After startup and initial calibration, the first five prints went perfectly, and the quality was also excellent. During the sixth print, something went wrong: halfway through, everything suddenly started stringing, and the filament wouldn’t adhere to the previous layer, so I canceled the print.
Since then, the quality has drastically declined. On the first layers, strange and uneven surfaces appear, causing the nozzle to snag on them during the next layer (see photo 2).
I’m printing with the profile: 0.20mm Standard @BBL A1
Bed temperature: 65°C
Filament temperature: 220°C
Photo 1:
On the left are remnants of the failed print, where you can see that the walls of this part are very good. On the right is another print where, as you can see, the structure is no longer ideal. I’m also attaching a video showing how this object looks.
Prints were good first 5 prints then the 6th it was looking good then went bad?
That sounds like the print came loose from the build plate partway through.
Are you cleaning the build plate? How? You want to use warm-hot water and basic/plain dish soap (no lotions, minimal scent, etc), and flood the soap off with plenty of water, then dry.
Are you being careful not to touch the plate on the build surfaces and only handling by the edges? Finger oils can interfere with the temporary bond between part and plate.
A few degrees extra heat on textured PEI can also help keep models stuck. Also, be sure to let the build plate cool a bit if textured PEI before removing the part. It will stick harder at higher temperature but the textured PEI can get injured if you take parts off hot.
Do you know where in the settings to enable an option for the print head to stay on a specific color rather than moving over other colors? Or what might be causing this issue?
There is an option in the Quality section: ‘do not cross wall’ it might help.
But I think the main issue here is wet filament. Based on your description of hitting high spots in previous layer and the color bleeding makes me think the filament needs to be dried.
@MZip had asked if it is PLA you are using? I think it most likely is which many times can be printed without drying but you can never assume the freshly opened roll is dry enough.
You can control the order of filament printing here using the cog on the right of the build plate:
Some PLA can come moist. I’ve found it to be rare - but there are exceptions, such as Bambu Lab PETG-HF which MUST be dried before use.
You can use an oven - for PLA, set it at 50 ºC for 5-8 hours. With a dedicated dryer, you should choose 55 ºC for 3-4 hours. The reason why we don’t go to 55 ºC with a normal oven, is that these can fluctuate more and go above the setting for smaller periods of time. And we don’t want to cross 60 ºC.
Now, regarding the issue you’re experiencing: To me it looks more like wrong filament settings. Pay very close attention to the density parameter; and find the correct parameter to enter. There can be HUGE differences in PLA alone; like 1.15 to 1.28 g/cm3.
Looking at this topic and remembering that i had almost the same problem a few prints later after unboxing the printer. Some screws behind the nozzle were not tightened correctly from the factory and it resolved my problem.
It’s a 5 minute job and pretty easy to do. You can try and see if it solves your problem.
Check this. Scroll until " Check the Hotend and Heater" part:
After calibration, do I need to save these settings specifically for my filaments or something? Or do I just calibrate for a given color/filament, and the printer automatically uses the latest calibration?
You shouldn’t really need this setting, just suggesting it as a workaround to non-dry filament. Leave default 0 for the max length. Generally I just leave the studio settings stock and adjust them based on the model I am printing, so no need to save that just keep it in mind as an option.
Once you calibrate the flow rate you will have to save that to a filament profile, use something like ‘filament name - calibrated’ then you will select that profile on top of the selected filament (IE select a white filament in slot one, then select the profile further down in the list and it will attach it to the selected filament for that .3mf project). Not sure there is a way to do it such that it associates automatically, so I just make sure to select it on each new project.
Just FYI, filament can arrive fresh from the vacuum bag with a whole range of moisture contents. Some may print ok and some may need drying before it will print well.
I’m not familiar with the A1 but some let you use the heated bed as a filament dryer. There’s also lots of consumer filament dryers. Just know if your ambient humidity is high, the standard dryers are of limited utility but could get your PLA into good printing.
There’s a number of threads here on filament storage. If ambient humidity is low, some are fine with open storage. Others use sealed plastic bins and cereal boxes. I’ve gotten to like the cereal boxes but they increase space requirements. A lot depends on how big a problem humidity is for you.
