Light Weight PLA printing with the new Bambu A1 (regular size) - part 1

[@Navigator777777]

I just took delivery of an A-1 to help me with my sign business. I was in the 3D biz in 2004 when I purchased a powder 3D printer for $65K. I can't even remember the name of that thing. Not exactly a shining moment in my life. These printers didn't exist back then and boy have things changed. You can actually use the part when done printing! Frankly, I'm blown away with the A-1. I was printing from the unboxing in 30 minutes. I've yet to have a bad print. I design in Plasticity and the Bambu are a match made in heaven. I'm also an RC sailplane aficionado. Got 3 Night Radians, a 2M really fast and hot sailplane,(my favorite) and a Fox 3000. You've got my attention.

[@PeterBrockie]

Fun fact: The A1 series don't have speakers. They use the stepper motors themselves to make the cute sounds. :D

[@SangheiliSpecOp]

thats awesome :D

[@tomrausch1310]

Hi, I printed the Pika with the Bambu Textured PEI Plate on my P1S. I use 3DLac for the Buildplate. Perfect results with Bambu PLA Aero.

[@soarkraft]

Awesome. I have used hair spray and it works too. However if I am gong to use adhesive I will continue to use the cold plate as it is easier to maintain the "goldilocks" level of stick... for me. 3D printing is a tool, not my hobby, and I can get on with printing and finishing new airplane models.

[@cookcraftedworkshop8801]

Thanks. I've been debating between the p1s and the a1

[@madizmo]

I have both, if your on a tight budget get the A1, if not get the p1s. If you can afford it get both 😂

[@cookcraftedworkshop8801]

@@madizmo thanks

[@someone3202]

for the movements of the head with timelapse on the slicer , if you don't use timelapse it doesn't goes back every layer

[@soarkraft]

Totally get that, but by calculating that off part path it might change how the rest of the layer is calculated, longer path than necessary and straight lines instead of following the curve. Even though the print head never follows the path it is changing the route the head travels before and after.

[@soarkraft]

Solved: Changing to "inner/outer" Advanced order of walls fixed the travel issue (I had it set to Outer/inner before). Its not timelapse though you can turn it off timelapse moves by setting "Print sequence" to "By object". Thanks @mb323vid

[@joebiggs135]

Keep up the good work

[@mb323vid]

Try setting "Print sequence" to "By object" to turn off the timelapse.

[@soarkraft]

YAY, that totally worked for the timelapse, thank you! the travel moves are still "lazy" straight lines ..... but for some reason changing to "inner/outer" Advanced "order of walls" fixed the rest.

[@mb323vid]

@@soarkraft One important note about setting print sequence to by object, model height is a factor. This will probably only work for printing one model at a time since the slicer will complete each model before it moves on to the next. It's not just tool path but any movement could cause the print head or the gantry to impact the printed models. Hopefully they come up with a way to just turn timelapse off.

[@kevinlee6227]

I recently purchased the X1C and the Roughhen files. I have found that unchecking the Avoid Crossing Walls reduces the travel lines on the exterior surface of the Bambu Aero. I’m not sure how much more stringing this may cause inside the part. I am currently testing PETG and have had issues of the leading edge of the wing tips area printing very thin to where you can see light through it. The Wall Transition Threshold and Wall Transitioning Margin seem to help but have not got it perfect yet. Thanks for the videos and the work on configuration files.

[@soarkraft]

So you need to check your infill. There is a solid leading edge right there and my files use 100% fill.... or anything over 35%. You can also increase the number of walls, should be 3 but could be 4+. Anyway check the preview in that area to make sure it is sliced correctly. The Solid Leading Edge is only 2mm thick, but adds loads of support for both the wings d-box structure, impact strength for lead edge impacts, and only adds a couple of grams of additional material.

[@AM-jw1lo]

At last a video on the A1 from someone not using multicolor. Your link to the LW foaming Esun is for their luminous rainbow, i looked as i have no idea what foam PLA is. Though i see esun has and Air lW filament (perhaps they did a name change). So i get the idea of the foam filament. Always nice to learn something new. The air foils look great btw.

[@soarkraft]

So Amazon is out of stock of the LW foaming Esun material... it defalts to the other filaments... stupid amazon. Sain Smart has a Foaming LW material too, out of stock everywhere??? The Bambu Aero PLA is Foaming LW PLA, but have to do there shipping (FedEx ground) and it takes more than a week.

[@patrickdepaepe2035]

thank you. Keep it up :)

[@Harmonie-jg5jh]

So unchecking the Timelapse box in the send print dialogue box doesn’t turn off the Timelapse? I’m going to test this asap on my A1. Thanks 🙏

[@Harmonie-jg5jh]

After testing on my A1 and A1 Mini it does turn off the travel for the Timelapse. You may need to update your firmware to have this option if you don’t see it available.

[@soarkraft]

Solved: Changing to "inner/outer" Advanced order of walls fixed the travel issue (I had it set to Outer/inner before). Its not timelapse though you can turn it off timelapse moves by setting "Print sequence" to "By object". Thanks @mb323vid

[@wardy89]

The reason bamboo slicer uses the same moves as prusaslicer is that bamboo slicer is essentially a rebadged version of prasaslicer

[@soarkraft]

Yep, so why is this particular print profile different?

[@wardy89]

@@soarkraft not sure, there are seem to be a few differences now so perhaps they have made a teak to it somewhere. hope you manage to get it dialed in.

[@crannaford]

Love your work thank you. Keep it up :)

[@soarkraft]

Thanks, will do!

[@802Garage]

I do think a lot of the issues you're experiencing could be solved with different slicer settings. You could even use the A1 Mini profile because the G-code would still function on your A1, at least as far as I know. It would just treat it like a smaller bed. There do seem to be some bugs you're experiencing, but a lot of the quality could be improved with settings tweaks.

[@June-sv4ie]

It's a bit risky because the A1 and A1-Mini have different locations for the nozzle wipe areas, so it might scratch the middle of the bed and/or have a bit of oozing you'll need to contend with. You could always copy the start/end gcodes from the A1 profile

[@soarkraft]

Nope, dont use A1 mini settings on an A1... there is a way to force it, but not worth it. Orca Slicer now supports the A1 and does a better job of slicing / travel moves.

[@802Garage]

@@soarkraft Ah good points. Yes I was thinking mostly to use the G-code, but not the start/end code necessarily. Either way hopefully a past issue now.

[@flynbenny]

Have you tried Magigoo adhesive? I was introduced to it at work and it works really nice with PLA and LW-PLA, and made the most difference with PETG. It works as a glue for the print and a release agent once the print is over, way less warp on the challenging Roughgen 2 servo wing root. It is costly, but lasts a while, and cleans up with water, so a good value. I need to test it tomorrow with your new files...

[@reinekewf7987]

i have a ender 3 pro with direct drive my parts never looked that bad like you shown us as from the older machines. ok may the fact is i print only pla and tpu so i know exaktly what settings i need but i dont think i need another printer with a ecosystem behind. the reason is what happen if discontinued can you geht parts and did you need to adopt them? as for the ender 3 no everything is standard and i even converted one to a printer with 4 times the volume and still all the the same hardware exept for the aluminum extrusion there are doable the length. ok it has the same speed and i needed to say in the slicer it is a ender 3 with coustom build volume but it works. i build rc planes to and i tried forming filament but i hated it the benefits a minor and only worth if you unse carbon or aluminum rods as support. my planes are fast and maneuverable and i fly them with fpv so big battery, big motors, big servos and strong parts. and if i crash one for the most part nothing is salvageable. i build rc fpv racing planes. my personal favorite are single wing with differantial control on the back and nose with the motor in the back. this thing rolls like crazy and the up or down pitch bends the rotor blades while turning. my friends say this is not a plane it is a targeting missile and mostly i crash because weight shift or wing braking or i lost my elevator/Aileron on turning. lighter is not always better if you going fast. ^^ maybe i need in the future a better printer maybe one who can print abs or other stronger filaments. i use tpu as shock absorber and inertia dampening for the internals and for a strong but flexible connections for my elevators and ailerons

[@spitfire7617]

I had a similar problem with your config profiles not showing up after importing them into Bambu Studio and found that the P1P was not listed in the .json file under "compatible_printers". Likely the same problem with the A1 so just edit it in notpad.

[@soarkraft]

yep, i just did another video about this. X1C and P1S filament and process settings can be interchanged, but the P1P is separate and needs to be its own .json file. There are ways to trick it, but difficult to get it right. BS / Orca need change to make this better. Prusa Slicer's way of handling this is way better... but does not support the Bambu Printers

[@OldManJimmy1]

Maybe you need to update the firmware. I have a new A1 and that's the first thing it did when I connected it to the WIFI network. I also noticed mine going over to the side, parking next to the wipe unit every layer and was able to disable the time laps option and get rid of that.

[@soarkraft]

The answer is to use Orca Slicer, it does not have these problems and is directly compatible. I just did a video about Orca SLicer and printing planes, setting and use - on this channel

[@OldManJimmy1]

@@soarkraft I have also discovered the Orca slicer too and use it now on all my prints/printers. It does everything Bambu Studio does and then some.

[@lolsborn]

Hey Wayne :-p I got one of these for my son for Christmas, be aware of the heat bed cable recall / issue.

[@Sparkyboy247]

The part on the left at 1:42 with the horizontal raised lines on is what I’m having happen with some of my tall thin aeroplane parts with LW-PLA. Any ideas how I could improve my prints?

[@kippie80]

Don’t have one but just switched to OrcaSlicer and it is awesome! Makes my Rat Rig run better and faster with Klipper. OrcaSlicer is open source branch of Bambu slicer

[@soarkraft]

Yep, just did a video about using it for planes and what setting to use - on this channel

[@user-rx8qq8sk9ydv1ce5ib]

Would it be better to get the p1s or no much difference compared to A1 ?!

[@soarkraft]

The P1S is better if the price is not an issue, its on par with the X1C for most things. With the new LW-ASA and the smell, enclosed printing is good.... The A1 is good too, prints LW-PLA well and work for what I originally wanted it for. I did need to move it to a different work table from the X1C because it was having some cross vibration issues when printing on both machines at the same time.

[@user-rx8qq8sk9ydv1ce5ib]

@@soarkraft 👍👌 Thanks

[@p.i.engineer398]

can't you use the a1 mini profile and change the printer dimensions to the a1 size?

[@soarkraft]

No, ... well there is a way, but more complicated than it is worth. Orca Slicer is now directly compatible with the A1 and works better at slicing than BS.

[@maxun1]

I been printing LW PLa HT, and my Old CR10, and I got 100% better print that you got.

[@YongTanaka]

You may try export your file to a new STL and then open new project to import that stl

[@MarkPickavance]

If you don't have timelapse on, you won't get the travel move. When you go to print from Bambu Studio just untick 'Timelapse" on the print confirmation screen.

[@soarkraft]

I don't have timelapse on... and the printer does not do these moves.... but they are still calculated during slicing. My issue might be something else. The A1 mini does this same timelapse thing, but the rest of the travel moves are not affected.... ?????

[@soarkraft]

Solved: Changing to "inner/outer" Advanced order of walls fixed the travel issue (I had it set to Outer/inner before). Its not timelapse though you can turn it off timelapse moves by setting "Print sequence" to "By object". Thanks @mb323vid

[@MarkPickavance]

Good to hear that@@soarkraft, I have an A1 but no experience with foaming PLA.

[@murderdoggg]

This was helpful. Could you please also make a video with LW-PLA settings for a Creality K1? I am having a hard time slicing Eclipson airplanes correctly on my K1's Creality print software.

[@Manchesterglider]

I have an A1 printer and the bed is slightly convex at the edges, I’d be interested to know if anyone else has this problem.

[@TheRattleSnake3145]

Lw PLA designs should be made to be printed in Vase mode. No travel moves or retract moves.

[@soarkraft]

Sure, vase mode prints have no travel / retracts, but have limitations. Many limitations. LW-PLA can be printed with travels and retracts.... vase mode is not the only way.

[@Yash-c3v]

Does the y-axis always make that noise? Sounds a bit .... Annoying!

[@Curious_Skeptic]

Anyone resin printing 3d planes?

[@soarkraft]

If they have it would be on youtube... do a search. Scale models, yes, fly-able models probably not. Resin printing works well for small precise stuff, though it has been maturing. For work projects I have used resin printers, and the parts always needs additional light box time, cleaning and bubbles were a pain... messy.... but you can get pretty fine detail. The resin also changes over time (like it dries out) and parts three or four weeks old were really brittle even with a clear coat. The polyjet machines do a better job, but still.... and the cost to get an industrial machine to print a plane would be $$$$$. FDM printing works really well for this.

[@Curious_Skeptic]

@@soarkraft Well, I have both now. Bought an A1 Bambu and Elegoo Saturn 3 Ultra.

[@dreizzle87]

You can turn off the camera move.

[@WhereNerdyisCool]

Don't use the printer! Heated bed recall!

[@soarkraft]

Yep, just got my A1 heatbed changed out and back to work....

[@madizmo]

Turn off timelapse, that's what's causing the unnecessary travel moves

[@soarkraft]

Is there a pre-slicing "turn off timelapse" button or are you mentioning the one before you send it to the printer? Im not running the time lapse and I do have it turned off when sending it to the printer, but it still calculated the moves during slicing? I could also be something else. The A1 mini doesn't do this.

[@madizmo]

Ya in Bambu slicer under process settings and under the other tab, timelapse is disabled there? Those travel moves definately look like its moving to the side and pausing for a timelapse@@soarkraft

[@realistxxx4821]

Could do with a tutorial for LW-PLA with a Creality K1. Have printed a number of your Ingneous planes with good results on a Creality 6SE but have been struggling a bit with the K1. They fly great by the wat.

[@murderdoggg]

I basically just asked the same thing. Eclipson plane pre-sliced g-code works beautifully on a Ender 3 S1Pro, but not on a K1, which I have gotten decent fuselage parts printing at 300mm/s.

[@realistxxx4821]

I've been playing today. Try using the Generic PLA settings - change Material Flow rate to 85%, Inner/Outer wall flows to 80%, Cooling Reg fan to 25%. Special modes - surface mode both. These have worked on the Igneous Tail parts.@@murderdoggg