Anyone using a Bambu Lab printer?

[njee20]

As a precis to stop the “well for detail buy a resin printer” comments - I have multiple resin printers and I have an FDM printer, so obviously I need more!

 

I’ve been impressed with what I’ve seen from the Bambu Lab X1/P1P (I believe they’re the same hardware, but no enclosure on the P1P and it foregoes some of the bells and whistles), anyone using one?

 

I confess I’ve never messed about too much with my FDM printer, it works fine for what I want it to do (which is basically never railway stuff), but the Bambu Lab printers really look like they’re blurring the lines (often literally) between FDM and resin. Obviously at a fundamental level the technology is still the same, but with the speed and the finish they seem to achieve it’s a tempting proposition!

[Vistisen]

On 12/04/2024 at 09:54, njee20 said:

As a precis to stop the “well for detail buy a resin printer” comments - I have multiple resin printers and I have an FDM printer, so obviously I need more!

 

I’ve been impressed with what I’ve seen from the Bambu Lab X1/P1P (I believe they’re the same hardware, but no enclosure on the P1P and it foregoes some of the bells and whistles), anyone using one?

 

I confess I’ve never messed about too much with my FDM printer, it works fine for what I want it to do (which is basically never railway stuff), but the Bambu Lab printers really look like they’re blurring the lines (often literally) between FDM and resin. Obviously at a fundamental level the technology is still the same, but with the speed and the finish they seem to achieve it’s a tempting proposition!

I have a Elegoo Mars 3 Pro resin printer for about 4 months, and have just bought a Bambu Lab X1/P1S.

The Bambu is streets ahead in ease of use. It is much faster, there is no need for cleaning or curing, The P1S has a webcam, so I can see how the print is going from my PC. It is also on my network.  The build volume is quite a lot larger than the Elegoo, and the bed is self-levelling. I have not yet had any failed prints on it.

The Elegoo has only a USB and is very fussy about USB sticks. Only about 1 in five of those I own can be recognised by it (and that does not even include the one that is packaged with the printer!) Just look on the internet and you can see that this is a common fault.

My limited experience (I have done about 30 prints on the Elegoo) is that it can produce much finer results for some types of structure than the Bambu, but there is a lot of fiddling involved. I find it hard to prevent warping at the edge of prints sometimes.

Here is a picture that shows the strengths and weaknesses of the two printers the design is the same, I used Autodesk Fusion 360 to create the design for a vaulted roof in the entrance to a model of Hatch Court. The fusion file is exported as an STL file. For the resin printer I use LycheeSlicer to produce the file. Because of the size the print had to be angled diagonally to fit the print volume and this results in a lot of wasted supports.

The Bambu print was sliced in Bambu Syudio, which is very easy to use. It was just printed flat on the bed of the printer, so no wasted plastic.

But the print results show clearly why I use the resin printer for this type of object.  They are the same size even they do not seem to be so in the photo. The Bambu has a lot of lines visible. I am not sure that I would say it blurs the difference.

 

I forgot to say that the Bambu print took 1.5 hours and the Elegoo print took 12 hours + 1 for cleaning and curing. My practice is to use the Bambu for test prints and then the resin for the final production

 

 

 

Edited April 13 by Vistisen

[njee20]

Thanks, that’s helpful. I guess I’m more interested in the Bambu alongside other FDM printers. I’m totally happy with the workflow for resin, although I can see how much more faff it is, and I definitely see me always using resin printers more. The speed is sort of attractive, but ultimately I start a print and leave it, so it doesn’t really matter. 
 

essentially I only ever use my resin printers for railway stuff at the moment because the finish on FDM is so massively inferior, and it’s whether the Bambu printers have closed that gap, for things like buildings where you’ve got lots of straight edges and hard corners where resin will not be optimal. 

Edited April 13 by njee20

[Paul_in_Ricky]

1 hour ago, Vistisen said:

But the print results show clearly why I use the resin printer for this type of object. 

That could be a perfect example of a torture test for FDM printing. Smooth curves will always be the hardest thing to print.
Out of interest what layer settings and nozzle did you use ?

I've seen some remarkably good results from FDM when printed carefully with 0.2 nozzles rather than the normal default 0.4.

[Vistisen]

36 minutes ago, Paul_in_Ricky said:

That could be a perfect example of a torture test for FDM printing. Smooth curves will always be the hardest thing to print.
Out of interest what layer settings and nozzle did you use ?

I've seen some remarkably good results from FDM when printed carefully with 0.2 nozzles rather than the normal default 0.4.

As I said I have only just got the Bambu. This is printer with the filiment that came with the pinter and uses 0.4 nozzles, Please excuse my ignorance. Is changing the nozzle size just done in software og do I need to change some hardware in the printer?

Edited April 13 by Vistisen

[Vistisen]

1 hour ago, njee20 said:

Thanks, that’s helpful. I guess I’m more interested in the Bambu alongside other FDM printers. I’m totally happy with the workflow for resin, although I can see how much more faff it is, and I definitely see me always using resin printers more. The speed is sort of attractive, but ultimately I start a print and leave it, so it doesn’t really matter. 
 

essentially I only ever use my resin printers for railway stuff at the moment because the finish on FDM is so massively inferior, and it’s whether the Bambu printers have closed that gap, for things like buildings where you’ve got lots of straight edges and hard corners where resin will not be optimal. 

 

Here is another comparison print.  This is just about the maximum size the resin printer could cope with, the rough edge on the left is where the print met the raft. The two designs are not quite the same. The size of the arches was not quite right on the resin test print, There was also an error in the 1st statue enclosure on the left hand side. I corrected them on the same day I received my Bambu and this was the first test print made using one of my designs on that printer. In my effort to fit the whole design in such a way that the walls did not touch the raft, I tilted the wall a few more degrees and this resulted in resin print version of the new design becoming too warped to use! ( and it took 14 hours to print!)

 

 

. I

[Paul_in_Ricky]

Changing nozzles is a mechanical change of components. Plus you may also need to adjust slicer software settings if the Bambu labs slicer software hasn't got an OEM profile for it.

Nozzle changing probably isn't for a novice in FDM printing. There's enough to work through to get the best from the standard 0.4mm nozzle first.

[Slanjonok]

Hi,

Of course the resin printer gives in general better quality (I uase an Elegoo Mars 2P and newly a Mars 4), but the handling of the Bambu (I have for some month now) is much easier and with a .2mm-nozzle the quality is quite good. Here some examples: test prints of LNER-container in 4 and 2mm with resin, 0.4mm nozzle (only OO-scale) and 0.2mm nozzle, a barge and a lorry.

And there are models, taht can't be printed with SLA-printers at all - especially functional models, like the roller gate.

[njee20]

That’s really helpful. That does suggest it would be useful to add one to the arsenal! If the print volume was slightly bigger than my existing FDM printer it would be a no-brainer!

[PhilH]

7 hours ago, Vistisen said:

 

Here is another comparison print.  This is just about the maximum size the resin printer could cope with, the rough edge on the left is where the print met the raft. The two designs are not quite the same. The size of the arches was not quite right on the resin test print, There was also an error in the 1st statue enclosure on the left hand side. I corrected them on the same day I received my Bambu and this was the first test print made using one of my designs on that printer. In my effort to fit the whole design in such a way that the walls did not touch the raft, I tilted the wall a few more degrees and this resulted in resin print version of the new design becoming too warped to use! ( and it took 14 hours to print!)

 

 

. I

Surely you just move the Z measurement a few mil off the plate before rotating the print to the optimum angle. I print nothing on the plate on my resin printers, 1 usually raise by 8 mm, rotate then support. I also invariably use a raft under the supports,

[Vistisen]

1 hour ago, PhilH said:

Surely you just move the Z measurement a few mil off the plate before rotating the print to the optimum angle. I print nothing on the plate on my resin printers, 1 usually raise by 8 mm, rotate then support. I also invariably use a raft under the supports,

That's what I did, but the highest end was warped in the Z axis, so the wall was not straight. I will end up using a new fdm back wall with resin vaults, and resin statues in the alcoves.

[KeithHC]

These look like great prints. I am using an Ender 3pro but have noticed as slicing software updates the prints are getting better. Currently I am still using a 0.4 nozzle but am tempted to try a 0.2. Even withthe .4 i can see some useable prints that would work very well at the 3ft viewing distance.

 

Keith

Edited April 14 by KeithHC
Changed photo

[Blefuscu]

This is really interesting... I've been thinking along similar lines, as the recent work I've seen on the Bambu looks really good. I don't really enjoy mucking out resin vats either!

 

And... this weekend my LCD screen failed on my anycubic M3 plus. I have since discovered it's considered a consumable item! With that in mind, testing prints on a FDM printer makes a lot of sense.

 

I'm going to on ponder this for a while before I rush to replace my dead screen. If I invested in a FDM for testing, I could even potentially outsource the final prints.