Waves/Ringing in Outer Wall

Bambu Lab A1 Series Troubleshooting
1

Problem Description
I’ve had my A1 for a little over a month now with no issues. Recently, my 0.4 mm nozzle clogged (unrelated issue) and I replaced it with a Bambu Labs hardened steel 0.4 mm nozzle. Afterward, I re-ran all calibrations on the unit.

I noticed that after the swap, my prints all have this strange wave-like feature in their outer walls (see Images below), regardless of layer height. I spent the last 2 days attempting to fix the issue. I am familiar with engineering but I’m new to 3D printing, so I’m a bit lost. So far, I’ve attempted the following with the standard Benchy & standard slicer settings, all with no effect:

  1. Uninstalling and reinstalling the hotend assembly, verifying that all bolted connections are solid. The 4 screws on the backside of the heater were a bit loose but not concerningly so. I confirmed that the nozzle was correctly seated and clipped according to documentation. Re-ran calibration.

  2. I found a resource online that mentioned this sort of issue could be related to axis ringing, so I re-tensioned the Y-axis belt. Re-ran calibration.

  3. I ran the PLA filament at different temperatures: 220 +/- 10C. This had only heat-related effects you would expect (extra stringiness at higher temp, less adhesion at lower temp).

  4. I tried other PLA filaments, concerned about moisture. A newly-opened bag of PLA had the same issue, as did another roll that is less than 1 week old.

I have not noticed any other concerning issues.

Images

Standard Benchy, 0.2 mm layer height. Issue seen on vertical frames.
Standard Benchy, 0.2 mm layer height. Issue seen on vertical frames.1920×1446 224 KB

Standard Benchy, 0.12 mm layer height.
Standard Benchy, 0.12 mm layer height.1920×1446 171 KB

Standard Benchy, 0.12 mm layer height.
Standard Benchy, 0.12 mm layer height.1920×1446 190 KB

Same artifacts seen on a different print.
Same artifacts seen on a different print.1920×1446 209 KB

Hardware Information

  • Bambu Lab A1: Software Version 1.04.00.00
  • AMS Lite: Software Version 00.00.07.94
  • Filament: Elegoo standard PLA, Elegoo matte PLA, Bambu Labs standard PLA

Thank you very much!

2

You said you swapped the nozzle, this would have been my suggestion to fix the problem had you not said that.

However, what happens if you replace the nozzle with the first one, do you still get the same issues?

Did you remember to tell the printer (directly or through Bambu Studio) you have a hardened steel nozzle rather than the stainless steel one?

3

Thank you so much for responding. I just printed a flawless 0.6 mm nozzle print so I checked the nozzle that I took out of the 0.4 mm box and it is, in fact, 0.8 mm. I just assumed the box was marked correctly. I’ll close this!

2 Likes
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We can’t trust anyone these days!

1 Like
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