1 year with the Bambulab A1
1 Year with the Bambulab A1
You are all going to think that I am absolutely nuts for this. And I very much so am. But I will celebrate the anniversary of anything that's important to me: OC birthdays, my cat's adoptaversary, my friend's birthdays, how long I've been dating my girlfriend for, my own birthday, and for how long I've had my 3D printer. How ridiculous, I know.
For a while now, after getting my Bambulab A1 3D printer, I meant to make a solid review video of it.
But now that it's been a year, (I received my printer on October 25th, 2024) I think my experience will have heightened my review. I think writing this review now will be better than it would've been 3 weeks after I got the printer.
So here it is... what do we want first? The bad news or the good news? Ya know what? I'm gonna go over everything that has troubled me... but then end it off with the good stuff. Because there's more good stuff than bad and I want to leave a good taste in your mouth if you're thinking about owning your own Bambulab A1. So here we go.
Everything that troubles me.
Don't get me wrong, first off. I LOVE this printer. SO much. SO much so that I even personified it into a character named Ayuna. This came from an inside joke someone I know made. They thought it would be fun to turn the printer into an anime girl... so I did for the funny... and she ended up growing on me...
what is wrong with me?
I guess she does look lovely. I am proud of her character design.
Anyway! Now I call my Bambulab A1, Ayuna and refer to her as a "She."
But hey! People are the same way about their cars. And don't forget how Captains treat their boats. All those wave crawlers out there are like Steven Universe Gems. Where are the males?
I digress. Let's get into the bad news about this printer. Of which... there are very few problems that I have. But stick around because it's nothing compared to everything that I like about it.
Off the top of my head, I can only-off-the-bat mention that one thing I wish was better about Ayuna is the camera system. You're able to view the progress of a print on the A1 through it's camera from just about anywhere! I did it from Spain! But the biggest issue with it is that it's really slow, not great quality, and it could be better. But I'm not going to really complain that much when I have the feature in the first place.
Yet it does remind me of how we have the technology in today's world to stick a camera into a pair of glasses yet most security systems still run at 0.5 FPS on 230p.
Also, I have started getting an issue where sometimes the camera and light starts to not even work. But that's a network side thing I think. It's a "turn it off and back on" fix. And when it doesn't work, I just gotta hope for the best Ayuna is doing what I need her to.
My next problem - and this is an issue that everyone with a bambulab printer will have regardless - is the amount of filament waste that the printer produces. Before a print, Ayuna needs to check the nozzle clearance and will poop into this nice toilet that I designed and 3D printed for her.
Waste from needing supports is fine but she will poop about 2 times before each print. This process unfortunately and understandably is needed as it clears the nozzle for changing colors. It's an even bigger waste when you do multi-color printing. I always make sure to print enough of one multi-color object to have more filament than what will be purged. Given I see the need. When I made my Thomas the Tank Engine display model (M-T Creations Creates episode 12 on my YouTube channel) I put together this multi-color print of the Thomas the tank engine logo. And it took a LOT of filament to be purged because everything was at an angle and it was a whole thing. It wasn't much but went a long way that I printed 3 of the logos at the same time despite only needing 1 just to compensate for the amount of filament being wasted. I gave the other 2 to 2 friends of mine who also grew up with Thomas the tank engine and learned a valuable technique on making wasting so much filament more worth it.
Although none of that was anything compared to the monstrous amount of waste created for a tiny 3D printed figure I made for my dad of Artie: The Strongest Man In The World from his favorite childhood TV show, The Adventures of Pete and Pete.
Aside from Printer waste and a slow camera, there's only one more thing that I can think of that I don't like so much about Ayuna... albiet more of a "Me" issue, I have a lot of anxiety about print failure.
This is due to a phenomenon known to the Bambulab community as THE BLOB OF DEATH.
This is when the filament discharges abnormally and starts globbing up in the nozzle area, potentially ruining components of the printer head. It's a very scary situation because it requires a lot of time and money to fix depending on how severe the problem is.
Thankfully I have not run into this issue... but running into it by surprise is a massive anxiety starter for me.
Below are some examples I found online.
Luckily, there's a bright side to this! This is only or mostly caused by user error! While I have not run into this insane failure myself, I can still advise others on how to avoid it.
- First off, make sure the silicone heat protector that covers the nozzle is properly placed and DOES NOT cover up the tip of the nozzle.
- Make sure the print bed adhesion is properly working. If prints fail to adhere to the bed properly, wash it with water and soap.
- Always make sure to use auto bed leveling on the printer.
I always make sure to keep these things in mind and so far, so good. I hope to not run into the Blob of Death anytime soon (hopefully not at all) but I am trying to stay mentally prepared for the day it could happen.
Yet because of this, I have trouble feeling like I can trust Ayuna to print by herself at night. I feel like I generally have to be there and awake until the print is done. Ayuna is reliable, but sometimes I don't trust her.
Usually when I'm going out of the house or I have her on a long print over-night, I just simply put her on what I like to call "Speed probation." And it's funny calling it that because it sounds like I'm punishing Ayuna. But it is needed for particular prints that'll print better at slower speeds than others.
The final thing that I don't like about Bambulab printers is not even about just the printer itself, but a gripe on Bambulab themselves. And that is that sometimes they seem to roll out updates that a lot of people don't like. That's more of a company issue, but for me, I update my printer from time to time and things seem to be alright for the time being. And if things do get bad... I can roll the update back or wait until the next one. I don't think there's much I or anyone can really do about updates and company changes beyond our control. But either way, still a smaller issue.
There's no denying that nothing is perfect. There may be a few things wrong with Ayuna but look, it's a machine. Cars fail, trucks break down constantly, even million dollar Disney animatronics need a few dozen part replacements every so often. Let's not forget about Walt Disney 2.0 breaking down on opening day.
But here's the thing about 3D Printing. It's always evolving. It's a relatively new technology. We're still in the midst of the rise of 3D printing as the technology gets better, more affordable, and I hope that someday, we can all recycle filament just as easily as we're able to buy it and print with it. It's just a matter of time. But even then, when we get a "flawless" marketable 3D printer, I believe it'll still have its issues.
Everything I like about it.
Now we can get into the real meat and potatoes. Absolutely everything that I LOVE about this printer. I was so excited to replace my XYZ Printing Da Vinci Jr. 1.0 Pro for a top-of-the-line Bambulab A1. And with good timing too, XYZ Printing went out of business.
I nabbed Ayuna during a sale with money I was awarded from a Scholarship. She was originally $400 and I think I managed to get her for $300. A true bargain.
Thank you Bambulab! (Also I'm not sponsored... but I will totally Sponsor them)
First off... the print quality. The print quality on Ayuna is amazing. There have been stumbles and fumbles but nothing a good print bed cleaning won't fix. That or tweaking some settings will usually do. The Bambulab community is amazing about providing support to each other for any problem being faced. When I first got Ayuna, I printed a Benchy and compared it to the last Benchy I printed on my Da Vinci Jr.. The difference in quality was excellent! A++! There's a reason I made a sticker for Ayuna of the character herself next to the text "I just print it better."
What's more, switching out the Nozzle is so easy it's not even that big of a deal if I had to switch it after every print for a project that required me to. I generally try and stay on a nozzle for a little bit anyway but the process is so easy. I even decided to time it! It took 40 seconds!
One of the biggest things for me that turned me towards this printer was the camera system. I know I just griped about how much it sucks but I am still in awe that the feature is even a thing. Let alone that it can record your prints or make time-lapses. The thing about those, however, is that they can hinder print quality because the nozzle moves off to the side so the printer can take a picture. I don't use it much and instead transfer over the video it records and make my own time-lapse out of that. Granted it doesn't come out as smooth as the built-in time-lapse does but it still works fine for me.
I am now ready to talk about the AMS Lite but before I do, I want to go over something that I think is pretty neat about Ayuna. She's able to predict how long a print will take and just when it will finish.
For my Lenyll Model project (Which you can view on my channel through a WIP video or wait until the full M-T Creations Creates episode is out) I logged every single print made for it. I logged how long Ayuna thought it would take to print each part and how long they actually took to print.
From what I've gathered, I compare the projected print time from each print to the actual amount of time each piece took to print. Based on a small set of data, on average including only data on prints that used 100% print speed: the printer can print up to around 2-20 minutes faster than it says it'll print.
That's pretty cool! Obviously, it's a case by case basis and it heavily depends on the print. But it still stands that Ayuna likes to be ahead of schedule if she can!
Now we can talk about:
The AMS Lite
The AMS (Automatic Material System) Lite is an attachment for the A1 series of Bambulab printers that allows for easy spool management and multi-color printing. The device can hold 4 spools and allows for automatic filament feeding. It's just about the coolest thing I've seen and have for a 3D printer.
I don't have any gripes on the AMS Lite other than where to put the spools that I don't currently have on the device. But that's still another Me issue.
At first I came up with a crappy way of holding the filament rolls off the (at the time) only 4 spools that I had. It worked as a system but required me to be very careful as to not tangle my filament. Luckily for my sake and the mental sanity of other Bambulab community members, I finally 3D printed more spools and a whole rack system that I found on the Makerspace website to store my out-of-commission spools and/or filament boxes.
Another thing to take note is that the default way the AMS Lite is displayed is through a stand that comes with it that holds the device at an angle. Finding space for the AMS was difficult until it was made easy by 3D printing a stand that can hold the device vertically.
Other than all that, the AMS Lite is amazingly capable of making 3D printing so much easier.
In conclusion...
The Bambulab A1 is an amazing 3D printer. I've had a wonderful year with it and I hope it lasts me many years longer. At least until I can afford one of Bambulab's larger and more industrial printers like the H2D or the P2S. But that's gonna be a LONG time before I can even be close to affording anything past the A1. Not to mention I'd rather spend a thousand dollars on a filament recycling machine instead.
Either way, the A1 is a really good standardized 3D printer for beginners and experienced 3D printing hobbyists alike and it's still capable of doing anything you can think of!
Ayuna can even sing!! I'm not kidding! You can write music for the A1 to play. Granted it's not great sounding in-tune music because she uses her motors to play said music. Yet still a possibility!
I have Ayuna sing the first few notes to "New Horizons" from the defunct Walt Disney World Epcot Center attraction: Horizons everytime she starts and finishes a print.
But that's not all I wanna have her sing. I have many ideas because you can load a song in as if it's a print file and she'll sing it. I'd love to make some videos showing off the feature further.
I definitely will make many more videos on the creations that come right off Ayuna's build plate because as far as I'm concerned, I'm gonna keep on printing!
The Bambulab A1. I heavily recommend it.
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