hello I am having issues with petg quality on the a1 and the a1 mini… i use bambu petg and i use stock setting from the slicer. the parts look pale in color and not as shiny as the first layers, the models breaks easily or fails easily. it looks like temperature issue or something and both machines do the same… we did try other brands of petg but they all do the same
Did you try going through a manual filament calibration process?
BTW: You will find that you’ll get more helpful answers if you include in your post a “Clear” picture with scale to show what you mean. By scale, include some known object like a pen or coin so it’s obvious what size the features are in your photo.
If you haven’t already done so, try out Orca Slicer instead of Bambu Studio. It has baked-in calibration utilities. The first one I might suggest is running a temperature tower. Do not use the temperature towers found on Printables, Thingiverse and other sites. One needs to have the Gcode modified to change the temp on each layer for the test to be valid.
Here’s what that looks like in Orca Slicer. Do not use the Bambu Calibration, it is pointless Orca has it’s own menu.
Which produces a temp tower with Gcode commands to change temperature at each section when you slice it. Use the sliced drop down the menu to select temperature which will visually verify that you have a temperature gradient in the tower.
This is part of the operation that would normally be required for one to manually change in Gcode for those Temp Towers found on the web. Orca does all that work for you.
After you print the tower, you want to inspect which temp level provides the cleanest print. You’ll likely find that one of two conditions will exist. Either
- All the temperatures will look the same – very likely BTW which means your problem is not filament temperature but something else.
Or
- One or two temperatures will look better in one aspect versus another. As an example, you may see stringing at one temperature but get fewer overhangs but where there are more overhangs, you might have more stringing. You’ll have to decide which temperature represents the best compromise for your use case. Then modify your temp in your filament profile and test it against your model.
Look at the tutorial online for tips. And search YouTube as well for “Orca Temp Calibration” or “Bambu Temp Calibration” Both will bring up great videos on tips and tricks.
Here’s a great video that covers the whole calibration options of Orca but the first 3 minutes is where the meat is for temp calibration. I like his approach because he focuses on task and how to change your parameters in the filament profile once your ran the test.
If your problem can’t be remedied by temp calibration then go through the other manual calibration processes outlined in the video and the Orca Tutorial page.
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I did try other different temps. I normally go by eye as this is not my first printer and it looks like the temperature on the nozzle is off by a lot. Thete is no way to calibrate it for us anyways. I dony know what elese i could do pther then bump temperatures up to 285 fpr good results
The only thing I might offer next is maybe reseating the thermistor in the print nozzle and reapplying thermal grease. It could be as simple as incorrect temps being reported to the controller board. However, if you’re going that far, might as well replace the thermistor anyway. Note that it is a pain in the ass given that one has to disassemble the print head. Pain but not too difficult.
I had very different outcomes with differing brands of PETG on the A1. eSUN PETG (red colour) worked perfectly with Generic PETG profile. It was my first attempt with PETG - so i thought “this is easy”.
Next brand i used was Overture PETG (grey colour). It was a pig! Bad adhesion, ugly surfaces, etc. Also with Generic PETG profile. Only a few days between the prints, and nothing had changed.
Tried a few things: long session in the dryer - little improvement; Manually went though Bambu Slicer’s Flow and Dynamics calibrations. Only a minimal change recommended for flow. - but didnt solve the issue.
Noted that (both) PETG filament rolls recommend temperature range 230-250. Much lower than BambuSlicer was setting. So i tried (only for the Overture PETG) dropping the temperature (contrary to other advice in this forum) to 245. And it actually worked a lot better. Eliminated the adhesion problems. Still not as nice a surface as the eSUN PETG.
My conclusion: The chemistry differs between brands (no surprise). eSUN PETG has more tolerance for temperature and just plays nicer on the A1. So i will stay with eSUN PETG in future…
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Ramp up the temperature for “other layers” (so everything except first layer) from 250°C to 270°C. Without this change the Bambu PETG is not usable for me (alternatively you can lower the speed… but who wants that 
)
For a first post on this forum this is awesome!!! Please continue to contribute, we need more of this. 
Back to this statement. I think your findings really underscore the need to simply not accept anything we read on the side of the box or in this forum for that matter, especially from me! 
The serious point here is that you did not accept what you read and saw and you verified it for yourself. In my view, that the only responsible way to know what works and what does not work. Thanks for sharing that insight.
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Thanks for the kind remarks, Olias.
I went a step further and tried a roll of black eSUN PETG, Printing the small parts of Dummy 13 (from printables). Used Generic PETG again, and absolutely no trouble. eSUN PETG for the win! (in my A1 case, anyway)
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I had the exact same results as you with eSUN and Overture PETG, on my V400!
I figured Overture PETG is not great!
Not tried either on Bambu yet.
So the only thing i have found to fix this issue so far with A1 and A1 mini that I have they both make the same thing and I added Boron Nitride thermal paste in there and it solved the issue. I still need to print at 270 or 280 sometimes tho to have a nice glossy finish on the walls or I need to slow the print a lot. Looks like the heating cartridges on those machine are not as efficient as the x1c or p1p. Hopefully the bambu team will come up with a right fix.
Hello
I solved this problem so :
1 - Orca slicer
2- Room Temperature > 25 Celsius ( it is verry important … )
3- Bed temperature 80
4 - nozzle 285
5 - start printing at 50% speed and latter increase at 100 % or 140%
now i am printing at 140% speed …
Good luck
I just want to say I also tried Overture PETG (white) and it has been verrry finnicky. I first used it on a Elegoo Neptune 4 Pro and now on the A1, and I think I have good adhesion and flow rate for the first layer at around 30mm/s. Bed at 75C, extruder at 255C, but then the following layers the acceleration, travel speed, and especially cases where there is a quick z-hop/retraction and a tiny extrusion that needs to take place (e.g. a ‘dot’ or tiny quick segment before retracting and hopping again), the PETG seems to be clinging to the nozzle and then successively becoming worse on the first few layers. I get the gist that this brand of PETG has some particular quirks compared to other PETG chemistry so I’m curious about trying other brands and seeing if they can hold up. I’m also going to experiment with simply slowing everything down like another user mentioned in a similar but different thread.
Hey @clavmoot i concur “verrry finicky” is a good summation.
Following from my earlier comment on the topic, i have run parallel temperature towers for Overture and eSun PETG . The results showed Overture being as you say “verrry finicky” with temperature but best at 275DegC on my A1. In contrast eSUN was more tolerant of temperature, but best at 265DegC
Interesting. Please be more precise:
- Layer 1 to x: 50% speed
- Layer x to y: 100% speed
- Layer y to a: 140% speed
I intend to print for the first time in PETG transparent this week on a P1P and am a bit scared.
I have an a1 mini - no enclosure .
Printing with petg is tricky for this kind of printer because of the temperature sensitivity .
Increasing the speed will increase the shake also so the model can fly out of the plate
I used to print about 30% of the model at 50% speed and after this I increased the speed to 100% and the last 20% I increased to 140% .
Again - only for open printers ….
Good luck
@olias is superb bro i had the same problem with petg hf and this gave me stunning results
What brand of filament are you going to try? I was given four spools of Bambu Translucent PETG filament. I used the the default profile in BBS for the translucent PETG and did not get good results. I ran the pressure advance calibration and found the default setting to be way off. I ended up with a K value of 0.34 for the Bambu Translucent PETG. I had a similar experience with Bambu ASA. Moral of the story: not all Bambu defaults are well calibrated.