Persistant corner(s) lifting on large prints on X1C

Bambu Lab X Series Troubleshooting
1

Hi everyone,

I’m hoping someone can point me in the right direction because I’m getting increasingly frustrated with a problem that I just can’t seem to solve.

I’m printing display stands that I’ve designed myself and intend to sell. The prints are generally quite large rectangular parts (200mm x 150mm~), and I’m consistently getting one or two corners lifting during the print. The finished parts are usable, but the warped corners make them look far less professional than I’d like, which is incredibly disappointing after spending so much time designing and refining them.

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The issue appears most often on corners towards the back of the machine, particularly the back-left corner, nearest the Auxiliary fan, which leads me to believe it’s an issue related to the fan but I’m trying not to tunnel vision on that because in reality it could just as likely be something else.

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Printer: Bambu Lab X1C
Build Plate: Bambu Textured PEI Plate
Material: PLA

Things I’ve already tried:

  • Thoroughly washing the plate with hot water and dish soap

  • Cleaning with IPA between prints

  • Re-running printer calibration

  • Slowing down the first few layers

  • Adding mouse ears

  • Printing with the chamber door open

  • Printing with the chamber door closed

  • Flipping the build plate

  • Adding a chamfer to the base of the print, and fillets to the corners

  • Increasing infill to 15% (I was previously printing with 7%)

Despite all of that, I’m still getting corner lift.

For print settings, I’m using the 0.16mm Optimal preset, however since these models have a logo on the base in the centre, I have a height range modifier between 0.00 - 0.5mm which have these settings changed:

• 0.08mm Layer Height

• 60mm/s Outer Wall

• 120mm/s Inner Wall

• 150mm/s Sparse Infill

• 150mm/s Internal Solid Infill

• 150mm/s Top Surface

• 210mm/s Gap Infill

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While researching, I’ve found a huge amount of debate surrounding the auxiliary fan. A lot of reports seem to suggest that rear corner lifting can be caused by the aux fan cooling one side of the print too aggressively. However, opinions seem completely split, with some users swearing by disabling the aux fan entirely for PLA, and others saying that the aux fan is specifically for PLA.

So I’m struggling to know what advice is actually correct, or whether I should be looking elsewhere for the root of the issue.

At this point I’ve burned through a lot of filament troubleshooting and I’m not much closer to a solution than when I started. I would be beyond grateful for any advice please.

Here’s another shot of one of the stands mid-print - as you can see the front corner has lifted this time despite using mouse ears

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2

What filament manufacturer, and what filament profile are you using?

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3

Temperature related adhesion issue, and note the X1C does not heat the build plate evenly, it is hotter in the middle than at the corners…

My resolution to this issue was to gradually increase the build plate temp till all four corners adhere… I also use a 5mm brim set to .5mm off the build… But of course I print exclusively in ABS, it was what the X1C was designed to print… I would upgrade to professional materials as well, get away from the hobbyist materials like PLA…

Especially if your going to sell them commercially…

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4

If everything still fails just grab a glue stick and coat the entire plate. Just Elmer’s washable school glue sticks work perfect. I usually don’t like to use glue, but if you’ve tried everything else, just slap some on it. Hair spray will also work. When you’re done you can just wash it off with warm water or leave it on for future prints. Alternatively you can try a large brim around the whole thing.

Also, how old is your build plate? Depending on how old it is it might just be at the end of its life and you might need a new one.

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AUX fan is for PLA but only for tiny items that need it, thats why its aimed at the middle of the build plate, for anything larger it should be turned off. I have custom profiles and for PLA the AUX fan is always off, I turn it back on for small items.

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6

BL Basic PLA, and I’m using the 0.16mm Optimal preset with a few first layer changes (0.08mm with slower speed)

7

Thank you for the advice, I’ll try raising the bed temp by 5 degrees C each time and see if I can get the corners to improve. FWIW the first layer seems to adhere pretty consistently but it starts to raise after maybe layer 4-5(?). I haven’t watched it always the way through as it’s such a long print but the first couple of layers seem perfectly fine.

Also thank you for the tip regarding materials, I would really like to print in ABS in the future but I’m just a small business and we’ve just started out selling on Etsy so we unfortunately we don’t have the space or means for proper ventilation and I would be concerned printing in ABS without it.

8

Thanks for the advice! Regarding the build plate, it was second-hand and I’m not sure how much printing was done on it previously, but I’ve definitely printed a few hundred hours on it myself so it’s very possible that it may need replacing. Is there a reliable way to find out? Perhaps a test print that I can try? I’m just tentative to throw out a build plate that’s actually perfectly fine to keep using :sob:

Also thank you for the tips regarding the brim and glue sticks too - I’ve tried brim several times in the past but it’s a real pain to remove from the print, but I guess that’s the price to pay for stress-free consistent adhesion. I’ve never tried using glue but I’ll give that a go if nothing else solves the problem.

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Thank you for the tip! That does make sense actually, I think I’ll try printing without the AUX fan and see how that goes.

Would you mind sharing your custom profile for your PLA please? Just a screenshot would be amazing so I can give it a try for my larger prints too :folded_hands:t4:

10

Since you design the part yourself, try adding grooves on the bottom to “break” the big part into smaller pieces:

Large Prints: Say Goodbye to Warping! - Community Contributions - Bambu Lab Community Forum

11

Thank you very much for the advice - this article is super helpful and I’ll definitely be implementing a lot of these tips.

Dividing the base into sections is an awesome idea - I’m a bit tentative to do so since it’s an aesthetic part and some people may complain about the little ridges that are visible from the side - but I’ll definitely be using this technique for some of my other prints. Thanks again !

12

You’re welcome!

If you want to give the idea a try, you can stop the grooves 1mm away from the edges of your base, so the ridges are not visible. This should still help a bit with warping, though not as effective. May I ask what items this display is for?

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You could also try using Supertak build plate from Bambu or something similar like cryogrip from BIQU, they have much better adhesion. You might still want to do some design modification as suggested by skyme to be 100% sure

14

Not sure if there are any fool proof tests to see if it’s worn out but if a lot of your prints start failing then it might be time. In some cases, if there’s extreme wear you could see differences in the coating on the plate if it’s worn down or come off.

However, there is no reason the throw it away. even a damaged plate can be used for some things like if you have it as a distinct “Glue Plate” if you want to keep your main one clean. If you’re going to use harder to print material and are going to put glue on anyway then it will work great or if you’re using a material with good adhesion that could damage a plate (I’ve had PETG-CF rip the coating off the plate before), then you can use your bad one so you can keep the main one healthy.

15

Oh that’s great, I thought that stopping the grooves near the edge of the base would be defeating the object of adding them in the first place, but it they’ll still help somewhat then I’ll give this a shot too, thanks!

Of course, these are display stands for game cases. They’re still a work in progress but this is an example of the latest iteration:

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Thanks for the advice, I’ll look into the Supertack plate - I think BL have a sale on these at the moment. I’m wondering if there is any trade-off to using these over the Textured PEI.. I’ll have a look into it.

17

Thanks for the advice, honestly there are parts of the bed that have chips in the coating but they’re mainly on the little tabs (not part of the print area). Nevertheless, that alone is quite possibly a sign that it’s time to replace the, or use them as a glue plate like you suggested. Thanks again

18

For PLA Basic the AUX fan on 0 is the only change. For Generic PLA and PLA High Speed I also bump the max flow slightly higher on HF nozzles, no other changes. The main purpose of the custom profiles is to kill the AUX fan to get rid of the warping.

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19

Ah okay thanks I’ll give that a shot and just keep it on for the smaller prints. Sorry, just to clarify because I think the Cooling interface has changed recently - do you just set the ‘ramp up to’ to 0%?

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Yes, you just change the 70 to 0.

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