a thread for BambuLab machines

[GoMachV]

I gave away almost all my old printers, got rid of 6 of the 8. I will keep my Ender 5 plus only because of the volume. After my first print with the X1C I was sold. It just works.

That said, I have had some odd things with the machines. For one, the toolhead LED seems to stay on, night and day. While im sure it draws little power, im shocked that the power switch really only turns off the screen. Steppers stay locked for about 20 minutes regardless, and my cabinet light as well as toolhead lamp remain on. I read that if you start the print with the cabinet lamp off, it will turn off at the end of the print and that does seem to work. The toolhead lamp on the other hand never does. After some research, it appears a M960 S5 P0 in the end gcode will turn it off. I just added it, and tried a print- and it seems to be working. I really wish they would publish the gcode for the cabinet LED.

to add to the thread, here is a list of the bambu gcodes and their descriptions https://forum.bambulab.com/t/bambu-lab-x1-specific-g-code/666

So, any other Tips? Tricks? Questions? Complaints?

[silvertriple]

Nice thread...

The X1C prints fast, but there is some improvement to do even faster that are coming...
https://blog.bambulab.com/bambulab_e3d
https://e3d-online.com/blogs/news/introducing-the-e3d-obxidian-hf-bambu-hotend

[Incredible_Serious]

So have you named your printer Black Betty yet?

[GoMachV]

So have you named your printer Black Betty yet?

Great so now that's stuck in my head today

Bam-ba-lam

[Frankentruck]

Isn't it "Whoa Black Betty, bambu lab. Thing gone wild, bambu lab."

[silvertriple]

Seems that Bambu Lab goes face to face with Prusa nowadays...
After the A1 mini (Prusa i3 Mini targeted), they tease an A1 (aka A1 mini Big Bro). Apparently the build area will be 256x256x256 (same plates as the P1/X1 Series) with the same AMS lite as proposed for the A1 Mini for which reviews are excellent as well.

What is left out of this is that it maybe quite interesting printer if you don't have specific material requirements (ABS, PA, PC are out because no enclosure), and the price point should be positionned between A1 Mini and P1P, I imagine... And I guess the next question is going to be what will come next to the Prusa XL, as this A1 is kinda similar to the Prusa MK4...

[GoMachV]

I have a Matterhackers Pulse which is a prusa i3 based printer and never have liked it. It was by far the most expensive machine I bought at almost $1500 5 years ago. Never has printed anything I would consider quality. That soured me on the design. My friend has a prusa model from the same era and I was not terribly impressed with it's prints either. It would take a lot of convincing for me to spend money on a prusa. I'd say the same for creality, after owning so many and looking back at all the things I had to do to update, upgrade, etc. I definitely have no regrets on the x1c's at this point. Both have been great and only a couple failed prints as I learn the intricacies. Night and day difference between them and any other printer I have ever owned

[silvertriple]

Well it's no secrets I don't have any love for my Creality, and even my brother (who has a few Ender 3) has completely changed his mind on his machines when he saw what I was able to do with the BambuLab X1C, to the point he is actually considering changing his printers...

Now, I have a few people around me who took the A1 mini, and I must say the result is quite suprising : whether they went from another printer or it is a first printer, they are pretty happy with it and the quality of the prints is just as good as other BambuLab printers as far as I could compare. They are very well designed. I guess it will be the same for the A1 and any further printers they put on the market. It just works (after the few hiccups during the initial release - which exists on each and every printer)...
And the price will be certainly lower than what Prusa charges for a MK4. In short, the target is not you and me, Jeff, but really the new comers or the owners of low cost printers who can't afford a P1S or a X1C. Not sure by the way the P1P will be there still for long, unless they keep it for people who want to start lower cost and enclose easily later...

Ultimately, I believe that Bambu Lab is really shaking up the market somehow by providing good and reliable printers at affordable costs, and that will be good for everyone... And I'm really curious about what they'll propose when it comes to the bigger printer their CEO has already promised (next gen, as already announced)...

[GoMachV]

From the reviews I have seen on YouTube the a1 produced better looking prints than the big machines, but at the cost of a smaller working area and open frame design. Wouldn't be great for me, but it is the machine that I recommend to everyone now after experiencing bambu. I see creality and others getting more into trying to compete with bambu but all they seem to have so far is just a lower price. I have yet to see a machine competes with the quality of print when the print time is also taken into consideration.

I'm struggling with deciding on a "default" filament for printing in my ams machine. PLA of course is easy and prints nice but not the strongest and also not great for the enclosed chassis. I was thinking maybe abs and ordered a few rolls to play with. It should feed well, print well, be strong, and like the enclosure.... But not sure if it will do as well with overhangs, supports, and warping. I guess we will see I just don't want to invest in a bunch of colors before deciding on a path

[silvertriple]

On my side, I have 2 AMS. One is fed with 3 rolls of PLA and one roll of PLA support, and I mainly use it for dimensional validation. The other one is currently having inside 2 ABS rolls and 2 PETG rolls, I just have to think about cleaning the bed and put the glue on when I need to change nature of material.
Clearly the single fact of having a second AMS give me to have plenty of options to print with without even touching the printer, as Iong as I have the right side of the bed plate in place (I may switch to a PEI plate, but in that case, I would probably need to open the top of the printer when printing PLA...

Rear hoder is not used : I generally use the dryer as roll holder for external rolls, as generally, it's either Nylon either TPU that goes in...

[GoMachV]

Same here, I wish they sold a device similar in shape to the ams but narrower, where it can sit on top of the machine and be fed similar to the ams (at the front). I bought a filament dryer I was hoping would be amazing and while it does dry well it is a real pain to load the filament. It also doesn't have a good place it can sit. Might have to create my own dry box. One of my x1c will be just for printing functional parts typically abrasives and such that the ams wouldn't like. I tried out a PC print yesterday, I was never able to get a good one off the kp3s I used but the x1c did great. I'm thinking a few of the materials that didn't work well for me before will now become useful

[Dadio]

One of the up sides of a P1P is that you can use custom enclosures , I printed one with removable perspex sides that are just held in with magnets so if you use PLA it's just seconds to remove the sides and top and just as easy to refit them for high temp filaments .
One thing I found was the Bowden tube rubbed the lid so I drew and printed a 30mm top extension .
I'm experimenting with a 0.6mm nozzle right now and I'm not sure I'll keep it , while it prints very well I've found that a lot of designs for download are intended for a 0.4mm nozzle as walls are multiples of 0.4mm and can be a little off with a 0.6 .
Can't wait to get an AMS unit but the boat is still out at sea so it's got to wait .

[GoMachV]

Yeah I just keep the door open when printing PLA now, it's nice to have the printer closed up though.

[silvertriple]

Well, cool plate + glue, Bed set at 35°C works well so far for PLA... Only downside is that I have to get to the printer and change the bed plate if I want to print other materials than PLA... Not really an issue for me, because most of my prints are PLA and for prototyping... Other materials are used for other use cases...

[GoMachV]

I had my only ever warping with PLA at 35 degrees so I went back to what I know- 60- and never had another problem- but I do keep the door open at that.