I’m a new user having come from Creality (wouldn’t recommend in a million years!) over to Bambu who are just a breath of fresh air and I can’t stop raving about how good the printer is.
After about 315hrs worth of printing, I’m experiencing a few issues. Filament wise I specifically only use Bambu Labs filaments simply due to the fact they were optimised for the printer though it would be nice to try the likes of Polyterra but I digress.
My printer is a Bambu Lab P1S which is about 2-3 weeks old now.
While adhesion normally points to increasing bed temps, I’m hesitant to do so as I’m under the impression that everything on the printer is calibrated for everything Bambu, and things have been fine up until yesterday/day before where nothing has changed.
However, I performed a factory reset when things started going wrong which seems to of done the trick mostly. I also set Bambu Studioo back to default by deleting the local folder in AppData, just so there was no confliction.
While I’ve typed this up, I’ve tried printing on a Textured PEI plate (making sure to swap in Bambu Studio) where the PETG just got stuck to the nozzle, pictured below plus aftermath.
Has anyone got any ideas why my printer has thrown a wobbler so suddenly? I thought perhaps consumable degredation, but I can’t see 3 different plates struggling with adhesion issues and the nozzle struggling after 315 hours of printing.
Welcome to the forum! How often have you been scrubbing those 3 build plates?
About the filament, the only thing special about the Bambu filament is the RFID chips that make it convenient with an AMS. The good news is if you want to try Polymaker most of those profiles come with Bambu Studio also.
Thank you! I probably should’ve mentioned my cleaning method, huh?
So for the textured plate, I use 99.9% IPA in between prints and normally use a sponge and Fairy liquid washing up detergent for deep cleaning. When I started experiencing problems, I did buy some 0000 steel wool and took it to the plate to roughen it up a bit which seemed to of worked. As I type this, I’m currently doing a calibration cube to reconfirm that.
For the Smooth PEI plate, normally just a sponge and you guessed it, Fairy liquid. I normally wash both plates after about 5-8 prints on each. This is also using hot running water. I actually used the rough side of the sponge to see if that would do anything, and it basically just put fine scratches in the plate which doesn’t seem to show up on the print.
It sounds like your cleaning routine is just fine. Normally my second guess would be damp filament and the third guess would be partial nozzle clog. But if the filament has been fine up until recently I’m thinking nozzle clog. Do you have the spare nozzle that came with the printer to test that theory out?
So! For anyone scouring the internet for answers in the future, the initial layer adhesion was simply down to possibly poor cleaning… somehow. As you can see, the cube printed first time after re-cleaning the plates. It’s possible that the 99.9% IPA was causing an issue with adhesion.
Using hot water, rinse the plate of major debris/glue/whatever FOD.
Apply some detergent to a cleaning sponge.
Apply the sponge to the plate with the hot water to create a foamy texture. Scrub evenly across the plate, ensuring you get every corner and the full surface.
Using a microfibre towel/cloth, with your gloves still on, dry your hands and plate.
When you’ve taken the gloves off after you’ve finished cleaning, only hold the tab which isn’t printed on, otherwise the natural oils from your skin will embed back within the plate.
I’ll be trying this next as, per the images, there’s some artificing on the layers which could be due to the partial clog, unless you can tell me otherwise. It’s almost as if there’s layer shift, though I don’t think that’s the issue.
I think I’ll be knocking IPA on the head in the future as that’s what I think caused the issue with adhesion.
You’re welcome, happy to help! Before you swap the nozzle tell me one thing, what is the “seam” setting in Bambu Slicer?
Oh and I was going to mention the IPA but when I saw you said you used Fairy Liquid I thought it would be enough to cancel out the IPA. I know a lot of people swear by it (IPA) but I’ve never had much luck with it.
It does look like wet filament, also. Try to reprint with the power recovery option off. Usually its supposed to be an alligned pattern but its worth to try.
Desiccant is good to help keep moisture out of filament. It would require a very long time and many changes of desiccant to remove moisture from filament.
Hey @kraxous, that really looks like “wet” filament to me too. PETG HF is very sensitive to water and I’ve had spools print poorly right out of the shipping bag.
Water in the filament causes pressure spikes in the extruder and forces out excess filament in places. That’s those little scars on the surface of the cube you see.
Something else about PETG HF is it seems to get sticky when there’s water issues or just likes to curl instead of leaving the extruder cleanly. That is what causes those buildups on the extruder and it can encase the extruder, force the cover off, and wreak all sorts of havoc. There’s a bunch of photos here of extruders hidden in balls of extruded filament and it’s hard to clean off when it gets like that.
Here’s an older example from my own printer - 1st image is a print of some clips that shows lifting in corners, a doughy surface, and a few of those little scars. The second image is the same print and settings but using the same spool of filament after drying.
High moisture content of plastic will have effect on how fast it solidified after leaving the nozzle. Just like in physic: more thermal mass, slower to cool down. But when the moisture content is high enough, the concentrated spots of water will be instantly vaporized into mist and expand rapidly when touching the hot surface inside the nozzle. You will hear it pops during print for that. These pops cause sudden change of pressure, hence, blobs and voids showing up on your print.
Same goes for throwing wet salt into bon fire just to make it pops for fun.
That’s well put, actually. In my mind, I had it wrong where the dessicant would also extract moisture from the filament, rather than from just the air. Looks like I need to invest in some active filament dehydration.
Thanks for the extensive explanation. I didn’t realise how sensitive PETG can be to water, so as per the above, definitely looking to invest in a dryer.
That’s actually quite genius you’ve picked up on that, I hadn’t even noticed which would explain the initial “scarring” from your first post. Thanks, dude.
I know what I’m doing next bonfire night…
@ everyone, thanks for your assistance regarding the matter. I believe I can chalk it up to the plate not being clean enough, and as others have pointed out, wet filament. Thanks again!
