Problems with high speed PLA from ANYCUBIC

[user_2690999139]

Hello,

normally I have no problems with stringing - with standard filament settings.
That works well for Bambu Filament and other Filaments from e.g. eSun or Jayo.

Now I bought a bigger bunch of PLA High Speed from ANYCUBIC.
I tried a little bit around with some settings - but maybe I have to do this with more structured way to come to a good solution…

I already dried the filament for ~12 hours - so it is not a problem of humidity.

I would be really happy if you can give me some advice.

Best Regards
Andreas

[Bullocks]

Try a flow rate test. If you end up reducing your flow rate as a result of the test, this “extra” extrusion could be what was contributing to stringing.

Edit: also, just because of the visual appearance, confirm in your slicer’s preview panel that its actually changing temperature for this tower.

[Olias]

If I were to guess, the model is incorrect. I do not recognize that model and the uniform stringing suggests that you only imported a STL file but not the requisite G-Code that would vary the temp between levels. There is no explanation that would otherwise explain the uniformity in the stringing.

Orca Slicer has this baked-in and it will vary the temp between layers. There are some models on Printables and MakerWorld that will also do this but you must load the GCode not the STL.

Just to be sure. Slice your model again. Then in the Color Scheme drop-down you should see this gradient pattern:

If instead you see something like this, that confirms that you’re printing the model at a single temperature. That needs to be addressed before you can address the stringing.

For stringing there is also two other tests that work more efficiently. There is the retraction test which looks like this:

home

It will help you with stringing.

However, I find the torture test to be much harder to overcome and that is also in Orca. If you can beat this test, you will have conquered stringing across a wide variety of conditions for the filament.

Last but not least.

Did you dry the filament? Even PLA has been known to show up with moisture. Here’s my favorite example of the now obsolete Bambu Gold Silk PLA. I’ll give you two guesses as to which one was wet and which one came out of the dryer.

[user_2690999139]

Wow, thanks for your detailed response!

Sadly I already checked the temptower with the Temperature Color Scheme, before I print it. And it was colored in different shapes - how it should be. And the color legend was reflecting the colors it must have for each few layers.

I will definitly check the retraction test! Thanks for that. I will give you a response tomorrow.

I dried the filament as described - in the ams 2 - for ~12 hours. (Because I only dried it for 4h initially and had this problems - that was the reason I started the 12h dry run)

Humidity is now on 12% in the AMS2.

I installed Anycubic Software and copied the Filament Settings to Bambu Studio, because someone showed me he had no issues with this filament.
After that I did the following tests:

A flow rate test with the following result - seems to be ok for me:

And additionally I resized a frame of the Temp Tower (+50%) - because it was initially designed for 0,4 nozzle - but I run it for a 0,6 nozzle (If this makes sense?)
Result with 200°C nozzle print temperature was:

It looks a little better now - but it is still not very good. I had much better ones with normal PLA or PETG.

I never had this problems with other “normal” PLA

If you already see a mistake from my side - please give me a hint.

[Olias]

Here’s a tip about drying. The only way to confirm the presence and therefore later the absence of moisture it to weigh it first, dry it and then weigh it again. If the weight is the same, they at least you’ve ruled out moisture as a culprit. As noted in Bambu’s charts, PLA drying is optional… until it isn’t. The most important thing to note is that all filament can have poor quality.

I use Anycubic, Elegoo, 3DJoHor just to name a few and of course, from time to time, I’ll try a new Bambu spool now and again.

I’ll also share this. I’ve also found that sometimes, depending on print, geometry, my already calibrated spool can use a helping hand by a few extra tweaks. My challenge is keeping my list organized which you can see below is a real challenge for me.

My only loyalty is to price because to be honest, most of them come out of the same foundries in Asia so there isn’t a lot of variations. I posted a bake-off last year showing that very fact. So it’s really up to us to keep the filament companies honest.

[user_2690999139]

Hi Olias,

I thank you so much that you linked me this retraction test!!!

It was not so easy to send the file to my P1S, because OrcaSlicer doesn’t work anymore with direct sending to my P1S.

Herefore I found a hint on reddit:
https://www.reddit.com/r/BambuLab/comments/1ly33vb/use_orcaslicer_calibration_tools_with_bambu_studio/

@Bambulab: I would appreciate it if you could first implement advanced testing methods like those in OrcaSlicer before discontinuing support.

But now - here is my newest test. On the right side I imported only the model for the test in Bambustudio - but i knew that the correct gcode is missing. On the left side is the extracted file from OrcaSlicer and direct print via Bambu Connect.

Due to the reason that it looks now absolutely flawless for each layer - there must be a generic issue with my BambuStudio environment settings.

Next step is now that I will compare each setting from OrcaSlicer compared to BambuStudio settings…

Thank you so much for pointing me in the right direction to identify this issue! I was really frustrated…

[user_2690999139]

Yesterday I invested a lot of time and did all the calibration steps from 1 to 6 listed on

Mastering Your Prints: The Comprehensive OrcaSlicer Calibration Guide | Obico

Now my results (I made 2 backgrounds - to see better the strings):

1. Before calibration
   

   
   
   
   

2. After calibration
   

   
   
   
   

3. Just to have another comparison: Uncalibrated Jayo PLA +
   

   
   
   
   

When I look between 1 and 2 I see a good improvement, because the needle towers are printed much better. But stringing is still very high.

When I check the commercials from ANYCUBIC regarding their High Speed PLA

source: Quality at Speed: Exploring Anycubic High-speed PLA Filament | ANYCUBIC 3D Printing

I would say this amount of stringing is absolutelly not acceptable.
However, I can’t tell if this is just commercial talk—everyone seems to say the same thing, but the actual results often tell a different story.

Would be nice if someone can give feedback for my Orca String Hell result or/and give me some insights for your normal results after calibration of your profile.

Thanks in advance!

[Wsquared58]

Have you tried doing the same test on some BL PLA?
I think that would be worth doing so you have a sort of benchmark to compare against.
BL settings are fine tuned on their filament, not other brands.
If BL prints better than your listed brand says one thing but if it produces the same result as your listed brand that means something different.

Every brand of filament I have ever bought has ranges for both nozzle temp and bed temp whereas BL has a set value it puts into the controller.
They leave optimizing the range down to a setpoint number to the printer owner.

[user_2690999139]

Hi,

here is the result - comparison to BL PLA (yellow in picture).

I was also in contact with ANYCUBIC support, but they only said I have to choose Generic High Speed Filament profile (orange in picture) and they have no problems in their tests.
BL PLA looks much more better in comparison to the ANYCUBIC spiderweb.

Has someone any other advice?

[Wsquared58]

Did you dry the BL PLA?
I don’t normally dry BL PLA but I don’t have stringing problems either. Also, some of these tests are designed to bring out the worst in a printer. There is a reason they call them torture tests.

Were you seeing stringing problems on random models? Did you print something and saw stringing where it would not be expected or did you just run a torture test randomly?

BL has refined the temperatures and other parameters you can adjust to a specific value. A specific number.

When I have bought other brands of filament, on the label on the spool the manufacturer has given me a range value.
I have a spool of mika3d and all it has is Suggest Print Temp: 200 - 235°C

No bed temp, no speed, nothing. It is up to the purchaser to hack that out. A nozzle setpoint range of 15°C I have to figure out. So far, when I use a BL filament that finding of the best values is already done. From the Anycubic site for high speed PLA

Anycubic High-Speed PLA
Bed Temperature:

• Low-temp Build Plate**(35-55°C)
• Smooth PEI Plate (55-65°C)
• Double-Sided Textured PEI Plate (55-65°C)

Nozzle Temperature

• Printing temperature/℃: 190-260℃
• Hot bed temperature/℃: 55-65℃

Speed
Recommended printing speed :
*190-210℃, 50-150mm/s
*210-230°C, 150-300mm/s
*230-260°C, 300-600mm/s

Cooling time/s: 7 s

Maximum volume speed (flow): 18 mm³/s

Application scenarios: fast printing scenarios for toys and basic ornaments models

[user_3306391394]

Hello, you found a solution? I have the same problem with his material…

[user_2690999139]

Unfortunately, I haven’t found a solution that I’m 100% satisfied with.

Anycubic’s support team suddenly stopped responding - they were very specific about promising 1 month of “support”… Unfortunately, it didn’t help, and even Anycubic hasn’t been able to deliver the same results as with the Bambu filament I used.

See the attached example with green filament that their product team sent me:

I’m now getting reasonably “ok” results with the following filament profile:

{
    "additional_cooling_fan_speed": [
        "0"
    ],
    "filament_deretraction_speed": [
        "80"
    ],
    "filament_extruder_variant": [
        "Direct Drive Standard"
    ],
    "filament_flow_ratio": [
        "0.97"
    ],
    "filament_retract_before_wipe": [
        "70%"
    ],
    "filament_retraction_length": [
        "2"
    ],
    "filament_retraction_speed": [
        "80"
    ],
    "filament_settings_id": [
        "Generic PLA High Speed @BBL X1C - Calib1-6 - ANYCUBIC HIGH SPEED PLA v4"
    ],
    "filament_shrink": [
        "99.5%"
    ],
    "filament_wipe_distance": [
        "2"
    ],
    "filament_z_hop": [
        "0"
    ],
    "filament_z_hop_types": [
        "Auto Lift"
    ],
    "from": "User",
    "hot_plate_temp": [
        "60"
    ],
    "hot_plate_temp_initial_layer": [
        "60"
    ],
    "inherits": "Generic PLA High Speed @BBL X1C",
    "name": "Generic PLA High Speed @BBL X1C - Calib1-6 - ANYCUBIC HIGH SPEED PLA v4",
    "nozzle_temperature": [
        "200"
    ],
    "nozzle_temperature_initial_layer": [
        "215"
    ],
    "nozzle_temperature_range_high": [
        "280"
    ],
    "nozzle_temperature_range_low": [
        "230"
    ],
    "temperature_vitrification": [
        "70"
    ],
    "version": "2.2.0.85"
}

During my Gridfinity prints I also used the following machine settings for my 0,6 nozzle:

{
    "bridge_flow": "0.9",
    "from": "User",
    "inherits": "0.30mm Standard @BBL X1C 0.6 nozzle",
    "name": "0.30mm Standard @BBL X1C 0.6 nozzle - AnycubicHighSpeedPLA - Gridfinity",
    "overhang_3_4_speed": [
        "30"
    ],
    "overhang_4_4_speed": [
        "20"
    ],
    "overhang_totally_speed": [
        "20"
    ],
    "print_extruder_id": [
        "1"
    ],
    "print_extruder_variant": [
        "Direct Drive Standard"
    ],
    "print_settings_id": "0.30mm Standard @BBL X1C 0.6 nozzle - AnycubicHighSpeedPLA - Gridfinity",
    "reduce_crossing_wall": "1",
    "seam_position": "nearest",
    "top_area_threshold": "0%",
    "travel_speed": [
        "300"
    ],
    "version": "2.2.0.2"
}

In general - I had better results with the following settings in Bambu Lab:

Avoid crossing wall: activated

Avoid crossing wall - Max detour length: 0 mm

When printing multiple objects on the print plate, I also activate the following settings in the object settings:

Special mode - Print sequence: By object

The only problem I still have are small holes, which I can’t explain yet.
I checked the slicer here, and interestingly, there is no rapid traverse, retraction, or feed at this point.
The only explanation I can think of is that the filament may be uneven in thickness, but I haven’t checked that yet.
However, it is extremely illogical that there is a hole in the middle of a printed line. (The filament was thoroughly dried.)
If anyone with more experience could give me a tip, I would be grateful.

See photo:

Best regards,

Andreas

[Bullocks]

I know its frustrating to hear but those little holes are either a z-seam set to random, or moisture. Little pockets of steam form deeper inside the nozzle as it crosses the 100C mark, expand rapidly, and escape by blowing out the side of the line currently being printed. Measure your spool to 0.1g accuracy, dry it, then weigh it again.

Re: your string hell print, its called string hell for a reason, but I would agree yours is a bit too stringy. You made an interestign note that you are using a 0.6 nozzle. If you didn’t also scale the model up, You just made that string hell 50% more difficult, as almost the entire spire is now extruding at widths that cannot be adequately wiped. Does your extruder motor complain when you try to retract at 80m/s?

[teho]

Hi! I have the same battle with Anycubic PLA printing with P1S, they have a super nice colors, but yeah a pain to work it right.

Found settings are working good enough for me for 0.4 nozzle:
retract length: 0.5
z hop type: spiral
wipe while retracting: ON
flow ratio: 0.96
print temp: 200
and using low speed around 60-100

hope it will help you with strings, because I have exact the same issue and my BL PLAs are printing perfect, but they don’t have colors I need.

[pbguy420]

Just wanted to chime in as well here to save anyone else the pain. I have spent the better part of a week drying and troubleshooting my anycubic pla HS, trying every combination of fan, retraction speed, length etc, and I think its just trash filament. I dont know what the deal is, but Ive printed from all the big name manufacturers and this and elegoo’s HS PLA are the only filaments I get this kind of stringing with. I have a commercial grade dehyrdrator that I dry my stuff in, so its definitely not moisture. I would say stick with Anycubics PLA + line if you like their colors, that stuff is great. 20 spools of the PLA HS in both black and grey are absolute garbage.