BambuLab A1 Mini, testing with PLA, PETG, TPU. When to use AMS?

Bambu Lab A1 Mini is a fast and small bed slinger 3D printer. The working area is 180x180x180 mm. In this video it was tested with PLA, PETG and TPU materials. As a 3D printer for beginners, this video tries to explain when it is worth using AMS and when it is wasting a lot of materials.
Product link (affiliate): shrsl.com/4j59b
Two color D6 dice: www.printables.com/model/4434...
Gear bearing: www.thingiverse.com/thing:53451
Conclusions:
0:00 Introduction
2:16 Unboxing
3:22 Assembling
5:24 Turning ON, calibration
6:20 Benchy
7:40 Honeycomb organizer
8:15 3 colors Benchy
9:11 Flying toy
9:37 Screw gauge
10:02 Scraper
10:37 2 colors D6 dice
12:08 Bearing, 2 colors
12:37 Bearing, fill tool
13:25 Flush into object
13:47 Noise
14:07 Back to D6 dice
14:57 Two AMS examples
15:23 PETG
16:28 TPU
17:42 Conclusions
#3dprinting #3dprinter #bambulab #a1mini

[@limpfinger12]

This is my 5th printer. It is by far the easiest to use. It just WORKS. No leveling, no fiddling with temps, very minor adjustments for settings. I always struggled with PETG with stringing and zits and this machine doesn't care what brand I throw at it. It just prints flawlessly.

[@thegrafxguy1]

nice! i love my Bambu. after 6 years of diy printers and custom builds, the Bambu is a game-changer. i picked up a P1S with AMS and absolutely love it.

[@MyTechFun]

I agree, great thing what happened in 3D printing industry, forcing other companies to improve their quality.

[@user-cb6qy5du5d]

Hello, Igor! Thanks for the review! I would like to add. In addition to multi-color printing with AMS, it makes it possible to use supports from different materials, such as PLA and PETG. They do not fuse with each other and are easy to separate to create a perfect surface. Once you've tried it, it's hard to give up =) I printed on A1M with nylon (PA6), at 80 degrees Celsius the part does not come off the table using a border and glue. To print with nylon, you need a low speed and a layer height of 0.1 mm, then the part is less deformed

[@djDuff86]

Switched from Ender 3V2 to A1 Mini (without AMS) last month. After 2 years of tinkering my Ender, A1 Mini is so great to use. Regarding AMS - multi-color printing is nice, but even with all the tricks current waste is too much. I also think that A1 Mini is better as solo (without AMS) - as it is so compact. If AMS is needed, I agree better to mount on full-sized A1

[@radish6691]

I have an X1C and a P1S with 3,700 hours print time between them. I picked up an A1 Mini with AMS and use it for PLA printing. Like you, 95% of my prints fit on the A1M plate. When I print models with many parts I print the large pieces on the big printers and send the smaller parts to the A1M. It works well and I like the happy notes it plays when a print starts or stops. 🎶😁

[@Yunora]

I have 1x P1S printer and decided to buy 2x A1 printers when it was re-released. The price of x2 A1 printers with shipping is about the same price as 1x P1S with shipping. I was already intending to mount the AMS at the top and bought the additional screws from the Bambu Lab store without knowing that the new A1 printers ship with the necessary top mount screws. All the parts for the top mount were printed in PLA matte except for the lower half of the top mount that consists of 2 parts, those were printed in PETG. I cannot afford 4kg of spools falling on my print bed. I am happy with the Bambu Lab printers so far, coming from Tiertime UP printers, to Anycubic and Creality Enders.

[@vaughanza]

I love the Bambu labs printers. I am hoping they can do a setting that there is no purge of filament , if you don't mind the mixing of colors when it makes a change.

[@HackCausality]

The only really bad thing about the Mini is how hard it is to get the ptfe tube out if you want to print TPU. I feel like I'm going to break the thing, and none of the "ams splitters" work very well.

[@MyTechFun]

As shown in video, just pull out one PTFE tube from the AMS side and use that one, that's much easier. From the toolhead, it's almost impossible.

[@radish6691]

What he said. When I first got the printer I pulled out the feeder and thought I broke it because I had such a hard time getting it back in. I finally realized I can’t print from an external spool and the AMS at the same time so now I just borrow an AMS tube. Only forgot to put it back once! 😂

[@riba2233]

I have A1, and presliced 14m benchy came out perfectly, didn't have those poor overhangs like this one. I used polysonic filament, maybe that is a difference. Btw I really like that printer, and imho it is better for pla and petg than P1 series because it has great auto flow calibration and single gear extruder that give smoother walls. Also quick swap nozzles are great

[@hakki686]

Why u use my printer ? :) i have this one without AMS just as a start and to get compfty with 3d printing in general. If i like it i will get a bigger one with AMS in addition .Thank for your work

[@BennyTygohome]

I've an a1 and a1 mini and love them both 👍🎉

[@emaboy06]

Hellooo, I have a question. Have you ever tried to prim POM/Acetal or derlin, I've been trying but is too difficult, and don't obtain a good result yet, 😢

[@nigel5823]

i print abs at 80c and it stick fine that on my bambu lab P1S combo and my creailty k1

[@MyTechFun]

Bed slingers are not good for ABS anyway.. too much air movement.

[@TNX255]

I would have liked to see (or hear) you pointing out clearly to everyone that if you want to use the printer wirelessly and from the phone app, you have to agree to Bambu Lab's rather invasive Privacy Policy, and also a mention about the discoveries made by the community when decrypting a Bambu Lab log file that they are actually collecting a lot more data about you, your prints and the machine than what they tell you in the privacy policy (3D Musketeers have a video about that). I like that you measure power usage, just like you said it yourself, here in Europe electricity is n ot super cheap and using a smaller printer whenever possible is a good idea.

[@Bogaloo1232]

People should read what they agree to when logging in any app and using any service, I bet most of that “hidden data collecting” is explained in the ToS you get at the beginning (and that 99.99% of people do not read). That’s individual responsibility and almost no one gives a flying shit about it. Lol

[@radish6691]

Run the printer in LAN mode. It can be controlled wirelessly in that mode, just not using the app. You want to talk about invasive? Look at the data the KZbin app collects (the information is displayed in the iOS app store). It collects far more data than Bambu Handy, things like contacts and browsing history, and all of it is linked to the user’s identity.

[@TNX255]

@@Bogaloo1232 Of course it is individual responsibility, and of course people should read all contracts and agreements they click "Agree" to. But we don't. We're lazy. However, among 3D printing, open source is still very much a thing, printers and printer companies are (seemingly in the media at least) respected or at least thought of a bit more highly of when they are open and respective towards their customers. It is uncommon in the 3D printing (hobby) world that a manufacturer begins to behave like Apple, Google or Microsoft; First of all collecting a sh*t ton of information about their customers just because their customers will agree to anything, and also collecting information their customers have not agreed to share. Also, you know what happens to any data about us that gets transmitted to that one big country Bambu Lab is from? It stays there indefinetely. Their law requires the local firms to store it for any future use that may arise whenever.

[@riba2233]

People dug through logs and everything and couldn't find anything concerning, also bambu are very clear about what they are doing