Printing PLA-CF with 0.4 nozzle

Hi,

I am new to the 3D printing area and have my Bambu Lab X1C since view days. The first PLA prints works very well. I wanted to try the PLA-CF which was included in the box, but I have red at the Wiki Page that 0.4 mm nozzle is not recommended printing PLA-CF. It starts with 0.6mm nozzle.

So my question: Can I still go ahead with 0.4mm nozzle for first trys without damaging anything? Anything else to be considered like reducing speed etc.?

Wondering why there is a PLA-CF in the startet kit but there is no nozzle included which is recommended to print that material.

Thanks for you advice and help.

Hopefully I will get more experience in the next weeks not asking stupid questions :slight_smile:

Myno

You can use a 0.4 nozzle for the Bambu Lab PLA. It will not damage anything, but the chance of getting a clog in the extruder or nozzle is higher and you might have to take apart the extruder to clean it up if it happens.
I printed 1 1/2 spools of PLA CF with a 0.4 nozzle and didn’t get a clog, but a 0.6 nozzle I would still recommend longterm.

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I’ve been printing PLA-CF with the .4mm nozzle almost exclusively and have had fantastic results. But I have slowed down speeds by about half. At full speed I was seeing some minor issues here and there. I’ve gone through 3 spools so far, and I’ve yet to have a clog

I did two prints with the .2mm nozzle inadvertently as well (was exhausted and trying to bang out some prints and forgot I had changed it the day before). Both were 7-8 hour prints using a couple hundred grams of filament. One of them was very nice, aside from some bad overhangs in a support area (which I was able to clean up with an Xacto blade). Surface quality was perfect, and it was still a usable print. The second one made it about halfway through before I think I got a partial clog. The print finished but the top half looked like it was almost like a skeleton of the design, with its internals missing. I cleared the .2mm nozzle and haven’t had any issues with it printing non-CF filament since. So the .2mm is still doable, but will clog pretty quick.

What filaments you get are random, but it seems like everyone gets 1 random CF sample filament (along with one regular filament and one specialty/support filament).

Matt, Thrawn, thanks for your quick response.

It’s no problem with a 0.4 nozzle.

If we have to reduce the speed that CF is printable with 0,4mm then why does BambuLab this not do from start on in the NFC program?

I think there is a misunderstanding, the NFC doesn’t hold the slicing parameters. That’s only in the slicer. The NFC tag only tells the AMS what material and color is in that slot.

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But could be done as an initialization help of “new to 3D printing” people or for first contact to certain materials like me witf CF materials :wink:

Curious, the PLA CF has been the worst printing Bambu filament I’ve tried yet (but still OK), are other finding issues with the base profile?

Note: I have been able to tune it in and make it work well, but the base filament profile was a fair bit off in flow.

Could you share your settings after you’ve tuned the Bambu PLA-CF profile please?

There is no tuning needed - out of the box the X1C using Bambu PLA-CF works so so well. What sheet are you using on your bed? Textured is epic. I stopped using smooth as the interface surface finishes sucked when using glue stick.
Just make sure that in Slicer its showing up as the proper Bambu PLA-CF profile and not Bambu Basic PLA. There is a difference and it will make things goofy for you. Sometimes the NFC read gets confused, which you can fix by clicking on the filament loaded in the AMS and select the appropriate profile.

Sorry, I deleted the profile after printing out the last roll. Good riddance. I have some $15 eBay PLA CF that’s 5 years old and printed very well with the generic profile. However, in all honesty, PLA CF is not really a combination I feel like I need. With stuff like PA GF, the price puts it close enough to the PLA CF to become a reasonable upgrade.

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I am about to try PLA CF, what are the necessary setting changes to yield a good print?

Where to get pla-cf? It works wonders, but i am short of 1 rol to finish a project. Ofcourse, on the bambulab website, it is out of stock…;. Like a lot of filaments all off the time.
Anyone got an adress where i can get 1 roll (black)
Many thanks!
Rudy

Again… I’m not a fan of PLA CF, much prefer PA6 GF or ABS GF. But Amazon sells tons of the PLA CF if you need something right now. Creality, eSun, Polymaker, etc.