Print Issues and Possible Warped Bed?

Bambu Lab P1 Series
1

So i’ve been so far happy with my P1P that got almost 2 weeks ago with the standard white included filament and some black eSun filament, i’ve had some issues with their red filament which i narrowed down to having the hotbed set too low and i resolved that issue for the most part with a 10’c increase in bed temp to 75’c, the issue was that the filament was curling up at lower layers causing issues later on in the print with parts not being the correct size and shape

All was going well until i decided to do a large print using nearly the full build volume on on the bottom (yes i changed the exclusion settings and printed the little addon to hold the filament cutter arm in place out of the way) whereby the first layer would have the same defects in the same exact spots each time, i have done a full calibration and let it do a bed level before printing

The issue i noticed is that the spots that seem to have the defects also feel obviously cooler to the touch compared to the areas that are printing fine, i made a post on reddit and was directed to the X1 thread regarding bed warping and i can see that at temperature the bed is a bit warped in the middle

Has anyone encountered this issue and managed to resolve it or is this something i’m going to have to try and take up directly with Bambu?

This is an aerial view of the build plate, you can see the areas with defects and those areas feel cooler than the areas of the plate that don’t show any defects, i have no way to actually measure the temperature of those areas sadly

3020×3024 1.06 MB

As to the bed warping, these images were taken with the bed preheated to 75’c

Obviously i am new to printing so i don’t know if thats what is considered acceptable in terms of the bed being flat or not but i figured it was worth mentioning here incase its also related to the printing issues

2

Its hard to see how large the gap is really on the photos. To make it more clear, put some lightsource behind the ruler and you will be able to clearly see how large the gap is.
Also, a feeler gauge can help you get some measurements.

3

Welcome! Sorry to hear you’re having problems but there’s a lot of knowledgeable people here who will help you with any issues.

Yep, that bed looks warped. Sadly, you have walked into a very volatile subject here.

The great majority of people get good or at least workable beds, but BL had (apparently) some manufacturing issues and got a huge batch of not so great beds.

This started way back at the end of 2022! There’s been a number of roadblocks they’ve had to deal with, a very long story … Short version is they now have new beds that are being shipped out to users who have contacted support (and of course, the latest production machines) but it’s slow.

They basically grew too fast, a common problem for small companies that had a product go viral. They’re training new Support staff (remember, they have to get English speakers who are also technical …) so reporting requires patience.

Now that you have a general idea I’ll point you to a long a$$ed thread on here (the longest thread on the forum!). Have a grain, no, a block of salt to lick as you read it, there’s a lot of very …ahh… vocal :grin: people on there!

But the good news is you’re coming at the end of this fiasco so you don’t have to wait months like many of us!

There is a temp measure you can use, several of us have made our beds perfectly useable until we get new ones by using high temp (cheap, <$20 USD) Aluminum tape, the kind used in heating and cooling systems. I opted for a thicker one for the middle section (I had a thin one already), like this:

Several people (including me) posted the procedure in this post:
https://forum.bambulab.com/t/warped-bed-seems-like-a-common-qc-issue
Scroll for the pictures and you’ll find them.

And remember, don’t shoot the messenger! :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye: :grin:

Again, welcome, sorry you got this problem as your first thing here …
Cheers!

4

No worries i grabbed a light, although as its plastic i can’t heat the bed as the light has to rest on the bed currently

Let me know if these images are better or if not what you need me to do to take some better ones :slight_smile:

5

Oh i have no plans on shooting any messengers :slight_smile:

I shall take a look at that thread aswell though its handy information to have, and yeah mass production is a pain so i’m not going to get majorly annoyed that issues happen, its more how well those issues get resolved :slight_smile:

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6

Well, that helps! The good news it it’s a lot smaller that many people have, a strip of that alum tape would probably handle it fine.

The not so great news is that the problem seems to be temp sensitive. If you only print PLA it may stabilize there or may grow over time.

The real issue occurs if you start doing high bed temp work. Mine got much worse when I did several very high (100-110°C) bed prints. Then it warped a lot more. :slightly_frowning_face:

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Whew! (Wipes brow) LOL

OH good, you’re someone who gets it. So many have gone looking for pitchforks … :astonished: :grin:

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Yeah the gap seems to be worse when heated, which is a shame because they ship a plate that heats by default, a coldplate might help the issue from getting worse during printing

Is this something worth poking support about? from what i’ve heard their solution seems to be shipping out a replacement bed but i’m not sure how complicated or annoying the process to replace the bed actually is and from reading that thread it seems they are sometimes shipping out beds in worse state than the ones they originally had, i shall look in to that tape though to see if it can help atleast make the issue a little less obvious, although i guess my main question is, will this affect the heating of the plate, the red PLA i’m using tends to curl up even on small prints if the bed isn’t hot enough so i want to avoid inadvertently lowering the bed temp, as i expect the added layers will impact heat transference atleast slightly

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There’s a guy in Germany (I think) who sells a “GoodPlate” that’s borosilicate glass with a magnetic bed that sits on top of the current that fixes the problem. Search that long bed thread for ‘goodplate’ if you’re interested.

Another, cheap, solution is to go to Loews or Home Depot (US) and pick up a pack of Mirror Tiles. Under $20 for 6 or so! Mirrors inherently must be relatively flat. Must cut to size and add a magnetic sheet … Held by clips.

Personally, having used those on earlier machines, the tape is fairly easy and cheaper. Transfers heat perfectly too.

Well, I’d wait until you get more hours on it to see if it gets worse. Or you can do as I’ve suggested elsewhere and do a heat soak - run the bed to 110°C and leave it for 2 hours. Let it cool and repeat a couple more times. That will shake out any residual warping. :wink: It did on mine.

I’ve followed this problem for months. The new bed are just shipping, we don’t really know if any of the new batch have actually been received or if most current reports are still old batch trickling out … Wait a few weeks.

A known problem. Take PLA up a bit, on the Cool plate go for 45-50° on the Textured PEI (if you have it) got higher - 50-60°. PEI is an insulator and that plate is extra thick so …

Finally - go get yourself OrcaSlicer. It has great Calibration Tools Bambu Slicer doesn’t. Two click Temperature towers for example. I wrote a PSA (long, it’s my style, and yours too it appears LOL) post about the difference from Bambu Studio, go read it. :wink:
https://forum.bambulab.com/t/psa-up-your-game-studio-softfever-orcaslicer-arachne

It will help.
Cheers!

10

Yeah i’m already using orca as it goes, i used their flow rate and pressure tests to fine tune this red PLA that has been causing me headaches already and its been a godsend, the PEI plate is what shipped with the P1P so thats all i’ve currently got to hand, like a said still early days as its under 2 weeks old so i’m currently building a list of things i’ll need to grab

The default temp for the PEI plate was 65 and that worked for the other 2 filaments i have, had to bump it to 75 to get this red filament to not curl up from the plate

With regards the large print i’m trying to do and the difference in plate temperature from region to region, is that something thats going to be affected by the slight deformation?

Without seeing a teardown of the bed (and i’m not willing to do that myself lol) i’m assuming that the PCB has the heating elements on it and that that the bed not properly contacting the bed due to the slight bend might make heat transference worse, i’m more an IT guy but i know that a CPU heatsink that is not properly tensioned can cause hotspots where there is poor thermal transfer so thats the reasoning i’m applying here

The temperature difference isn’t “massive” but its definitely enough to be able to feel the difference by hand and from the images i took the areas under the bend are the parts that match the hotter sections of the bed

And yeah i prefer to write too much information in a single post than write lots of small ones >.<

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Well, I personally had a .93mm gap in the center, but I have a temp gun and found almost no variation across the bed except for the front edge which was significantly lower across the front most 20mm or so.

I haven’t done it but people reported up to 4 hours … not sure if it’s ummm exaggerated , like the size of that fish … :upside_down_face:

Long term Electronics turned Computer tech myself.

Well that doesn’t sound right. You might indeed need a new bed. Got a neighbor or friend with a temp gun? They can be had for $20 or so on Amazon.

More data, not less solves problems. Guess it’s a Tech thing. Or we’re just long winded. :rofl:

12

Sorry for you, It is clear from your picture that your bed is warped, not a definitive solution but maybe you can mitigate this problem by lowering your first layer infill speed, it will stick better, from your red picture it seems your red layer lack of stickness.

EDIT: try something very slow for first layer infill like 30mm/s maybe only on one quarter of your bed to see if it help

13

Dropping to 30mm did help and reduced the defects, it didn’t eliminate them entirely so i can try reducing it further to see if that helps, thanks for the tip :slight_smile:

edit

Although it hasn’t fixed the issue with the bed not getting hot enough to stop the filament from curling at the edge in 1 specific corner

14

When do you have your fans come on and at what speed ?

There is such a thing as too much cooling especially on first layers

I have my fans off for the first 3 layers with PLA and TPU and the first 5 with PETG and CF

After that things get loud because it’s 100% fans and I’m giving her all she’s got Captain

CF my aux fan only runs at 50% max but that chamber fan is pretty loud lol

I like to run my chamber fan with filaments that don’t require a heated chamber because it pulls out some of the heat especially with the front door open.

And we all thought the chamber fan was just for filtering the exhaust when printing with filaments you don’t want to breathe in lol

Give it a try if you don’t mind the loud exhaust, even if your front door is already open when you crank on that chamber fan to 100% your chamber temp will drop by 3-5°

15

Sorry about the verbal diarrhea

Simply put try leaving your fans off for the first 3 layers and it should reduce expansion and contraction of the filament that’s in contact with the bed giving you more consistency across the full X/Y build volume

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These are the default settings afaik

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I don’t have the aux cooling fan

And i have the P1P so no chamber and i’ve yet to print a shell for it, its not in a place with any breezes and the room isn’t “hot” but its not cold either

I can bump it up to 3 to see if that helps for larger prints, thanks for the suggestion :slight_smile:

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17

You should be safe with the first 3 off

And if you are printing a .2mm layer hight try .25 for the first layer and drop the first layer line width to .45-.478 mm (default might be a touch high if it’s at .5 mm for the first layer line width)

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Yeah i mostly think its just a cooling issue with the PLA itself, it contracts a lot on larger prints, the corner ended up super deformed and once it cooled the whole thing started to bow a fair bit, i think this roll just might be cursed >.<

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19

Odd thought but it’s in my forebrain (LOL) as I was just discussing this elsewhere, have you dried the filament?