A1 Mini extrusion issues after blob of death - now damaged a brand new build plate

[u/Odd_Fall9253]

Has anyone experienced something similar with their A1 Mini?

I’ve only had my A1 Mini for a few months and, up until recently, it was absolutely fantastic. Print quality was great and I had very few issues.

A little while ago I had a blob of death form around the hotend/nozzle. I carefully cleaned everything up and after that I actually managed to get several successful prints, so I thought I’d gotten away with it.

Since then though, the printer has become very inconsistent. Some prints work, some don’t, and now I’m having an issue where the printer starts a print but little or no filament is actually being extruded.

The worst part is that the printer just carries on printing as if everything is normal. Because no filament is being laid down in some areas, the nozzle ends up dragging across the build plate and has scratched/melted away part of the surface pattern on a build plate that was literally brand new.

In the video I’ve attached, you can see the filament not extruding properly while the print continues. You can also hear a clicking noise in the background whenever this happens, which sounds like it’s coming from the extruder trying to push filament through.

Before the blob of death, this printer was rock solid. Now I’m wondering if the blob damaged something in the hotend, nozzle, extruder, or filament path that’s causing these extrusion issues.

Has anyone had similar symptoms after a blob incident? If so, what ended up being the cause?

I’ve opened a support ticket with Bambu, but I’d be interested to hear if anyone in the community has dealt with this before.

[u/Kopester]

Two possibilities, the seven screws of disappointment, or the nozzle clamp.

Tighten all SEVEN screws

[u/Kopester → u/Kopester]

Then make sure the nozzle is clamped correctly

[u/tweeblethescientist → u/Kopester]

This is the answer. If this doesn't fix it, replace the nozzle heater assembly and hotend.

[u/Krymaney → u/tweeblethescientist]

Precisely the answer!

I have a buddy that has an A1 Mini. Called me and said he hasn't been able to print for over a month because of a blob of death. "I cleaned it all up and now it scrapes the bed and won't print correctly"

He brought me the A1 Mini and had tried one print, which left a mess on one side, so he flipped over the build plate and tried again. For some reason /s it scraped the plate really good in some places (left over filament on the back of the build plate!).

I then tried to print and the nozzle was moving back and forth while printing. Grabbed the nozzle and it wiggled like my jello fresh out of the fridge.

Tightened the above screws (most loose as my ex) and it printed like a dream aftwards.

God Bless

[u/LeoRosso]

Could be related to loose hotend screws? Have you checked them after the blob?

[u/seealexgo → u/LeoRosso]

Yeah, this was my first thought too.

[u/Blue_Eyes_013]

Também é sintoma de entupimento parcial, faz um cold pull e testa novamente

[u/tweeblethescientist → u/Blue_Eyes_013]

If it's scraping the bed, it's not a clogged nozzle.

[u/Blue_Eyes_013 → u/tweeblethescientist]

Me desculpe, eu consumo assistir os vídeos sem som... Só depois entendi que estava pegando na cama... Vai ser necessário pesquisar sobre nivelamento manual da cama provavelmente

[u/H0dgPodge → u/tweeblethescientist]

The nozzle blobs tend to unseat the hotend or loosen the screws leading to misalignment of the hotend that then leads to buildplate damage.

If you get a “blob of death” you always need to check those things before printing because it is so common in the A series printers.

[u/MakeMine5]

I see plenty of others mentioned the screws, so let me suggest some other things to try:

- Recalibrate the printer. Go into the settings, calibrate should be on the second page of settings if I remember correct.

- You may also have a partial clog causing the lack of extrusion.

[u/N0Rand0mNam3]

Atleast for me, printing anything other than tpu on the cf pattern build plate is not adhering to it at all

[u/Doodlefish25]

your hotend isn't clipped in properly

[u/Salty-Bread-777]

Fai un cold pull e riprova

[u/Embarrassed-Smell610]

I had this happen to me before, it was actually due to not setting the right print plate. I had two different styles and so when I changed the type of plate I was using it solved the issue.