Sudden Top Layer Issues

Hello everyone,

I’ve been using my A1 Combo for about a month now, and it was working flawlessly, perfect prints every time. Recently, however, I’ve been experiencing issues with the top layer coming out poorly. Since I sell my prints, having a rough top layer makes them unsellable. It’s odd because this problem appeared out of nowhere; one day it was printing just fine, and the next day the quality deteriorated. I am using Bambulab pla with default settings.

After the issue occurred, here are some of the steps I’ve taken to try to fix it:

  • Factory reset the printer
  • Fully cleaned the X and Y rails
  • Dried my filament
  • Tried brand new filament
  • Replaced the nozzle with a new one
  • Increased the number of top layers in the slicer
  • Enabled the ironing option

None of these solutions have helped; in fact, they seem to have made things worse. It’s extremely frustrating because I’m wasting both filament and time.

If anyone has any ideas on what I can try or has experienced similar issues, please let me know!

Thanks!

This if the when it was printing flawlessly, the top layer looks super smooth and buttery.

Then randomly it started to look like this, I know it’s not as bad as others I’ve seen posted, but just doesn’t make sense why it was going so well then decided to look ugly.

That is a long list of things you have done in an attempt to solve your problem. I don’t see an item for calibrating your filament?

What is also not on the list and might be worth a try is to check the hotend heating assembly screw as described in the wiki:

See “Tighten the hotend heating assembly screw”. I’ve read a couple of threats lately where a loose screw was the reason for a bad first layer, bad top layers, clicking sounds of the extruder …