I cut my teeth in 3d printing with a Creality Ender 3 v2. I am glad for the experience and pain that the printer gave me. I bought an A1 mini around Thanksgiving. Because the price was I thought it cheap enough if it didn't work out for me. What a night and day difference between the technologies. To be fair I know Creativity 3v2 is not the same as their newer offerings. This printer still works for me. But to pull a printer straight out of the box and it just works. Is it perfect not yet but it is a lot closer. Now instead of playing with the printer. I now have to learn about supports for my models and the best orientation.
THIS!!! Same boat here from an Ender 3 to an A1. MASSIVE change and such better prints. Could not recommend this enough. I’m just lazy and dont clean my bed enough and have had 2 blobs of death, still just fine and my hotend is still going strong!
I absolutely ADORE my A1. As someone who uses printing to facilitate my hobbies rather than printing itself being the hobby, their focus on polished user experience is just amazing. So much so that bambu has become my posterchild of whats wrong with the HeyGears machines in the resin space. "semi-closed" ecosystem, in that for the optimal out of box experience you need to use all Bambu everything, as you've rightly pointed out, but also still open to third party materials and slicers. Its a tangent i know, but HeyGears really did have the chance, and fully set themselves up to be, the Bambu of resin printing. But instead they went for the "no settings for you" fully closed ecosystem route 😑 Anywho, Bambu really does make some fantastic machines. If you're like me in the "printing itself is not the hobby" mindspace they are 10000% worth considering
This 100%! - Having a semi-closed-ecosystem is fine as long as its not "locked in", being able to use whatever slicer or filament you like with the Bambu printers is part of what makes them great, even if you only get the full breadth of their features using Bambu products!
I design terrain for tabletop gaming. Getting the Bambu printers are a game changer. My X1C will be dedicated to quality print with .2mm and finished product with either for gaming or other material for functional parts. While the A1 will be for prototyping or if I have an order to assist my X1C by quick swap the .2mm nozzle. I’m just playing now with the settings to find what’s best for my needs.
Tried talking my friend into getting the A1 awhile ago. He ended up getting the Prusa MK4 for quite a bit more money. His only intent is to use the printer for terrain. I helped him assemble his Prusa on two separate occasions and it still wasn't completely finished (needed the bed attached). I bought the A1 before christmas and been loving it (huge upgrade from my Ender 3 V2). He just bought the A1 around christmas with AMS Light and sold his mostly assembled MK4 at a loss and still ended up with money in his pocket. I don't think you can go wrong with the A1 if your looking to get a bed slinger. It's pushing budget prices, but at a really high quality for a consumer grade 3d printer. I think I went through a total of 6 or 7 rolls of filament with the Ender 3, in the 2-3 years that I owned it. I've already went through 2 or 3 rolls with the A1 in the month that I've had it. I have a case of 10kg ready to get turned into table top terrain and maybe try my hand at a few minis. Great video explaining the deal that is the A1.
I'm using the FDG profile as well, but I had to slow down my initial layer speed to about 10 mm/s or else I was having bed adhesion issues. Then again I'm also using Elegoo PLA Plus so maybe that had something to do with it. I'm curious to see your support settings though
@philipp6728 yeah they sold out, at first they said at the end of December but now the estimated shipping date is the 4th. I'm hoping that it doesn't take longer 🙏
@@philipp6728 I had the opposite problem lol, my nozzle and filament arrived in a week well before my printer ship date. I knew I'd have to wait, it said on their website that the Estimated shipping date would be later down the line, hence why I've been watching a crap ton of videos about it xD
the adhesion issues are likely because you are touching the buildplate with your hands and transfering oils to the build plate. source: was having this exact issue with dungeon blocks coming loose.
Yep 100%! - just gotta make sure to wipe it down every so often! (or just not be so impatient letting prints cool that I have to get in there with my hands)
Yep! totally, hoping to explore my own settings (including supports) in an upcoming video, and will weigh up BambuStudio vs OrcaSlicer then. But that might be a while as I dial my settings in over a few projects!
Just finished my first print on the A1 using setting from a random reddit post which showcased goodd results and i got a wonderful deredeo dreadnought to assemble. At .06 layer height i can’t even see the lines along the z axis its so smooth even the little rivets are perfect captured i’m excited to tinker with 0.04 for some character or smaller models. My only issue so far has been some pretty nasty support scarring on some of the fine details like the ridges of the volkite guns and their power cables. I’m gonna have to check out your supports video now to see how to mitigate that going forward. I’d love an updated video later on down the line if you end up changing how you do supports to get better results on the a1 in particular.
Supports will be one of my first things I'll look at for the A1! - in the meantime maybe check out my OrcaSupports video and plug those in. Another great tip is to decrease the line width for the supports to something like 0.17 or 0.18
I find the matte PLA is easier to work with than standard PLA for removing supports. I’m too cheap to use the special support filament as a ton of material changes waste a lot of filament
Hi! Are you planning on doing reviews of other 3d printers? very interesting topic, I'm interested in looking at printers from the perspective of a printer dealing mainly with figurines. I have Creality Ender V3 SE, as my friend told me it is a very beginner friendly, I'm curious for your opinion. ❤
I would love too, but I have very limited space 😅. I do have one more printer that I might be looking at soon, but after that it will be a matter of storage. I'm sure I'll figure it out!
Don’t do what I just did today and think scaling down a model to be roughly the scale will work with default settings. Because you might end up with a holo set of t-51 power armor
This printer plus 0.2mm nozzle prints minis that look good enough for most people. They are not as good as the official minis fs, but for the money that those cost, the printer pays for it self. Plus larger "minis" can be printed with the 0.4mm standard nozzle faster....I'll take a terrasque mini for 10$ please and thank you
Great video, quality entertainment. But don't get me wrong, you used the Fat Dragon Games profile, you could have printed a miniature or terrain from them.
@Painted4Combat I'm sorry if I didn't make myself clear. I said that since you used the Fat Dragon Games profile for miniatures, you could have printed a miniature from them, from the company Fat Dragon Games.
I wish someone made an FDM printer capable of 0.02 or 0.01 layers. If we got there - who needs resin at that point? As things are, A1 is ALMOST completely satisfactory for me, but things like faces orsharpest details are still better left to resin.😮 If you find settings that are good for printing 28mm miniature heads/faces - It'd be great, but I don't think the precision on this one is there. BTW I pushed mine all the way to 0.03mm with basically your settings but slower.
I don't understand this daily fad and obsession that only Bamboo Lab can print with miniatures, It seems like they pay everyone. I have Elegoo Neptune 4 and I am printing my sculptures in 8 cm, with a 0.2 mm nozzle perfectly and incredible quality.
It's not the only one. It's just incredibly simple to get going with a Bambu (not Bamboo). As long as you have a small enough nozzle, any printer can do it, but some printers take a lot more fiddling to get to a decent level of quality. The A1 was a huge upgrade from my old printers, some of which didn't even have automatic bed-levelling without spending a small fortune (we pay triple of US prices for parts). You don't need to be paid by the manufacturer to like a good product.
exactly what @unspeakableoaf said, its not that other printers aren't capable of it. Its that, for people like myself for whom printing itself is not the hobby, its an amazing plug and play experience without having to tinker like is pretty much required on so many older fdm machines
My channel is built around the quality I have achieved with another printer (neptune 3 pro), and I will continute to use that printer in my videos. Most of my content is of the idea that most modern fdm printers can produce great minis with a bit of effort, the Bambu (in my opinion from my limited hands on time so far) simply gets you to a great starring point much faster, so is great for people who don't want to much around with tweaking the physical printer more than they have too. *And just to clarify, no money changed hands here.
Cannot wait for your input on dialing in the best settings for minis and terrain!
This x1000.
Your vidoes inspired me to buy a fdm printer and this is what I bought. Its so good! Almost plug and play.
I cut my teeth in 3d printing with a Creality Ender 3 v2. I am glad for the experience and pain that the printer gave me. I bought an A1 mini around Thanksgiving. Because the price was I thought it cheap enough if it didn't work out for me. What a night and day difference between the technologies. To be fair I know Creativity 3v2 is not the same as their newer offerings. This printer still works for me. But to pull a printer straight out of the box and it just works. Is it perfect not yet but it is a lot closer. Now instead of playing with the printer. I now have to learn about supports for my models and the best orientation.
THIS!!! Same boat here from an Ender 3 to an A1. MASSIVE change and such better prints. Could not recommend this enough.
I’m just lazy and dont clean my bed enough and have had 2 blobs of death, still just fine and my hotend is still going strong!
Great run through, thanks for posting
I absolutely ADORE my A1. As someone who uses printing to facilitate my hobbies rather than printing itself being the hobby, their focus on polished user experience is just amazing. So much so that bambu has become my posterchild of whats wrong with the HeyGears machines in the resin space. "semi-closed" ecosystem, in that for the optimal out of box experience you need to use all Bambu everything, as you've rightly pointed out, but also still open to third party materials and slicers. Its a tangent i know, but HeyGears really did have the chance, and fully set themselves up to be, the Bambu of resin printing. But instead they went for the "no settings for you" fully closed ecosystem route 😑
Anywho, Bambu really does make some fantastic machines. If you're like me in the "printing itself is not the hobby" mindspace they are 10000% worth considering
This 100%! - Having a semi-closed-ecosystem is fine as long as its not "locked in", being able to use whatever slicer or filament you like with the Bambu printers is part of what makes them great, even if you only get the full breadth of their features using Bambu products!
I design terrain for tabletop gaming. Getting the Bambu printers are a game changer. My X1C will be dedicated to quality print with .2mm and finished product with either for gaming or other material for functional parts. While the A1 will be for prototyping or if I have an order to assist my X1C by quick swap the .2mm nozzle. I’m just playing now with the settings to find what’s best for my needs.
Tried talking my friend into getting the A1 awhile ago. He ended up getting the Prusa MK4 for quite a bit more money. His only intent is to use the printer for terrain.
I helped him assemble his Prusa on two separate occasions and it still wasn't completely finished (needed the bed attached). I bought the A1 before christmas and been loving it (huge upgrade from my Ender 3 V2). He just bought the A1 around christmas with AMS Light and sold his mostly assembled MK4 at a loss and still ended up with money in his pocket.
I don't think you can go wrong with the A1 if your looking to get a bed slinger. It's pushing budget prices, but at a really high quality for a consumer grade 3d printer.
I think I went through a total of 6 or 7 rolls of filament with the Ender 3, in the 2-3 years that I owned it. I've already went through 2 or 3 rolls with the A1 in the month that I've had it. I have a case of 10kg ready to get turned into table top terrain and maybe try my hand at a few minis.
Great video explaining the deal that is the A1.
Snagged an a1 mini a few days before thanksgiving, 2000g of filament later we’re starting to get somewhere
Planning on getting a p1s next year, so I look forward to see your future settings for this!
I'm using the FDG profile as well, but I had to slow down my initial layer speed to about 10 mm/s or else I was having bed adhesion issues. Then again I'm also using Elegoo PLA Plus so maybe that had something to do with it.
I'm curious to see your support settings though
I've been on the fence on getting an A1 or P1S. I've been printing 0.2 nozzle on my Neptune 4+ with ok results. Great video
I love my A1mini and X1C, both with AMS. BL makes the best FDM printers out there and they have a model for every budget.
I've been watching these video non stop while waiting for my A1. I ordered it during the black friday sale and won't get it until mid January 🙃
😮 got mine after 3 day.
@philipp6728 yeah they sold out, at first they said at the end of December but now the estimated shipping date is the 4th. I'm hoping that it doesn't take longer 🙏
@@Mx.Canada my printer arrived after 3 days...the 0.2mm nozzle after 3 weeks...
@@philipp6728 I had the opposite problem lol, my nozzle and filament arrived in a week well before my printer ship date. I knew I'd have to wait, it said on their website that the Estimated shipping date would be later down the line, hence why I've been watching a crap ton of videos about it xD
Looks like we’re all waiting together.
the adhesion issues are likely because you are touching the buildplate with your hands and transfering oils to the build plate. source: was having this exact issue with dungeon blocks coming loose.
yup, gotta wash it with soap to clean those oils off!
Yep 100%! - just gotta make sure to wipe it down every so often!
(or just not be so impatient letting prints cool that I have to get in there with my hands)
Great video by the way, instant fan….going binge watch now lol.
Great to have you here! Hope you find some helpful tips 😊
@@Painted4Combat absolutely!
Once you find the right settings are you going to make a video going over them for Bambu? Orca slicer also is able to be used with Bambu printers.
Yep! totally, hoping to explore my own settings (including supports) in an upcoming video, and will weigh up BambuStudio vs OrcaSlicer then. But that might be a while as I dial my settings in over a few projects!
Just finished my first print on the A1 using setting from a random reddit post which showcased goodd results and i got a wonderful deredeo dreadnought to assemble. At .06 layer height i can’t even see the lines along the z axis its so smooth even the little rivets are perfect captured i’m excited to tinker with 0.04 for some character or smaller models. My only issue so far has been some pretty nasty support scarring on some of the fine details like the ridges of the volkite guns and their power cables. I’m gonna have to check out your supports video now to see how to mitigate that going forward. I’d love an updated video later on down the line if you end up changing how you do supports to get better results on the a1 in particular.
Of course! It will be one of the first things I start playing with and you can definitely expect a video soon!
Printing with the .2 nozzle on the A1, but getting the supports off cleanly without tearing off arms and legs from the minis is holding me back. Help!
Supports will be one of my first things I'll look at for the A1! - in the meantime maybe check out my OrcaSupports video and plug those in. Another great tip is to decrease the line width for the supports to something like 0.17 or 0.18
I find the matte PLA is easier to work with than standard PLA for removing supports. I’m too cheap to use the special support filament as a ton of material changes waste a lot of filament
Hi! Are you planning on doing reviews of other 3d printers? very interesting topic, I'm interested in looking at printers from the perspective of a printer dealing mainly with figurines. I have Creality Ender V3 SE, as my friend told me it is a very beginner friendly, I'm curious for your opinion. ❤
I would love too, but I have very limited space 😅. I do have one more printer that I might be looking at soon, but after that it will be a matter of storage.
I'm sure I'll figure it out!
Remember you can use OrcaSlicer with Bambu printers!
Of Course! Will explore that when I start dialing in settings
Don’t do what I just did today and think scaling down a model to be roughly the scale will work with default settings. Because you might end up with a holo set of t-51 power armor
This printer plus 0.2mm nozzle prints minis that look good enough for most people. They are not as good as the official minis fs, but for the money that those cost, the printer pays for it self. Plus larger "minis" can be printed with the 0.4mm standard nozzle faster....I'll take a terrasque mini for 10$ please and thank you
Most people will be printing minis in FDM. Resin will fall to the wayside as an enthusiast medium.
Great video, quality entertainment. But don't get me wrong, you used the Fat Dragon Games profile, you could have printed a miniature or terrain from them.
Thanks!
Although I'm a little confused by your comment - I did print both miniatures and terrain with the FDG profile in the video?
@Painted4Combat I'm sorry if I didn't make myself clear. I said that since you used the Fat Dragon Games profile for miniatures, you could have printed a miniature from them, from the company Fat Dragon Games.
ooooh Gotcha! - that makes more sense. I don't have any of their minis on hand, but ill keep it mind for future videos
@@Painted4Combat The company is small and every UA-camr uses their profile but no one prints the company miniatures.
I wish someone made an FDM printer capable of 0.02 or 0.01 layers. If we got there - who needs resin at that point?
As things are, A1 is ALMOST completely satisfactory for me, but things like faces orsharpest details are still better left to resin.😮
If you find settings that are good for printing 28mm miniature heads/faces - It'd be great, but I don't think the precision on this one is there.
BTW I pushed mine all the way to 0.03mm with basically your settings but slower.
Bambu says not to use IPA on the bed. Just soap and water.
Good to know! Thanks
You don’t need to buy Bambu Lab filament. I use Elagoo and Sunlu filament and that works great.
Having issues printing with bamboo labs software
If you have a PC, you can swap to OrcaSlicer, might work better for you.
What kind of issues? - let me know, if I can't help im sure someone else might
I don't understand this daily fad and obsession that only Bamboo Lab can print with miniatures, It seems like they pay everyone.
I have Elegoo Neptune 4 and I am printing my sculptures in 8 cm, with a 0.2 mm nozzle perfectly and incredible quality.
It's not the only one. It's just incredibly simple to get going with a Bambu (not Bamboo). As long as you have a small enough nozzle, any printer can do it, but some printers take a lot more fiddling to get to a decent level of quality. The A1 was a huge upgrade from my old printers, some of which didn't even have automatic bed-levelling without spending a small fortune (we pay triple of US prices for parts).
You don't need to be paid by the manufacturer to like a good product.
exactly what @unspeakableoaf said, its not that other printers aren't capable of it. Its that, for people like myself for whom printing itself is not the hobby, its an amazing plug and play experience without having to tinker like is pretty much required on so many older fdm machines
My channel is built around the quality I have achieved with another printer (neptune 3 pro), and I will continute to use that printer in my videos. Most of my content is of the idea that most modern fdm printers can produce great minis with a bit of effort, the Bambu (in my opinion from my limited hands on time so far) simply gets you to a great starring point much faster, so is great for people who don't want to much around with tweaking the physical printer more than they have too.
*And just to clarify, no money changed hands here.