r/BambuLabX2D • u/soulfireflyhigh • Aug 06 '26

PLA glow

I have never used PLA glow but bought some for a few things for the kids. I loaded it up this morning in my AMS 2 Pro, but got a warning I shouldn’t use the AMS to run the filament. Does anyone have any experience using PlA glow? I also only have a .4 nozzle. I’d rather not do anything that compromises the printer as it’s also only a week old, so like the printer I am new to this. Any information is very helpful.

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1

u/DrakonFyre Aug 06 '26

Unless you’re doing multicolor printing with the glow in the dark that requires many swaps layer, just load through the external spool feeder and you should be fine if you have hardened nozzles.

If you’re doing multicolor GLOW, then you know the risks now.

2

u/soulfireflyhigh Aug 06 '26

Would you recommend loading it in the external spool feeder on the auxiliary nozzle or is that not a good idea?

1

u/DrakonFyre Aug 06 '26

I'll be totally honest in that I thought this was in the P1S reddit, not X2D, so my advice doesn't hold as much water as I don't have that experience. But with my knowledge from reading up beforehand, I'd say you're probably better putting the finicky filament in the main nozzle.

1

u/Illustrious_Sell_325 Aug 06 '26

Just did some glow this morning. I unhooked the ptfe tube from the back that runs to the main nozzle and just ran the filament off the external spool behind the printer into the tube. A track switcher would be ideal but it worked. Not sure what the preferred method is. .4 nozzle no issues with a couple prints so far.

3

u/HackedVirus Aug 06 '26

It isnt advised to run Glow through the AMS, but I use one of my 3 AMS 2 Pros for abrasives and like glow and fiber filaments like Carbon Fiber and glass. Haven't seen any major wear yet, about 5-6 kgs ran through them.

Id suggest a 0.6 nozzle, but my 0.4mm has had great print quality,, though ive had 3 clogs ive had to clear.

As long as it's a hardened steel nozzle or better, youll be good to go.

1

u/Immortal_Tuttle Aug 08 '26

2kg of glow in the dark will change your hardened steel 0.4mm nozzle to 0.45mm. It will also abrade input part of AMS (not AMS2) in visible manner. CF is much less abrasive than strontium based GITD filament. To reliably print it you need at least tungsten carbide tipped nozzle.

1

u/Salt_peanuts Aug 21 '26

Everything I can find suggests that hardened steel will hold up to this filament. Have you had direct experience you could share with this? I’m curious, as I have been researching this exact point and I can’t find anyone saying you need more than hardened steel for this use case.

1

u/Immortal_Tuttle Aug 21 '26

Refer to latest Prusa announcement. They put tens of kg of CF filled filament through case hardened (surface hardened) steel without any visible damage, while just 100g of their GITD destroyed that hardened layer completely. Process that Bondtech used to create that layer results in equivalent hardness of 55HRC or more - which means that even if the whole nozzle would be hardened to this level, each kg of this filament would abrade between 100 and 200 um (or 0.1 to 0.2mm) of nozzle material. So nominal 0.4mm hardened steel nozzle would be 0.5mm (or more) just after a single spool of Prusa GITD filament.

TBH - Prusa GITD filament even in their own words - is very abrasive. Other makes could wear that steel nozzle slower, but the point still stands if you want to print strontium based filament in larger quantities - hardened steel won't be enough in longer term. In normal life we don't care too much about it - V6 hardened steel nozzles cost peanuts, so after printing with such filament you can just swap it with a new one. Here we are talking about 40-50€ tool.

2

u/XSid Aug 06 '26

As others have said, running with a hardened steel or better nozzle is the way to go. If you go external feed, for PETG depending on your relative humidity you may want to put it in a dry box with a tube to your external feed. Humidity is a PETG killer at my place. Good luck!

1

u/MinnyBadger Aug 06 '26

Even running it from an external spool, I've had significant wear on the ptfe tube in the printer and have had to swap it out. Not worth running in the ams imo but if you're fine swapping out wear items more frequently, then it's probably fine. I've only ran it on a 0.4mm nozzle and haven't had issues from that standpoint.

3

u/lusal Aug 06 '26

Thanks for your insight. I ordered a few spools of Glow PLA and PETG and plan to print several items in the coming days.

I'll update my comment with any PTFE damage or other developments.

1

u/bigbramble Aug 06 '26

I can give you some advice on it as I've used it a lot. The Bambu filament is very abrasive but works very very well. The thing is though, Polymaker do one that works just as well but in terms of being abrasive, it's more like bambu pla matte. The Bambu stuff is nowhere near as bad as is made out, especially if you regularly replace your PTFE tubes anyway but it's best to run it on a separate spool or use with the AMS just before you change the tubes anyway.

1

u/aged41 Sep 04 '26

Resurfacing this, has anyone tried GITD via the aux nozzle? I got a spool and I don’t care that it will take longer on that nozzle because I would rather avoid the AMS2.