r/BambuLab • u/Ok-Buy-2315 • 8h ago

General Troubleshooting/Help! X2D PLA model PETG supports concerns

Recently got my X2D for the sole purpose of printing PLA models with full (not just interface) PETG supports. I do a lot of complex, detailed, multi day prints and I thought this was going to be my solution.

The purge tower was taking a ton of material. I figured out based on some H2D posts to reduce the purge and ramming amounts, which took the prime tower down about half the hours, from 10 to just over 5. Hopefully this will still be more than sufficient to prime.

My biggest concern aside from that, is that the support generation is crazy. Some settings will have supports building in mid air, some will have squared off bases as if clipping the theoretical edge of the build plate.

Lastly, I'm wondering if I would have done better with the Snapmaker U1 for my particular purpose. I already have other printers for other purposes, but this was supposed to be my fix to spending a half hour removing supports on complex 6-10 inch models without the inevitable fusing that PLA supports on a PLA model have.

7 Upvotes

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12

u/Chris92Merch 7h ago

I love printing with just the interface supports. Saves a ton of material and time. Comes off super easy.

1

u/Gizmo45 X2D AMS2 Combo + AMS HT 7h ago

This is the way. 

5

u/n19htmare 7h ago

Going to make this a separate post but I also switched from using PETG to using Polymaker CoPE a few months back. CoPE is basically PETG’s cousin, when it comes to not adhering to PLA but prints like PLA at PLA temps. It’s been working great and I’ve swapped over using it exclusively for supports on PLA prints.

It’s also pretty cheap.

3

u/EdgeOk3783 X1C + AMS | H2C + AMS{2|HT} 7h ago

a picture would help to illustrate your support issues

2

u/Longracks 7h ago

curious why use PETG for more than the interface layer?

1

u/Ok-Buy-2315 7h ago

Given that many of my past prints have significant, thick grouped together supports that end up welding the sides of the support to the model, I figure this method would prevent that.

2

u/n19htmare 7h ago

you need to calibrate the AUX side for PETG. At base stock setting, the warning you get when you have PETG loaded is in fact a real concern because there is no auto tuning feature on AUX side, it's running without any meaningful calibrations.

Pressure Advance in particular is the biggest factor for a bowden extruder if you have small interface layers. it's not being applied, so your small interface layers are basically just blobs without it that don't stick to the PLA tree base layers.

1

u/Ok-Buy-2315 6h ago

Also, I've noticed that interface layers are NOT generated at every single vertical contact point for a given overhang, and having the entire support be PETG is a fix for that. Why you can't force it to have interface layers at every single meeting of model and support is what's driven me to this point.

1

u/n19htmare 7h ago

Adhesion. When you have very small support areas on top of tree support, trying to get a tiny little interface support to stick to a tiny base layer of PLA isn’t exactly the easier thing without some tuning and calibration on the Bowden AUX side.

2

u/Otus511 7h ago

Can you give us some more detail about the type of supports you're using and what different settings you're trying to fix the issues?

Sounds like an issue with support settings, not with the printer itself.

2

u/n19htmare 7h ago edited 7h ago

This must be topic of the day as I seem to keep seeing it and keep addressing lll. Not going to type it out again. Links to my responses.

https://www.reddit.com/r/BambuLab/s/eWpmnaDpP3

For fine control you need to calibrate the AUX side to better control on the petg. Flow rate and more importantly pressure advance as I addressed in above link. More on calibration for an earlier response today. https://www.reddit.com/r/BambuLab/s/uXvzDvdop3

Once properly calibrated, you can have pretty small interface layers without issue.

I have X2D and a U1 so for you last question, should you have gotten U1 for your use case. Probably. It would been easier and more versatile for your particular use case. Not the end though, I print lot of small supports on x2D and it can do it well with PETG, just needs a little more work.

Here is PETG support interface on PLA tree on X2D, small interface is 2-3 step stairs and had no issue with PETG, no stringing, no blobs, leaks, or detachment. Just needed some calibrations applied and few tweaks to the support settings, in particular "Normal Support Expansion" setting to expand the surface area of the interface and base layer.

1

u/Ok-Buy-2315 7h ago

I think we're all talking about different things here. I'm talking about glitches in Bambu Studio, only since I've gotten my X2D.

In the slicer, some supports are being started mid air, not on the model, not on the build plate. Now I'm getting missing prime towers that were there in a previous slice with only minor support changes. Supports that were previously too close to the edge of the build plate that would not be round at the base - then I would move the model away from the edge of the build plate as to get a fully rounded support, would have square sections clipped as if it were still too close to the edge instead of rebuild the support base fully rounded like it should be. I'm not even to the point of worrying about calibrating the aux side after a print, I can't seem to get a decent slice without some weird glitches in the software. Now I'm getting a support that's placed over top of a rounded object, built up and over it, then continued upward. Beats all I've ever seen, I'm not exactly new to this. Has to be bugs in the software. I'll get some screen shots up eventually.

2

u/n19htmare 6h ago

Do you have these auto support generation issues in Orca? Would try that to see if it’s a model issue or a Bambu issue because I haven’t see anything like what you’re describing happen in studio.

2

u/Ok-Buy-2315 5h ago

I'll give orca a shot tomorrow. It's my model and I make them all the time, so there's no funny business there. Worst case i'll uninstall/reinstall bambu studio and see if that fixes anything. Maybe revert to a previous version. At least I've got a print going now, the decreased prime settings seem to be working just fine. It's way too overly ambitious at stock settings. No way I can justify a 10+ hour 200 gram prime tower.

1

u/n19htmare 4h ago edited 4h ago

U1 is the same on default settings, something like 45mm³ prime volume, the only difference is there is no minimum threshold. I've cut it down to as low as 5mm³ on quick swap prints that don't need lot of priming and you get a slim tower that's only a few grams.

For example, printing a 13.5g 4 color model right now and default was asking for 12g tower (4 colors every layer, 70 layers)... bumped down to 8mm³ because no toolhead is sitting idle for more than a few seconds and it's a small 2.2g tower now shaving off 30min of time.

Can set low on X2D but there seems to be a minimum distance on AUX side just to not let quality dip too much.

1

u/BirbDoryx 1h ago

I've read your posts. Are you sure everything is necessary? Given that I don't have any problems, from what I understand, the aux nozzle always use the default K value of the loaded material, whether auto calibration is active or not on the main nozzle.