Bambu Lab boiz

[Robertguy09]

I stay away from cheap, random brand filaments now days. I had too many bad experiences with them being brittle, causing clogs and inconsistent extruding.

My go-to lately is Polymaker.
Or if I want it ASAP, the Microcenter Inland brand is decent price and quality.

 

[PascalP]

Thanks, I'll put the mentioned brands on my shortlist and see which of these are even available in the Netherlands

 

[PascalP]

Polymaker

How do these hold up with the cardboard spools? Do they also work well in an AMS?

 

[nnap]

I use the bambu stuff. When you order 6 rolls you get a big discount and once you have a few spools, you can get the refills which are even cheaper.

 

[Zepherino]

How do these hold up with the cardboard spools? Do they also work well in an AMS?

The cardboard spools don't work that well because of how light they are, which becomes a problem when the spool starts running low on filament. Cardboard spools are sometimes damaged from shipping since they are weaker than plastic, which is an issue since the AMS relies on the spool itself to roll on bearings.

You can print a plastic ring guard to mitigate this issue.

https://www.printables.com/model/251028-cardboard-spool-ring-for-bambu-lab-ams-parametric

 

[NFGx]

Since @PascalP has an A1, he'd be using the AMS Lite. The only worry there, AFAIK, is whether the centre of the spool fits over the central grippy thing.

 

[PascalP]

Since @PascalP has an A1, he'd be using the AMS Lite. The only worry there, AFAIK, is whether the centre of the spool fits over the central grippy thing.

Not using an AMS at all at this moment on the A1

But if I like the 3D printing hobby I see myself buying an P1S/P1C or something with AMS in the future either to replace the A1 or in addition to it and keep the A1 for simple single color prints

At least both my kids (2 boys 4y and 8y old) seem to enjoy it very much to watch the A1 go and the oldest one also has one of those 3D pens that uses the same PLA so I think this is a hobby not just for me

 

[Arthrimus]

Duramic PLA+ is my go to filament for almost everything I print. It's on a cardboard spool but my AMS has run perfectly fine with them for almost 2 years now.

 

[PascalP]

Yesterday I swapped out the standard Bambu textured PEI plate with a Biqu Panda Glacier plate and must say the result is quite good!
Black part is the PEI plate, blue part is the Biqu plate

 

[NFGx]

Yesterday I swapped out the standard Bambu textured PEI plate with a Biqu Panda Glacier plate and must say the result is quite good!
Black part is the PEI plate, blue part is the Biqu plate

I'm currently using the Bambu ultra tack plate, and it gives similar results. A very smooth (but not untextured) plate that sticks to dang near everything at ~20C lower temps.

 

[NFGx]

My prints on my A1 started going bad. Long horizontal gaps in a lot of things I printed. Happened only with a new colour of PLA-CF, and so I blamed the filament.

Then it started happening with other filaments: the black PLA-CF which I'd used for ages was starting to do it. Then the PLA matte and regular ol' PLA started randomly... doing nothing at all. They'd just fail to print every second or third run. Massive gaps in surface layers, missing layers in external walls. Several times just flexing the plate to remove an object caused it to completely separate in multiple layers, rather than come off the plate.

Turns out the extruder gear was worn. I got about 450-500 hours out of it (printer's at 505 hours currently). I figure the AMS-lite had enough push to keep it feeding, masking the problem, but finally it couldn't prevent it from happening almost all the time.

So yeah. A new extruder is cheap and I'll be watching for the 950 hour mark, and swapping it out early.

 

[PascalP]

Added a P1S combo with AMS 2 Pro and sold the A1 shortly afterwards, was nice to have 2 printers, but need the desk space

 

[NFGx]

I'm looking very seriously at the new Snapmaker. Four toolheads for under a grand? That's wild.

 

[Mikeosoft]

My prints on my A1 started going bad. Long horizontal gaps in a lot of things I printed. Happened only with a new colour of PLA-CF, and so I blamed the filament.

Then it started happening with other filaments: the black PLA-CF which I'd used for ages was starting to do it. Then the PLA matte and regular ol' PLA started randomly... doing nothing at all. They'd just fail to print every second or third run. Massive gaps in surface layers, missing layers in external walls. Several times just flexing the plate to remove an object caused it to completely separate in multiple layers, rather than come off the plate.

Turns out the extruder gear was worn. I got about 450-500 hours out of it (printer's at 505 hours currently). I figure the AMS-lite had enough push to keep it feeding, masking the problem, but finally it couldn't prevent it from happening almost all the time.

So yeah. A new extruder is cheap and I'll be watching for the 950 hour mark, and swapping it out early.

it's weird to me i print PLA/PETG mostly, with PLA CF and PLA high speed mostly, along with wood pla and marble pla from polymaker. I use a P1S with an AMS and always ran them all without any issues I have logged over 1115 hours with the og nozzle and ams, nothing changed out, no issues other than needing to clean the included plates with simple soap and hot water frequently along with changing the starting bed temp for PLA to 60 from 55 stock due to some first layer adhesion issues i think were a direct result of me printing PETG and not cleaning it after.

 

[NFGx]

it's weird to me i print PLA/PETG mostly, with PLA CF and PLA high speed mostly, along with wood pla and marble pla from polymaker. I use a P1S with an AMS and always ran them all without any issues I have logged over 1115 hours with the og nozzle and ams, nothing changed out, no issues

Yup, the consensus is I got really (un)lucky with this, somehow. The difference before and after replacing the gear is astonishing, it was absolutely the whole problem.

 

[Mikeosoft]

Yup, the consensus is I got really (un)lucky with this, somehow. The difference before and after replacing the gear is astonishing, it was absolutely the whole problem.

my first printer was a diy acrylic kit Anet A8 printer copy i got off slickdeals in 2016ish. I spent so much time and money tricking it out, building it better, printing better parts. I loved tinkering with it. Looking back it was crazy how much time i spent working on printing and modding the printer vs just enjoying the fruits of a print. I think that carried over with the next printer i dumped way too much time and money into, my Ender 3 v2. I added maybe 2x the cost of the printer in upgrades, not including the raspberry pi's and cameras I dumped into octoprint builds, then updates, then stepper motor mods, etc. It took that to finally make me so sick of "3d printing" I basically gave up for a year. It was the P1S that renewed my printing spirit. I convinced my two friends in the same boat as me to get P1S and now a H2D and we are now enjoying the hobby the way I imagined back in 2016 but for real.

I'm sorry you went thru issues with the gear, I bought .2 nozzle upgrade, .4 stainless, .8, and hardened gears kit but I am waiting til i notice issues to replace. I've had maybe 4 ams issues in the 1.5 years ive had this setup. All of which were my fault, i used old clear PLA that was stiff and needed to be dried out and it broke off in the ams. I eventually got that fixed, and i've had a few "elephant foots" where I leave a print going and it comes off the build plate and I didn't check in time and I come home to a giant goo build up around the entire nozzle and extruder drive requiring hot air rework station to soften and remove and clean with IPA. I've been very lucky.