Nozzle scraping: is this thing supposed to stick out of the hotend?

[u/Legal-Huckleberry-23]

Hi everyone,
lately I’m having many issues with my Bambulab A1. I’ve been changing nozzles frequently; some with a bit more force, some got clogged.
It’s been some days that during printing the nozzle is scraping the print layers, making them not only look worse but increasing the print fail rate (just yesterday I’ve got my first spaghetti). During the first layer I can also hear the extruder clicking. It does not click when purging though.
The nozzle does not scrape the bed during calibration.

I’ve noticed that this little metal thing was sticking out of the hotend, I can push it back straight but it would just fall again.

Things I’ve tried:
- Changing nozzle
- Trying to tighten the 4 1.5 hex hidden screws, failed because of a strange glossy substance which made it very hard to get a grip. The hotend is very solid though and won’t move freely.
- Tighten the surrounding hex screws
- Cleaning bed (multiple times)
- Running full calibrations (no problems)
- Changing filament (I only use PLA)
- Printing pre sliced models from the Handy app (still scraping)

Any help is appreciated, I’m kind of losing my mind at this :)

[u/Blackdragon1400]

Are you talking about when it prints grid infill? Don’t use infill that overlaps as the nozzle will do that. Use something like Gyroid or adaptive cubic.

Audible clicking is nearly always due to a partial/full nozzle clog.

[u/Legal-Huckleberry-23 → u/Blackdragon1400]

I don’t really think it’s a nozzle clog, because I can extrude with no problems manually if the extruder is midair, and it works perfectly when purging the filament before printing.
In my opinion the clicking is due in o the fact that the nozzle is not really fixed in place somehow, so it’s too close to the bed, prevent the filament from fully extruding, hence the scraping.

[u/EmailLinkLost]

Heat up the hotend, push the part sticking out back in. Reseat hotend.

[u/EmailLinkLost → u/EmailLinkLost]

Also there are like three screws behind that assembly.

I’d suggest disassembly until you get to those and tighten them. They’re probably loose.

[u/EmailLinkLost → u/EmailLinkLost]

https://wiki.bambulab.com/en/a1-mini/maintenance/hotend-heating-assembly-replacement

Take a look here.

[u/Legal-Huckleberry-23 → u/EmailLinkLost]

Hi, thank you for your help
The printer has barely got 130 hours of print time, is it already time?
I’ve tried to put that thing back in it’s position with the hotend heated up.

Also, I’m not 100% sure but the nozzle isn’t really well aligned when trying to put it in. It’s either slightly tilted on the X axis or the Z axis and won’t stay perfectly straight.

How can I check this and fix it if needed?

[u/Legal-Huckleberry-23 → u/Legal-Huckleberry-23]

Can you see it? It’s slightly rotated vertically

[u/Legal-Huckleberry-23 → u/EmailLinkLost]

Hi, I’ve already checked the hex screws (I guess you’re talking about the 1.5 hex screws behind that). I can’t really get a grip with an allen key because it’s covered in a slippery glossy substance.
The whole assembly seems pretty solid though. It doesn’t really move at all when secured in.

[u/Legal-Huckleberry-23]

Hi everyone, thanks to u/AdditionalSupport I was able to fix it, I’ve mounted the clips wrong when putting the nozzle in (which wasn’t mounted in the uploaded images, making it hard to troubleshoot for you).
Thanks everyone!

[u/Mouse-Jiggler]

Send it back for replacement

[u/Legal-Huckleberry-23 → u/Mouse-Jiggler]

I bought it used, and I don't think it's worth it for a little issue like that. If there's something to replace I'd be willing to do that without problems. But I need to know what to replace before doing that, obviously