I have been using our Biqu B1 for almost 3 months. Almost all the prints have been perfect, even ones that took almost 3 days.
Recently I’ve printed 2 vases that printed perfectly. Today when I started the 3rd vase it started looking all goopy, for lack of a better term. I turned down the nozzle temp and the bed temp but that didn’t help. I also changed the filament back to the colours that had previously been successful, still goopy. I tried levelling the printer and doing a factory reset but it’s still not working properly. I also tried other models that had previously been successful. The nozzle seems to be pushing down on the print and messing it up.
Thanks for that thought, Glenn. The humidity here is low. 39% presently. I wonder how much humidity is too much? I do keep the silica bags in the boxes of filament.
Thanks for your replies. Here is a better picture. You can see that the vase in the background is nice and smooth. The 2 in front are both all lumpy and a total mess.
I’ll have to look up how to check for clogs. Would that just be in the tip? Thanks again!
if you heat up the nozzle to extrusion temp you can go and extrude some filament and it should come out in a clean straight stream with no globs, bubbles or sizzle sounds
Thanks again! It may have been a clog. I took the tube that the filament runs through off of the extruder head, heated up the tip and pushed it through manually. When I put it back together and tested it, it worked fairly well again. It’s not a smooth looking as the previous versions, but I"m not sure if the black filament is just less forgiving.
I don’t know if it was that or if it was a coincidence, but I definitely learned some things about this machine and it’s working well again. Thanks very much for your help.
I watched a YouTube video that wasn’t specific to the biqu b1. It just said to push the tube back down firmly on to the print head, so that’s what I did. Do you have a source for good tech videos or instructions?
usually what you would do is loosen the fitting 1 turn or so, then push the tube in as far as it would go then tighten the fitting. The fitting will squash the tube against the bottom to make sure it’s sealed and not let molten plastic leak out.
When you say ‘boxes of filament’, I hope you mean bags? The boxes are porous and unsealed and will generally let humidity in faster than the silica can absorb it. Also, when you say the humidity is 39%, is that indoors? Keep in mind that humidity in a house can vary considerably based on how close you are to a shower, laundry room or kitchen. Basements are also notoriously damper than the main floor.
One other thing while I think of it: I’ve seen many people report that as the nozzles age, the filament gradually wears the opening larger. Brass is most susceptible to this which is why they sell hardened steel nozzles. Also, some filaments have additives which grind away on the nozzle tips even faster. Try putting in a new nozzle.
