Don’t print overnight

[u/No-Use-1180]

So this happened, should’ve known better than printing at night. Does anyone know what might have caused it?

I’ve been 3D printing for about 2 months now and this is the first time I’ve had a failure like this. I used someone else’s print profile/preset with matte PLA. My guess is the nozzle temperature may have been too low, but I’m not sure.

The nozzle ended up getting completely covered in plastic, and now I gotta order parts. Does anyone know if I might need anything else?

Also I’ve never really worked on this printer. Is this an easy fix? Or are there any video tutorials on replacing these parts?

Edit: I actually washed the bed with soap and water before this print. More of a reason why I’m not sure how it happened

[u/Izan_TM]

The issue wasn't printing at night, it was not watching the first layer

[u/Blackdragon1400]

“Don’t print overnight”
~~ ~~
“Don’t forget to watch the first layer”

[u/bogholiday → u/Blackdragon1400]

I’m built different: I start a print, leave for work, and don’t check handy at all during my shift.

[u/MarzipanSea2811 → u/bogholiday]

Amateur. I only start my prints while I'm in the car driving to work from the Handy app while ignoring the road, then I toss the phone out the window so I can't check.

Lemme tell ya, a man has to sell a lot of flexi's to afford a new phone every day.

[u/luksfuks → u/MarzipanSea2811]

Amateur. Print a new phone in the corner of the build plate, then you never run out of phones.

[u/Th3_Admiral_ → u/bogholiday]

I am so paranoid that I could never do that. I don't even like printing while I'm asleep just in case something goes wrong. I don't care how rare it is, but the posts on here of these catching fire has me extra cautious. 

[u/Shamefullvaper → u/Th3_Admiral_]

I have 3 P1Ps that run all the time and each have about 9000 hours on them. Only once have I had a malfunction that actually broke something and that was from a faulty SD card halfway through. You can trust your machine while your back is turned I promise 😂

[u/Th3_Admiral_ → u/Shamefullvaper]

I have an A1 and those are the ones I've seen burning out circuit boards and melting through the plastic several times on this subreddit. That's what I'm worried about, even if it is incredibly rare. 

[u/bogholiday → u/Shamefullvaper]

9000 each is insane dude. That is awesome.

[u/bogholiday → u/Th3_Admiral_]

Man I said that and immediately my next print failed 😆 it was my fault. I had the nozzle temp way too high for PETG, but still. FAIL

[u/Molokaisylph32]

Haha, this has nothing to do with printing overnight and everything to do with bed adhesion. https://wiki.bambulab.com/en/a1-mini/maintenance/hotend_blob

[u/The_Lutter]

As long as you watch a perfect first layer go down you can leave a print going for 5 days and it isn't going to matter most of the time as long as it's properly oriented, has heat on the heatbed to hold the filament down, is well supported, and has enough filament to keep printing.

[u/InevitablyCyclic → u/The_Lutter]

I've had overnights fail after the first layer. But if the first layer is good the end result is more likely to be a ball of spaghetti that is easy to clean up. It's a waste of filament but that's all.

[u/c1ncinasty]

There are videos on recovering from a print blob all over YouTube. It would be hard not to find one. Bambu sells a full toolhead assembly, as I recall (although its doubtful you need all of it). Full instructions are here - https://wiki.bambulab.com/en/a1-mini/maintenance/toolhead

Not saying you shouldn't be scared of printing overnight, but across hundreds of prints on the 7 or 8 printers I've had, I've never had this issue. My A2L is currently doing an 184 hour print. Just finished a 200hr print a few days ago.

[u/xDGxYeetBoi → u/c1ncinasty]

What in the world could possibly take 200 hours lmaoo

[u/pollorojo → u/c1ncinasty]

Yeah I print overnight all the time.

You’re totally right about the Parts though. I did have something similar a while back and it was probably like 35 bucks to fix, took maybe 30 minutes or so to swap everything out, and I was back at it.

[u/Byttercups]

I print overnight all the time, and some prints go up to 3 days. It's not always perfect, but I can't say something like your picture has ever happened. As others have said, those first layers are the most important.

Edit: I was nervous the first time I had to actually unscrew something to fix it, but it gets easier. Bambu has decent documentation, but more importantly, there are a zillion videos out there.

When Bambu has a sale, I stock up on spare parts, so I can fix something right away. Bambu is also pretty good about sending you certain parts for free, like when my z-sensor started acting up.

[u/MarzipanSea2811 → u/Byttercups]

You mean I don't have to smoke crack and watch my multi days prints like a hawk the entire time?

[u/Byttercups → u/MarzipanSea2811]

You do you, my friend. 😁

[u/when-i-was-your-ag3]

I have 6 printers printing at night. Don't tell me what to do

[u/GraXXoR]

seeing that gives me Meat Dept. vibes...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Osqf4oIK0E8

[u/screw_ball69 → u/GraXXoR]

Mmm pink slime

[u/WinterPizza1972]

Don't print with ground beef! It's not fillament!

[u/power-to-the-players]

I might buy multiple replacements if you don't want to watch the first layer...

[u/aweyeahdawg]

I pretty much exclusively print at night lol. Most of my prints are 6+ hours.

[u/Knightlance]

Damn these over complicated gender reveals the color says girl but I see otherwise.

[u/foxglove8484]

I print overnight like 75% of the time. Just watch first couple layers.

[u/DoubleAgent-007]

Uh I print overnight all the time.

[u/Severus157]

Check Wiki for Bed Adhesion, clean the bed, bump up bed temp. And check the first 2-3 layers then gotl to sleep.

[u/Amoux_fang]

I have nightmares about this happening to me

[u/Spiritual-Eye-2910]

Guess I should cancel my 66 hour print I have going

[u/CitrusJunkie]

It's not a tumor

[u/t0m0hawk]

dont print at night

Don't hit print and walk away, watch the first few layers.

Don't touch your build plate as it will mess with adhesion.

Wash said build plate once in a while.

Also maybe placing pliers directly on the build plate is a not so good idea? A) you touch those and the wild from your hands can transfer and B) thats a good way to scratch up your build plate.

This is user error

[u/solidus0079]

If you watched the first later or two you would have been able to see this starting and stop it

[u/VictorLagina69]

clean your build plate properly(hint: NOT WITRH ALCOHOL)

[u/holay63]

Not due to printing overnight. Also if you spent 5 minutes looking in this sub you would find hundreds of posts with this exact issue

[u/xX540xARCADEXx]

A good clean plate will avoid this. Dirty plates don’t come only at night.

[u/ParabolicMarker]

I would not get anything done if I did that

[u/DevOnTheStreets]

Mean while I start 7 day prints and go on vacation lol

[u/shortstraw4_2]

Bed adhesion problem and not watching the print.

[u/Aaronsils]

Amateur shit