nozzle are you using?
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I was having first layer adhesion problems until I put the glue on there. Now it’s adhering at the first layer, but then failing about halfway through the print.
I’m using Bambu PLA basic, I have not modified any of the settings or hardware other than selecting preset drop downs and it’s a .2mm stainless head that’s brand new.
Thanks for the help, I tried the tensioning Wiki you sent and tried another print but it failed halfway through again by stringing like the first picture.
Have you cleaned that plate off?
Glue stick is to release a print that is clinging too hard to plate. Not to glue it to plate. Glue is set before the first filament is laid down. That drying is due to the bed preheating. Glue is dry when nozzle makes its first purge pass.
Maybe swap back to the .4 mm as a test to determine if it is a nozzle problem or an adhesion problem
I will try cleaning the plate, but I don’t see how that effects the middle of the print. On all of the prints that have been failing lately it has been after multiple layers have printed.
I’ll purchase a new .4mm nozzle to test and see if that helps also, thanks for the advice.
The think with the plate is that it used to work clean, as you’ve said.
For the most part, these printers do run straight out of the box.
With that in mind, the machine should run like that now if you have done the maintenance BL recommends. Only you know where you stand in that regard. All the things you have done to get it to print so far seem to have not helped, or helped temporarily.
There is a data point that used to work for you. That is your target. You want to return to that place. You don’t want to have a bunch of tweaks and settings changes stacked up confusing the issue.
If it didn’t need glue in the past, it shouldn’t need it now.
As far as the middle of the print, that’s a valid point but with the build plate looking as bad as it does, it is hard to know what is going on at the bed/ model interface from the start that progressively gets worse over time.
I used to have a Creality Ender 3 Pro and an Ender 5 Plus and I got to where I hated those machines. I tried glue, tape, assorted build plates, glass build plates, all different styles of hotends and it was always a roll of the dice if the printer would print on any given day.
Some people like tinkering with their printers. I am not in that group. I bought a printer to print stuff
So I imagine you are like me and want to get back to.printing. this forum is very good for helping folks.
I have had it happen, actually. I had several prints in a row all detach after they built up 2-3cm. Thoroughly cleaned my plate (which had looked clean, but wasn’t) in hot water and simple dish soap, and the problem immediately resolved itself.
I don’t understand quite why it should be an issue not at the start but then become one later, but… there it is.
So I cleaned the plate up and removed all the glue with dish soap. I dried the plate and tried another print as a test but not it’s back to not adhering at all. I ordered a new plate, and a new .4mm hotend assembly. Should be here next Friday, so I’ll try swapping those out and seeing if anything changes.
I had a similar problem, but it was with the first layer not sticking. Glue worked, but who wants to do that every time? Cleaning the plate with Dawn, 99% alcohol, etc. did not fix the problem.
Replacing the build plate a few months ago did. No problems since, the glue stick hasn’t been touched.
That is BL PLA?
Did you drag that plastic to the front or is that how it was when you stopped printer?
Trying to understand how it looks like the purge line it lays down across the front is still partially stuck to bed
I have a smooth Lighyear 3D build plate I print ABS and PLA on and never misses a beat except when I do something stupid. No tweaked settings. Bone stock. Use the BL Super tack for PETG HF and it prints fine on that plate. It looks like your picture if I try and run petg on smooth plate.
Yessir, regular old BL PLA
I didn’t touch the line, or plastic. The only thing I did was hit the stop button after I saw the purge line fail. It does look like the end of the purge line is connected to the plate.
I purchased BL supertack plate and I’m waiting on it to come in. That is the stock plate that came with the printer. My kids have pumped out more plastic models than a Chinese sweat shop, so maybe it’s just due for a replacement?
I don’t ever mess with the settings. The only time I change something is the drop down presets to go from high quality to standard, or vice versa.
Thanks, I’m going to try that next along with going back to the .4mm nozzle when it comes in. The .2mm looked nice when it worked, but I’ve had a TON of problems since swapping.
What I find puzzling is in that picture you see how it is loop after loop after loop?
The nozzle almost seems like it is too far away from the plate to allow it to do that.
There is a term in 3d printing called squish.
Here is Googles AI definition of Squish. I know what it is but do not know how to address it on a Bambu printer.
In 3D printing, “squish” refers to the flattening of the first layer of filament as it is extruded onto the print bed. Proper squish is crucial for good bed adhesion and overall print quality. Too little squish can lead to poor adhesion and layers not sticking, while too much squish can cause the first layer to flare out, potentially affecting subsequent layers.
When I saw that, I was thinking, “that is not right.” Your nozzle I assume is a .4mm nozzle. So, if your using the default settings it should have the layer height as .2mm.
Before your printer went south it should have been laying down that purge bead (a welding term I use for each layer) that was flat were it was mashing the bead between the build plate and the nozzle. You may have noticed that flatness when you would pick that purge line off the bed before it went south.
If you have ever watched a multi-color print swap color, it makes that ball of filament in the purge chute. It does that because the filament is not pushing against anything.
The plastic starts coiling up.
If I forget to change to the Super Tack plate when I switch from ABS to PETG, since it does not stick to the flat plate it will follow the nozzle over to where the print is, but it will still be flat because the “squish” is correct but the adhesion ain’t happening.
What is your layer height setting? Default is .2mm but you might want to check.
Something you have to really be careful about is when things go bad and you start adjusting things is to forget to return the setting to what is was prior to tweaking. If you do that 2 - 3 times inadvertently it can really mess things up. It should not save those changes but sometimes we can be our own worst enemy.
I had some setting that was titled slightly different, that kept showing up my settings when I had it toggled to Global. I was not purposefully changing/saving them but somehow they were being saved. I’ve done it again as evidenced by this picture. I’ll be deleting those I have highlighted. You probably might want to check various of the options because they will change based on the nozzle you have set AT THE PRINTER. Do you show the .4mm nozzle under Accessories on the touchpad?
It seems like your layer height is extremely small (0.06). If you are using a .2mm nozzle that is fine. The fact that the layers are not sticking could be due to how hot the extruded is, and how hot the chamber is. If it’s not hot enough the filament won’t stick
I’d be tempted to change the SD card if everything else fails, seems to be a somewhat common issues with similar symptoms
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yeah, the curling was definitely odd. I had a .2mm nozzle in which seemed to correlate to more printing errors. I purchased a standard .4mm nozzle which came in today and I just swapped out.
I don’t ever mess with the settings on the printer. The only thing I change are the drop downs like you showed in your screenshot. My printer and program are both now synced back to the .4mm nozzle. I’m calibrating the printer as I type this and I’ll try a test print when that’s done.
I was using a .2mm but just switched back to a .4mm and after calibration I’ll try a test print.
Ok. What filament are you using?
