Bambu Lab X1 Carbon Combo 3d Printer....about to buy one

[Forty Niner]

I have no experience with 3d printers and I am going to change that.
So what do you think about the Babbu Lab 1 Carbon Combo 3d Printer that is now on sale?

 

[jarhead]

I bought one in November, along with the AMS. I've used it allot to make useful shop accessories, tooling, prototypes, toys etc.
It really is plug and play using models downloaded from thingiverse, among other sites.
If you're able to design in CAD such as Fusion360 you can print your models directly.
One thing I've experimented with is alternate filament. I've been using sunlu purchased from Amazon, it works and is much cheaper.
Joe

 

[ggbutcher]

My kid has one, bought it after futzing with an Ender 3 Pro. The X1 Carbon just prints, no futz...

 

[matthewsx]

I use one at work to print fixtures and jigs for the factory.

It’s fast and rarely screws up. Setup is simple and the AMS makes changing filament super easy.

I’d give it two thumbs up

John

 

[GeneT45]

I've had one for a while now.

The good: great printer - prints very fast, accurate, handles most materials well.

The bad: Bambu says it won't print TPU - though some owners report differently. You won't learn the ins-n-outs of printing because it's all automagical. If you store PLA in the AMS (filament feeder) and it's idle for a while it will break off inside and you will have to disassemble the AMS to get it out. It's not hard, but it's a pain, especially because you only discover the problem when you're ready to print something... I've learned to unload PLA between uses.

GsT

 

[Forty Niner]

Thanks for the replies and shared experience. What other accessories should I put on my order? The accessories are discounted if ordered with the printer.

 

[pdentrem]

Maybe an extra build plate. A coworker’s friend has one, and I have not heard about any issues so far.

What I am suggesting is not from Bambu, I would suggest that you get a food dehydrator to dry the filament. I found even brand new spools can be made better by drying first. I bought a Salton off Amazon and then printed an extension ring to allow the thick spools to fit. There are many files on Printables etc for this.

A Sterlite storage box with gasket to keep your filament dry and Silica Gel. I have a Prusa Xl so I used this design. You only need the internal parts as you will not be feeding from the box.

Printables

www.printables.com

Pierre

 

[GeneT45]

Depends on your local humidity. I have no need for a dryer or dry storage here (though the AMS *is* dry storage for 4 rolls) with an average humidity of 16% (probably less, but I think that's the lowest number my humidity monitors will report). No idea about OP's part of TX.

GsT

ETA: consider picking up a few extra nozzles, especially if you want different sizes. I use Sunluu filament almost exclusively, with a little Polymaker thrown in where Sunluu doesn't have something.

 

[7milesup]

If you're able to design in CAD such as Fusion360 you can print your models directly.
One thing I've experimented with is alternate filament. I've been using sunlu purchased from Amazon, it works and is much cheaper.

For me, the ability to design my own models is paramount. I use Solidworks but Fusion 360 is an excellent choice too. Fusion is free. Don't do FreeCad.

The bad: Bambu says it won't print TPU - though some owners report differently.

We use 95A TPU in our Bambu in the lab. It takes some fiddling but it works fine. Can't use the AMS with TPU.

What other accessories should I put on my order?

I would add a double sided build plate and a couple of hot ends. The hot ends are about $35ea and are plug and play. I would get a 0.40 and a 0.60 hot end. You can buy separate nozzles but they are more finicky than unplugging three wires to swap out the hot end.

Maybe add the three nozzle-cleaner bundle.

Edit: Bambu has very reasonable pricing on its filament. I would add some PLA, possibly some PLA-CF (carbon fiber infused), and some ASA (Similar qualities as ABS but UV stabilized). Buy the filament with the spool; that way, you have plastic spools that work with the AMS. You can then get very reasonable refills. Note that you can use any brand of filament in your Bambu, but the AMS does not like cardboard spools, so keep that in mind.

 

[WobblyHand]

Don't do FreeCad.

Why? Seems like a blanket rejection, so I'm asking what is the issue? If legit, I'm ok with that. Everything can be improved, including commercial CAD packages, nothing is perfect. All tools have their pluses and minuses.

I use FreeCAD. It works ok. It's free, and not so hard to learn. You can also do FEM with it, I have. Also CFD. Ran CFD on a high speed rocket like projectile. There's a CAM module, but I don't have a way to take advantage of that now. The point is that the tool is capable.

Shock waves on the nose and edges of the fins. Partial vacuum at the tail. Atmospheric pressure is 100KPa. (100,000 Pa)

Less esoteric is a box I modeled and printed for my ELS controller that I designed. Designed the PCB using KiCAD. Both open source tools.

D-shape for connectors in the rear. Left side has pockets for magnets to retain the unit on the head stock of the lathe. PCB is held down by screws. Box (housing) designed in FreeCAD. With lid and everything transparent.

Shoehorning the real thing into the box.

Running on the lathe. Cut an 11 TPI thread, because I could. The ELS bits and brackets were all modeled using FreeCAD. Heck the ER-40 set true back plate was modeled on FreeCAD as well. Machined that from a raw slice of cast iron. Motor mount NEMA24 designed in FreeCAD.


I modeled part of the lathe to understand how to set up things, check out alignment and work out what I needed to machine.

To bring it back to 3D printers, here's a quicky snap together model I did to make a holder for an SSD, an RPI4, and a cooling fan to run OctoPi.

I've completed many other machining and 3d projects using FreeCAD. Dunno, FreeCAD seems capable enough, at least for me. It's done everything I've asked of it.