Well you'll probably be learning a lot less in the fist months as a beginner than with an Ender.
That said, and as an ex ender owner, I could have done without a lot of the shitty experiences, leveling colgs and other stuff that was my entry into 3D printing.
But we were harder, in the olden days, tougher, we changed hot nozzles with our fingers alone and stayed up for 72 hours to babysit that three day print..
Brothers and sisters, let's not forget: the ender shaped us, it made us the demigods of printing that we are today.
- lowers dramatically raised hand, exits stage left
> Well you'll probably be learning a lot less in the fist months as a beginner than with an Ender.
And I learned a lot less about driving a stick shift since I’ve only ever driven an automatic.
And stick shift drivers leaned a lot less about driving a horde and buggy.
And horse and buggy drivers leaned a lot less about riding bareback.
As technology advances to where the current technology can handle any shortcomings of the old technology on its own, the necessity to learn the intricacies of the old technology becomes obsolete. Let’s not make this a “back in the old days we had to know how to manually level! (Etc)” elitism sub. Just like how it’s annoying when the boomers idiotically tout their elitist of knowing outdated technology and practices like writing in cursive.
>horde and buggy.
Hmm, like a horde of zombies? Instead of a carrot and stick you have a brain and stick? Is this the travel of the future once the world collapses? In the society that's rebuilt we wont refer to horse power in engines, but zombie power.
I'm a former Ender owner and my Ender is still working pretty much flawlessly most of the time, I still think I had to tinker too much with it. My hobby was always printing and not the 3d printer itself, so even though I understand the technical side of it, I would have much preferred not having to smash my head against it every few weeks.
I totally agree with you.
Apparently, yes. Kids today, I tell ya. Back in my day, we grew up on Airplane, Caddyshack, History of the World Part I. We cut out teeth on Police Squad, and Spaceballs.
These whippersnappers will never know the sarcasm. Some of them may have adopted the sarcasm, but we were born to the sarcasm, shaped by it, molded to it.
Back in my day, we got excited about connecting our 3.36kbs baud modem to our local bbs to play muds. And DOS being the cli of choice for us MS nerds. All hail windows 1.1
I didn't know that the secret knowledge of manual bed leveling was elitist lol. Unfortunately for Ender3 owners with that special ability to level a bed, Bambu has [spilled the beans](https://wiki.bambulab.com/en/x1/manual/manual-bed-leveling), and now the whole world will know how to do it.
It’s elitist to claim having that knowledge somehow makes you superior to people who don’t know how to because they don’t have to know.
If the only printer someone has ever had was a Bambulab (and least the P1S), they’d never have to know how to manually level a bed.
Having driven both stick shift and automatic, I still really love the experience of a manual transmission, and still choose to drive one today. It may require a little more from the driver, but it’s satisfying and engaging.
But man. I just got an A1 Mini after four years of Ender 3 ownership and I can’t wait to get rid of the Ender. On its best day, the Ender was slow but not too frustrating. On most print days though, I spent more time working on the printer than I did designing parts.
Maybe my experience with the Ender will help me with troubleshooting the A1 when it eventually gives me trouble. I don’t know. All I can tell you is that I thought I’d be keeping the Ender for “bigger projects” that don’t fit on the A1 Mini. But if you ask me now, I plan to buy a bigger Bambu printer when I need a bigger build volume. The ender is just not worth my time.
>Well you'll probably be learning a lot less in the fist months as a beginner than with an Ender.
Learning for the sake of learning isn't necessarily a good thing. You could learn a fair bit about anatomy being disemboweled, which frankly sounds preferable to putting up with the Ender 3's shit.
> Well you'll probably be learning a lot less in the fist months as a beginner than with an Ender.
You'll be learning less about atomic pulls, first layer issues, and clogged nozzles and more about optimising slicer settings, multi-colour prints, support materials, etc.
I know you're not being entirely serious but many people on r/3dprinting do have the view that newer enthusiasts will learn less than if they started with a worse printer. I don't think that's necessarily the case, instead they will just learn about more important things now that they don't have to worry about each printing succeeding as much.
> Well you'll probably be learning a lot less in the fist months as a beginner than with an Ender.
I had an ender a couple years ago, I found it to be nothing but frustration. Never got it working, the bed would wobble, replaced components, there was improvement, but never could get consistency out of it. It's like buying a yugo, and then you slowly replace parts like the ship of theseus, until you have something that's, well, usable.
Having bought an A1, I don't feel like I'm missing out on some sort of trial by fire, I don't have time for that.
This mirrors my experience. I don't have time nowadays to mess around constantly, a bit of tinkering would have been fine but I guess maybe I just got a bad printer.
It sucked all the joy out of trying to get into the hobby in the end. I'm buying the A1 Mini so I can get the love back.
Struggling doesn't help anyone, as others have said the learning can be in blender or something progressive instead of troubleshooting endless benchy prints.
While I do agree that having the extra skills to fix things is a super useful skill set, as someone who works a lot of hours to be able to afford to live, I definitely don't always have time for the frustrations that a lot of older printers are known for. I'd rather pay more money for something that just works when I need it to.
I involuntarily become a 3d printing expert because of my Ender 3. Actually, it improved my "fix something" skill on many other areas other than 3d printing. Fixing my car last weekend feels easier than fixing the Ender. Normally I would just have it towed.
Just got my P1S yesterday, and I'm very happy for my year and a half with an Ender 3 V2. Without it I wouldn't know hardly anything about how these machines work, and I wouldn't have really appreciated anything about the P1S. So many of the questions on the Bambu Reddit are newbie mistakes that they would have learned about if they had an Ender.
What do you think? I'm thinking of upgrading from my 3V2. I've had it maybe 3 years, used it a bunch and tuned it a bunch to make it print.
I've been making small parts for a friend's business and am at a point where I just want my printer to print flawlessly everytime. The 3V2 isn't really accomplishing that.
Honestly, it's amazing. I've only printed a benchy, a few other things that came on the sd card, and some dust covers for it but watching it go is futuristic. I'm getting really Good results from the standard profiles with no dialing in needed yet. I'm sure it would get even better with calibration too.
Sigh, I wonder how many people have the same issue I'm having. For the last few years I've been printing on an Ender 3 s1, it hasn't been without its issues, but I've got the damn printing running and printing very well right now. Yes, it's slow, but I only print PETG and PLA. And yes, I do occasionally have to spend a bit of time replacing the hot end or messing with the bed. I keep looking for a really good reason to buy one of these Bambu printers, but my PETG prints keep coming out great and I'm not sure how much faster the A1/P1S would print PETG vs my Ender. So everytime I add a Bambu to my cart I get cold feet when I look over at my Ender chugging away on another solid print.
It prints PETG flawlessly at high speed. I printed this Master Chief helmet and chest piece in about a day and a half of print time. It also prints it far better than I could ever get an ender to print. Cleanup very very minimal and supports peel right off leaving nothing behind.
https://preview.redd.it/v8qwlwlclvqc1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=d277da38d4a99219cd333ac929ff233065ec987e
Cool, what is "high speed" for your setup? With the S1 I know I'm pretty "slow" (50-70mm/s max, walls I print at 30mm/s), I'm just curious as to what I could expect print speeds for PETG to be with an A1/A1 mini or a P1S.
>Well you'll probably be learning a lot less in the fist months as a beginner than with an Ender.
Question is: would you need to?
Back in the 70s and 80s computers were much harder to use and not many people could use them out of the box, they would need to learn. These days we're all getting computers _way_ more sophisticated in our pockets and even the least tech-savvy people can use them.
I'd love to see how consumer-friendly 3D printing can get, and for that reason I'm extra curious about the new flagship model Bambu Lab teased for this year.
Look, with just a ~~few updates~~hours of torment and hundreds of dollars I have a machine that ~~prints insanely well~~is a painfully slow backup for my X1C!
Jokes aside, there is a _ton_ of value in a simple, cheap, _robust_ machine. I don't want an Ender 3 V3 because it's full of custom parts and weird software; I want an Ender 3 with nozzle probing, dual Z screws, direct drive, an accelerometer, and Klipper.
Right now, my dream printer is basically a Voron 2.4 with a heatbed conveyer belt so that I can enqueue 24 hours worth of prints with gcode from my modded Cura setup (like brick stacking and conical slicing) and then fuck off for a day - and then come back to a box full of parts.
It'd also be great for print farms :)
I agree. I think part of the hate some Bambu users get on r/3Dprinting is because they work so well and users didn’t go through the “Ender rite of passage”. Sure there are some idiots who comment “lol, get a Bambu” but I’m certain most of you on here despise them too.
I just began my printing journey two months ago with my Neptune 3 Pro, and I’ve learned an incredible amount despite it also being a “ready to go” printer. Users don’t have to deal with the Creality QC bullshit to become proficient in printing.
I have no dog in this fight, I’m obsessed with my printer and hope to have a Bambu one day, but I’m ready for Creality to fade into oblivion.
Its difficult... Most of the ender 3 buyers are just starting with the hobby, and they don't really have a good idea if the smaller plate would be enough for them... I had the same problem years ago with the ender 3 vs 5 plus.
About 99% of my prints would work just fine with the mini, and on that price I would buy one for sure, but I dont really have any more space on the desk for it, and for that 1% I really need the 1s
I just ordered 3 with AMS. I was actually looking at the new Ender 3 V3. It looks impressive, but Bambu just destroyed it. Reality is going to have to push a massive price drop and develop a multi color printing system quickly, or they're going to be in deep trouble.
I bought the KE new years day as my first printer and put almost 300 hours on it before it broke 2 weeks ago. I got the x1c as a replacement and the speed and quality of the prints are more similar than I would have thought. I don't think people give the KE enough credit for what it's capable of. Some of those prints are better than the ones I get from the x1c
I gave the ender 3 v3 se a chance and it was a complete nightmare. Couldn’t figure out the z offset and dig the nozzle into the plate (bad sensor likely) but it never did a clean print. Turns out the steps needed corrected in the print config file. Just the fact that Bambu makes a functional product and doesn’t consistently let out their mistakes on the world is worth the extra. Lots of wasted time and filament trying to sort out the various Creality products.
Recently I started printing gridfinity and I am glad I got a bigger P1S plate. I would probably have given up on the whole system without it.
You can fill your plate up with bins and just print overnight. Not to mention the much bigger base plates in one piece.
Yeah, I printed a pretty big hsw set, and the smaller panels would just look terrible on my wall... But thats the 1% probably I need the bigger printbed for...
You can, make sure the room is hot, windows and doors are closed, use draft and minimal cooling (no cooling also works for some filaments) also using one of those sprays that help with adhesion helps a lot. Printed most of my 2.4 parts on Anycubic Vyper during hot summer few years ago.
EDIT: forgot to mention to use good AVS/ASA filament, Polymaker is good but avoid eSUN ABS+ it prints great but becomes soft when heated really fast
What’s funny is that I never used the full build plate of the Ender because of how damn slow and unreliable it was. Now I have an A1 Mini and it’s perfect for everything I used to do on the Ender… but I’m now interested in bigger prints because I have confidence that a full sized A1 would actually do a good job with them.
First you go on the "robot chat" part, then you look for the little line called "open a ticket", it was on the bambulab website, link in the mail of the order.
I am glad to hear this!
Just ordered the combo as my mom finds it too scary to work with my X1C and keeps asking me to print things for her lmao. I have high hopes :)
This happened when they did their Black Friday sale but if you contact customer support they'll probably give you a gift card voucher in the price difference. Worked for me.
I don’t know what your current printer is, but coming from an Ender 3, I’m getting immaculate prints in 1/3 the time on the first attempt. I can’t speak to its durability because I’ve only had my A1 Mini for two days, but so far it’s revelatory.
The AMS is slow but the quality is extraordinary, and ease of use vs the Ender isn’t even comparable. The A1 is giving me gorgeous results with filaments that were always stringy and brittle on the Ender, and that’s with generic filament profiles! I haven’t even tweaked them yet.
Candidly, the Ender will still always have a place for a lot of people.
And, I think many people in this sub would benefit from owning an Ender and learning how to tinker and tweak settings and manually adjust the printer. It would save about 50% of the questions on this sub alone... LOL
EDIT: Damn everyone it was a joke. Obviously having the A1 over an Ender is ideal.
I think the important part of the ender is that it makes you appreciate having a quality printer that much more. I never would have thought the bambu was that great if I hadn't gone through the frustrating hell that is the ender 3. I wanted to throw that thing through a window the first week of owning it.
I get that sentiment but are we really going to suggest people purchase an inferior product just so they learn stuff? Do we want to encourage the manufacture of unreliable and technologically worse machines just to teach people a lesson? lol, no.
Bambu's aren't perfect, they will have issues. Owners will have to learn how they work, and a quick history lesson from those who have come before is enough for me to appreciate what we have today.
>are we really going to suggest people purchase an inferior product just so they learn stuff?
I'm ready to be past all of those days. I never owned an Ender, but I've had my share of printers over the past decade which came with a lot of tinkering in various forms. That might be what some people are into, and that's fine, but I don't think it should be a requirement. 3D printing is a tool to help your designs come alive! It's a road block if you constantly have to fiddle with it.
I've been pretty jazzed about the Era of the A1 Mini. That encompasses a few things, but I feel like it kicked off with the A1 Mini. I've met a number of people that are not technically minded people, but they're embracing 3d printing, having fun, finding cool things to print. Some don't even have computers! they're just using their phone. The A1 Mini crowd is one of my favorite crowds in general, they're just so! They still have that twinkle of delight in their eye that years of trying to fix 3d printers hasn't destroyed in others.
Big agree. Until the last couple years, desktop 3D printers were for hobbyists. I am an ME and have printed designs for work for over a decade. My in-laws have basically no technical abilites whatsever haha. We both got printers the last 6 months. For my in-laws they got a 3D printer as a toy. I finally got one for home use as a tool (mostly, but we know how that goes).
What we have in common is that we just want them to work. There is nothing worse than a toy that doesn't work or a crappy tool or either that takes all sort of tinkering to get running. But now my X1C can make better parts than the $100k industrial Stratasys 3D printers for a lot of applications and requires minimal maintenance. What a time to be alive :)
No, we donate our old printers to them and teach them. They graduate to a new printer and pass on the Ender 3 and train someone else. It's the cycle of life. My Ender 3 is on its third owner now and it brings me joy to see the things it still creates... and the suffering it causes others... jk.
I saw all the time and pain so many have gone through with Ender 3s and just didn’t buy into the hobby for years because I just don’t want to spend so much of my time fixing and tweaking something I wanted to just use. Fast forward to last November and I ordered an X1C combo and haven’t looked back. The only issue I’ve had with the X1 is a persistant clog from Marble PLA that BBL says won’t clog a .4mm nozzle. An hour later I’d learned how to do a cold pull and I was back in business. Wish these great printers had been around 5 years ago!
Can I tweak and fix a machine? Without a doubt. It’s just not how I’d choose to spend my time. There are just too many other things I’d prefer to do with my time. And don’t disparage those that wrestled through the dark ages of FDM printing, they paved the road for this experience we’re having today and I’m grateful for all of you that category into that category. The best bonus in my mind is I get to spend my time learning how to design and slice parts to get the strongest and cleanest prints possible instead of fixing the machine.
I can’t wait to see where we are with FDM printing 5 years from now! 🙌
I feel that. I picked up an Ender 3 at the beginning of 2021 and honestly had an "easy" first 2 months with it, and got ambitious early lol. Then all the problems started, but it forced me to learn how to disassemble it and put it back together.
The reason I finally got rid of it was when I was having problems with the stepper motors and the hot end. I tried to replace both but could never get it back to printing cleanly and without configuring the damn thing each time. Z height would always be different and I'd constantly have issues.
The only reason I made the joke about it to begin with was when Bambu Support told me to disassemble parts of the X1C, I wasn't worried or nervous and that was due to messing with the Ender in the first place.
0 interest in fiddling. I want the modelling/designing to be the hobby, not the printer. Ideally it'd be just like my paper laser jet printer, an appliance that just prints.
>benefit from owning an Ender
My wallet wont benefit. But it doesn't benefit from the Bambu printers I buy either, or anything I buy really. If it had it's way, I'd spend no money and just fatten it up all day.
>Candidly, the Ender will still always have a place for a lot of people.
Yep. For me, that place is in a box in pieces at the foot of my bed. I keep my fan on it.
https://preview.redd.it/lfg7e47p0qqc1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=cd9bcc23f9c72d7bc4fa91372093f834cf30ad79
Still going strong as my secondary to my x1c
https://preview.redd.it/0k4k0g4gtrqc1.jpeg?width=4032&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=9c8e208fa6204bf1d3474ba8f7632758346d92cb
I still use mine for 1.5mm line width out of a 1mm nozzle for thicc vase mode terrain prints.
As a side note, one problem that I have with older printers is that they just kind of become... unwanted. I replaced a Creality CR-10S Pro V2 with my Bambu printer about a year ago, and when I looked up how much I could sell it for, I was seeing around... $50? Honestly, at this point, I'd rather strip it down and just keep the beneficial parts like the aluminum extrusion, power supply, etc.
Bought it last year, never looked back to ender 12345. It's fucking reliable and able to print shit without breaking down every 10 prints.To get a ender 3 to work at a similar level as Bambu lab required tons of mods and it is just not worth it.
The whole learning shit is not real, you will learn nothing since there are too many variables in an ender which you have no control over. You fix one thing, oh another thing broke, you try again oh it works magically. The thing is not reliable. Learning can only happen from a controlled stable environment not chaos.
Trust me, get a Bambu lab. You will learn much more about 3d print since you are able to fucking print instead of trying to fix the 3d printer itself. Peace.
Of course, get the A1! But don't be arrogant and ignorant or ungrateful. Bambulabs build on technologies that the reprap movement, open source enthusiasts, etc. developed on shitty i3 style printers. Just because YOU don't learn from troubleshooting doesn't mean most people won't. All evidence suggests most people do learn. And bambu printers are proprietary, so if sth breaks you follow the manual having zero skills and bitch in the forums about how their support sux. The A1 is, without a doubt the best purchase by far. But if one needs to learn how to truly 3d print, then open source machines with full schematics and software on github are the way to go. Learning to 3d print, troubleshoot, mod, and eventually start building your own gives you extensive STEMI skills/knowledge. It is totally worth it, people! Don't listen to the inept haters. ( Still, the A1 mini is the only printer i'd buy at that price range)
I would argue that the knowledge I learned from fixing my ender is not transferrable to my usage of Bambu lab printers. Not everyone is enthusiastic about 3d PRINTER, most of them just want to print. and the time spent learning how they work or not work can be spent on something more useful like learning CAD and making beautiful models.
I don't see how this is arrogant and ungrateful. As a user, I found my experience miserable and why should I be grateful about it. Yes there were sparks of joy when it works but most of the time it doesn't.
As far as community support, Bambu lab's documentation is exceptional and I have managed to self help multiple times. Instead of relying on random reddit threads, digging into firmware code to debug an issue.
I highly NOT recommend anyone to get an Ender in 2024 just for the sake for learning, it's more of a waste of time than ever before.
And it will deter you from actually printing something.
Well I just got 5 ender 3 neo v2s for the same price. Pei plates, bl touch, klipper installed and two of them have multicolored attachments 🤷 ender is still a great budget option for learning how to use a machine. Bambu only issue is it really doesn't show you how to fix or maintain the machine. A ender you are forced to learn which long term has more value for me 👍 I'm still gunna pick up a a1 mini lol
Ender 3 teaches you how to do maintenance on an ender 3… you’ll learn everything you need to with a bambu, just more slowly since it’s actually reliable
After suffering with Ender for years, I’m so genuinely happy for people of the future don’t have to feel my pain. Looking forward to seeing what all those people make!
Really looking forward to picking up one of these as a secondary printer. I have a P1S but not everything has to be PETG enclosed in plexi with a nine inch footprint. I'd love to put a .2 mm nozzle on it and do mini stuff.
Remembers me when I had a job in Mexico and also some brasil colleagues had been on that side. Like all of them got themselves new iPhones and I was like „why they buy these expensive phones?!“ compared to back home in Germany or even way cheaper in the US. Well then I looked at the Apple website from their country…. Crazy expensive and I guess in Chile it isn’t that different.
Cosplay and props mostly. There, quality doesn’t necessarily matter as much since there’s likely post processing happening anyways and bigger bed size matters a lot more.
But yeah, for most applications, this is a very good contender.
People have too much nostalgia for Ender machines. They barely worked out of the box. Even the V3 SE/KE have issues. So for people just starting out with 3D printing that can turn them off from continuing. I'm glad we have options that make it super easy for people just getting into the hobby
Its a bit pathetic seeing all these people trashing a 6 year old machine that costs 2.5x less. I like the bambus but its like comparing a 2004 Motorola flip phones to the iPhone 4. Way newer and way more expensive
Does some of you used Ender 3 to create something useful and always reliable ?
I am thinking about building this, also share as might not be well known.
https://www.printables.com/pl/model/179820-the-recreator-3d-mk5kit-ender3-pultrusion-unit
Amazing little printer, snatch it up!
I got mine for $269 after a coupon and I feel like I ripped bambu off with how amazing that printer has been for me.
$249 is highway robbery. I'm tempted to grab another, but I'm waiting for the full size A1 to come back in stock instead.
[https://store.bambulab.com/products/a1-series-hotends-kit](https://store.bambulab.com/products/a1-series-hotends-kit) Sure does! Takes about 20-30 seconds to swap the nozzle
Tempting, but I'm debating between the P1S and the X1 Carbon, both with AMS. I'm a bit too impatient for the full-size A1.
I've had some great prints from my Ender 3 V3 SE, but I'm sick of dialing in the settings for every print until it doesn't fail.
how could you do this to me Bambulab..... just ordered my voron 2.4 and saw this..... :(, is should have waited a bit and buy this printer to print my voron parts XD
Part of my job is running a STEM lab and teaching fusion 360 to teenagers. Have 13 ender 3 V2’s (mix between v2 and neo) I gotta say they’ve been great once I learned them. 0 failed prints this year, and I teach over 200 kids. However it’s great to know a machine like this Bambu is available. Would be great to get my lab down to 5 machines with their speed. And yes I’m aware it’s a matter of time before the Enders start to fail. :) having creality send me a new motherboard for a students personal v3 SE that he couldn’t fix. 2 month old machine
Dude I started on a monoprice select mini... jealous of your ender experience...
That piece of crap fire hazard about pushed me out of the hobby completely. Really impressed with how far FDM has come.
Loving my A1 Mini, and it's so easy to use that I let the kids use it.
This is a smart move. Beginners especially are more likely to just buy filaments from whoever they get printer from — and filament is where the margin is x1000.
Trust me you'll have Ender people telling you otherwise. Those people forget the original goal of having a 3D printer. You just want to make good parts.
You don't hear about a machinist modding their CNC. Low budget machinists will mod their stuff but only because they can't get anything better for cheap.
It's just not viable to buy a stupid Ender when so many other better printers are around. Even when v1 was around I got something else that could do 60mm/s because v1 was a headache above 30mm/s.
Now if you're printing toys, sure, but when you have a project you want to do on a Saturday and this thing tells you 18 hours, you're just not going to do it. I just don't understand why that piece of garbage took off. It wasn't even a good i3 clone.
May be the A1 will also get the new updated pricing. So wait if you can. There is definitely a reason Bambu Lab decided to slash the price of the Mini.
I noticed this yesterday. Apparently only the combo is in stock at the moment. I already own an X1C Combo, but I just ordered the A1 combo as a present for my mom & as it's in stock.
I would have rather just bought the standalone A1 and a regular AMS if only they were compatible, would have made it 100% worth it. Still hope I'm happy with the purchase seeing that I already can print full color.
Maybe someone else can give me valueable insight?
Yes with caveats. If you want to do multicolor prints, it’s a no brainer. It’s also great for printing with breakaway supports. If you live in a dry environment where you can leave your filament out, or have a dehumidifier, it’s really nice to be able to just pick from one of 4 spools without having to change a spool out, even if the print itself isn’t multi color. Unlike the full blown ams though, you can’t just leave spools on their forever since it’s not enclosed.
I've just configured my Ender 3 V2 to print as fast as an A1 today. Granted that it cost me 700€ in total, and a crapton of time, but that's proof the Ender 3 isn't done yet, thanks to klipper.
Well you'll probably be learning a lot less in the fist months as a beginner than with an Ender. That said, and as an ex ender owner, I could have done without a lot of the shitty experiences, leveling colgs and other stuff that was my entry into 3D printing. But we were harder, in the olden days, tougher, we changed hot nozzles with our fingers alone and stayed up for 72 hours to babysit that three day print.. Brothers and sisters, let's not forget: the ender shaped us, it made us the demigods of printing that we are today. - lowers dramatically raised hand, exits stage left
> Well you'll probably be learning a lot less in the fist months as a beginner than with an Ender. And I learned a lot less about driving a stick shift since I’ve only ever driven an automatic. And stick shift drivers leaned a lot less about driving a horde and buggy. And horse and buggy drivers leaned a lot less about riding bareback. As technology advances to where the current technology can handle any shortcomings of the old technology on its own, the necessity to learn the intricacies of the old technology becomes obsolete. Let’s not make this a “back in the old days we had to know how to manually level! (Etc)” elitism sub. Just like how it’s annoying when the boomers idiotically tout their elitist of knowing outdated technology and practices like writing in cursive.
>horde and buggy. Hmm, like a horde of zombies? Instead of a carrot and stick you have a brain and stick? Is this the travel of the future once the world collapses? In the society that's rebuilt we wont refer to horse power in engines, but zombie power.
I think they did that in walking dead. Might as well use them for pulling power.
Ok but let's not ignore fist months
On an Ender they call it the fist months of ownership, because the first few months are spent fighting with it?? Haha, I don't know.
I just picture piling 10 people into a VW Beetle.
Eh, just take the seats out, and it'll work.
I'm a former Ender owner and my Ender is still working pretty much flawlessly most of the time, I still think I had to tinker too much with it. My hobby was always printing and not the 3d printer itself, so even though I understand the technical side of it, I would have much preferred not having to smash my head against it every few weeks. I totally agree with you.
do I really have to put the /s on my post?
Apparently, yes. Kids today, I tell ya. Back in my day, we grew up on Airplane, Caddyshack, History of the World Part I. We cut out teeth on Police Squad, and Spaceballs. These whippersnappers will never know the sarcasm. Some of them may have adopted the sarcasm, but we were born to the sarcasm, shaped by it, molded to it.
Back in my day, we got excited about connecting our 3.36kbs baud modem to our local bbs to play muds. And DOS being the cli of choice for us MS nerds. All hail windows 1.1
*stares slowly in 500 baud*
The radar sir... It appears to be... jammed!
Is it raspberry?
There's only one man who would dare give me the raspberry1
Gen X'ers unite!
Don't forget Blazing Saddles!
🤣
Technology advances so people don't have to deal with that age old bullshit. OP buy the printer, fuck Creality's anti-consumer bullshit anyway.
Lighten up, Francis
We are not homosexual but we are *willing to learn*
So you are saying you can't drive stick or write cursive and that those are advancements?
For the horde!
Solid response.
well said mate
Don't forget us cow buggy drivers.
I didn't know that the secret knowledge of manual bed leveling was elitist lol. Unfortunately for Ender3 owners with that special ability to level a bed, Bambu has [spilled the beans](https://wiki.bambulab.com/en/x1/manual/manual-bed-leveling), and now the whole world will know how to do it.
It’s elitist to claim having that knowledge somehow makes you superior to people who don’t know how to because they don’t have to know. If the only printer someone has ever had was a Bambulab (and least the P1S), they’d never have to know how to manually level a bed.
Stick and automatic is a more nuanced story, but otherwise you nailed it.
>horde FOR THE HORDE!
Having driven both stick shift and automatic, I still really love the experience of a manual transmission, and still choose to drive one today. It may require a little more from the driver, but it’s satisfying and engaging. But man. I just got an A1 Mini after four years of Ender 3 ownership and I can’t wait to get rid of the Ender. On its best day, the Ender was slow but not too frustrating. On most print days though, I spent more time working on the printer than I did designing parts. Maybe my experience with the Ender will help me with troubleshooting the A1 when it eventually gives me trouble. I don’t know. All I can tell you is that I thought I’d be keeping the Ender for “bigger projects” that don’t fit on the A1 Mini. But if you ask me now, I plan to buy a bigger Bambu printer when I need a bigger build volume. The ender is just not worth my time.
>Well you'll probably be learning a lot less in the fist months as a beginner than with an Ender. Learning for the sake of learning isn't necessarily a good thing. You could learn a fair bit about anatomy being disemboweled, which frankly sounds preferable to putting up with the Ender 3's shit.
“learning a lot less” i think its way more efficient to spend your time learning CAD than learning how to fuck with print settings
Haha exactly. I got into 3D printing because Bambu finally got it to where it needed to be. I spend all my time learning CAD now.
> Well you'll probably be learning a lot less in the fist months as a beginner than with an Ender. You'll be learning less about atomic pulls, first layer issues, and clogged nozzles and more about optimising slicer settings, multi-colour prints, support materials, etc. I know you're not being entirely serious but many people on r/3dprinting do have the view that newer enthusiasts will learn less than if they started with a worse printer. I don't think that's necessarily the case, instead they will just learn about more important things now that they don't have to worry about each printing succeeding as much.
you're right I'm completely non-serious, if the A1 had existed back then I would've been the first in line.
> Well you'll probably be learning a lot less in the fist months as a beginner than with an Ender. I had an ender a couple years ago, I found it to be nothing but frustration. Never got it working, the bed would wobble, replaced components, there was improvement, but never could get consistency out of it. It's like buying a yugo, and then you slowly replace parts like the ship of theseus, until you have something that's, well, usable. Having bought an A1, I don't feel like I'm missing out on some sort of trial by fire, I don't have time for that.
This mirrors my experience. I don't have time nowadays to mess around constantly, a bit of tinkering would have been fine but I guess maybe I just got a bad printer. It sucked all the joy out of trying to get into the hobby in the end. I'm buying the A1 Mini so I can get the love back. Struggling doesn't help anyone, as others have said the learning can be in blender or something progressive instead of troubleshooting endless benchy prints.
>Well you'll probably be learning a lot less in the fist months as a beginner than with an Ender Such a garbage take
You'll safe yourself headache and disappointment
Yes I'm agreeing. I have the x1 carbon and I need to do no tinkering or anything. It just works.
Owning an Ender 3 is really just an IQ test.
I appreciate a good cup of coffee.
Best 70h of your life, there, youngin'. Just like when I walked to school uphill both ways in the snow.
Barefoot! We was barefoot!
While I do agree that having the extra skills to fix things is a super useful skill set, as someone who works a lot of hours to be able to afford to live, I definitely don't always have time for the frustrations that a lot of older printers are known for. I'd rather pay more money for something that just works when I need it to.
I involuntarily become a 3d printing expert because of my Ender 3. Actually, it improved my "fix something" skill on many other areas other than 3d printing. Fixing my car last weekend feels easier than fixing the Ender. Normally I would just have it towed.
The ender 3 was a paradigm shift in printing. The bambu was another paradigm shift.
Best part of starting with an Ender 3... It really made me appreciate how nice the P1S is!
Just got my P1S yesterday, and I'm very happy for my year and a half with an Ender 3 V2. Without it I wouldn't know hardly anything about how these machines work, and I wouldn't have really appreciated anything about the P1S. So many of the questions on the Bambu Reddit are newbie mistakes that they would have learned about if they had an Ender.
What do you think? I'm thinking of upgrading from my 3V2. I've had it maybe 3 years, used it a bunch and tuned it a bunch to make it print. I've been making small parts for a friend's business and am at a point where I just want my printer to print flawlessly everytime. The 3V2 isn't really accomplishing that.
Honestly, it's amazing. I've only printed a benchy, a few other things that came on the sd card, and some dust covers for it but watching it go is futuristic. I'm getting really Good results from the standard profiles with no dialing in needed yet. I'm sure it would get even better with calibration too.
Do it.. they just work!
I think a lot of people didn't get the irony of your comment lol
Sigh, I wonder how many people have the same issue I'm having. For the last few years I've been printing on an Ender 3 s1, it hasn't been without its issues, but I've got the damn printing running and printing very well right now. Yes, it's slow, but I only print PETG and PLA. And yes, I do occasionally have to spend a bit of time replacing the hot end or messing with the bed. I keep looking for a really good reason to buy one of these Bambu printers, but my PETG prints keep coming out great and I'm not sure how much faster the A1/P1S would print PETG vs my Ender. So everytime I add a Bambu to my cart I get cold feet when I look over at my Ender chugging away on another solid print.
It prints PETG flawlessly at high speed. I printed this Master Chief helmet and chest piece in about a day and a half of print time. It also prints it far better than I could ever get an ender to print. Cleanup very very minimal and supports peel right off leaving nothing behind. https://preview.redd.it/v8qwlwlclvqc1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=d277da38d4a99219cd333ac929ff233065ec987e
Cool, what is "high speed" for your setup? With the S1 I know I'm pretty "slow" (50-70mm/s max, walls I print at 30mm/s), I'm just curious as to what I could expect print speeds for PETG to be with an A1/A1 mini or a P1S.
Hi. My Darwin and Mendel would like a word
>Well you'll probably be learning a lot less in the fist months as a beginner than with an Ender. Question is: would you need to? Back in the 70s and 80s computers were much harder to use and not many people could use them out of the box, they would need to learn. These days we're all getting computers _way_ more sophisticated in our pockets and even the least tech-savvy people can use them. I'd love to see how consumer-friendly 3D printing can get, and for that reason I'm extra curious about the new flagship model Bambu Lab teased for this year.
Look, with just a ~~few updates~~hours of torment and hundreds of dollars I have a machine that ~~prints insanely well~~is a painfully slow backup for my X1C! Jokes aside, there is a _ton_ of value in a simple, cheap, _robust_ machine. I don't want an Ender 3 V3 because it's full of custom parts and weird software; I want an Ender 3 with nozzle probing, dual Z screws, direct drive, an accelerometer, and Klipper. Right now, my dream printer is basically a Voron 2.4 with a heatbed conveyer belt so that I can enqueue 24 hours worth of prints with gcode from my modded Cura setup (like brick stacking and conical slicing) and then fuck off for a day - and then come back to a box full of parts. It'd also be great for print farms :)
Amen.
I agree. I think part of the hate some Bambu users get on r/3Dprinting is because they work so well and users didn’t go through the “Ender rite of passage”. Sure there are some idiots who comment “lol, get a Bambu” but I’m certain most of you on here despise them too. I just began my printing journey two months ago with my Neptune 3 Pro, and I’ve learned an incredible amount despite it also being a “ready to go” printer. Users don’t have to deal with the Creality QC bullshit to become proficient in printing. I have no dog in this fight, I’m obsessed with my printer and hope to have a Bambu one day, but I’m ready for Creality to fade into oblivion.
Its difficult... Most of the ender 3 buyers are just starting with the hobby, and they don't really have a good idea if the smaller plate would be enough for them... I had the same problem years ago with the ender 3 vs 5 plus. About 99% of my prints would work just fine with the mini, and on that price I would buy one for sure, but I dont really have any more space on the desk for it, and for that 1% I really need the 1s
I just ordered 3 with AMS. I was actually looking at the new Ender 3 V3. It looks impressive, but Bambu just destroyed it. Reality is going to have to push a massive price drop and develop a multi color printing system quickly, or they're going to be in deep trouble.
I own 2 x X1Cs and a Prusa Mini+. Minus the AMS, my Ender 3 V3 KE is on par print quality wise.
I bought the KE new years day as my first printer and put almost 300 hours on it before it broke 2 weeks ago. I got the x1c as a replacement and the speed and quality of the prints are more similar than I would have thought. I don't think people give the KE enough credit for what it's capable of. Some of those prints are better than the ones I get from the x1c
Yeah, I have a V3 I need to sell off sooner rather than later Think I'll sell my Prusas too
The new V3? The core xz one?
Sorry, v2 neo rather. I didn't even really ever use it, it was a backup for my prusas. Then I got my X1C.
I gave the ender 3 v3 se a chance and it was a complete nightmare. Couldn’t figure out the z offset and dig the nozzle into the plate (bad sensor likely) but it never did a clean print. Turns out the steps needed corrected in the print config file. Just the fact that Bambu makes a functional product and doesn’t consistently let out their mistakes on the world is worth the extra. Lots of wasted time and filament trying to sort out the various Creality products.
Recently I started printing gridfinity and I am glad I got a bigger P1S plate. I would probably have given up on the whole system without it. You can fill your plate up with bins and just print overnight. Not to mention the much bigger base plates in one piece.
Yeah, I printed a pretty big hsw set, and the smaller panels would just look terrible on my wall... But thats the 1% probably I need the bigger printbed for...
whatever extra space is not worth the nightmare that the ender 3 is.
downside is that you can't print ABS, ASA or anything that requires heat bed over 80°C even in enclosure
Yeah... But I would not print asa or abs on an open machine anyways... Even slim parts can warp, covering it is not for me either...
You can, make sure the room is hot, windows and doors are closed, use draft and minimal cooling (no cooling also works for some filaments) also using one of those sprays that help with adhesion helps a lot. Printed most of my 2.4 parts on Anycubic Vyper during hot summer few years ago. EDIT: forgot to mention to use good AVS/ASA filament, Polymaker is good but avoid eSUN ABS+ it prints great but becomes soft when heated really fast
What’s funny is that I never used the full build plate of the Ender because of how damn slow and unreliable it was. Now I have an A1 Mini and it’s perfect for everything I used to do on the Ender… but I’m now interested in bigger prints because I have confidence that a full sized A1 would actually do a good job with them.
I ordered it 3 days ago... feel my pain.
Contact support and see if they’ll give you a refund for the discount or a coupon code
Just sent a ticket :)
How did you send in a ticket? I am trying to navigate the menus but can’t really find anything
First you go on the "robot chat" part, then you look for the little line called "open a ticket", it was on the bambulab website, link in the mail of the order.
THANK YOU!
Just got a 50 euros coupon from Bambu Lab. So far, this company is a gem.
I am glad to hear this! Just ordered the combo as my mom finds it too scary to work with my X1C and keeps asking me to print things for her lmao. I have high hopes :)
Just an FYI, I gave this a shot for the A1M I paid for a month ago (delivered 2 weeks ago) and got denied, so I'm not sure what their actual limit is.
Contact their support. While I doubt they'll refund you, they probably will just give you credit on their store. Free filament is always cool
This happened when they did their Black Friday sale but if you contact customer support they'll probably give you a gift card voucher in the price difference. Worked for me.
Tx, you brought hope :)
Same here!
Same here. I saw that email and I’m like you’ve got to be kidding me.. XD. I submitted a tickets today too
I almost bought one yesterday with my makerworld vouchers but ended up not getting around to it. Time to get one.
Been saving up for a second X1C but I might just get 3 of these instead.
I don’t know what your current printer is, but coming from an Ender 3, I’m getting immaculate prints in 1/3 the time on the first attempt. I can’t speak to its durability because I’ve only had my A1 Mini for two days, but so far it’s revelatory. The AMS is slow but the quality is extraordinary, and ease of use vs the Ender isn’t even comparable. The A1 is giving me gorgeous results with filaments that were always stringy and brittle on the Ender, and that’s with generic filament profiles! I haven’t even tweaked them yet.
P1S & 2 sovol SV02's & I don't think we can count the 2 ender 3's, voxelab Aquila & 2 resin printers in storage 😂 It arrived yesterday & it's already busy. https://preview.redd.it/byyrnynvngrc1.jpeg?width=4000&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=2502f54763f58dd2f62aa47715554f2a10ab0cb5
Hah! Awesome.
I’ve learned alot more about CAD with my p1s since I haven’t had to waste time doing manual bed leveling with an ender.
Candidly, the Ender will still always have a place for a lot of people. And, I think many people in this sub would benefit from owning an Ender and learning how to tinker and tweak settings and manually adjust the printer. It would save about 50% of the questions on this sub alone... LOL EDIT: Damn everyone it was a joke. Obviously having the A1 over an Ender is ideal.
I think the important part of the ender is that it makes you appreciate having a quality printer that much more. I never would have thought the bambu was that great if I hadn't gone through the frustrating hell that is the ender 3. I wanted to throw that thing through a window the first week of owning it.
I get that sentiment but are we really going to suggest people purchase an inferior product just so they learn stuff? Do we want to encourage the manufacture of unreliable and technologically worse machines just to teach people a lesson? lol, no. Bambu's aren't perfect, they will have issues. Owners will have to learn how they work, and a quick history lesson from those who have come before is enough for me to appreciate what we have today.
>are we really going to suggest people purchase an inferior product just so they learn stuff? I'm ready to be past all of those days. I never owned an Ender, but I've had my share of printers over the past decade which came with a lot of tinkering in various forms. That might be what some people are into, and that's fine, but I don't think it should be a requirement. 3D printing is a tool to help your designs come alive! It's a road block if you constantly have to fiddle with it. I've been pretty jazzed about the Era of the A1 Mini. That encompasses a few things, but I feel like it kicked off with the A1 Mini. I've met a number of people that are not technically minded people, but they're embracing 3d printing, having fun, finding cool things to print. Some don't even have computers! they're just using their phone. The A1 Mini crowd is one of my favorite crowds in general, they're just so! They still have that twinkle of delight in their eye that years of trying to fix 3d printers hasn't destroyed in others.
Big agree. Until the last couple years, desktop 3D printers were for hobbyists. I am an ME and have printed designs for work for over a decade. My in-laws have basically no technical abilites whatsever haha. We both got printers the last 6 months. For my in-laws they got a 3D printer as a toy. I finally got one for home use as a tool (mostly, but we know how that goes). What we have in common is that we just want them to work. There is nothing worse than a toy that doesn't work or a crappy tool or either that takes all sort of tinkering to get running. But now my X1C can make better parts than the $100k industrial Stratasys 3D printers for a lot of applications and requires minimal maintenance. What a time to be alive :)
No, we donate our old printers to them and teach them. They graduate to a new printer and pass on the Ender 3 and train someone else. It's the cycle of life. My Ender 3 is on its third owner now and it brings me joy to see the things it still creates... and the suffering it causes others... jk.
I saw all the time and pain so many have gone through with Ender 3s and just didn’t buy into the hobby for years because I just don’t want to spend so much of my time fixing and tweaking something I wanted to just use. Fast forward to last November and I ordered an X1C combo and haven’t looked back. The only issue I’ve had with the X1 is a persistant clog from Marble PLA that BBL says won’t clog a .4mm nozzle. An hour later I’d learned how to do a cold pull and I was back in business. Wish these great printers had been around 5 years ago! Can I tweak and fix a machine? Without a doubt. It’s just not how I’d choose to spend my time. There are just too many other things I’d prefer to do with my time. And don’t disparage those that wrestled through the dark ages of FDM printing, they paved the road for this experience we’re having today and I’m grateful for all of you that category into that category. The best bonus in my mind is I get to spend my time learning how to design and slice parts to get the strongest and cleanest prints possible instead of fixing the machine. I can’t wait to see where we are with FDM printing 5 years from now! 🙌
I’m never going to buy ender ever again. I’m done with those junk tinker toys.
I feel that. I picked up an Ender 3 at the beginning of 2021 and honestly had an "easy" first 2 months with it, and got ambitious early lol. Then all the problems started, but it forced me to learn how to disassemble it and put it back together. The reason I finally got rid of it was when I was having problems with the stepper motors and the hot end. I tried to replace both but could never get it back to printing cleanly and without configuring the damn thing each time. Z height would always be different and I'd constantly have issues. The only reason I made the joke about it to begin with was when Bambu Support told me to disassemble parts of the X1C, I wasn't worried or nervous and that was due to messing with the Ender in the first place.
I mean if you check the ender subbredit... Not much different... :D
0 interest in fiddling. I want the modelling/designing to be the hobby, not the printer. Ideally it'd be just like my paper laser jet printer, an appliance that just prints.
>benefit from owning an Ender My wallet wont benefit. But it doesn't benefit from the Bambu printers I buy either, or anything I buy really. If it had it's way, I'd spend no money and just fatten it up all day.
>Candidly, the Ender will still always have a place for a lot of people. Yep. For me, that place is in a box in pieces at the foot of my bed. I keep my fan on it.
https://preview.redd.it/vidwq2s80pqc1.jpeg?width=4032&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=792799e5997f72488a9e54a66b8b42a737e75686 This is where Enders belong
donate it to me I'll show it some love
https://preview.redd.it/lfg7e47p0qqc1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=cd9bcc23f9c72d7bc4fa91372093f834cf30ad79 Still going strong as my secondary to my x1c
https://preview.redd.it/0k4k0g4gtrqc1.jpeg?width=4032&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=9c8e208fa6204bf1d3474ba8f7632758346d92cb I still use mine for 1.5mm line width out of a 1mm nozzle for thicc vase mode terrain prints.
[Or make it into a combat robot](https://www.youtube.com/shorts/qheZBQjEIrk)
As a side note, one problem that I have with older printers is that they just kind of become... unwanted. I replaced a Creality CR-10S Pro V2 with my Bambu printer about a year ago, and when I looked up how much I could sell it for, I was seeing around... $50? Honestly, at this point, I'd rather strip it down and just keep the beneficial parts like the aluminum extrusion, power supply, etc.
Noooooooooooo!
Donate it to a thrift shop, then you'll see it on r/3dprinting where some lad finds it for $20
look how they massacred my boy
Bought it last year, never looked back to ender 12345. It's fucking reliable and able to print shit without breaking down every 10 prints.To get a ender 3 to work at a similar level as Bambu lab required tons of mods and it is just not worth it. The whole learning shit is not real, you will learn nothing since there are too many variables in an ender which you have no control over. You fix one thing, oh another thing broke, you try again oh it works magically. The thing is not reliable. Learning can only happen from a controlled stable environment not chaos. Trust me, get a Bambu lab. You will learn much more about 3d print since you are able to fucking print instead of trying to fix the 3d printer itself. Peace.
Of course, get the A1! But don't be arrogant and ignorant or ungrateful. Bambulabs build on technologies that the reprap movement, open source enthusiasts, etc. developed on shitty i3 style printers. Just because YOU don't learn from troubleshooting doesn't mean most people won't. All evidence suggests most people do learn. And bambu printers are proprietary, so if sth breaks you follow the manual having zero skills and bitch in the forums about how their support sux. The A1 is, without a doubt the best purchase by far. But if one needs to learn how to truly 3d print, then open source machines with full schematics and software on github are the way to go. Learning to 3d print, troubleshoot, mod, and eventually start building your own gives you extensive STEMI skills/knowledge. It is totally worth it, people! Don't listen to the inept haters. ( Still, the A1 mini is the only printer i'd buy at that price range)
I would argue that the knowledge I learned from fixing my ender is not transferrable to my usage of Bambu lab printers. Not everyone is enthusiastic about 3d PRINTER, most of them just want to print. and the time spent learning how they work or not work can be spent on something more useful like learning CAD and making beautiful models. I don't see how this is arrogant and ungrateful. As a user, I found my experience miserable and why should I be grateful about it. Yes there were sparks of joy when it works but most of the time it doesn't. As far as community support, Bambu lab's documentation is exceptional and I have managed to self help multiple times. Instead of relying on random reddit threads, digging into firmware code to debug an issue. I highly NOT recommend anyone to get an Ender in 2024 just for the sake for learning, it's more of a waste of time than ever before. And it will deter you from actually printing something.
The ender is dead. The era of printing as a hobby instead of fixing the printer is here.
I am planning on getting 3 more with ams. Funny thing this is still cheaper than a prusa clone from fystec.
It’s smaller than an Ender 3 though.
G.O.A.T. - Greatest Of All Tiny
About time
Well I just got 5 ender 3 neo v2s for the same price. Pei plates, bl touch, klipper installed and two of them have multicolored attachments 🤷 ender is still a great budget option for learning how to use a machine. Bambu only issue is it really doesn't show you how to fix or maintain the machine. A ender you are forced to learn which long term has more value for me 👍 I'm still gunna pick up a a1 mini lol
Ender 3 teaches you how to do maintenance on an ender 3… you’ll learn everything you need to with a bambu, just more slowly since it’s actually reliable
After suffering with Ender for years, I’m so genuinely happy for people of the future don’t have to feel my pain. Looking forward to seeing what all those people make!
Really looking forward to picking up one of these as a secondary printer. I have a P1S but not everything has to be PETG enclosed in plexi with a nine inch footprint. I'd love to put a .2 mm nozzle on it and do mini stuff.
It's 269 euro in the eu for anyone wondering, that's about 290 dollars 💩
In my country, that printer costs almost 700 thousand pesos, which is equivalent to 714 dollars. :C
let me guess..... argentina?
Chile, I imagine that in Argentina it costs two kidneys and an eye
Remembers me when I had a job in Mexico and also some brasil colleagues had been on that side. Like all of them got themselves new iPhones and I was like „why they buy these expensive phones?!“ compared to back home in Germany or even way cheaper in the US. Well then I looked at the Apple website from their country…. Crazy expensive and I guess in Chile it isn’t that different.
In Ukraine it costs $600 USD right now.
I'm struggling at this point to think of a reason to suggest anything other than this to anyone wanting a printer on a tight budget.
Cosplay and props mostly. There, quality doesn’t necessarily matter as much since there’s likely post processing happening anyways and bigger bed size matters a lot more. But yeah, for most applications, this is a very good contender.
Sure, but is anyone doing those things on that tight a budget?
The only thing that keeps Enders alive is the build plate If the A1 drops in price it's officially over
People have too much nostalgia for Ender machines. They barely worked out of the box. Even the V3 SE/KE have issues. So for people just starting out with 3D printing that can turn them off from continuing. I'm glad we have options that make it super easy for people just getting into the hobby
Must have patience for a1 Must have patience for a1 Must have patience for a1 Must have patience for a1
The ender 3 is a 5+ year old design, that thing’s is a dinosaur. Not worth it, especially compared to any Bambu Lab machine
Its a bit pathetic seeing all these people trashing a 6 year old machine that costs 2.5x less. I like the bambus but its like comparing a 2004 Motorola flip phones to the iPhone 4. Way newer and way more expensive
But the price is worth it. And the number of hours you will use a printer makes it insignificant the initial cost.
It definitely is worth it
Does some of you used Ender 3 to create something useful and always reliable ? I am thinking about building this, also share as might not be well known. https://www.printables.com/pl/model/179820-the-recreator-3d-mk5kit-ender3-pultrusion-unit
I would like something like this, but for filament scraps.
Amazing little printer, snatch it up! I got mine for $269 after a coupon and I feel like I ripped bambu off with how amazing that printer has been for me. $249 is highway robbery. I'm tempted to grab another, but I'm waiting for the full size A1 to come back in stock instead.
RIP? More like good riddance.
Do these support the .2mm hot end? I’d love to have one committed to that detail level.
[https://store.bambulab.com/products/a1-series-hotends-kit](https://store.bambulab.com/products/a1-series-hotends-kit) Sure does! Takes about 20-30 seconds to swap the nozzle
Yes it does
Ooo mama! Thanks
Just bought it. With the 86€ voucher from the A1's return, it was a no brainer ✅
What a steal.
Makes 3d printing actually fun
Tempting, but I'm debating between the P1S and the X1 Carbon, both with AMS. I'm a bit too impatient for the full-size A1. I've had some great prints from my Ender 3 V3 SE, but I'm sick of dialing in the settings for every print until it doesn't fail.
Dang.... this with a 0.2 nozzle would be a perfect desk machine.
RIP, just ordered one a few days ago. Will see if they'll refund me difference or will just return it once it gets here and re-order it.
how could you do this to me Bambulab..... just ordered my voron 2.4 and saw this..... :(, is should have waited a bit and buy this printer to print my voron parts XD
I don't know if you are kidding, but I think you would have a hell of a time printing the necessary ABS/ASA parts in the A1.
I still have my old enclosure that i sold the ender 3v2 😌.
I bought one as soon as the YouTube video came across my feed
No doubt i seen that this am now 399 wirh ams
Bambu Lab trolling everyone i see
Just bought one...
Part of my job is running a STEM lab and teaching fusion 360 to teenagers. Have 13 ender 3 V2’s (mix between v2 and neo) I gotta say they’ve been great once I learned them. 0 failed prints this year, and I teach over 200 kids. However it’s great to know a machine like this Bambu is available. Would be great to get my lab down to 5 machines with their speed. And yes I’m aware it’s a matter of time before the Enders start to fail. :) having creality send me a new motherboard for a students personal v3 SE that he couldn’t fix. 2 month old machine
Dude I started on a monoprice select mini... jealous of your ender experience... That piece of crap fire hazard about pushed me out of the hobby completely. Really impressed with how far FDM has come. Loving my A1 Mini, and it's so easy to use that I let the kids use it.
When you think a $250 mini printer kills a $99 normal size printer, we get this stupid posts.
Is this permanent or a special sale?
I don’t know about rip because the ender3 is still going $200 and it’s great beginner printer.
£229.00 GBP in the uk with no AMS
Where are you seeing it for $250 edit nvm im stupid
Maybe but at $200 more, I doubt it. (E3 regularly goes on sale for $100)
This is a smart move. Beginners especially are more likely to just buy filaments from whoever they get printer from — and filament is where the margin is x1000.
Trust me you'll have Ender people telling you otherwise. Those people forget the original goal of having a 3D printer. You just want to make good parts. You don't hear about a machinist modding their CNC. Low budget machinists will mod their stuff but only because they can't get anything better for cheap. It's just not viable to buy a stupid Ender when so many other better printers are around. Even when v1 was around I got something else that could do 60mm/s because v1 was a headache above 30mm/s. Now if you're printing toys, sure, but when you have a project you want to do on a Saturday and this thing tells you 18 hours, you're just not going to do it. I just don't understand why that piece of garbage took off. It wasn't even a good i3 clone.
No idea why everyone suddenly had an Ender 3... I was rocking the OG CR10 and then suddenly, it's like no one had one anymore.
I'm so torn now. Should I get this now or wait for the A1 to come back out in May?
May be the A1 will also get the new updated pricing. So wait if you can. There is definitely a reason Bambu Lab decided to slash the price of the Mini.
I noticed this yesterday. Apparently only the combo is in stock at the moment. I already own an X1C Combo, but I just ordered the A1 combo as a present for my mom & as it's in stock. I would have rather just bought the standalone A1 and a regular AMS if only they were compatible, would have made it 100% worth it. Still hope I'm happy with the purchase seeing that I already can print full color. Maybe someone else can give me valueable insight?
Then please arrange my A1 recall finally so I can buy a new one. Probably going to buy the P1P tbh…
Is the AMS worth it? $249 vs $399 is a big difference.
Yes with caveats. If you want to do multicolor prints, it’s a no brainer. It’s also great for printing with breakaway supports. If you live in a dry environment where you can leave your filament out, or have a dehumidifier, it’s really nice to be able to just pick from one of 4 spools without having to change a spool out, even if the print itself isn’t multi color. Unlike the full blown ams though, you can’t just leave spools on their forever since it’s not enclosed.
And you can't add an AMS to the ender...
Edison wax scroll vs 45’s
Bambu Lab will never replace the Ender 3 because it's not open source
I've just configured my Ender 3 V2 to print as fast as an A1 today. Granted that it cost me 700€ in total, and a crapton of time, but that's proof the Ender 3 isn't done yet, thanks to klipper.
I just bought one and I'm planning to sell my Ender 3
I was thinking of waiting for the corrected full sized A1 to get stocked, but man that’s a nice price