3D Printing First Tries at Printing

[Bruiser]

Santa brought me a Bambu X1 Carbon with AMS for Christmas and I have been working on getting it unpacked and ready to print. It's been a task that I am not sure if it is due to the crappy instructions Bambu provides or if it's because this is my first printer.

I did my first prints yesterday starting off with the boat test print in PLA. It looked ok so I decided to print a nose cone with ABS. Print seemed good on the outside but not so much on the inside. The support ring had an issue so I need to figure that out and I want the ring to be solid so I can drill and tap it for screws to hold on a bulkhead.


Next I tried printing out an AV Bay sled. It wanted to print it on it's side and I couldn't get it to change from PLA to PTEG but I let it print anyway as a test. It came out with some horrible supports but screw spacing was good. I need to learn how to rotate objects and change the filament. Wierd, cause I changed it for the nose cone but couldn't for the sled.


Off to watch a tutorial,
-Bob

 

[OzHybrid]

Print your bulkhead separately and glue it in. If you do it in ABS, a little bit of ABS in acetone slush will glue it. You'd need a heap of support to print it in place.
Did you dry your filament? You need to be consistent with your procedures. Stick with 1 type of filament. Bed prep is different for each filament, settings are different.
PRINT ABS WITH THE FAN OFF. 95degC bed temp. Dry filament.
The AMS will keep your filament dry, it won't dry it in the first place.
Search for AMS dessicant holders, print them, and get 250gm of orange green indicating silica dessicant.
Ditch the dessicant that comes with the AMS. It will turn to a gooey slush if it gets too damp. The silica gel will get you down to 17-18% humidity. That's fine.

 

[droopy]

The other thing is with ABS you need the chamber to be warm. I generally move the bed to the top and heat it to 110C. Wait a half hour or so and the chamber temp should be above 45C or so. Print away...

 

[OzHybrid]

The other thing is with ABS you need the chamber to be warm. I generally move the bed to the top and heat it to 110C. Wait a half hour or so and the chamber temp should be above 45C or so. Print away...

Increased temps can reduce tha speed you can print at. I've found 95 to be adequate. But if it's working for you, stick with whatever works.
The default setting from Bambu ABS is 85. Which is low IMHO.
My old Tronxy was set to 105C. There's also a bit of thermistor variation too.
If the first layer consistently sticks you're good. Otherwise adjust the bed temp up a bit till it does.

 

[droopy]

Increased temps can reduce tha speed you can print at. I've found 95 to be adequate. But if it's working for you, stick with whatever works.
The default setting from Bambu ABS is 85. Which is low IMHO.
My old Tronxy was set to 105C. There's also a bit of thermistor variation too.
If the first layer consistently sticks you're good. Otherwise adjust the bed temp up a bit till it does.

Woops, I should have been more clear. I don't print using those settings. I use the bed at 110C to heat up the chamber and then print at whatever the default ABS settings on the X1C are. The important part with ABS is heating up the enclosure prior to printing... (And drying filament, prepping the build plate properly, etc)

 

[OzHybrid]

Woops, I should have been more clear. I don't print using those settings. I use the bed at 110C to heat up the chamber and then print at whatever the default ABS settings on the X1C are. The important part with ABS is heating up the enclosure prior to printing... (And drying filament, prepping the build plate properly, etc)

I found at 85C I got ok adhesion with some smaller parts, but not with larger.
At 95C I get good bed adhesion with a 5mm brim on the outside and 0 gap to the print. This is pretty easy to clean up afterwards.

 

[neil_w]

Why start with ABS as a new user? Isn't PETG a lot easier to print? Unless you need the high heat tolerance of ABS...

 

[OzHybrid]

Why start with ABS as a new user? Isn't PETG a lot easier to print? Unless you need the high heat tolerance of ABS...

In a Bambu, it makes no real difference. Plug and play. BUT certainly you need to be doing the filament drying you should have been doing before but didn't have to....

 

[neil_w]

In a Bambu, it makes no real difference. Plug and play. BUT certainly you need to be doing the filament drying you should have been doing before but didn't have to....

Well, in this case the OP printed PLA just fine but then ran into problems with ABS. Seems like an unnecessary jump in fiddliness right at the start, even in a Bambu (again, unless the particular characteristics of ABS are required for this app but I don't see why they would be).

 

[OzHybrid]

Well, in this case the OP printed PLA just fine but then ran into problems with ABS. Seems like an unnecessary jump in fiddliness right at the start, even in a Bambu (again, unless the particular characteristics of ABS are required for this app but I don't see why they would be).

My Bambu printed ABS straight out of the box. But I had dried my filament as pre the instructions on, drying the filament........

 

[cwbullet]

Santa brought me a Bambu X1 Carbon with AMS for Christmas and I have been working on getting it unpacked and ready to print. It's been a task that I am not sure if it is due to the crappy instructions Bambu provides or if it's because this is my first printer.

I did my first prints yesterday starting off with the boat test print in PLA. It looked ok so I decided to print a nose cone with ABS. Print seemed good on the outside but not so much on the inside. The support ring had an issue so I need to figure that out and I want the ring to be solid so I can drill and tap it for screws to hold on a bulkhead.
View attachment 688112

Next I tried printing out an AV Bay sled. It wanted to print it on it's side and I couldn't get it to change from PLA to PTEG but I let it print anyway as a test. It came out with some horrible supports but screw spacing was good. I need to learn how to rotate objects and change the filament. Wierd, cause I changed it for the nose cone but couldn't for the sled.
View attachment 688111

Off to watch a tutorial,
-Bob

The sled is textbook under extrusion.

 

[Bruiser]

I opened the filament out of the hermetically sealed bag, put it in the AMS and started the print. From my readings I thought the filament was dry coming out of the bag. Plus, I'm in NM where the humidity is already low, and it's freakin' cold out so the furnace is on drying out the air even more.

Not saying you guys are wrong or nothing, just what I've read/been told up to this point. One of my co-workers has a X1 Caron with AMS also and he told me I'd be fine as long as the filament stays in the AMS. He said he has many. many roles of filament and he keeps the extra rolls in a sealed box with desiccant inside. He said I need to buy some sort of desiccant that you can put in the microwave to "regenerate"? I was planning to get back to him on that. I have ordered a largish ammo box that I had planned to do that with.

Neil, using ABS because it is among the least likely to deform/warp in our high summer temps. Was trying to use PETG for the sled as it won't actually be in the sun. PLA is the worst (I read) about warping. Plus, I am going to tinker with aquarium decorations (as a side gig) and they need to be ABS.

I figured out how to rotate the sled and change the feed to PETG while at lunch. I am printing the sled again right now. My phone is saying its 62 percent done and it looks pretty good on my phone screen. I changed the supports to tree style and I did put a brim around it.

This nose cone was printed by my friend for me on his X1-C and he didn't have any problem but he believes he used supports which I didn't. His print turned out to be a little loose so I wanted to try the scaling tool so I went 101% of the original and it turned out to be a little too much. I am going to try it again at 100.5% this weekend after I change some of the settings (support, infill) and see what happens

Does anyone have a recommendation for a filament dryer/storage set up? Or a link to the reusable desiccant? Amazon would make it simple for me

Thanks for all the suggestions,
-Bob

 

[Roy-RoysRockets.com]

Take your time, and let's not jump in chest-deep until we understand more. I have one Bambu with over 3000 hours of printing and rarely ever use anything but stock settings. Things to double-check.

• Correct material chosen on the slicer
• Correct bed type
• correct filament type/brand
  • Dont use Bambu settings on anything but Bambu
• Practice printing on something small (benches) until you are happy you understand how to use the slicer fully.

Please stay away from ABS unless you need it. Almost all rocketry can be accomplised with PETG.
Bambu is the easiest of all printers i have used in 10 years of printing, but you do have to understand the basics. There are a TON of beginner videos on the Bambu slicr and basics to get you started.

Or PM me directly, i will help you all I can

 

[cerving]

PETG is almost as good as ABS, and is way easier to print. All of my Bambu P1S prints have been perfect, except for one nose cone print. That one was because the design was flawed, not because of the printer. If you're just getting used to the printer, start with PLA... it's pretty forgiving. I've printed an AV bay sled with PLA and two PETG bulkheads with integral charge wells, they're going into a GLR 3" Vertical Assault.

 

[ShadowSpire48]

The sled is textbook under extrusion.

It's probably because it sounded like he was printing PETG on a PLA profile.

 

[ShadowSpire48]

I have two Bambu printers and I will say it is not the printer and while the instructions are a bit off in places, they're solid (especially compared to Creality). Did you accidentally turn off the flow calibration in the slicer that makes the poops in the beginning? Always leave that on if you did turn it off. ABS is a bit of a nightmare and you need ventilation when dealing with it due to the fumes, a closed printer door won't be enough. Stick with PLA until you get familiar with the printer and how to adjust print settings in Bambu Slicer.

Supports are EVERYTHING on a print such as nose cones as well. Depending on my mood, I will do Tree (skinny/strong) or normal (snug). Snug imo is better for large areas.

 

[cwbullet]

It's probably because it sounded like he was printing PETG on a PLA profile.

That would do it.

 

[Bruiser]

There are many many settings and it was my understanding that when you select PLA, PTEG or whatever the Bambu studio will automatically set default parameters. If you want to believe I went in there and changed everything you go right ahead.

The sled came out much better with it standing up with tree type supports out of PTEG


Off to watch another tutorial.

-Bob

 

[Roy-RoysRockets.com]

We are just trying to help; don't get mad .

Changing orientation wouldn't fix the under-extrusion issues from your first attempt in green to the white one, but it looks much better. Yes, choosing all the right options will load "default" parameters. I print my sleds in the same orientation, with painted tree supports. I don't support (small round) holes most of the time. So, I manually choose where to put them.

 

[OzHybrid]

I opened the filament out of the hermetically sealed bag, put it in the AMS and started the print. From my readings I thought the filament was dry coming out of the bag. Plus, I'm in NM where the humidity is already low, and it's freakin' cold out so the furnace is on drying out the air even more.

Not saying you guys are wrong or nothing, just what I've read/been told up to this point. One of my co-workers has a X1 Caron with AMS also and he told me I'd be fine as long as the filament stays in the AMS. He said he has many. many roles of filament and he keeps the extra rolls in a sealed box with desiccant inside. He said I need to buy some sort of desiccant that you can put in the microwave to "regenerate"? I was planning to get back to him on that. I have ordered a largish ammo box that I had planned to do that with.

Neil, using ABS because it is among the least likely to deform/warp in our high summer temps. Was trying to use PETG for the sled as it won't actually be in the sun. PLA is the worst (I read) about warping. Plus, I am going to tinker with aquarium decorations (as a side gig) and they need to be ABS.

I figured out how to rotate the sled and change the feed to PETG while at lunch. I am printing the sled again right now. My phone is saying its 62 percent done and it looks pretty good on my phone screen. I changed the supports to tree style and I did put a brim around it.

This nose cone was printed by my friend for me on his X1-C and he didn't have any problem but he believes he used supports which I didn't. His print turned out to be a little loose so I wanted to try the scaling tool so I went 101% of the original and it turned out to be a little too much. I am going to try it again at 100.5% this weekend after I change some of the settings (support, infill) and see what happens

Does anyone have a recommendation for a filament dryer/storage set up? Or a link to the reusable desiccant? Amazon would make it simple for me

Thanks for all the suggestions,
-Bob

For drying, I just use the Sunlu with the fan. There are more expensive, there are better, but I've had no issues. I only print ABS.
Only 1 roll of hermetically sealed filament I've had has been as low as after I'd dried it. So all except 1 needed.
drying. Do not assume because it's in a bag and has dessicant it's dry.
Drying all your filament makes a massive difference to printing consistency.
The AMS won't dry your filament. It will keep it dry.
Just get the orange/green colour indicating silica dessicant. Copy and paste into Amazon search.

 

[Huxter]

>> Does anyone have a recommendation for a filament dryer/storage set up? Or a link to the reusable desiccant? Amazon would make it simple for me

I have dozens of spools of filament - PLA and PETG mostly. Some are over 2+ years old.

I buy the 32 qt Sterlite containers at Wally world. These have a blue 'sponge' like(?) seal around the top to help keep moisture out. They'll hold 10 - 1 kg rolls.



The PLA containers get decadence packs that I dry out periodically (big ones I got from work - unboxing Chromebooks)

The PETG containers get more active means of removing the H2O. I use these from Amazon:



They change colors when saturated, and has an electric plug to plug in and dry it out. Works well.

I agree w others: 10-20% infill, but more perimeters/walls for stronger, but light weight. (Walls have less weight than infill)

 

[thzero]

From my readings I thought the filament was dry coming out of the bag.

Nope

 

[thzero]

One of my co-workers has a X1 Caron with AMS also and he told me I'd be fine as long as the filament stays in the AMS. He said he has many. many roles of filament and he keeps the extra rolls in a sealed box with desiccant inside. He said I need to buy some sort of desiccant that you can put in the microwave to "regenerate"? I was planning to get back to him on that. I have ordered a largish ammo box that I had planned to do that with.

Lookup AMS desiccant containers and print some of those. It helps with longevity, but whenever I'm switching rolls or its been awhile, I use a dryer to dry the filament.

But long term storage... meh, will it help? yes. Do I rely on it? No. I kinda even stopped with it, just take a roll or two and go dry it then print it.

 

[Bruiser]

Found several desiccant containers designed for the AMS to print. Any recommendation on the the of filament? Als found the orange desiccant on Amazon. Plan to start off with a 2lb bottle

Still waiting for the large ammo box to come in. Amazon says it'll ship in the next 2 weeks... I like the sterilite container. I didn't realize any of that type of container had a seal on them.

Thanks for the help. Gonna watch some "Best dryer" videos on You Tube tomorrow.

I did do another print of the nosecone after changing some of the parameters and it came out perfect but the lip is not enough for the wall thickness of the Aerotech tubing after it has been quasi-glassed. I am going to redesign it as a three piece part with the shoulder, lower cone and upper cone.

Thanks for the help with the desiccant and holders,
-Bob

 

[thzero]

Found several desiccant containers designed for the AMS to print. Any recommendation on the the of filament? Als found the orange desiccant on Amazon. Plan to start off with a 2lb bottle

Still waiting for the large ammo box to come in. Amazon says it'll ship in the next 2 weeks... I like the sterilite container. I didn't realize any of that type of container had a seal on them.

Thanks for the help. Gonna watch some "Best dryer" videos on You Tube tomorrow.

I did do another print of the nosecone after changing some of the parameters and it came out perfect but the lip is not enough for the wall thickness of the Aerotech tubing after it has been quasi-glassed. I am going to redesign it as a three piece part with the shoulder, lower cone and upper cone.

Thanks for the help with the desiccant and holders,
-Bob

Pick one they pretty much all do same thing.

 

[OzHybrid]

The cheap Sunlu with the fan(newer version) is $40. The fan does make a difference to the drying time. As Chris says, they're all pretty much the same unless you really need a higher than 60C for some exotic filament. But rather than spending a lot more money on a high end heater box for something you might print one roll of, use the oven.... You can re-dry your desiccant at the same time.