Like @kksimon said, you don’t have to send prints with their system and can put the machine in LAN mode and use sd card. That’s annoying though and unless you are super worried about them stealing a design or using it for sensitive work stuff or something I don’t think it’s an issue. Really doubt Bambu is out there looking to steal prototype yoyo designs.
Here is an interview with the ceo talking about it
I’ll say. Now I’m thinking about a P1S instead of just the A1 I was thinking about…
Prototypes not so much, just worried about a botnet issue we had with an external laptop that was brought on network one day. But if you say I can be careful with it then I can rest assured I can be careful.
You definitely do not have to connect it to a network. It’s just very convenient to click print on your computer and be done verses insert sd, transfer file, eject sd, get up walk to machine, insert sd, locate file and then print.
That’s beautiful. I have so many very bad ideas to test.
My third attempt at a club counterweight for my fledgling club. The weight itself is the size of a golf ball which is fun but way lighter. The embossed logo doesn’t quite pop.
Another I’d suggest would be the Qidi Q1 Pro. Link - It’s a little beast of a printer. Fully enclosed, with a max print temp of 350c. It also has a heated chamber that goes up to 60c (great for printing seriously tough filament) it’s core xy, which is arguably way more efficient than bed slingers (not saying bed slingers are bad but core xy is a step above). It also has auto leveling, input shaping and super fast print speeds 600mm/s, with remote monitoring plus a camera similar to the bambu.
It’s currently on sale for $449 and with this coupon: 30DAYSGIFT you can get it for $419! It’s absolutely worth it at this price IMO.
Ths only thing that you’re “missing out” on is the AMS system but there’s talk that Qidi is coming out with their own. To be honest IMO the AMS system is more of a hassle than what it’s worth but that’s just my opinion.
Can you go into a little detail on this opinion? I’m strongly considering an A1 Combo and the AMS is a not insignificant part of the decision.
I’ve found the AMS light to be a nice convenience. 4 colors ready to go at anytime. I find myself changing filament much less often. You can set it to auto change on filament runout too. I’ve only had one error with it, but that was actually due to the filament having a defect which the machine detected and paused the print. I am a fan and will be picking up a second AMS soon.
First off I do want to say it is a great system and it works quite well most of the time, so I don’t want it to come off like I think it’s a bad system at all. It’s super impressive what you can achieve with the AMS system. Especially for printing multiple colored prints.
Unfortunately, early on my experience wasn’t so great. I had a few issues with the original breadbox style one that is used on the X1C / P series of printers. Mostly due to the system either jamming and having to be taken down to clear the jam / clog. Bay 3 would always jam after a few hours of printing on it, I ended up having to print upgrade parts for it and replace the PTFE tubes with capricorn tubes (an added cost) to alleviate the issue and that didn’t fix it completely. Bambu even sent new parts and that didn’t fix it completely. Unloading was like playing Russian roulette sometimes LOL!
Another issue was with it not detecting non-bambu filament or just being extremely picky about what kind of spools it liked.
They do not like most cardboard spools and you have to print a frame to reinforce the cardboard, especially the non-compressed ones. While it’s not a huge deal, some manufacturers’ spools are juuuust big enough, when you add the spool stiffener, they become too big for the AMS so it won’t close. I even had some plastic spools not fit very well. I usually prefer cardboard spools because it’s less waste. Many places won’t recycle the plastic spools but they’ll recycle the cardboard ones.
The other issue is that it’s just super time consuming and it adds a lot of extra print time and residual waste to the print. Purge towers / blocks are something that really needs to be fixed altogether within the 3D print community, it’s not a bambu issue but a community / industry issue. There needs to be better handling of purging and changing color. Some are starting to use infill as the purge area but it’s still hard to calculate the purge this way when there’s many jumps in small color details purging into an object is better but still not the best solution…
A few other things that I didn’t care much for was the fact that it’s not really a dry box so if you have filament that is really temperamental or super hydroscopic you can’t keep it in the unit for extended periods of time. The silica packets only do so much, they don’t really dry filament that well and since the unit is not heated, eventually that moisture is going to creep faster than the packets can absorb. I do like that the AMS is sealed and you have the moisture monitor but it needs an improvement. Give me some heat! 
Where I live and where my printers are, it’s super humid in the summer and fairly wet in the winter too so I can’t keep spools in the AMS for very long without moisture being a potential issue. Especially with filaments like Nylon.
The AMS-Lite is completely exposed so long-term filament storage is basically nothing and the filament is always exposed to the elements. I know there’s some dry box mods for it but it just seemed like a big PITA to deal with mostly because I really don’t like how much space the AMS lite takes up. The external space it needs is just an annoyance to me. I like how the OG AMS stacks onto the printer, I feel it’s a much better design. The Ams-Lite gives me flashbacks to back in the day with the original Wanhao and CR10, having that big honkin’ control box flapping around taking up desk space LOL! There are some cool wall-mount solutions too but again, it takes up a lot of space. I don’t like that.
The other thing is, I just simply didn’t use it enough. Bambu eventually sent me a new unit after all of the trouble that I had with my first one and the second one worked way better and was much more reliable but I just found that I didn’t use it enough to justify the added cost. You can buy a LOT of filament and printer upgrades for that extra $350
Don’t get me wrong, most of the time multi color prints are cool as heck, especially when they blend seamlessly. All of the hueforge stuff is killer but for day to day prints I’d rather just print in a single color or if I need to print a couple of colors I can put in pauses and manually swap. I don’t need the AMS to do that. If I’m printing figurines I’m printing those in resin so I can get the absolute best quality possible. I know it’s not feasible for everyone but that’s just how I operate right now. I would love to revisit the AMS again in the future when they update it and add on a few things like a heater and what not. But right now it’s just not that useful for my personal use case. I know some folks use theirs all the time but I didn’t use mine as much as I thought I would so I decided to sell it.
I think everyone should really think hard and assess their uses and needs for it. If you’re REALLY going to print lot’s of colors all of the time, then I’d say it’s worth it but if it’s just an occasional thing, I don’t think it’s worth the upgrade IMO.
Interesting texture is that intentional. Like using fuzzy skin?
Yeah, I used fuzz. But I didn’t expect it to be that fuzzy. 
Yeah you can tweak parameters to make it less pronounced. Only thing I see is some overhang issues which you could calibrate away.
Not sure how to fix the overhangs yet, but I tweaked some parameters and started to print another one. Should be less fuzzy now. 
I like that design, looks good.
Sweet!
Agree with Qidi. I have a X Plus3. I got it because it had the heated chamber. I always tell people if the only thing your going to print is PLA then get a Bambu. But if you are printing more functional parts with filament that needs a heated chamber go for a Qidi. Qidi also has the best customer service in the industry in my opinion.
Ive been wanting to try a yoyo with speed holes. So I decided to design one this weekend for the Stem system.
Dia: 53.5mm
Width: 58mm
Weight: 52g
This one has surprised me the most because its so light but it plays so good. Its really stable, fast and floaty.
Then I decided to make one bigger, heavier and with more holes.
Dia: 58mm
Width: 58mm
Weight: 64g
