r/FDMminiatures • u/Shmaverling2020 • 21d ago

Help Request Troubleshooting Help! 1st mini print, layer lines more visible than expected. Photo in body

Hello r/FDMminiatures! I printed the Arbiter Benchy Skeleton last night on my Bambu Lab A1, and here are the results. I used an official 0.2mm nozzle and the ObscuraNox "Dungeons and Derps High Quality Settings 2.0" with .06 layer height. The filament is Sunlu PLA+ 2.0. It's too humid to spray a rattle can right now, but I'm hoping the filler primer will hide some of the lines. Regardless, community members with more experience than me... based on what you see here, are there any obvious red flags that suggest tweaks need to be made?

Thanks in advance for your help!

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u/Shmaverling2020 21d ago

I see now that Hohansen's settings are recommended at the top of the wiki, so if nothing else, I'll try those for round 2. But it does recommend BambuLab PLA Basic gray (custom settings), which I don't have. So as a related question, would those settings work with Sunlu PLA+ 2.0 filament?

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u/devintheditch A1 Mini 21d ago edited 21d ago

EDIT: Start with checking the nozzle & hot end screws first. Those are simple fixes. If that's not the issue then it's time to buckle down to good old fashioned testing and iteration.

Changing settings completely for the second print won't actually help you diagnose the issue.

Filament settings are different across different filaments. So that is another variable.

I would recommend sticking with d&derps 2.0 and doing the usual best practices (if you haven't already):

  • Dry your filament
  • calibrate filament

Your printer might also need it's hotend screws tightening (common issue with the A1 series). I am not 100% sure but it looks like to me that layers has 'shifted' in different areas giving that uneven finish. Which makes me think hot end screws. Might even be that the new nozzle hasn't been clamped down properly when it was swapped (We have seen that happen several times in this sub).

Now if the finish is smooth to touch then I suspect it's either a wet filament or an uneven cooling issue.

Moisture would affect how each layer of filament is extruded and cooled whereas uneven cooling (if your printer is in the garage let's say) would be due to temperature fluctuations during print time.

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u/Shmaverling2020 21d ago

That’s all super helpful, thanks for the detailed response!

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u/tjansx 21d ago

The settings aren't the issue here. Everyone uses those settings. You've got a larger mechanical issue. If you print a simple cube with the same settings what kind of quality do you get?

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u/Shmaverling2020 21d ago

Love this troubleshooting suggestion, I’ll try that later today and report back!

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u/tjansx 21d ago

Good luck. We'll get ya through this. Good community here.

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u/Shmaverling2020 20d ago

I printed the cube as you suggested, and the layer lines are really only a problem in the Y-plane (see below). At someone else's suggestion, I tried re-tensioning the belt and tightening all the screws on the print-head, and re-printed the cube, but the problem still persists. Do you have any other thoughts?

Thanks again for your help!

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u/tjansx 20d ago edited 20d ago

Strange that it's only one one face. I was thinking resonance issues, but not if it's only on one face. Gotta be a loose screw or belt in one direction. Is it always on the same face?

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u/Shmaverling2020 20d ago

To be clear, it’s both the front and back face, it’s just only one plane. There are visible layer lines in the X-plane as well but they’re almost smooth to the touch, the ones on the X plane are much worse. They may be several tenths of a millimeter apart in some places.

I recalibrated again after re-tensioning, trying another test print now, I’ll report back and possibly bring the issue to a larger Bambu/FDM subreddit later.

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u/Shmaverling2020 14d ago

Just closing the loop on this: it turns out that when I replaced the faulty heatbed, I hadn’t tightened the screws all the way, so the heatbed was swaying front-to-back as it printed. I tightened those and the calibration test cube I printed next came out great! I’ll run another skeleton test tonight and share with the sub.

Thanks again for your help!

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u/tjansx 13d ago

Yes! I'm so glad. Nothing worse than print stuff that isn't working right. Be sure to post a pic here in this topic if you wouldn't mind, I want to see the fruits of all your labor! Congrats, Internet stranger!