Bambu Labs Printers

[Jelly]

I've been wanting a printer I didn't have to tinker with, that would print good quality OOTB, have enough smart features that I wouldn't have to pull my hair out "calibrating" every time I decided to fire up the printer. I did quite a bit of research on the various mass produced printers out there. Most of them have decent reviews with some small annoyances. QIDI, FlashForge, Dremel Digilab, were all names that kept coming up during the search. I remember seeing someone here mention the Bambu X1 Carbon, at the time it was crowd funding campaign. I just happened to look at their website to notice they had released a lower end model, the P1P for 699.

I won't go over all the specs and such because it's easy to go check it out for yourself.
I watched SO many review videos from people who had gotten review units, and some people that had already purchased production models. I liked what I saw, and decided to pull the trigger.
I ordered it Monday 16JAN.
Received today 20JAN. 4 days!
From everything I saw you could go from boxed to printing in about 15 minutes if you followed along with the guide on their wiki. I can say, it's absolutely true. I'm not a newbie to 3d printers having had a cheap chinese delta, used that to build a 1515 based core-xy, and then purchasing a Ender 3 Max, but the instructions were dead simple to follow and it wasn't long before I was puking plastic.

First impressions unboxing and subsequently using:
Build quality seems standardized.
It's noisier than I expected, but not so bad I can't live with it. I just wouldn't want to sit in the same room with it for a LONG print.
This thing prints FAST.
It has it's own Slicer/control Suite. Seems intuitive, lots of presets for filament types, but only a few brands.
Lots of Cloud based functionality. At this point in time, and browsing the forums and reddit confirms: This is a CON right now. Their cloud service goes down a lot, Currently feels like most reliable way to print is do the SD card shuffle. What is this, 201x?
ABL using a load based sensor and using the actual nozzle to probe the bed.
Nice Textured Powder Coated PEI magnetic build plate.

I'll get some pictures up as I print things with it. There is a AMS (multi material) system that is compatible with the higher end as well as this model. That is high on the priority list once I get a good feel for how this printer works.
Overall, so far I regret nothing. Best OOTB experience I've ever had with a 3d printer. It feels like what having a voron without the soul is.

 

[buttons]

I have a carbon x1 on preorder.

 

[Jelly]

I have a carbon x1 on preorder.

Looking forward to seeing what you make! The X1 at least can do LAN mode if the "cloud" is down from what I read so far.

 

[buttons]

I had an ender 5, then a neptune 2s, was sick of manually leveling the bed and inconsistent print results. Was looking at getting a voron, but didnt want to deal with 30+ hours of assemble and tuning

 

[Jelly]

Vase included on the SD Card. Took 8hours. This would have easily been a 24hr print on my Ender and wouldn't have looked anywhere near this good.

 

[Dreamerbydesign]

So many issues have been cropping up the past few weeks, on their official forum and the subreddit. I cancelled my x1cc preorder.

These were hyped for months before regular users in real numbers had them in their hands. I’m not saying it’s a bad product, but I would start taking the blinders off and reading what real users have been saying. The good and the bad.

 

[Dreamerbydesign]

Looking forward to seeing what you make! The X1 at least can do LAN mode if the "cloud" is down from what I read so far.

Yes and no. LAN mode still requires the internet to function. It’s not as cut and dry as you’d think. And it still involves sneakersnet and some other work around.

So I run octopi with many of my other printers. No internet connection required. Truly just LAN printing. There’s a big difference between this and what bambu calls “lan” printing. It’s a bit misleading on their part.

Now if they address this at a later date that would be nice. So many complaints were just lodged yesterday. Nearly 10 hours of their cloud service not working. It went down multiple times.

Their cloud service actually is not regional. It’s all routed through AWS in the US. And for that reason when it went down, it did so for people in all regions.

I’m game if they fix some of these problems. But right now, the last few days, you are really starting to see the weakness in a closed source, dependent ecosystem that’s very walled off. Similar to Apple, except they are no where near as reliable currently.

 

[Jelly]

So many issues have been cropping up the past few weeks, on their official forum and the subreddit. I cancelled my x1cc preorder.

These were hyped for months before regular users in real numbers had them in their hands. I’m not saying it’s a bad product, but I would start taking the blinders off and reading what real users have been saying. The good and the bad.

For sure, It will be interesting to see how the company handles things. It's for sure a make it or break it moment for them.
I didn't buy it for the cloud features, and I'm not so lazy that I can't play the SD Card shuffle. However, I can totally see being pissed about downtime and such, as the cloud features are sold as included, not as a subscription (which I fear they may move to in light of "Cost to maintain") and basically required for even local wireless printing. It's a design flaw in their process to me.
I would like to see them implement true offline LAN functionality for the whole process. You shouldn't have to rely on the cloud to print remotely (be it 3 feet away, 3 rooms away, etc)

Their ecosystem could and should be more Open, I think that's their biggest flaw right now.

Edit while typing, Saw your reply and I agree completely. I run Klipper/Moonsail on my E3Max but i've used Octopi in the past too.

 

[Dreamerbydesign]

For sure, It will be interesting to see how the company handles things. It's for sure a make it or break it moment for them.
I didn't buy it for the cloud features, and I'm not so lazy that I can't play the SD Card shuffle. However, I can totally see being pissed about downtime and such, as the cloud features are sold as included, not as a subscription (which I fear they may move to in light of "Cost to maintain") and basically required for even local wireless printing. It's a design flaw in their process to me.
I would like to see them implement true offline LAN functionality for the whole process. You shouldn't have to rely on the cloud to print remotely (be it 3 feet away, 3 rooms away, etc)

Their ecosystem could and should be more Open, I think that's their biggest flaw right now.

Edit while typing, Saw your reply and I agree completely. I run Klipper/Moonsail on my E3Max but i've used Octopi in the past too.

Flaw? It was a design choice. I have a laundry list of reasons why Bambu closed off the ecosystem. Software, hardware sales, spare parts, support, and internet dependency to start. This was all be design. It was their profit plan. And if it all worked and is properly supported, then I totally see them succeeding.

I think this is the beginning of the real test for them. I want 3D innovation! I’d gladly spend the money. But I won’t do it for a half baked product or a product that is not supported as advertised by the manufacturer.

Anyways I’ll wait a few months and see how this pans out. I cancelled my pre order and I’ll watch from the side lines for a bit.

 

[Riddlinkidstoner]

So I received my Bambu X1 Carbon on Thursday and after about 30 minutes, I was making my first print. This is my first 3D printer and I have zero previous 3D printing experience.

I'm quite blown away by the speed and accuracy.

First print out of the box with eSun PLA+ on the stock cool plate.

"Poop" bucket

Tool box on the optional texture plate. My favorite.

Finally, I printed a noctua 40x10 fan adapter to replace the noisy MB fan. Worked perfectly with an adapter I made so no splicing needed.

 

[notarat]

I'm looking at these to replace the Ender 5S1 of mine which is FUBAR. How fast was the shipping?

 

[Riddlinkidstoner]

I'm looking at these to replace the Ender 5S1 of mine which is FUBAR. How fast was the shipping?

Ordered on the 13th. Arrived on the 23rd. At the time the ETA said "mid-Feb" so it was largely accurate.

 

[Darunion]

Are they still requiring the cloud connection to slice and print? That was my turn off when first looking at them.

 

[notarat]

I ordered one this morning with an estimated delivery date of mid march. Should be interesting to play with when it arrives

 

[Jelly]

If you have the X1/X1C cloud connection is NOT required, you can place it in LAN mode. P1P not so much. There was one day where I couldn't print anything due to this, but it was during the Chinese New Year, and Bambu has been pretty active pushing status updates/patches out recently. I think they are in it for the long haul, just growing pains.
Shipping? Mind you I ordered an "in stock" P1P and I had it within 4 days of my order.
AMS came quick as well. 3 days IIRC.
Loving every bit of the experience.

 

[Riddlinkidstoner]

Received the Whambam PEX plate and I absolutely love the mirror finish. Highly recommended but it does require some gcode modification to the hot plate. For PLA no glue required.

 

[Jelly]

Received the Whambam PEX plate and I absolutely love the mirror finish. Highly recommended but it does require some gcode modification to the hot plate. For PLA no glue required.

You'll definitely want some kind of release agent if you print PETG with it. PETG sticks TOO well haha. Glue stick, Hairspray, not for adhesion purposes, simply a consumable barrier to protect the coating on the plate.

 

[regk]

I just watched the LTT video on these, they seem like a pretty solid piece of hardware, I've been eyeing up a 3D printer for a while and this may finally fit the bill.

 

[notarat]

Got my Carbon X1 last Friday. Happy with it so far. Speed is great. Having to use a specific spool isn't all that great. However, I don't mind all that much.

I just ordered 4 spools of filament from them to see how well they perform.

Damn thing can set off the seismic sensors so I'ma have to put it on the floor to get a solid base for it.

All in all, 8.5/10 IMHO. Glad I ordered it

 

[Riddlinkidstoner]

Got my Carbon X1 last Friday. Happy with it so far. Speed is great. Having to use a specific spool isn't all that great. However, I don't mind all that much.

I just ordered 4 spools of filament from them to see how well they perform.

Damn thing can set off the seismic sensors so I'ma have to put it on the floor to get a solid base for it.

All in all, 8.5/10 IMHO. Glad I ordered it

So far I've only used filament from Bambu, eSun (it seems to be Bambu's OEM supplier), Cookiecad, and Ziro. The only compatibility I've run into for the AMS is with 250g small spools.

 

[notarat]

So far I've only used filament from Bambu, eSun (it seems to be Bambu's OEM supplier), Cookiecad, and Ziro. The only compatibility I've run into for the AMS is with 250g small spools.

It definitely doesn't like the cardboard spools from Overture or the plastic Hatchbox spools I have but I found a link to the printable spool that works well so I'll just use the "included" filament to print those and move over the filament from the overture spools.

 

[antok86]

Anyone got a spare ams…or even broken they wanna sell???