Hi All, hoping for help from the collective, as I’ve exhausted my troubleshooting knowledge.
I own two P1S printers, both with AMS. Printer #1 has over 2000hrs on it and Printer #2 has 1350 hrs. Both printers were starting to have some adhesion and first layer quality issues, so I did some maintenance on both printers.
Replaced extruder gears for new hardened steel gears
Brand new PEI build plates.
Replaced worn PTFE tubes
Auto-calibrated after updates
After the updates, Printer #1 is running flawlessly again. Printer #2 is still having first layer issues. I have performed a flow rate test on both printers for the blue & white filament shown below. A flow rate of 0.98 works well for top layer quality on both printers. But the problem persists on poor first layer quality on Printer #2. It is behaving as if the nozzle isn’t close enough to the build plate. Flow seems okay, but not getting enough squish.
I’ve cleaned around the z-axis rods, removing any loose debris that would prevent the bed from coming all the way up.
The only difference between the two machines is the firmware. Could this really be the issue?
P1S #1, running firmware 01.09.00.01
P1S #2, running firmware 01.09.01.00
For this image, printed this part from the USB card. This is the exact same Gcode for both prints. 0.98 flow rate, Textured plate selected in Bambu Studio. Printer #1 on the LH side, Printer #2 on the RH side. As you can see, the first layer isn’t getting enough squish. Extruder lines are visible, and there are small gaps that didn’t fill in.
I’m open to any suggestions and anything I haven’t thought of.
to my eye, the model on the right simply is not squished enough, z offset style. A little bit more [-0.06 IMO] and it’d look just like the other, all the other visible layers look orderly.
Sounds like you tried a lot of the normal remedies. P1S taps to level, so make sure the 2 screws holding your nozzle are firm, nozzle is clean when you hit calibrate, etc.
Might be interesting to swap the plates between the machines and see if the problem follows it.
If all else fails, the siren call of orcaslicer and it’s z-offset setting could help, although it will get tiring keeping the sliced jobs straight between your two machines.
Thanks for the suggestion on checking the hot end screws. I admit I didn’t double-check those after replacing the extruder gears. I’ll do that in a few hours and check back.
The nozzle screws were tight, but I removed the screws and the nozzle, then put it back into place, just for good measure. I did another auto-calibration … and suddenly, the printer through up the following error code: HMS_0300-0100-0001-0008: An abnormality occurs during the heating process of the heatbed. The heating modules may be broken.
So it seems I need to deal with this issue before we can go any further. I’ll come back in a few days and relay my results.
Replaced my AC Board, and though I doubt it has anything to do with my first layer quality, I do want to call it out here. That is working again.
I did replace the nozzle last night and ran a calibration. Unfortunately I am still having the same under-extruded look to my first later on this printer.
Does anyone else have a suggestion of something I didn’t check?
Thanks for the response. Yea, a bit frustrating it has to vary from machine to machine, especially since’ it’s the SAME printer model.
Your initial layer height seems super high, but if it’s working for you, then it works!
To answer your question, my model is a two object model - the lid is blue, and the logo is a separate object, which I print in white. With the AMS, it swaps the colors and the finished product is a perfectly integrated logo in the lid. Image shows the two pieces together on the LH side, and the two pieces separated on the RH side, just so you can see the separate parts.
After a few weeks of troubleshooting with Bambu Tech Support, here is what fixed my first layer quality issue.
I believe the solution was the combination of two things.
I purchased a new print bed.
Manual bed leveling.
Although I was already working with a new print bed, I believe it was poor quality and inconsistent thickness. So I purchased a new, thicker print bed. Here is the link to the new bed if anybody is interested. In case the link does not bring you to the correct version, I got the Textured PEl (with QR code).
After installing the new print bed, I went through the manual bed leveling process a couple of times (link below). After two manual leveling sessions and two recalibrations, my first layer looks flawless. Very happy with the final outcome.
So you don’t have to mess around with settings or modifying your Gcode, or even changing over to a new slicer. I believe it all has to do with making sure you had quality hardware (build plate) and setting the machine manually adjusted for the correct height.
