I have been using my printer for 4 months or so, not to many prints but had a big failure yesterday. I was printing PC, and the print failed. Now my x-axis seems frozen on the rails, I can barely move it back and forth on the carbon rails when powered off, and have not found any info about how to look for problems, or disassemble far enough to find where/why it is binding. The y-axis still moves freely.
Any advice?
Thanks,
Terry
Powered off? You won’t be able to move the head with power on if the steppers are engaged.
Yes, Powered off it can barely be moved. Seems really bound up. Powered on and trying to jog the x axis and it just makes bad sounds.
Maybe release the belt tension and see if you can move it then. That might isolate a failed motor if the belt will hop on the sprocket (at least enough slack to move freely a little bit), or indeed seized bearings on the CF rods.
You may have a build up of schmoo (Bambu Lab refers to this as dust and build up) or a tiny chunk of filament that’s wedged into the linear bearings.
Check out this guide to cleaning the rods,
I would flood the rods with IPA and slowly work the print head back and forth to see if I could dislodge whatever is in there and I would wipe the rods clean frequently in case its a build up of VOCs or dust. The IPA should break it up enough that a clean towel will carry it away. Change to a clean area of towel fairly frequently so you aren’t redepositing the schmoo.
I would suggest not just loosening the drive belt but completely removing it
The extra time involved in removing the belt will give you a far more clear indication as to what is binding up and where
With the belt or even both belts removed you will be able to completely remove the X axis assembly and carbon rods if required for cleaning or even parts replacement
In my experience as a mechanic the extra time spent moving or removing parts for better access actually saves time and makes the job easier to perform in the end
Our printers are core-xy, both belts are involved when moving X or Y unless you’re pulling it at a 45º angle. No need to touch the belts, if it’s strictly in the X direction then the bearings or rods on that axis are the culprit.
How did the PC part fail? Did you have a large collision?
Thanks for this, I did exactly what you suggested, and yes just a little bit of junk can completely lock up the x-axis. My rails didn’t seem that dirty, but after a deep soak of ipa, and moving slowly and cleaning then move again I was able to get it to loosen back up. Took close to 30mins of wiping with IPA wet wipes and spray to get it back to normal. I guess this is a lesson for everyone, clean the rails often.
Thanks again.
Terry
Keep the inside of the printer clean, including your surface around the unit With all the air movement around inside, stuff can get blown up and lodged at the worst time. Also the higher temp specialty filaments are the culprits for carbon rod buildup.
If you start seeing a lot of “hairs” on the upper part of your printer (under the rails) you might have some odd stringing going on
I am having this same issue. It suddenly started happening on a 3 month old P1S. I have repeatedly cleaned the carbon rods and the tool head will move smoothly across the rods when moving at a 45deg angle. With the power off it is very difficult to move the tool head straight left to right because the right rear X-axis motor is really difficult to turn. The other motor moves easily.
The difficulty with this is that prints seem to start out just fine but after a few layers it starts shifting layers because the belt/motor is not moving the tool head properly. It sticks/jams and then keeps going.
Sounds like you have a motor failing.
That’s what I think too so I ordered a new motor. It just burns me that this three month old P1S would already have a failure like this. I have six bambu printers and three of them have experienced loss of use failures like this within the first 6 months. Really makes me question my decision to go with Bambu over other printers.
I also have a toolhead that only moves at 45 degrees. What was your solution?
If it only moves at 45 degrees it normally means one of the stepper motors is seized or non functional.
I wonder if a shorted output driver for one of them would also cause that symptom, I think at least I’d try unplugging the steppers from the board to test before assuming they were bad.
Bambu rolls their own drivers so it isn’t like other printers that use stand alone drivers. If you can’t turn the stepper by moving the head then you can try unplugging it. This will tell you if it is a control board or stepper issue.
I think you and I are saying the same thing.