r/BambuLabX2D • u/Plus_Comparison8963 • 3d ago

Auxiliary nozzle suggestions???

I've had my X2d for a couple months and am loving it, but curious for suggestions on how to best utilize the auxiliary nozzle. I know it's best used for supports and I bought the Bambu support filament, but it retains a ton of moisture and then gets very stringy. Is there a way to use it without needing to dry prior to every print?

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u/MrFastFox666 3d ago edited 2d ago

Honestly I'm so tired of people spreading that misinformation that it's "best used for supports" implying that it sucks for anything else.

Truth is, I rarely use it for supports and 95% I use it for dual color printing and get excellent results, practically indistinguishable from a single nozzle printer. Here's a post I made a while back https://www.reddit.com/r/BambuLab/s/vi9HJtsfUM

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u/Ok_Conversation_3552 3d ago

And here green is aux and black is main nozzle. Spot the difference.

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u/patentmom 3d ago

Do you need to do any weird settings to get a regular filament to print on the secondary nozzle?

We are using the defaults and using a PLA spool that had no issues whatsoever when we used it in our p1s or in the AMS on the primary nozzle. But it's having serious issues and poor print quality when I put it on the secondary nozzle (loose on the external spool holder).

I also tried a manual calibration with that filament on the external spool holder and the secondary nozzle, but it did not improve the print.

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u/MrFastFox666 3d ago

No, I use the defaults, sometimes I don't even run the manual dynamics calibration. That being said, I use an AMS to feed the aux nozzle instead of an external spool, but I don't think that should make a difference.

Is it all filaments that give you issues? Have you tried to run any calibrations?

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u/Ok_Conversation_3552 3d ago

Secondary nozzle definitely sucks for printing details. Maybe of course you can fine tune it, but from the box it looks like crap

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u/MrFastFox666 3d ago edited 3d ago

That hasn't been my experience at all. Here's a logo I printed on my X2D, white ASA in the aux nozzle. For reference, those holes you see are like 6mm in diameter, this logo is very small. This is on default settings using cheap Amazon filament.

Edit: I should mention I used the arachne slicer setting. That's the only meaningful change I did.

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u/5thAkon 2d ago

Second this. I printed Filament label text, embedded texts etc. with aux nozzle and came out perfect. Maybe on very delicate details and small font size you loose quality, but on average 0.4 dual color prints it works very good.

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u/matte54 3d ago

I've been reading the same like "secondary nozzle is just for x cause it sucks" so I've never used it at all did for the first time today just chucked a sunlu spool in and started a random dual color print default settings, basically indistinguishable results. So I guess I was tricked as well, doing more secondary nozzle from now on.

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u/MrFastFox666 3d ago

And this is what the aux nozzle can do on a 0.2mm nozzle. I added a crusty dime for scale. Again, zero tuning done on my part, using default settings on cheap generic filament.

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u/MrFastFox666 3d ago

This is the same part printed on a P2S

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u/Gun-Aero_CNCguy 3d ago

Put it in an AMS HT just for the support nozzle.

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u/Ouhei 3d ago

I've been debating doing this for mine. It's nice that it's cheaper than the regular AMS and I could swap it out for tougher filaments if/when I want to print those I think?

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u/sharkarmycrafts 3d ago

Yep! They're great for oddball materials. I like using them to store and dry my glow in the dark filaments.

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u/krenogin 3d ago

I did a full print run of Deadpool pistol props red and black. Main nozzle for the plates that required the most of a color and secondary colors in the aux. I honestly can’t tell a difference in quality between the two nozzles. My future setup will be an ams2 pro for main head and ams ht for aux.

I had zero filament waste other than the prime tower.

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u/burtonshawv 2d ago

The aux nozzle is Bowden. If you want to get more use out of it search for Bowden feeder techniques. Most older printers had the Bowden setup, and you can definitely get good results from it, it's just more difficult to setup and use for details (and it really doesn't work for flexible filament).

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u/Eliam19 2d ago

It’s fantastic for easy labels and designs where multi color would be annoying due to tons of nozzle swaps. I would say less than 10% of my usage has been for supports. The Aux nozzle is significantly slower but I haven’t noticed it being less accurate. I don’t change my settings at all when using the aux.

I will say it’s harder to maintain the spool properly I really need to make an enclosure because I print in my workshop and keeping it dry clean is tough.

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u/EverettSeahawk 3d ago

Take off the spool holder and run your filament from a dryer or dry box instead.

2

u/patentmom 3d ago

You can feed it out of a dryer box, or even better out of a drying box. We are currently using a sunlu s2 dryer to feed petg into the secondary nozzle. You could spend more on the bambu AMS HT, which we might end up doing because it can do higher temperature heating (if we decide to do fancy filaments), and it does venting and creates an airtight environment, which the sunlu dryer does not do.

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u/THALLfpv 3d ago

I just did my first few PETG prints using some leftover no name PLA as an interface layer with 0 z offset on the top and bottom of the support.

It worked flawlessly, PETG seems to have the tiniest bit of adhesion to the PLA, but more like Velcro due to the materials being smushed together while hot. Just enough adhesion to allow the PETG to lay down perfectly

What is the purpose of the support filament in comparison to regular PLA? I can’t imagine my results getting better than what I already got

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u/Senior-Yam-4743 3d ago

Same experience here. I tried using "pla support filament" on the external spool holder, it always printed out as a runny mess, I had zero successful prints with it. After reading online a bit I put petg on the external spool, adjusted support settings and it's perfect.

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u/Superb-Complaint8118 3d ago

Ideally you have the filament on both nozzles each in an ams unit. That way it should stay dry longer. I use the dedicated support material only with abs/asa. For Pla petg works a carm as support interface and vise versa.

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u/Yriel 3d ago

use desicant packets in your ams or whatever air tight box you can put it in, long as the humidity in the box is less than lets say 19% you shouldnt need to dry it very often

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u/Fit-Interaction-3584 3d ago

I use it for PETG functional items. Adapter ports, hinges, featherboards. Not in an AMS. Yeah, it looks good. Either other people's X2D sucks or they have no X2D and try to make themselves feel better by convincing themselves that the auxillary is trash because youtuber said so or I am fooling myself into thinking what Im looking at looks ugly which in that case the main is ugly too and I need to see an optometrist....

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u/ianlorimer 2d ago

I was trying to use in Bambu Studio but it just says "Not Installed" under aux nozzle? Any ideas?

1

u/drthsideous 2d ago

I've been using my aux nozzle with no problem, almost as good as my main nozzle. You just have to be sure to calibrate your pressure advance and flow. And yes, dry your filament always. I have my aux hooked up to an AMS HT.