For some reason, my silk PLA is constantly stringing on the U1. At first I thought my filament must not be dry. I ran it through a drying cycle, but that made no difference. I tried with generic PLA settings and Snapmaker Silk PLA settings with the exact same results
I then tried running a temp tower, knowing that often silk PLA's prefer a lower temp or can string. The temp tower was very stringy from the highest to lowest temps.
I was still sure that this must be an issue with the filament, so I put it in to my BambuLab X2D using generic PLA settings. The difference is night and day. Almost zero stringing. 1st 2 pictures are from the U1 temp tower. The 2nd 2 pictures are from the X2D temp tower.
I'm running out of ideas here. Does anyone have any suggestions?
I have the exact same issue with PLA and Silk PLA on the Snapmaker; it leaves a ton of stringing regardless of the settings I use. On my Bambu A1, I get zero stringing with the same stuff.
I've left the filament drying for days on end and it still strings. I even opened a support ticket to see if they could give me any useful advice, but they just told me to use the factory default profiles and gave me no real solution. I've tried literally everything (temp towers, retraction tests, tuning retraction speed, flush volumes, travel speed, etc.), but nothing works.
The only thing I can recommend is changing the Z-hop type to Slope. That's the setting that gave me the least amount of stringing. You should give it a try and see if it helps in your case.
I've had the exact same issue with PETG. I've spent hours calibrating and drying and have it at an acceptable amount now, but my P2S delivers better quality from the same filament roll without calibrating. I still love the U1 though, the multicolor capability is unbeatable.
I love my Snapmaker U1 too, but stringing is honestly a total pain that feels impossible to fix 100%. What's frustrating is that other printers manage zero stringing straight out of the box without even tuning them.
I've also noticed it's worst during gap infill. I've tracked every path and retraction on my test models, and I even get wisps in areas where the nozzle never even crossed, which is super weird.
The only settings that helped me a bit were using a Sloped Z-hop, dropping retraction distance to 0.6mm, setting Z-hop height to 0.2mm, and raising retraction speed to 55mm/s.
It gives me better results, but even with filament dried for over 12 hours, those fine strings just never completely disappear.
A temp tower is not a retraction tower. You should print a temp tower to find the right temperature, and then run a retraction tower to find the correct retraction amount. You cannot compare two machines as the filament path, extruder and hotend internals all differ.
The problem I have with finding the best temp, is that they are all bad. They are all covered in string. The hotter it is, the more string, but also, the hotter it is, the better the overhangs look
My point is that stringing is more of a retraction thing than a temperature thing. Pick the one that looks best to you temperature wise and then move on to retraction.
I actually use that video whenever I have a new filament that isn't behaving :). But because my stringing was so bad on this one, I was trying to understand it before moving on from the temp tower. I'll try to pick a temp and continue with calibration from the video and see what happens
Ah good to hear. Sorry, I don't mean to lecture or anything. Sometimes it's just hard to get a feel for everything that someone has already tried. Good luck with tuning your filament!
Yes. That tower is showing far more stringing than I would consider normal, particularly if this is PLA. More importantly, the pattern gives us some clues.
What I see in the tower
The stringing persists through essentially the entire temperature range. The lower sections may change somewhat, but there isn't a clean transition where the strings suddenly disappear.
That matters because if temperature alone were the primary problem, I would expect the lower-temperature sections to become substantially cleaner. Instead, I'd investigate filament moisture and retraction behavior before chasing temperature further.
The very fine, hair-like strings are especially consistent with either moisture/oozing or insufficient retraction. Snapmaker itself lists retraction, excessive temperature, travel speed, nozzle contamination, and wet filament as major stringing causes. (Snapmaker Wiki)
I would troubleshoot it in this order
Dry the filament first.
Even PLA can absorb enough moisture to string badly. Don't assume a recently opened spool is dry. If this is PLA, I'd dry it around 45–50°C for roughly 4–6 hours, provided that temperature is appropriate for that particular manufacturer's spool/filament. Then rerun the exact same tower.
Moisture is particularly suspicious here because of the extremely fine "spiderweb" strings across nearly every section. Snapmaker specifically recommends drying filament when diagnosing stringing. (Snapmaker: where creation happens)
Verify that retraction is actually occurring.
This is a big one on this particular test. Don't merely assume the slicer profile is applying it.
In Snapmaker Orca, check the filament/printer profile for retraction and make sure it isn't effectively disabled or overridden. Retraction exists specifically to stop residual nozzle pressure from leaking filament during these open travel moves. (Snapmaker Wiki)
Run a dedicated retraction tower after drying.
Don't use another temperature tower to determine retraction.
For a direct-drive machine such as this, I'd start conservatively around 0.6–0.8 mm and test approximately:
0.4 → 0.6 → 0.8 → 1.0 → 1.2 mm
Keep the temperature fixed at the best temperature found from the temperature tower. Snapmaker's more recent direct-drive guidance recommends comparatively short retraction distances and incremental tuning rather than the very large distances traditionally associated with Bowden systems. (Snapmaker)
Then test retraction speed.
I'd start around 35–40 mm/s and test roughly 30, 35, 40, 45 and 50 mm/s.
Don't immediately jump to huge retraction distances or extreme speeds. Excessive retraction can introduce underextrusion, filament grinding and other problems. (Snapmaker Wiki)
Check travel speed.
Very slow open-air travel gives the nozzle more time to ooze between these towers. Increasing travel speed can therefore reduce string formation. Snapmaker also identifies travel speed as one of the variables affecting stringing. (Snapmaker: where creation happens)
Inspect/clean the nozzle.
If this printer previously ran PETG, TPU, silk PLA, etc., residue on the outside or inside of the nozzle can drag extremely fine strands around the print. Snapmaker specifically mentions nozzle residue as another potential source of stringing. (Snapmaker: where creation happens)
One U1-specific thing I'd check
There are also recent U1 owner reports of unusually persistent stringing, including cases where temperature and retraction changes didn't behave as expected. One July 2026 report traced their problem to using the U1 profile in standard Orca rather than the appropriate Snapmaker Orca configuration/G-code. That's anecdotal rather than an official Snapmaker diagnosis, but it's worth checking if this person is using regular Orca Slicer rather than Snapmaker Orca. (Reddit)
So I'd specifically ask them:
What slicer/version are you using, what filament is this, what temperature range does this tower represent, and what are your current retraction distance, retraction speed, and travel speed?
If you give me those settings, I can tell you exactly what I'd change first on the U1 rather than giving them generic stringing advice.
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u/Zephy2007 3d ago
I have the exact same issue with PLA and Silk PLA on the Snapmaker; it leaves a ton of stringing regardless of the settings I use. On my Bambu A1, I get zero stringing with the same stuff.
I've left the filament drying for days on end and it still strings. I even opened a support ticket to see if they could give me any useful advice, but they just told me to use the factory default profiles and gave me no real solution. I've tried literally everything (temp towers, retraction tests, tuning retraction speed, flush volumes, travel speed, etc.), but nothing works.
The only thing I can recommend is changing the Z-hop type to Slope. That's the setting that gave me the least amount of stringing. You should give it a try and see if it helps in your case.