Can BambuLab's AMS 3D print with less waste?

[@codylund2169]

This is more proof that slicers are where the majority of development needs to be.

[@greenleaf44]

Couldn't agree more. Most slicers (with maybe the exception of the pathfinder algorithms and high volume calculations) feel like they could have been written for windows 95, imo. It's only recently that we are starting to see anything remotely innovative like tree supports, and dynamic z-axis. I paid simplify3d once, thinkinging I was helping to fund development, but that was like 5 years ago, and the software has barely changed

[@BlenderAnimations246]

YES! Bambu labs REALLY needs to implment this!

[@nikkolaus]

The flushing volume multiplier values that I've seen people use most often is 0.5 - 0.8

[@OZtwo]

FYI, GREAT idea!! A must have feature where you can have two STL files that you can define the second STL as the flush object. Then the slicer can calculate how many flush objects it needs to make and puts them in when you slice.

[@michaelvandyken3959]

This is a feature I really really want. 😅

[@tammyyoung2337]

YES PLEASE, Can't wait for Bambu to figure this out!

[@zaxdezignz8698]

I just ordered my X1 Carbon last Sunday. God bless you and your family sir love the video.

[@duubqnnp]

I knew I wasn't the first of thinking about it! thank you for spread the idea! great job!

[@BlackRider424]

I totally agree with everything that has been said in this video. Wasteful purges/poops are the only reason why I am patiently waiting for Bambu Lab to come up with better solutions before getting my hands on their printers.

[@Amn2k9]

That is exactly why I am not crazy to do multi color prints, because the waste is insane. I recently discovered this flush function as well, but still feel it could be much better, I hope Bambu Lab prioritizes to minimize the waste during multi color.

[@szundaj]

There is stuff that this waste is not that significant for, if it has good value for some reason, sentimental or economical.

[@3DCrimson]

A very interesting video! I just finished a multicolor print last night that had about 40g of flush for a 20g model, so this would be super helpful in reducing waste! I hope that Bambu expedites their development of this feature because it would be very helpful :)

[@thomasjandl4134]

Brilliant work! I hope bambu brings this killerfeature as soon as possible. These colorful blocks have their very own special look. thumbs up!

[@JD_JR]

Very cool video. Love the idea of purge objects versus waste towers or poops. Thank you!

[@sergiogentil3093]

Yes I do believe this would be great😁

[@FranklyPeetoons]

The thumbnail for this video is a thing of beauty

[@3dpprofessor]

Pretty proud of this one.

[@Adam-qr4jj]

This is something that I really want, great idea Professor! Subscribed

[@3dpprofessor]

Schools in session.

[@cho934]

Thanks for all explanations! Yes It would be awesome for all the community!

[@InigoFS]

You have here another supporter of the solution you shared with Bambu Labs. They must aplly this. They have the capability. Please Bambu, DO IT. Thanks Professor.

[@3dpprofessor]

They actually are putting this in the next version of the slicer, as I understand it. So, go us! We win.

[@bruceblair8796]

I agree.Improving the “flush to object” feature should be a priority for Bambu Labs.

[@fourhymns-worship]

Thank you for the video. I think the waste problem is a real problem that must be solved.

[@52joma]

Thanks a lot for this video. i will get my P1S next week and your information will be very helpful for me.

[@tribalrhino]

Dear Babmu (and 3dPP :) i just bought a bambu printer, so now I'm invested in the per-print-pooping-problem :). If you had a flush object for each colour change in your print you could use each one when needed (And if you don't use a colour, fill it with whatever you have). Also, you 'could' optomise the fill density for each layer so you purge at least 5mm^3 for example - same as the purge tower -and then if you can't fill all your objects, poop the rest out. Sounds complicated to me, but then I'm not a 3d-printing revolutionisationalater... Happy printing!!!!

[@scotticus66]

I ordered the A1 with ams a few days ago and I'm really looking forward to playing with it coming from a bunch of ender threes and fives it is a much needed upgrade. But seeing the amount of waste coming from the ams system is discouraging. Having a waste print to be painted over after the process would be awesome as opposed to a pile of spaghetti. Your videos are great keep doing what you're doing!

[@markrobinson7831]

This is a real need and would love to see Bambu take the lead and do this!

[@thenextlayer]

Good work Joe! Hope to see zero waste mmu prints soon.

[@shirolee]

Amazing work!

[@twms8728]

Good video, it helps with all materials. Special attention to PETG though. As others have mentioned, the stickiness of PETG causes problems with the chute. It jams regularly with PETG, while not jamming with PLA, ABS, etc. Allowing a purge to a secondary object where color is of no importance prevents the chute dump and thus reduces the issue with PETG jamming the chute. The proverbial two birds with one stone. Keep up the good work Professor. Nice to know there's an advocate in the background working with manufacturers on improvements on our behave!

[@3dpprofessor]

I wonder how the script I mentioned in today's video would work with PETG. kzbin.info/www/bejne/qWOranSwed-dobc

[@twms8728]

Good question, I'm hesitant to try it though. PETG being sticky I'm sure there will be some stringing left when it pulls up. I'll let someone with more time and patience (LOL) give it a try. FYI, I like your pull/push idea. I agree pushing it back down while still hot would prevent some potential clogging issues. That is as long as it was done quickly. I'm also wondering if turning off the hot end fan during the pull/push process might be a good addition to the process? Again, as long as it was done quickly. @@3dpprofessor

[@skyfly200]

Yeah! I am holding off getting multi material for this reason mostly. plus the slow down

[@phillipwills8686]

Love the video, this is a big deal. I saw a video by someone who changed a setting some where and was able to lessen the amount of waste by 70 percent. i was looking for that video when i found yours. I'm very new to 3d printing so wish i knew more about what I'm talking about. But if cutting down on waste then trying to print filler blocks would work to lower it even more would be awesome. @63 years old this is a hugh learning curve for me, but i just don't think getting waste down to zero is possible. would love to see more tutorial videos from you though, i didn't know you could paint with the slicer to make different colors.

[@TheGreenerMile]

Yes! Please do this Bambu Labs!

[@flmngwlkn]

Yes, this would be great!

[@tscottist]

Thanks for this video, this is exactly the info I was looking for.

[@brandonkish3100]

Yes this would be great!

[@SethMcClaine]

I've been wondering why it doesn't have the ability to flush into the object, and apparently it does. Thank you so much for revealing this option to me and pointing out the gotcha to it! THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU 🙂

[@jnh2003]

This is the only thing stopping me buy a X1 Carbon with AMS, I think many people would see it the same way.

[@IndianaGraphics]

I love this idea. Glad I found your channel. My X1C arrives in a few days.

[@RustyPlug]

I like the thumbnail. It encouraged me to click and watch this video.

[@MichaelKadie]

Nice work, I appreciate how well thought it was.

[@cleanroomwizard2356]

Really great work! I have tried doing this with my older Geeetech A10M to help flush out materials and also find that random parts can be found to print that are functional but not needed to be specific colors. I really don't like the auto-purge tower options in Cura typically, but find that you can place dummy objects (cubes, cylinders etc.) on the bed designed to print in different colors and ensure that they will print in a specific order (the slicers often have preferences as to what order objects are printed based on their position on the bed) so that the part you care about will always print with the freshly purged nozzle (and preview function is critical to ensure this is working as intended before you waste print time). As other commenters have pointed out, efficient slicing options to reduce these problems so we don't have to resort to hacks and multi-color just usually isn't worth the hassle and waste right now. Multi-material is a different story but still aren't great with single nozzle commercial systems.

[@pnowak2]

that's definitely great idea and Bambu should prioritise this to avoid huge amounts of filament wasted during multi colour print. So Bambu, please consider flushing to usable objects and reduce amount of poop.

[@pnowak2]

Actually it is possible. Just select one of the extra objects on plate you don't care about collars and check flush to object, it will print with flush filament that extra object. or am I missing sth ?

[@Tank10A]

Yes this would be great

[@Spartikin]

this is a really cool concept, i use this to print multi colours so i dont have to paint as many, however, if i could use the "poop" to make another completely different model instead of being waisted, i could reuse that, even for prototyping, i could print my little figures and have a prototype printed in random colours. this would 100% be somethink i would love to see more of

[@darrenellis9491]

Great video. I really don't like the amount of waste, but I understand the process. I would love to see this technology further explored.

[@maxdolski904]

yes, that would be great!

[@stevenclark2894]

also, thank you for such an excellent presentation of topic and issue with AMS multi-material/color use and needless waste

[@kennethbeal]

Nice, thank you!

[@Festivaljunkie]

i've owned almost a dozen printers in the past two years or so doing 3d printing. my latest addition is my 4mo old bambu labs x1 carbon. i absolutely love it. the ams is great, it works wonderfully, it isn't without its quirks though, just as any printer. most things are easy to get to in order to unclog/unjam. ...my biggest gripe is the amount of waste (and time) doing multi color prints is. I wish it could be as fast as if it were normally printing. ..i think tackling the waste issue will also actually tackle the speed of multi-color prints issue too.

[@dwuk99]

Unfortunately tackling the waste issue - by flushing to objects will I think still not solve the speed issue - in fact flushing to object almost certainly will slow down the main print a little as there will pretty much always be slightly more filament actually needing to be extruded in order to correctly form the flush objects

[@AndrewDanne]

This is needed. Plastic waste is a problem that needs considered and active implementable solutions.

[@dwuk99]

Great video - and your blox are a good idea for something useful to purge. I guess the solution will be almost totally slicer based - so could in theory be developed by the community, rather than waiting to BL to develop it. Or indeed might be able to be done with a post processing script. I haven't tried purging to objects yet personally - I tend to focus more on aligning objects and splitting them up to minimise the number of colour changes. However, I guess based on what your are saying is happening at present when you purge to object is that for each layer the GCODE probably 1. Prints the first colour of the main objects 2. Filament is cut, then AMS does the first colour swap 3. Prints into the purge objects until it thinks the colour change has happened ok. If necessary doing some off bed purge if not enough purge object layer is available 4. Completes the current layer of the purge objects. 5. Creates the first part of the current layer of the purge tower 6. Prints the second colour of the main objects 7 Filament is cut and AMS does the next colour swap 8.Off bed spiral purge until it is happy that the colour has changed ok 9. Completes the next colour on the purge tower 10. Prints the next colour of the Main object 11. Repeat steps 7-10 until layer complete. What the slicer could be changed to do, or perhaps a post processing script could be written to do - a) is to move all of the G-CODE from step 4 above - to later in the layer print order - b) to replace all of extruding in step 7 above. If the step 4 extrusions run out then off bed extrusions would have to still happen. c) Finally assuming Step 4 extrusions are still remaining at the end of the layer then they will have to be completed before the print moves to the next layer. Whilst this sounds complex - I think the P2PP post processing script that was written by tomvandeneede to allow Palette2 etc. to work with prusa slicer has a fair bit of this sort of logic in it - as it can for example completely remove the normal prusa slicer purge block and create its own more efficient version. Update - have done quite a lot more work on this subject - My latest progress here. Think I can get purge down by between 95 and 99% - forum.bambulab.com/t/making-better-use-of-purge-to-object-in-bambu-studio/29422

[@mlodikk]

Great video, I just ordered A1 mini, I hope that slicer will get some improvment.

[@3dpprofessor]

It already has.

[@zaxdezignz8698]

This is VERY good. ❤

[@DeusShaggy]

Why can the printer not be able to determine the remaining amount of filament left on a layer and cut the feed at that point and eliminating waste?

[@bluewater1992]

Oh my god that Alphonse Eric armor helmet in the background! So cool!

[@3dpprofessor]

It broke recently. I should print another.

[@yeabutwecouldbefreer]

Fixing this would be awesome 👍

[@davidroberts5381]

Taking the waste and making junk dice would be amazing. To be effective, the purge object really needs to be a combination of Print sequence "by object", Filament purge, and Prime Tower.

[@023douwebakker]

Yea this would be great!

[@robsweet3063]

My X1C arrives tomorrow and I'd love to have this kind of improvement

[@gregzambo6693]

This is a great idea.

[@loboptlu]

I use 0.3 in the flush settings and a very small wipe tower , 15 20 , and it reduces waste greatly

[@leonwilde8128]

Great idea!

[@efremtommasi1387]

Good video and informations, thank you! The real game changer in multicolor print will be the UV color applied to a universal photosensitive filament before extruding

[@3dpprofessor]

What would that do?

[@DreadCell-Productions]

I hope we see this in the future!

[@bluelynx4493]

I have seen that there are custom settings to lessen the amount of purge and bamboo labs has aried on the side of caution with the purge setting to an unreasonable amount. You can safely half the puge settings without loosing any Precision.

[@3dpprofessor]

I wouldn't say on the default that you can safely half them. White is particularly tricky.

[@davidm9545]

I would love to see this!

[@IrocZIV]

Great idea. A lot of the time I don't care about the color, so throwing in a color print in with my normal prints could be a great use.

[@GaPo0906]

We need this ASAP

[@mg_customs8531]

Love the videos! This is exactly what I want to see covered about the Bambu labs AMS.. Cool system but huge downside.. Beard is looking awesome dude!

[@3dpprofessor]

To me the downside isn't *that* much down. But 3d printing for me is very performative.

[@jonathanrainwater5974]

We really want this! to Bambu lab

[@SkiidMark]

Need this to work properly. I have an excellent use case for it.

[@jim5148]

It would be great to reduce the waste for sure.

[@stevenclark2894]

YES!!! please get Bambu Labs attention on this. They did such a great job creating an excellent printer, why come up short on a vital issue

[@dannonyogurt98]

The anlermake m5 v6 color engine promises to be the ultimate color printer without poop. We will eventually see if that is the case.

[@volttherobot]

Very interesting and a great idea- hope this becomes the new norm!

[@everettcass7904]

I think what I would like to see is the ability (similar to how when you print multiple parts by object rather than by layer) to do the same with the purging. This would have some limitations, as it has to ensure that the hot end doesn’t crash into any of the printed objects but if that was done, then for prints (specifically smaller multi colorred prints that only take a small fraction of the bed) it could purge however much filament it could once it reaches that then it logs where it left off on the purged object (say Z level 5) returns back to the main print at (z level 2) and then you wouldn’t have that limitation of needing the perfect amount of filament per Z level. That being said there’s a lot of variables still, and you would need some sort of way for the slicer to calculate if that’s possible without crashing into either print, and if it would cause an issue then it could either A. If the purge objects Z gets too tall compared to the main object it would need to flush some of the filament to prevent the purge object from getting too tall or B. Indicate to the user that they need to make their purged object have more x and y volume which would also solve that issue. I’m sure there’s more factors than just that, but hopefully all that makes sense

[@thelightspeed3d712]

This would be amazing.

[@dontlikesoccer]

pretty new to 3d printing but, flushing into object mean you can flush the mixed colour into infill layers, starting from the inner most part of the layer out? There'd have to be an extrusion timer to guestimate the colour turns solid by the time the printer reaches the outermost visible layer. Complex problem to solve, not all models would have the surface area to allow for that, so you'd still need a poop shoot

[@3dpprofessor]

That's the basic idea. And, yes, I get that it's non-trivial, but if there was less waste I think a lot of people (judging from the comments) would get a Bambu if this were the case.

[@Chris-okf]

YES, that’s one of my biggest gripes about the printer and the ridiculous about of time between color changes. The novelty has quickly worn off and unless I’m printing multiple items of the same design, I’m just going to keep air brushing them.

[@miguelcano1284]

Great job

[@chassecourt8824]

If you were printing in two colours and purged into separate colour purge towers could that make a difference?

[@3dpprofessor]

What an interesting question. The normal purge tower does have different sized bins for the different colors, adding more or less as the purge amount requires. The only problem is the shape of it isn't very useful. But if you swap it out for any shape, you're going to run into the problem of it either being too much or too little for any given project you're doing multi-color on. It's a trade off.

[@yannickreiles5793]

Yes this would be great, and share this video with others so that maybe bamboo lads will see that is something that we all really really want or maybe it’s just me maybe i just really really want it i do really really

[@michtill]

Yes, yes, yes. I am believer that this will be solved.

[@Tarbard]

Everyone seems to call priming "purging" and talk about a "purge tower" when even the interface is telling them clearly it's a "prime tower" for priming. "Purging" is when it poops filament through the waste chute (according to bambu labs wiki). The "flush" options refer to purging. Thanks for the video I was really curious about this option.

[@3dpprofessor]

I tried to be careful about that in this video because, you're right, priming and flushing/purging isn't exactly the same thing, though to be fair priming can be a place you flush to, but you can't flush and ignore priming or the print quality goes to crap. Found that out the hard way.

[@blave549]

I have a P1S on the way, but w/o the AMS -- for two reasons: 1) the wasted fil I've read about, and 2) cost. But if Bambu can address this to some degree, I might have to get an AMS.

[@OleksandrKolyvushko]

The purge body needs to be 1.75mm spirals, or columns, that could be used for non cosmetic prints later

[@javeronh.3996]

definitely would like that to work. playing with the slicer because a great friend is getting me one. I sliced something that would take multiple plates and with how it wanted to do it: full plates, it would use 2.7kg of filament total. 1.6kg for the model, so about 1.1kg of waste/purge. so one of the things I did was set the plates myself to minimize waste. I now have it down to 200g of waste/purge. I wasn't thinking of having a purge part. which would be nice to have/use. it could be test prints mixed in with colored on purpose prints. I definitely hope they keep improving the system. the only other similar capability printer is the Mosaic Element printer but that starts at $7000. really hard for anyone to justify that. but $1500 for a practically plug and play, multi-color printer is awesome If anyone is curious what model I was slicing it is my Omega Starship Transformer. it is on cults3d

[@cbgslinger]

Interesting video! The AMS appealed to me not necessarily to do multicolor prints, but to have four colors ready to go (it was difficult to change the filament on my first printer). And changing colors in the unit is easy too. I have done some multicolor prints, but work to minimize filament swapping on my prints which has the potential to rapidly accelerate the wear of the unit without trying very hard. I’m confident Bambu Lab will continue to improve on the filament waste issue. It’s not a simple issue as you pointed out so well, so it may take some time. Videos like this will speed up the process.

[@CharissaWright-hk9dr]

I had the same issue with changing colors on my old printer. It was such a pain that I would try to not have to do it. It’s so easy on the Bambu!

[@danjmc35]

Is there a way to make the purge Be used for infill of the actual print.

[@3dpprofessor]

Yes, that's a setting. But since infill is usually minimal, the effect on the purge amount is likewise minimal.

[@robrob1596]

Here's an idea can you purge it into the infill of your main print. If you have enough infill , you may be able to build the print with all the color changes correct on the outside and different on the inside

[@3dpprofessor]

Just up the infill to 90% and that would help.

[@grogers1053]

love it!

[@jsalonis]

We need this.

[@slowbie54]

Would be cool if you could specify which color(s) to purge into an object so you could purge each color into sperate objects. I purge into painters pyramids a lot because I go through them in my resin projects, but Id be interested in what other useful object people purge into.

[@3dpprofessor]

What if a certain color doesn't appear on a certain layer? Should it still swap to that color and do the purge into that object even if it doesn't need it for the print? See, it gets real thorny real quick.

[@MadManFPV]

Hope they implement this soon!! Guess I need to go ahead and purchase an X1, ONCE they get this done… :-)

[@vaughanza]

What happens if you create the same model but with purge filament even if it has a mixture of color on the same layer. If it need to run our more filament than the required layer, make two objects.

[@3dpprofessor]

That's basically it. You could absolutely do that and many people do.

[@kajekage9410]

I thought if I did two of the same model, one with the colors I wanted, and the other the object to flush to that it would mean there would be zero waste, but it barely change the flushed amount and I'm confused lol.

[@3dpprofessor]

@@kajekage9410 Well, there's a number of things to consider: What is the cross sectional area of the purge object? If the purge object is small and thin in parts and uses very little material per layer, you can't expect it to take much purge. Did you increase the infill of the purge object to maximize the waste that goes into it? Don't go all the way to 100, though, or you might have print quality issues. 90% or 95% is usually good. This is why I recommend PrintABloks in the video. It's a very consistent way to catch purge.

[@kajekage9410]

@@3dpprofessor It was two little rabbits lol. The only thing I could get to really reduce the flushing was to import a bambu cube and increase it's to match the height of the rabbit but at that point it was so wide that while it was reducing flushing it needed so much more material and took much longer. What are those printabloks used for? I am fairly new to 3d printing but just got an x1c.

[@3dpprofessor]

@@kajekage9410 PrintABloks are a building block set of my own invention made specifically for 3d Printing. kzbin.info/www/bejne/rKfMpIKpj6ifgrM

[@MrBaskins2010]

would a multi material printer to print with zero purge. bleed the colors into the print

[@3dpprofessor]

That would be my first couple of prints in this video. The thing is the filament cutter system leaves so much in the nozzle that their purge is considerable. Honestly, there wouldn't be room inside most prints for all the purge necessary. I kinda wish they just pulled the filament out and shaped the tip. But that's a known solution and they didn't go with it, so here's hoping there was a good reason for that.

[@winman14may]

this needs to happen! 0% waste

[@Harlizzlee]

i am having issues using pla support interface for petg prints. the high flush volume builds up too much in the chute before it's dropped, and hits the nozzle. anyone have a solution for this?

[@3dpprofessor]

Gotta clean out that flush pile frequently. Don't let it build up.

[@Harlizzlee]

@@3dpprofessor the chute is empty. it's the high volume

[@RoseKindred]

Well, this video answered one question that I have had for a while. I really like the flush-into object that I keep hearing about, but was wondering if it could be flushed into a different print. A few good-looking multi-color prints, and then a box or something useful that can be painted to taste.

[@3dpprofessor]

Yup, it can do it. But only for one color and you'll still have waste for the other colors. But until they fix that, some waste reduction and a useful print is better than all waste.

[@kingtj]

Good work and experimentation! I just got my X1C last week and have been learning as much as I can about getting good prints out of it. Great machine, but the filament waste is really at a level I'd call disturbing when I print anything with several colors. I know some people say they plan on designing their multi-color prints so they'll only use one color for a whole portion, and then only one other color for another large portion, etc. But I find scenarios where that's practical to be really limited. (Maybe for such things as making a base or platform for a figure or statue a solid color and then switching to another solid color for the rest of the object?) What I'd really like to see is a newer model of the X1C that would have two extruder heads, with one dedicated to only printing structural support filament. The support filament spool would then, hopefully, be possible to load on the back of the printer itself while the AMS still had 4 spools free for other materials. With this setup, you could always print your supports or rafts or bridges with your support material without all the waste from many, many filament changes it needs to do for the average print. I know this wouldn't solve the "poop" problem with multi-color prints, but it would solve it for every single-color print you ever do that requires support structures, and reduce it a bit on multi-color prints needing supports. Would speed up the print times when support structures are necessary, as well. Seems like it would be a big "win".

[@MrBlonde5k1]

What about when the settings to "print by object" and flush into an additional object BOTH selected. Will the printer print the main object first AND flush into the additional object whenever there is a color change or will it print the first object entirely and not flush into the second object?

[@3dpprofessor]

Do you always post the same comment on two videos?

[@MrBlonde5k1]

@ no. It was a mistake.

[@MrBlonde5k1]

@ but I very often ask the same question to many people - because I get many different answers.

[@patricktierney4392]

How do you get the color change to go more than skin deep?

[@3dpprofessor]

Bambu slicer handes color painting and puts it into your print like that all by itself.