this post was submitted on 12 Sep 2025
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Hi All,

This will be difficult to pin down, but getting pointed in the right direction would be helpful.

Purchased a FlashForge AD5X ~5 weeks ago. Worked great, one button calibration out of the box, I proceeded to do what everyone does when learning: print a bunch of stuff, mix success and stumble over the usual stuff. Ie: Learned why you clean the bed, learned how supports work, deal with filament breaks etc etc.

About a week ago I had a print fail, it looked like there was a broken filament that wasn't being pushed. I do a cold pull on the nozzle, and was able to print successfully for a time (although there were some small features on some prints that seemed sloppy compared to previous prints).

After that though ALL my prints started to fail. Even after cleaning the bed, double checking bed/nozzle temp, I'd get bad adhesion. I'd also get the nozzle dragging through layers, as if the Z was off (even after running calibration repeatedly and before each print). There was some popping and oozing, which I put up to not storing my PLA dry (although ambient was only ~40%). However the problem persisted even with a freshly opened vac-sealed (confirmed seal was good) roll of PLA.

I ordered a replacement nozzle that arrives today, but can anyone give me some insight? I only ran ~2kg of PLA through, that seems like really premature wear; I must have done something wrong.

Thanks for anything putting me in the right direction.

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[–] nullroot@lemmy.world 2 points 1 week ago (3 children)

Sounds like there could be something clogged in the nozzle, I would try pushing through some filament or nozzle cleaner at high temps (300c ish) to try and burn things out. General advice is never use different materials on the same nozzle, but that doesn't stop most of us.

This likely won't solve your z axis shift but it may help things. I have no experience with your printer or even brand though, so I cannot comment about whether the software or hardware may be to blame for some issues, but it sounds like there's more going on that a partially clogged nozzle.

[–] batmaniam@lemmy.world 1 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I'm not sure if it's the Z or gunk building up and dragging. Also with the new nozzle it's been only PLA and no joy whatsoever.

[–] nullroot@lemmy.world 1 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Did you get the new nozzle in and issues have not changed?

[–] batmaniam@lemmy.world 2 points 1 week ago

correct. I initiated a return with amazon. I have had a 250g spool in the drier since about 10am today, and will try it this evening, but if that doesn't work I'm just returning it.

In trying to do a cold pull (which you do in this machine by attaching the nozzle upside down and manually pushing filament in), it was oozing and popping with the remnants of the previous filament, which to me says very wet filament?

I had tried drying filament for ~8hrs yesterday with no good results. Is there something else that could cause the oozing issue? My friend brought up that maybe the temperature sensor isn't working properly and it's hotter than it thinks it is?

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