Stringing & Oozing Problems

2 Retraction

Increase retraction by 0.2 mm

Open the filament settings in Bambu Studio and increase the Retraction distance by 0.2 mm. The ideal range for Bambu Direct Drive is 0.4–1.0 mm.

Bambu recommends keeping retraction at or below 2 mm, because too much retraction can easily cause clogging. Only change by 0.2 mm at a time and test in between.

3 Travel Settings

Shorten travel moves

Bambu's presets already travel at 500 to 1,000 mm/s, so leave travel speed alone. Shorten the travel instead: place multiple models closer together and enable Avoid crossing wall in Bambu Studio (Process → Quality → Advanced).

Travel speed of the 0.20mm Standard presets in Bambu Studio: 500 mm/s on the X1, P1 and A2L, 700 on the A1 and A1 mini, 1,000 on the P2S, X2D and H2 series. Spacing and Avoid crossing wall: Bambu's stringing guide.

4 Filament

Dry your filament

Wet filament causes stringing, look for crackling sounds or steam at the nozzle. Dry the filament before your next print.

5 Advanced

Less common causes

If steps 1–4 didn't help, expand the topic that matches your situation:

PETG-specific tips

PETG strings more than PLA by design, some stringing is normal. Most effective: lower the temperature in 5 °C steps toward the low end of Bambu's PETG range (240–270 °C, material table), set retraction to 0.8 mm, enable Avoid crossing wall. High temperatures and long travel moves over gaps are the main causes.

Materials ranked by stringing tendency

1. TPU (worst) → 2. PETG → 3. Nylon → 4. ABS/ASA → 5. PLA (least). For TPU, Bambu's TPU guide recommends short travel moves (print one object at a time), fully dried filament and a nozzle about 5 °C cooler; if it still oozes, raise retraction in 0.2 mm steps from the profile value instead of maxing it out, because too much retraction can clog (Bambu's general advice: no more than 2 mm). Some stringing is generally unavoidable.

Removing strings after printing

Thin strings can be removed with a heat gun from a distance or by pulling them off. Heavy stringing means your settings still need tuning, cleaning is not a substitute for fixing the root cause.

Adjusting Extra length on restart

If small gaps appear after retractions, set Extra length on restart to 0.05–0.1 mm (Printer settings → Extruder → Retraction). This compensates for material lost during retraction and prevents under-extrusion after travel moves. Bambu Studio shows this option only after you enable Developer mode in Preferences, and Bambu calls it rarely needed: rule out wet filament and a partial clog first.