All of a sudden my A1 prints went from perfect to awful. No change on my end as far as I remember. The issue has shown up with multiple filaments and models. I’ve run the calibration for flow and rate with no change to the print quality. I have tried a 0.12 and 0.28 settings.
Thoughts?
Thanks in advance!
Take alook at these screws:
Great thought, but no luck there. I had taken the head apart before this to clear out some filament, but all screws were tight. It almost seems like the bed is shifting when the head changes location. Maybe something on the bed or gantry is loose.
Do de full printer calibration, bed included,. and tell us if there is any change.
What is your filament type and flow rate setting?
It’s over-extruding
Do you have a spare nozzle on hand to test with ?
I have tried eSun PLA+, PolyTerra PLA+, and Bambu PLA. The flow is set to standard, but it does the check before the print. I have an extra nozzle and will give it a try. Thanks
You can also do a flow rate test or try reduce the flow rate by 2% or 5% However, if everything was working well before, let’s first see how things go with just the nozzle change.
No luck
It appears that when it has to reposition the nozzle, the join or elevation changes. Pictures attached
Could you try running this flow test to see if the results are consistent each time?
We want to verify whether the extruder consistently stays on target and produces walls of uniform thickness. To test this, print a primitive basic cube twice using vase mode, ensuring that the outer wall line width is set to 0.40 mm in slicer.
Right cube
0.16 layer height
Standard flow (0.98)
0.40 wall thickness
Left cube
0.16 layer height
0.95 flow rate
0.40 wall thickness
What is the measurement of the four walls using digital calipers?
It’s also recommended to use a 0.20 layer height for this test.
I printed a new one at 0.2 layers and 0.98 flow just to make sure. I got readings from 0.37 to 0.40. The 0.95 flow cube was between 0.35 and 0.38.
I noticed that the default wall thickness on the slicer larger than 0.40 wall thickness. I changed them all to 0.40. Was that correct?
Yes setting them to .4 thats the correct way 
It seems that the extruder is generally staying within the flow specs at 0.98, which is what we wanted to confirm, just to make sure it’s not overextruding.
Can you tell me the height of your part? Is it approximately 5mm thick in the Z direction?
Are your slicer settings set to default or custom?
What settings are you using for this part?
You mentioned that other parts are experiencing the same issue, right?
Did this problem start after a firmware update or slicer update ?
Can you tell me the height of your part? Is it approximately 5mm thick in the Z direction? I originally noticed this problem with a model that was 4mm thick. My class is printing clock faces right now. All the models I’ve been testing are between 2mm and 5mm, and all with the same issue. I even tried ironing at the end of one. This hid the problem a bit, but it was still there.
Are your slicer settings set to default or custom? I’ve been purposefully keeping the settings as default to make troubleshooting easier.
What settings are you using for this part? I generally print at 0.28 mm (extra draft) since I have so many models to print when my class does a project. For this trouble shooting I’ve tried anywhere from 0.12 – 0.28. No change in the results
You mentioned that other parts are experiencing the same issue, right? Everything I print has the same issue if there are features on the top surface. The surface is consistent as long as it’s flat and featureless.
Did this problem start after a firmware update or slicer update? This is the strange part. I’m not sure what started this. I updated to the newest versions awhile ago. The only thing that happened was that I had to get inside the extruder to pull a piece of filament out of the nozzle. A print went right to the last cm of a roll and the extruder didn’t have enough to grab. Maybe I didn’t reinstall all the parts properly? I’ve checked to make sure everything is tight and lined up though. I was going to try dismantling and reassembling the head again just in case.
I checked all the different pattern types to see if that might help. (Monotonic, rectilinear, etc.) They all had the same issue. The only one that was tolerable was the Hilbert Curve.
I currently have a ticket in with Support and they got back to me this morning. They sent me a cube file to print and wanted a video and images to check. I’ve attached those images.
I really appreciate the help. I was running out of ideas.
Let’s see if this works I’m going to upload a file for you to test out.
Do you have the A1 Correct and not the Mini?
What nozzle are you using 0.4mm hard steel?
Use standard PLA for the test.
If you have the setup above, try testing this cube as well. Also, to see the top surface flow ratio setting. To do this, enable ‘Develop Mode’ in Preferences.
Some settings have been changed - let’s see what results you get.
I also have a M900 K0.03 K-factor calibration in filament settings.
Keep me updated
You are correct. A1 and hard steel. The model you sent isn’t printing correctly. The nozzle is rubbing against the previous layers. I tried a few times with the same result. I don’t see anything you changed that would make that happen though. I saw the filament changes too.
I dont now what nozzle you have thats why I asked Brass, Stainless Steel, or Hardened Steel it would be one of them.
That old the Z level is off have you adjusted the bed before and you have the big A1 correct ?
Can you change the settings in your process & filament save them with new name and test again and we can see if the z level is happy again.
I have the big A1 and I’ve never seen this calibration before. I’ve had the printer for only a couple of months.
New or used A1 ?
The Z offset must be precisely calibrated for both the bottom and top layers check it carefully and see what you discover.
Yup. Brand new from their website. I’ll give this a look.
