Thinking of getting into 3D printing – others experience sought

[John HinkleyParticipant @johnhinkley26699]

That’s good to hear, Phil. Hope you enjoy your new purchase.

John

 

[paul1956Participant @paul1956]

I’m sure you won’t be disappointed with a Bambu labs printer. I bought mine last year, an A1, and it’s been brilliant and I’ve found more uses for it than I ever expected. The whole system of printer, dedicated slicer software and pre-sets for supported filaments delivers great results out of the box without needing to spend ages doing test and calibration prints. Not to say that those defaults can’t be slightly improved with experience for specific prints, but you really don’t need to tinker.

The A1 has a great system for changing nozzle sizes quickly and easily. With a 0.2mm nozzle you can print at 0.05mm layer height and get almost resin printer levels of detail and smoothness.

My prior experience with a Creality CR10KE nearly put me off 3D printing entirely. It was poorly built, unreliable and after an early flurry of responses from their service department they stopped replying to emails and I was left with an unreliable lump that was out of it’s free return period.

[SillyOldDufferModerator @sillyoldduffer]

I’m close to ordering a Bambu too.

Looked at my Ender3 Pro today and confirmed it took an expensive beating due to a filament jamb.  Did a good job in it’s day, but the technology has moved on.  Faster printing, automatic bed-levelling, monitoring camera and other goodies.  I’m all for repair if I have the time and energy, which I don’t.   Throwing good money after bad is best avoided too.

Though I enjoyed assembling the Ender at the time, something that just works out of the box is far more suitable now.

Spend, spend, spend.  Who told me Model Engineering was cheap?

Dave

 

[John HaineParticipant @johnhaine32865]

As soon as my unimat sale liberates some space I’ll fill it with a Bambu Labs A1 that’s still in its box. Good to hear people have positive experiences with the type.

[John Haine]

On John Haine Said:

As soon as my unimat sale liberates some space I’ll fill it with a Bambu Labs A1 that’s still in its box. Good to hear people have positive experiences with the type.

I purchased the A1 in November last year John, with just the single feed reel. It does really work out the box – a little lube here and there as per the little handbook and no fiddling required at all. I found that with PLA and PET/ PETG I just use the slicer output as it does and it works well. Just keep the printplate very clean, no oiliness at all and you don’t need to use blue tape or glues or hair spray. It’s like a hammer – take it out the draw, use it, and put it back. Very neat.

[John HaineParticipant @johnhaine32865]

Thanks for that Joe, another vote of confidence.

[paul1956Participant @paul1956]

Just keep the printplate very clean, no oiliness at all and you don’t need to use blue tape or glues or hair spray. It’s like a hammer – take it out the draw, use it, and put it back. Very neat.

This can’t be emphasised enough. Just use soap or detergent (not IPA) to keep the print plate clean and never touch the printing surface, handle it by the edges.

Problems with Bambu printers are most commonly user error, not actual machine problems. The two big trip ups are;

1. Not keeping the print plate scrupiously clean.

2. Not drying the filament before use.

Printer filaments absorb moisture in storage and that causes problems when printing. Sometimes not the extreme faults of spitting hot heads you’ll occasionally read about, but it can give subtle adhesion problems, poor surfaces and stringing of various degrees.
I would strongly advice anyone starting with FDM printers to buy a filament drier as part of their initial kit. Something like the cheap Sunlu S1 drier can help getting optimum results.

[Michael CallaghanParticipant @michaelcallaghan68621]

I have been 3D printing for years now. In fact as I write this my old creality is busy working on a mounting for a stepper motor for a cnc conversion I am doing on a Denford orac lathe. If the mounting works I will cnc machine it out of aluminium. I still have a resin printer, but don’t use it so much due to the mass it makes.

get yourself a good 3D slicer and it’s good fun. However it takes ages to print anything of size. And keep the printer out of drafts, it will wreak the print.

[John HaineParticipant @johnhaine32865]

I thought the Orac was already CNC?

[SillyOldDufferModerator @sillyoldduffer]

Can I say thanks for this thread:  helped me choose between an A1, A1-Combo, P1S or P2S.  And a filament drier. Saved lots of time.

Draughts not being a problem here, I went for an A1.   Curiously, the cheaper A1 is more advanced in some ways than the P1S, the big difference seems the P1S is best for ABS/ASA, where enclosure is important.   As I do almost everything with PLA, the A1 is both fit for purpose and better value for money in my shop.  Or, Sod’s Law being what it is, maybe I just haven’t realised that I really need ABS yet…

Slight negative report about Bambu’s online shop.  First, setting up the account was surprisingly difficult due to an officious pattern matching security hurdle, and then I couldn’t get the printer into the cart.  Turned out I had to explicitly reject an extra, and the tiny error message flashes briefly on screen.   Not a problem when I noticed it, but I like error messages to be bl**ding obvious, pretty please!  The A1 is out of stock until the end of the month, but that suits me.  My to-do list is already far too long.

Dave

 

 

 

[John HaineParticipant @johnhaine32865]

I assembled my A1 today. Anyone who thinks that the Chinese can’t design machine tools should see this, it’s a thing of beauty engineering -wise.

[John Haine]

On John Haine Said:

I assembled my A1 today. Anyone who thinks that the Chinese can’t design machine tools should see this, it’s a thing of beauty engineering -wise.

I was amazed that they’d even bothered with designing the packaging so well that you could pull the whole lot out of the box with ease.

[John HaineParticipant @johnhaine32865]

I suppose that means it can be put in the box easily as well.

[SillyOldDuffer]

On SillyOldDuffer Said:

Can I say thanks for this thread:  helped me choose between an A1, A1-Combo, P1S or P2S.  And a filament drier. Saved lots of time.

As the OP I’m glad the thread has been useful to others as much as myself.

I agree that the Bambu Lab online shop is rather clunky!  From everything I read and watch I’m reassured the printers themselves are much better.

My P1S was ordered on Wednesday afternoon but I haven’t heard anything yet regarding delivery. Slightly annoying to still see a banner that UK deliveries may be delayed by Storm Goretti.

There were a few reasons for choosing that model:

I plan to put it our office/study and being enclosed as well as enabling more demanding materials to be printed in future it should be a bit more acceptable to “domestic management” 😂

I already have a couple of ideas for functional items so the ability to print more technical materials should provide a degree of future proofing.  I’ve ordered some PETG filament as well as PLA to get started.

The small bonus of not having to pay Council tax in February and March means there is a bit of spare cash available to supplement the budget by the time the credit card needs paying 😉.

Phil

[John HaineParticipant @johnhaine32865]

Just a quick progress report.

• Unboxed and assembled A1 yesterday afternoon, first trial print at about 4 pm from one of the built-in models.  Abject failure owing to my not making sure the sample bit of filament properly loaded, and not cleaning the print plate.  Didn’t stick.
• 2nd trial this morning on another test object, the holder for the bed scraper.  Loaded the filament properly, started well, I left it running but when I came back the filament had run out!  I was just using the sample bit they supply.  So I loaded a new full reel and unpaused but again I hadn’t loaded it properly so the thing wasn’t printing.  Aborted the job again.
• Re-started from scratch with the new filament, loaded the filament, started the job, went shopping, job finished when I got back, success!  Very nice job too.
• Then decided to print a couple of shapes from my son which he found on the web somewhere.  First load into Bambu Studio on the PC.  Ah, but need to log in first.  Complete nightmare ending in an infinite regress asking for verification codes which were all the same and didn’t work.  Then found that if you have previously signed up with their support forum on the web you can, from there, transfer your credentials to Studio.  Then had to find the OnShape file on my PC – necessary UI option extremely well hidden!  Finally found it, another couple of unexplained glitches needing google search to fix, finally sent the sliced model to the printer which is now happily working away, will end at 18.25 apparently.
• So my conclusion so far – printer GREAT, software good when you figure it out, credential management SUCKS!
• But I’m sure I’ll get used to the software so very pleased so far.
• Now I need to get to grips with OnShape – will use that to start with as I can get support from my son (who has had an A1 mini for quite a while).

[John Haine]

On John Haine Said:

Just a quick progress report.

• …
• So my conclusion so far – printer GREAT, software good when you figure it out, credential management SUCKS!

Quite worrying.  In the last 40 days I’ve hit 3 vendors who’ve recently added over-the-top and difficult to set up authentication to their websites.  As far as I can tell there is no need for it!  Shouldn’t be necessary to exchange verification codes just to download free software or read the manuals.

Could be the dreaded enshittification, here adding unwanted features that make life difficult without adding any value.

My A1 is on backorder. I’ll report what happens when I try and download Bambu Studio in February!

Dave

[John HaineParticipant @johnhaine32865]

I ordered mine mid December, predicted shipping 13 January, actually arrived 11th January.

[paul1956Participant @paul1956]

 

My A1 is on backorder. I’ll report what happens when I try and download Bambu Studio in February!

Download it now and explore the options so it’s no surprise once the hardware arrives.
Also read the manual and watch the tutorial videos. The A1 goes together very easily and my experience of setting up an account, logging in and using the system was very good with no problems at all.

https://bambulab.com/en-gb/support/804418782217478144

[John HaineParticipant @johnhaine32865]

 

Fimo

[John HaineParticipant @johnhaine32865]

First print of a .3mf file shared by my son and sent via Bambu Studio. No problems at all this time.

[PackmuleParticipant @packmule]

You could try prusaslicer which will work with stl & 3mf files.

Bob

[jimmy bParticipant @jimmyb]

I’m a recent convert to using glue on the print bed!

I had stayed away from glue, as didn’t often have adhesion problems. When my second K1 arrived, it came with glue so I thought I’d try it. It’s been a game changer, I’ve not had a single failure in several hundred prints!

 

Jimb

[jimmy b]

On jimmy b Said:

I’m a recent convert to using glue on the print bed!

Really not needed with the Bambu printers.

I’ve had my A1 since 2024 and it currently is up to 1220hrs printing. In that time the few print failures have been down to user error, either not cleaning the bed before printing properly (with just soap and water), failures to arrange the parts properly or basic software settings that weren’t set properly.

[paul1956]

On paul1956 Said:

 

My A1 is on backorder. I’ll report what happens when I try and download Bambu Studio in February!

Download it now and explore the options so it’s no surprise once the hardware arrives…

In principle yes, in practice no such luck.

There’s method in my madness.   The A1 replaces a broken Ender3.   The next print needed is a replacement front-panel/electronics harness for my clock project.  The existing harness, designed by me with Solid Edge, supports an ATMega 2560 microcontroller and electronics with fixed plugs and sockets that fit through accurately positioned holes printed in the 3D harness.

I’m changing the electronics to a Teensy microcontroller and GNSS Module and have to redesign the 3D-printed harness because many of the mechanical details are different.  The harness depends on a new electronics board that has to be designed from scratch, starting with a circuit diagram.  Physical build probably strip-board and wire-wrap, not confirmed – I might do a PCB.  The new electronics require panel mount USB and SMA coax sockets that I need to see first.   A stiff PVC USB cable might have to be looped gently around the enclosure, whilst flexible cables are less fussy.   Devil in the detail stuff.  They’re on order.

Converting the ATMega software to Teensy will take about two weeks. I have to set up the IDE, learn the Teensy’s little ways, and prove it controls the GNSS module. A fair bit of breadboard testing to do before I get to the production build.

The 3D-printed harness is the last step!  Setting up the A1 printer is currently item 17 on the plan.  If all goes well, the A1 will be needed early next month, but I’m expecting delays.  I’m not expecting the A1 to be a problem.   My Ender3 workflow went from either FreeCAD or SolidEdge* via Cura to a microSD card, and the same can be done with a Bambu.  Clunky!  Bambu Studio looks much cleaner, but I can fallback to Cura if there’s a problem.

As to creating a Bambu account, I’ve done that already.  My experience wasn’t as bad as John’s but maybe I got lucky and pressed the right button.  Certainly wasn’t slick.   Might be a new problem: John and I both struggled this week.   Annoying rather than a show-stopper and we both got there in the end!

Whoops, just realised the A1 is 18th on the plan!   I want to install the latest version of SolidEdge.   (On two different computers.)

Dave

* Fusion 360 prints OK via Cura too.

[paul1956Participant @paul1956]

 My Ender3 workflow went from either FreeCAD or SolidEdge* via Cura to a microSD card, and the same can be done with a Bambu.  Clunky!

Printing via microSD is possible, but using WiFi is so much easier. It also opens up using the Bambu Handy App to monitor the print run and skip printing parts if you have a problem.

The A1 has two failings;
1. The built in camera is pretty terrible.
2. The only way to skip printing a part once the print is under way is via the app, not via the desktop software or printer directly.

 

 

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