My prints had been failing very often, but they had never failed this bad, and one should expect the printer to stop or something similar, but no, it simply keeps going and going becoming this mess. I don’t know what I do wrong, but some prints are successful…others not so much, but this is a next level. The PLA got everywhere, it even broke the heating element’s hinge, the one holding the nozzle itself. I had to also unscrew the grey part with the fan in order to take out this huge blob. Still not fully cleaned as I will clean it more later today, but it is one big mess.
Thanks for the fast reply, there is rarely adhesive problems, since I am using the grip one, instead of the smooth plate, but I will also give it a good wash. As for the cleaning, I will have a look, since the PLA is now everywhere there on the bottom near the hotend.
If you’re experiencing regular failing, it’s only a matter of time before you get a blob of doom - all it takes is the spaghetti to curl up and it becomes a self-reinforcing loop.
Regular print failures aren’t normal (1 in 100 is too many and indicates a problem), and they always have a cause rather than just happening at random. You need to pin down why they’re happening to avoid this. Impossible to say from the blob pic, you’d need to diagnose it separately. Could be anything from a failed print bed heat sensor to having the wrong plate type selected to grid infill causing the nozzle to hit the print to wet filament to dodgy models/print profiles to a bunch of other things.
Yup, I am aware. Some of the fails are from models that had not been updated in years. I work with clients and they send me models from Cults3D and other sites. So that is part of the problem. But for sure there IS a problem, somewhere down the line. I have to see by washing the textured plate and see how things go from there. This particular print that did this was one that has 3 parts. The first part printed fine, the 2nd part….made this “blob of doom”. Also I don’t think it might be it, call me stupid, BUT I have the silicon cover removed from the hot-end and also the whole cap of the head removed too, for easier swap of ends, since I have 02 and 04. For sure from now on I will keep the silicon cap there, since if I had it on, the latch of that hold the nozzle would have not broken like it did for me. I will try and fix it the ghetto way with a wire, to see if it holds. But yeah…
The silicon sock on the hotend is fairly important - it insulates the hotend to keep the heat where it’s supposed to be. Sounds like the nozzle is overheating and re-melting the already-printed parts, which are then sticking to the nozzle on its way past. PLA is only slightly more heat resistant than chocolate, it melts if you glare at it.
And the front cover is probably not for show only. I figure it helps to force the air from the hotend cooling fan to actually go through the cooling finns on the hotend and minimize heat creep.
Well, I suppose we learn from our mistakes. As for the cover, it is so bad to put and take off that on day 3 one of its legs slightly broke already. This is why I am not using it. But from now on I will use the sock. If I had, none of this would have probably happened…F*uck. I have to now get new heating element, just 25 euro, but it is quite the unwanted Christmas gift.
Also you mean “overheating” because no sock?
I meant that the already-printed parts could be overheating as a result. It could possibly be causing simultaneous underheating in the nozzle.
Bambu machines aren’t like most 3d printers, there is very little assumption for user modding and the tolerances are almost entirely spent. If there’s a part there, everything is likely pretty heavily tuned for that part to be there. Best to only do things to it you’ve seen lots of other people do already with no bad effect, let others do the expensive experiments.
