Hello,
I received my X1C last week.
I have home few PLA spools from different manufacturers. I tried to print the standard 3DBenchy model to see the general print quality of this new printer.
While the prints are very good with the original BambuLab PLA Basic, that came with the printer, the print quality with the other brands (Fillamentum and Prusament) is not very good. For Fillamentum and Prusament I used the Generic PLA profile.
I tried to change the temperatures to: First layer 215C Other Layers 210C, without real improvements.
The same spools on a Prusa i3 MK3S, print impeccably.
Is there anyone that has already found the good settings for Fillamentum or Prusament PLA?
Does someone maintains a database with the settings of the different manufacturers?
You definitely need to tune filament settings. You can use Orca Slicer and make most filaments work very well. BBL spent a lot of time tuning for their filament to make sure it looks good.
I had some interesting result while using Inland True Red. I was able to replicate a wall issue by making test prints between BBL and Inland filament. I found I needed to change the Max Volumetric Speed to 18 vs what the Generic PLA profile stated.
As others mentioned OrcaSlicer, entails further options, and tunning up is perhaps the best way.
You can find settings profiles for PLA and other materials on the printables website (maybe others). I would suggest this as starting point for the calibration procedure.
Before receiving the printer, I started doing that procedure, gathering info, reading users’ experiences, improving g-codes, etc., yet I discovered that such work was unnecessary for my requirements.
I got my X1C two weeks ago (a newbie on the X1C use), yet I have been printing almost 24h/day since then.
It is clear that the X1C filament requirements are relatively high, e.g. my S1Pro is more forgiven about filament moisture. I suspect that the central issue of filaments is the low MFR; therefore, I am acquiring new filaments with higher MFI values.
I started by tuning up the filament settings using the manufacturer’s recommendations, yet the quality of the prints was below my expectations. I mistakenly used the Generic PLA profile, which relies on a significantly higher nozzle temperature. The results were surprisingly good and better than my early-stage tunning profile. Therefore 've been using the Bambu Studio default settings. I reduce the speed at the boundary (external perimeter and bottom and top) for better aesthetic results. I tried these with PLA Extrafill Vertigo Cherry (not new) and achieved excellent results. It is noticeable that the printing speed reduction effect by assessing the print colours, i.e. the inner surfaces are mat or frosted, while the top and walls are shiny as expected.
Besides Fillamentum, I successfully tested with other PLA brands: FORMFUTURA, Smartfil, Fiberlogy, Filament PM, Smart Materials 3D, TecBears, Sunlu, and cheap local brands of filaments.
The same is true for PETG and ABS. (expect layer time for PETG because of small prints).
With filaments with higher melting index (e.g. Polymaker ASA and Polyterra), I started as it was a Bambu filament and changed the max volumetric speed as it permits printing with quality and faster.
The only real tunning I needed was related to special filaments such as wood and copper filled, as I didn’t want to risk a severe clog and for engineering materials, as some of the PA blends require other settings.
In summary, and just my opinion:
for conventional filaments, a slight change in the printing speed will result in the desired outcome.
It is advisable to use filaments with a high melting index to achieve higher rates and aesthetic prints (at the strength cost).
Excellent idea.
I didn’t think about tuning the print speed.
Your comment about the melting index is interesting. Are you referring to the Melt Flow Index or the maximum volumetric speed?
I am still testing with PLA, but I will start soon to print with PC and nylon which is a but more challenging in general
I never had a Prusa (unfortunately), but I believe you will notice the difference, especially when printing advanced materials; issues and challenges, yes, but quite easy to find the cause and solve. At least until now, as the printer is still in perfect condition.
Regarding the MFI and MVS, I was referring to both.
In my opinion, here relies on a critical aspect of bambu technology, especially the ability to achieve quality at high speed. And also why many users face issues while using other filaments. Again this is solely my opinion. I start to look at the MFI after getting a tip from a Reddit user that uses the X1C mainly with engineering-grade filaments.
If you look at the Bambu filament MFI values and compare them to other brands, you will notice, in most cases and giant difference. For example, PLA basic has 43.4 g/10 min whilst the Fillamentum PLA mentioned above has 6g/10min. In real print, we still have to account for the hardware limitations as the hotend and nozzle, which further limit the maximum flow.
In the Bambu Studio, we can tune it using the maximum volumetric speed (which, for me, as an outsider from the 3d printing industry terminology, is the maximum volumetric flow rate). I’ve been gathering data and preparing spreadsheets with different filaments specifications and calculations, which I can share. For most BL filaments (not all), the ratio between the MVS and MFI(converted to volumetric units) varies between 35% to 50%.
Now if we make the same approach to the Fillamentum, the 6g/10 min is equivalent to about 8 mm3/s. In the best-case scenario (50% drop due to the printer hardware), we achieve a value of 4 mm3/s. Yet, the generic pla settings entail 12 mm3/s. This will cause a quality drop or, in the worst case, failure.
In practice, this is not simple yet enough to understand the MFI relevance for the X1C.
Also, there are some clever approaches from BL to increase the flow rate, such as increasing the printing temperature above the manufacturer’s recommendations and thus reducing viscosity. This approach negatively influences the print strength, which I already noticed with non-Bambu ABS.
Based on these thoughts, and since we only see the print exterior, I get high-quality aesthetics by changing the outer wall speed to 100 or even 60 mm/s (depending on the objective).
Sometimes, I also tune the infill profile depending on the size and filament colour.
But this is something that I already did with other printers
One should note that I am not an expert, and I do 3d prints because of functional components, yet I do not like to see bad quality prints around the house.
You cannot share your profiles between Bambu Slicer and Orca. Orca has many settings that BS does not.
Sharing projects might also cause issues. I am not sure, but if you open a project (3MF) BS that was created in Orca, it might delete all the settings that it does not recognize.
Thank you all for these insights. I’m working through the same with various non-BL PLA, PLA+, and PETG. I’ve landed on the PLA liking the hot end at 220-225 and the bed at 60. Generic PETG likes around 270 and 70 for me. I’m currently testing increasing the volumetric flow in the filament profile a fraction at a time (as recommended by BL) with interesting results so far.
The author also achieves high surface quality by changing the max volumetric speed and layer time.
A critical detail I forgot to mention is the layer’s volumetric flow rate discrepancy which causes (at least for me) an awful mix of shiny and matte surfaces, even with BL’s filament.
What type of nozzle do you have on your Prusa? Stock is brass, so if you have the hardened nozzle on your X1C (mine came with it from factory) there is definitely a temp difference.
This isn’t a Bambu specific thing and you’ll run into the same issue on your Prusa too when switching from brass to stainless or hardened nozzles.
I didn’t know this brand… do you have any datasheet of their filaments? I only found print recommendations, yet not tested values.
If the purpose is to print PLA fast, with quality, and reasonably priced, I would advise Polyterra… I can print at slightly higher speeds than with BL PLA, with identical quality.
It’s an excellent point.
On the Prusa I have the stock brass nozzle. When I swap it for a hardened steel nozzle, I need to increase the temperature by 5C to 10C (which is quite a lot in my opinion). So Ideally, I should increase the temperature a bit on the X1C.
Probably we have also to take into account that while the Prusa Mk3S doesn’t have an enclosure, the X1C is thermally isolated and that helps.
I will experiment with different temperature increases
My AI goes through around 10kg of BBL PLA filament a month. But when using cheaper (or just plain other) PLA results vary. And just as Mitsubishi Chemical makes the toner for OKI printers (shhh… that might be a secret) there are only so many manufactuers of PLA pellets. Yes, there are additives and these will change the rheological properties of a filament and it is these additives that make life so, well, frustrating. Recently I got 2kg of random filament from a random factory and I ran it through my printer but I must admit that the results were, well, a little random. That’s okay for things I use around the house like paint stirrers but when I am preparing prints for sale the less post printing work I have to do the better. Mitsubishi have made chemical deposited toner for OKI to a tight specification and I would not mind betting that a similar company makes PLA feedstock for BBL under a tight specification. The end result? I treat, or should I say, should treat, my BBL lab printer a bit like the way I’d treat an Apple device if I owned one: go with licensed product. As I write this I am pulling random PLA goo out of the sock. Silly me.
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