Support Problem Fixed, But I Lost My Perfect Text Quality (A1 PETG)

[Cox_Marine_Creations]

Hi everyone,

I’m hoping someone can help me because I am completely stuck.

A few weeks ago I was printing custom multi-color PETG coral name tags on my Bambu A1 with a 0.4mm nozzle, and the text quality was fantastic. The lettering was crisp, the borders were clean, and the overall finish was exactly what I wanted.

The attached Yoda tag photo is an example of the quality I used to get.

The problem was never the text quality.

The problem was that the original design required supports, and the support interface was fusing to the print. I started changing settings in an attempt to improve support removal and support interface quality.

While trying to solve that issue, I experimented with:

• Support settings

• Layer heights

• Speed settings

• Quality settings

• Wall settings

• Paint/color options

• Various other slicer settings

Ever since then, I have not been able to get the text quality back.

To eliminate the support issue completely, I redesigned the entire product.

The current design:

• Separate base, border, and text components

• All parts lay completely flat on the build plate

• No supports required

• Printed face-down

• PETG

• AMS Lite

• Bambu A1

So the original support problem is gone.

Unfortunately, the print quality I had before is also gone.

I have:

• Tried a 0.2mm nozzle

• Tried starting over from completely stock profiles

• Tried rebuilding profiles from scratch

• Tried multiple layer heights

• Tried countless speed and quality adjustments

The 0.2mm nozzle actually created even more problems for me, and despite starting over multiple times, I still can’t get the text to look as good as it originally did.

At this point I’m attaching:

• Photos of the original prints

• Photos of current prints

• The 3MF file (below the pictures)

Please take a look and tell me if you see something obvious that I’m missing.

I know these tags are capable of printing beautifully because I’ve already done it. I just can’t figure out what setting or combination of settings I’ve lost.

Any help would be greatly appreciated because this has been driving me absolutely insane.

Thank you!

Name ■■■ EDITABLE.3mf (774.6 KB)

[maxim3D]

Why is your line width at 0.25mm? Put it back to normal as its most likely the cause of the problem with the text.

[Cox_Marine_Creations]

I literally just tried that tonight until then it was normal

[Cox_Marine_Creations]

I saw a YouTube video today and thought id give that a shot cause nothing else iv tried workes

[Alex_vG]

Maybe the sequence of the filament has changed? e.g maybe before black was printed last but now it’s printed first?

[Cox_Marine_Creations]

I’ve tried that no change

[Alex_vG]

ok, next try
Is it possible, that there is still residue from black, when it changes to the other colors?
If so, then maybe the purge volumes have changed? sorry, not at the computer at the moment. I mean the matrix, where you tell the slicer how much material to purge for each transition in order to sufficiently flush the old color.

[Cox_Marine_Creations]

Purge tower is one purge into object is off and silent purge multiplier is set to 1 and still looks like crap

[blchandl2]

It looks like you have also changed fonts which will have a huge impact on the text quality.

[Cox_Marine_Creations]

I did and I think I switched back but I don’t know I have tried everything I can think of I really need someone to take the file and look at it and tell me what fix cause at this point I have no clue which way is up

[maxim3D]

Try resetting all settings to standard on the profile and go from there. This kind of item should not need anything special setting wise.

[MZip]

I’m a broken record on moisture in filament but whenever something used to print properly and now doesn’t, it frequently can be water. With printing in PETG, it’s even more likely since it’s a water magnet it seems.

Have you dried your filament? How do you dry your filament? How do you store it after drying?

Not all symptoms are exactly the same since much depends on the model, ambient temperature and humidity, etc.

Moisture may not be the issue but trying to parse what you said in the OP, it sounds like it might be an issue especially since it sounds like you’ve eliminated a lot of other possible causes.

Spoiler - this person’s issue looks like it was water.

Small text printed on build plate started failing

Hi community, I’m having trouble with some small prints that printed fine before. I’m printing two-tone 25mm / 1” diameter gaming tokens that have very fine numbers directly onto the build plate. This worked (mostly) fine up until a few days ago. I’d print 10 tokens, and perhaps 1 of those would have a malformed number. Nothing terrible. Print details: Printer: P1S Plate: Smooth PEI Nozzle: 0.2mm Layer hight: 0.1mm Filament: Bambu Lab matte white Issue: Since the initial batch that most…

[Cox_Marine_Creations]

I think I’ve tried…. I’ve set it back to the 2m standard setting thing and reset the purge idk what else to do!

[Bullocks]

Idk about all of it but this

looks like it was printed with the nozzle way too close to the bed and smushed the black to death, many possibilities of why:

1. selected textured plate when it was a satin/smooth, internally the slicer applies z-0.04
2. preheat the bed for a few more minutes before starting the print, helps the heat expansion even out
3. the A1 has a well known set of screws in the hotend that get loose and will foul your Z offset autocalibration, check this and see if you’re tight, ESPECIALLY if youve never checked before.

remove those 3, gently fold down the plate [mind the wires], get the smaller hex driver and tighten these 4

[Cox_Marine_Creations]

So I know all those screw are good and tight cause I tightened them the other day but how do I heat the bed a little longer? Also it sounds like you’re saying do somehow put all the settings back to default but I don’t know how to do that either….

[Bullocks]

While you’re in the slicer setting things up, hop to the device tab, type in 75 hit enter

And in a few mins when you’re ready to send print, it’ll have the bed really well and evenly heated

[Cox_Marine_Creations]

Okay I guess I’ll try that…. I have one on the printer now I opened a new project leafy all the setting alone….. hopefully this works I am so sick of this… I really just want someone to take the file look through everything and go “ah-ha this is what she’s done and this is what you need to do”

[stfriede]

I printed this on my H2C using PLA (since I don’t have the colors in PETG). I did this two ways: importing your file into an existing blank profile and select to just import the geometry only and the second to open your 3MF file as a project. See the attached photos, the version where I imported the geometry printed perfectly (see attached) whereas the one printed from your profile had print artifacts on the edges and the lettering.

So, you may want to try what I did. Create a new project, add a simple primitive (this forces the import to prompt how you want to import the file) and then import the 3mf.

The Above is the version where I imported the geometry only. The lower two is opening the 3mf as a project file

[Cox_Marine_Creations]

I’m so new I’m

Not write sure what you mean by how you imported it two different ways are you able to explain it more?

[stfriede]

Sure. What I meant is that in Bambu studio there are two ways to open a file:

• open a project file (.3mf), or
• Go to File-Import and you can import either print files (stl, 3mf, obj,etc) or config file.

If you select the second method you can bring another print file into your current project Eg, you have a project file with name tags and you add a baby yoda print file into it on the same plate
When you choose to import a 3mf file into an open project it prompts you to select how you want it imported Do you want the whole configuration or just the object(s)
In my example I just wanted the name tags and none of the other configuration settings, so I select just the geometry. Ie, only the name tags

So, with all that I wanted to test how a blank project with the default settings would print a name tag vs importing all of your print settings with it.
I put a simple cube primitive object onto the build plate abs went to File—Import—3mf and selected your file. Because I had an object onto the studio build plate it asks how I want to import the file. If I had an empty project and did the same thing Bambu studio would not ask and it would just open the project file everything in it - The name tags and the printer settings

I hope this makes sense Lmk