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The Everything 3D Printer Thread

Yankeefarmer

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If you go the Bambu route, which I can't recommend enough to people, hopefully you have a microcenter nearby because you can't order them to the US right now. I was on their site yesterday poking around because a co-worker was interested in ordering one after he witnessed mine printing ...he was bummed because our closest MC is 100 miles away.
1738841329822.png
When you go to their website, you have to click at the top right where it says “Global” and choose “USA.” For the X1C Combo, they are showing a ship date of Feb 25 this morning. Mine shipped from New Jersey in late December 2024.
 
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250

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The layering lines can be damn near invisible, it depends on the type of filament and settings. How perfect do you need it to be?
I'd like it to be smooth enough that I don't think "look at those layers" every time I pick something up. I don't expect injection mold smooth, though I'd be interested to know close one can reasonably get.

I like that the X1c w/AMS is a complete package and from what I read it works very well. I've looked a little bit at the Qidi plus 4, it has some advantages, and some disadvantages compared to the X1c.
 

250

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When you go to their website, you have to click at the top right where it says “Global” and choose “USA.” For the X1C Combo, they are showing a ship date of Feb 25 this morning. Mine shipped from New Jersey in late December 2024.
No microcenters close. I'd probably just order from Bambu US. Couple nights ago filled the shopping cart, just couldn't pull the trigger.
 

Firstram

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I'd like it to be smooth enough that I don't think "look at those layers" every time I pick something up. I don't expect injection mold smooth, though I'd be interested to know close one can reasonably get.

I like that the X1c w/AMS is a complete package and from what I read it works very well. I've looked a little bit at the Qidi plus 4, it has some advantages, and some disadvantages compared to the X1c.
I think you’re going to be surprised how well it works. You can vapor polish ABS with acetone fumes if you need perfect but, why bother!
 

kaymccampbell

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I'd like it to be smooth enough that I don't think "look at those layers" every time I pick something up. I don't expect injection mold smooth, though I'd be interested to know close one can reasonably get.

I like that the X1c w/AMS is a complete package and from what I read it works very well. I've looked a little bit at the Qidi plus 4, it has some advantages, and some disadvantages compared to the X1c.
No FDM or SLA or SLS device is going to give an injection molded appearance without post processing. They all have layers. SLA is probably closest because of the miniscule layer height, but there's still things to do after you yank it out of the machine.

As said above, Why bother. The product has it's own cool, and IMNSHO it's effing great just as it is.
 

LS1-IROC

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When you go to their website, you have to click at the top right where it says “Global” and choose “USA.” For the X1C Combo, they are showing a ship date of Feb 25 this morning. Mine shipped from New Jersey in late December 2024.
Awesome, thank you for pointing that out! We missed it yesterday when looking at it.
 

Citation

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I started looking into 3d printing after my son got into lego trains, and the total lack of variety (and high price) of track pieces. Hard to justify a printer for that, but after stumbling across the gridfinity organization method for shop organization, it might be time to take the plunge. I don't want to tinker with printers, so for the most part, Bambu's X1c has been the top of the list. What I can't reassure myself of is if layering lines can be eliminated enough for satisfaction w/out laborious post processing techniques? To dumb it down, can I print a box that looks really good right off the plate?

I'd really like to see something in person, anything that might help fight the paralysis from anaylist. Perhaps I can purchase a sample from someone to see the posibilities?
As I noted in an earlier post you didn't have to go X1c to get a great printer. Elegoo just released a new enclosed printer that looks like a nice low cost Bambu alternative. The Flashforge Adventure 5 printers (5m, 5m Pro, 5x) are really nice and all under $500 ($270 for the 5m). Even the X1c can be hard to justify over the Bambu P1 printers. However, if this year is like last year, wait a month or three and the there will be more options and yet lower prices.
 

Firstram

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I’m thrilled with my P1S. The nicer screen of the X1 would be nice but, the Handy app on my phone takes care of that! You can use a resistor to trick the system for the higher bed temperature. Spaghetti detection would be great but I can buy a lot of filament for the difference in price!
 

lovetap

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the last frontier
Supports on this 14hr print are starting to fail. Wondering if I should go with it and see if it works or edit the GCODE to remove the supports and print from current layer? I haven't had great luck restarting a print with PETG, usually the extruder gets gummed up or I didn't quite get the layer right and it bumps the print. Any suggestions?
PXL_20250206_234439403.MP.jpg
 

ptt49er

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I’m thrilled with my P1S. The nicer screen of the X1 would be nice but, the Handy app on my phone takes care of that! You can use a resistor to trick the system for the higher bed temperature. Spaghetti detection would be great but I can buy a lot of filament for the difference in price!
We've had 2 X1Cs at work for a couple of years.

Just picked up a P1S a month ago.

I'd get another P1S for us in a heart beat.
 

XJSuperman

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Supports on this 14hr print are starting to fail. Wondering if I should go with it and see if it works or edit the GCODE to remove the supports and print from current layer? I haven't had great luck restarting a print with PETG, usually the extruder gets gummed up or I didn't quite get the layer right and it bumps the print. Any suggestions?
PXL_20250206_234439403.MP.jpg
You have more going on that just failed supports I think. I'd edit some settings and restart, but I don't know if the Prusa crowd would do something different. Is the filament wet at all? You've got stringing and while the part looks mostly ok, I think you'll find some issues with it as it get further along. Esp in that tip closest to the camera. Just one man's opinions, good luck!
 

ER70S-2

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Thanks for the response. I don't think the filament is wet, it's been inside my loft in a wood burning house, it's dry enough to cause nosebleeds. The last print was almost the same model with same filament and came out good. I've let it run for now, we'll see tonight.
A Prusa with stock settings should be able to print this no problem.

You may think your filament is dry, but if it was wet when you got it, no amount of time in your dry house is going to dry it. You MUST to dry it with heat. Simply placing a wet spool of filament into a dry atmosphere is not going to dry it. After you dry it with heat, you should put it in a sealed container with desiccant if you don't plan to rip through it quickly. I have kept dried spools of PETG in sealed containers with desiccant for years and they stay dry (or at least dry enough to not cause problems).

I see a place where you lost bed adhesion. This could have been from a blob that solidified and later got knocked by the nozzle or it could just be a bed adhesion issue (not likely). I have had better luck with tree supports. You may want to give them a try.

It doesn't look like you're printing in an enclosure. That can help with PETG, but I don't think it's your main problem.

Did you print a temp tower? That's another thing you can try.
 

lovetap

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A Prusa with stock settings should be able to print this no problem.

You may think your filament is dry, but if it was wet when you got it, no amount of time in your dry house is going to dry it. You MUST to dry it with heat. Simply placing a wet spool of filament into a dry atmosphere is not going to dry it. After you dry it with heat, you should put it in a sealed container with desiccant if you don't plan to rip through it quickly. I have kept dried spools of PETG in sealed containers with desiccant for years and they stay dry (or at least dry enough to not cause problems).

I see a place where you lost bed adhesion. This could have been from a blob that solidified and later got knocked by the nozzle or it could just be a bed adhesion issue (not likely). I have had better luck with tree supports. You may want to give them a try.

It doesn't look like you're printing in an enclosure. That can help with PETG, but I don't think it's your main problem.

Did you print a temp tower? That's another thing you can try.
Thanks for all the good info. I will build a box to dry filament before the next run. I'll look into tree supports.

Next project after building our shower will be an enclosure for the printer as it now lives down in the garage (~58F).

I did not print a temp tower. I let it run and while most of the supports failed to print the model itself came out fairly well.

PXL_20250207_175307772.jpg
PXL_20250208_001029551.MP.jpg
 
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loganb

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The dreaded Bambu filament taped on roll failure hit me yesterday

bambu tape.jpg

Stalled out a print, fortunately it was far enough along on something that was Rev0 and needed refinement so it was successful for it's purpose and Rev1 is now on the printer

Part is an angled mount for a doorbell camera. Gray is one from Printables I'm copying, but it was angled the wrong way(which I could've mirrored in slicer) but didn't give me ability to easily adjust the angle so I can fine tune position...so I remodeled it so I can adjust easily. Black printed is how far the Rev0 print made it, black piece on the far right is the metal backing plate that goes into this printed part.

doorbell mount.jpg
 

XJSuperman

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The dreaded Bambu filament taped on roll failure hit me yesterday
bambu tape.jpg
Stalled out a print, fortunately it was far enough along on something that was Rev0 and needed refinement so it was successful for it's purpose and Rev1 is now on the printer
I don't understand the issue, Logan. Your printer doesn't stop and tell you theres a feed issue? I just hit the end of a taped roll yesterday and it stopped with the issue until I replaced the roll. Hit play and the part was nearly perfect when it was finished.
 

loganb

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I don't understand the issue, Logan. Your printer doesn't stop and tell you theres a feed issue? I just hit the end of a taped roll yesterday and it stopped with the issue until I replaced the roll. Hit play and the part was nearly perfect when it was finished.


My first annoyance is it stopped. With the AMS and it set to refill if another spool of like material is loaded, stopping is a failure to me. Most other manufacturers seem to crimp over or kink a dog leg in instead of tape, so when it gets to the end it pulls the entire amount in. Then the runout sensor can detect the filament being out, swap to the next roll and continue the print without issue.

Now this part may have been my fault on the best way to handle this, but to resolve I then cut the filament off, it immediately fed up Into the tube and past the drive motor and stalled. It wouldn't let me switch to the other spool with the same material as it detected a fault vs running out, so I ended up just stopping the print as it was close enough. I couldn't unload the nozzle as it wasn't engaged with the drive, so I ended up moving another spool into that position and force feeding that initial tail thru the nozzle to get it out. It it wouldn't have had the taped tail, it would've finished the roll and moved right to the next one seamlessly.
 
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Yankeefarmer

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I encountered the Bambu filament tape SNAFU last week. Fortunately I simply got a filament snagged error and was able to substitute the back up reel and continue the print without additional consequences. Some on Reddit have reported the tape being pulled into the AMF drive and damaging gears.
 

XJSuperman

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Yeah they've been taping them lately. Most of the time the filament pulls right out from under the tape and feeds in without issue. It doesn't even have a crimp to pull straight so its pretty nice. The issue is the tape not letting go of the filament, or the tape coming off the spool and trying to follow the filament into the AMS. Thats where I get my feed issues.
 

Poolshark314

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My first annoyance is it stopped. With the AMS and it set to refill if another spool of like material is loaded, stopping is a failure to me. Most other manufacturers seem to crimp over or kink a dog leg in instead of tape, so when it gets to the end it pulls the entire amount in. Then the runout sensor can detect the filament being out, swap to the next roll and continue the print without issue.

Now this part may have been my fault on the best way to handle this, but to resolve I then cut the filament off, it immediately fed up Into the tube and past the drive motor and stalled. It wouldn't let me switch to the other spool with the same material as it detected a fault vs running out, so I ended up just stopping the print as it was close enough. I couldn't unload the nozzle as it wasn't engaged with the drive, so I ended up moving another spool into that position and force feeding that initial tail thru the nozzle to get it out. It it wouldn't have had the taped tail, it would've finished the roll and moved right to the next one seamlessly.
Was your backup roll the same color in the AMS as well? I believe this feature only works if both the material and color are the same. Or at least the same according to the AMS lol. If you don't care about mixing colors, just set it to be the same color in AMS
 
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moab11

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Yeah they've been taping them lately. Most of the time the filament pulls right out from under the tape and feeds in without issue. It doesn't even have a crimp to pull straight so its pretty nice. The issue is the tape not letting go of the filament, or the tape coming off the spool and trying to follow the filament into the AMS. Thats where I get my feed issues.
Thanks!
I hadn't heard or encountered that yet, but I haven't burnt through any new filament yet. Will be keeping an eye on it, but I hope they go back to not taping again as it worked well.
I have definitely noticed that newer spools aren't wound nearly as nicely anymore.
 

loganb

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Was your backup roll the same color in the AMS as well? I believe this feature only works if both the material and color are the same. Or at least the same according to the AMS lol. If you don't care about mixing colors, just set it to be the same color in AMS

Yeah I was being super creative and had 3 rolls of Bambu PLA Basic in Black loaded up in a 4 roll AMS. I generally love the RFID tags...except when I want it to use a different colored filament to complete a print because I don't care about the mismatch

Thanks!
I hadn't heard or encountered that yet, but I haven't burnt through any new filament yet. Will be keeping an eye on it, but I hope they go back to not taping again as it worked well.
I have definitely noticed that newer spools aren't wound nearly as nicely anymore.

I remember seeing the taped tails first maybe 6-ish months ago?? This is the first time it's been an issue as generally if there is less then half that spool width left on the last "wrap" of the spool I just toss it out as I don't want to deal with the headache but this time I let it go as I had other spools ready to go for it.
 

Cruzan80

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Just picked up a little A1 Mini from FBMP for my son to mess around with. For $100, hard to beat it! Guy said he put maybe 30 prints thru it, mostly ended up using his A1 for cosplay stuff (helmets, etc).

Still have the work X1s if I need anything more than PLA.
 

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loganb

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zach540

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Calipers, dividers, square, angle square, protractor, rule, french curve rule. Sometimes I'll scan a complex face on the flat scanner, but I usually find my measurements are more accurate.

With Fusion, I normally use a square ruler on a flatbed scanner then import that scan as a canvas, then calibrate the canvas based on the ruler. Never had an issue that way.

Edit to add link to said ruler - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0006NAQL4?tag=atomicindus08-20
 
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