3D Printer Reliability: Prusa vs. Bambulab

[@CursedByDesign]

I came to that same conclussion. For 5 years I have been running a print farm of over 40 Creality printers; mainly Ender 3 with a few CR-10S. I spent more time on maintenance and repair with them than I wanted to -- at any point, about 10-15% of the farm was down. In January 2023 I started swapping them out for the Bambu Lab P1P. By March the entire Creality part of my farm was removed and replaced with 15 P1Ps which all now have over well 5,000 hours on them. The only thing I have had to replace across all the printers so far has been a nozzle that clogged and a hotend cooling fan. Everything else is stock, something I was not able to do with a Creality farm. It has only been 10 months, but so far they seem to last without issue. We have 5 more coming into the farm this week because they are just beasts at pumping out consistent parts.

[@devilisback1]

i got myself a p1s and it has been a beast, I went thrugh 12 kG of fillament already printing jukebox parts for clients. Feel blessed by the quality

[@bensabraham4863]

What did you do with the previous printers ?

[@Pajunges]

How does P1Ps perfrom on TPU/TPE prints? I really need this information. Reading Reddit or so, 90% of the users prints PLA or PETG.

[@Fredpettersen]

@@PajungesIt does really well, but if you have one of the models with an AMS, you can't use it since the TPU will get stuck. No problems just running it from the external spool-holder though, and it prints like a dream.

[@Pajunges]

@@Fredpettersen Currently i have 3pcs of Creality Ender 3 S1 PLUS models. I print only TPU. Each printer has 4000 working hours. No major issues at all. It just lacks of Ethernet connetivity and I got quite bored about these printers. Can P1S print TPU at 65mm/s? My Ender 3 s1 can do that quite easily.

[@eternity1243]

Some of my P1Ps have been running for 8 Months every single day in a production environment and so far I didn't have any problems with parts breaking except the usual nozzle change and belt tensioning. It's a great machine

[@myliftergarage3340]

Yeah I have had the same experience , two of my original P1P have been running over a year now .

[@Valisk]

Good to hear. I'm retiring my two bedslingers and have just pulled the trigger on a P1S combo.

[@johnlynnbeck]

​@@Valisk You won't regret it. And I'll go ahead and warn you: It likely won't matter how many videos you've seen of these things running. Seeing the speed first hand in person is just... it's different. It will blow you away. Expletives will be uttered. :P

[@TheMisko1987]

@@myliftergarage3340 did you change the nozzle or any other consumable parts and how many hours of printing does it have?

[@TheMisko1987]

did you change the nozzle or any other consumable parts and how many hours of printing does it have?

[@Skott62]

A 6 month follow up video and a 1 year follow up video would be very interesting to see. If the Bambu printers can hold up in duration like the Prusas can then the choice was obvious. Somebody is always building a better mouse trap (in this case 3D printers) so at some point Prusa will lose the crown as will Bambu someday. It is inevitable.

[@Ghosy01]

there is simply too much talent money and market in china for any western company to compete. the Chinese start slow but quickly snowball out of control once the incentive is there.

[@angrydragonslayer]

​@@Ghosy01 there's low enough costs and even subsidized manufacturing chinese Engineers with my level of experience get paid less than janitors in my country. chinese companies get money from their govt when they sell to outsiders meaning they can profit when selling at a lower price than the costs of material.

[@riku61]

@@angrydragonslayer Can janitors in your country build 3D printers?

[@angrydragonslayer]

@@riku61 they more than likely have at least the bare minimum knowledge to build a voron if it's a hobby, most of them can probably learn to program a PLC for the mainboard.

[@nukem8128]

China has manufacturing down to a science.

[@whiteb68]

You do have to note that many of the parts available for the bambu printers are more affordable than parts directly from Prusa.

[@Stevieboy7]

As well if youre in USA or Canada, you don't have to ship everything over from Europe... Bambu has warehouses in USA and Canada... no border crossing needed.

[@LilApe]

Well they better be since their parts are made in china and cheap construction. I don't expect EU or prusa prices for something made in a sweat shop in china.

[@hologos_]

@@LilApeHere he is, now go through all comments here and release your anger to feel better about yourself. 🤣 I forgot that prusa parts are all manufactured in Europe 🤣🤣🤣🤣

[@PLr1c3r]

@@LilApe I'm fairly certain the only parts made in EU are the printed parts if that, they're simply put together in EU. Boards and steppers are all from China lol.

[@LilApe]

@@PLr1c3r Their buddy board and components are made in house in CZ, Their hotend is made by E3D in the UK. The MK3 is built with only 33% of parts made in china. The MK4 is even less. Educate yourself. Further more: The hotend/part cooling fans and PSU are made in USA by delta. The belts are made by gates in the USA. The extruder is made in house in CZ. The rails/bearings are made By either THK or misumi. Made in taiwan/japan/vietnam. I'm stopping there, but there are far more components that are *NOT* made in china.

[@poppin_freshgaming4334]

I'm not quite a year into this hobby and bought a P1S a little over a week ago to go along with my 2 Enders that I've upgraded a bunch of crap on. I've been blown away by how fast and nice the P1S prints without me having to do anything. It's just crushing out prints at great quality over and over with no intervention from me. I get I'll probably have to replace parts at some point, but that's to be expected. That said, I also value the time I've had with the Enders. Running them for all this time and working through things has helped me understand the 3D print process and has made me a much better troubleshooter when it comes to printer or slicer issues/failures. I'm not sure how well that will work for people with a printer that prints flawless (out of the box anyway), until it doesn't.

[@DaveBuildsThings]

I own a P1S and yes, parts will need replacing just like any other printer. In the 6 months I've had mine I've had to replace the nozzle wiper (a 5 minute job) but nothing else yet. And like the video mentioned, the carbon rods are a part I'm not used to seeing but I wipe them down wipe Isopropyl alcohol one a month and everything seems fine. No printer will ever be perfect and maintenance free. But so far this printer has surpassed my expectations. After owning cheaper printers in the past, let's just say, I have no regrets buying it. 👍😏

[@Jestey6]

Think the P1S is great, just got one. Just a thought, Doesn’t isopropyl alcohol affect the binders in the carbon rods?

[@poppin_freshgaming4334]

@@Jestey6 IPA is what Bambu says to use to clean, so that is what I use.

[@Jestey6]

Hi, you are right, the maxim “when all else fails read the user handbook” applies as usual. My defence is that I’ve only just got my P1S, and is my way, I was keen to learn. However, there’s a ton of info online to digest and somewhere it was mentioned that IPA was not suitable. Following your advice I’ve just looked at the Bambu wiki regarding rod cleaning, which is very comprehensive, as usual. So many thanks. Cheers Noel

[@nickrp88]

This series has been super useful. Really appreciate the clean numbers and objective analysis! I am looking forward to seeing an update in a month or two covering the output and reliability changes on the MK4 with input shaping and new firmware, as well as long term reliability info on the bamboo machine.

[@FlechetteArchery]

several thousand hours into my p1p and the only thing i've had to replace so far is the extruder gear. started having some extrusion issues, and after taking it apart, i could see that the drive gear was worn and starting to catch on some of the plastic housing, therefore not moving smoothly. but one $20 part for several thousand hours seems pretty solid to me. 😁 (*knock on wood*)

[@FlechetteArchery]

@@SB-mj2gi The hardened steel gears were what i had in there. I replaced them with the original stainless steel, because that's all i had available at the time, to get back up and running. Will go back to another set of hardened gears at some point.

[@MartinsonManufacturing]

Yep. Did the same thing January 2023. Was sick of my Ender 3 farm. Was slowly transitioning to Prusa when I discovered the Bambu. Took a gamble and bought 12 of them. So far they've been running almost non stop for over a year now with no issues. Just the occasional nozzle replacement.

[@fdegasperis]

I'd love to see an updated comparison with the Mk4s updated with input shaping.

[@BallBallBallie]

Agreed. MK4 such a different animal compared to first release

[@kushpacsmike]

yup

[@fredpinczuk7352]

No mater how good a Prusa Mk4 is, there are things it still can't do. 1) Spaghetti auto detection 2) Near seamless Multilateral feed For reference, I've run a MK3s for 4+ years. And have two additional units at the office including 2 Prusa Mini, and one of the MK3 is* tied to a Pallet Multilateral system. A real pain to dial in, temperamental at best. Now we also have the P1P Carbon, with one AMS. Absolutely seamless multilateral printing. So much so, I bought one for myself. @@BallBallBallie

[@georgestone8099]

It's still a bed slinger though. It just has some inherent limitations. And a few days ago Bambulab released their own bed slinger (the A1) and it shits all over the MK4 in regards to speed, and is about 1/3rd the price..

[@FactionalSky]

Does not matter. The Mk4 can't beat a BBL. It can't even beat a BBL A1. :D

[@GeekGarageDK]

You're my new favorite channel hands down! You blend business, print experience and no BS talk about the product and not afraid to take chances! I've currently just sold my last 3D printer today (Ender 5 plus heavily upgraded). The quality I've seen just from the A1 Mini had me buying the full combo pack right away and I'm just waiting on delivery now. I work full time from home as an RPA developer for my municipality, so when i have a robot going through tests and i can't use my work laptop, I have time designing products. I will be trying to get my foot in the door of factories around me to start out with, making custom tools that could make their life and work processes better as this is what i already do just with software robots. Because I love problem solving, and the 3D design process, and having a machine that just runs to spit out parts is important, instead of alway have a printer that only runs with 90% capacity because of some random issue, The ender was my 3'rd printer and I always got stuck at the 95% mark, and never really got it fully tuned. so now I'm going with a platform where the majority of tuning is done by people who does nothing but making and tuning printers. I really hope that i can at some point quit my current job and live off the income from my design and production work. This channel has inspired my so much that I've been binge watching you videos! It gave me the kick i needed! So thank you!

[@justluke9297]

Same here! :D

[@buddhahat]

this is very cool, I hope your design and production work are going well for you

[@kevinmitchell3168]

It's really great to get the perspective from someone who understands what is most important for high volume printing!

[@anon-means-anon]

The thing I like (and a way I got around the short staffed customer service problem) is that I was able to buy enough spare parts from bambu to almost build another machine for under $200. I keep parts stocked and if anything breaks I can swap it and have all the time in the world for the warranty part to come in and replenish my spares. So far I've put about 1,000 hours on it of nearly constant high temp ASA and carbon fiber nylon with zero problems.

[@TheAnachronist]

You should also do a part strength comparison. Higher speeds means less time for the plastic to weld to the layer below and the path to the side. That may be fine in a lot of cases, but you should check to make sure the faster speeds don't cause an unacceptable reduction in part strength.

[@genin69]

It would be interesting to know the speeds he printed at. Over 1000 hours even a 25mm/s speed increase will add up quite a bit and still be very strong

[@fitybux4664]

Depends if the customer even cares about that. 😆

[@Jaze2022]

I've been wondering about that as well. I print my parts in petg and have failed to print faster on my old printer. It wasn't because the hotend couldn't keep up. It wasn't because the head couldn't move fast enough. I had to increase the temp to a point that stringing and blobs became uncontrollable. And if I didn't increase the temp, the infill became matte. The outter surface looked fine but that's just because I print the outter surface slower to maximize the appearance. Is the bambu lab able to print quickly without sacrficing strength and upping the temp? There are so many shallow analysis on the web that it's hard to tell. People crank out a widget with their bambu and say it's good without evening mentioning strength.

[@J_Madison]

@@Jaze2022 I print plenty of perfect PETG parts on the X1 Carbon using the default profile with just the flow rate dialed in a tad. Very basic profile - parts generally come out with virtually no blobs and very very little stringing. The only filament type that the default profiles haven't been nearly perfect for was TPU - I had to change the retraction settings a tad but now I can print a TPU Benchy that looks like PLA.. I print PETG outer wall at 225, top at 200 and the rest is 300mm/s.

[@weakend]

Gravedigging a bit here, but wouldn't higher speed equate to a higher "average part temperature" (not sure this is the correct terminology) due to high-temperature layers being stacked on top of one another quicker? I am trying to understand how more hot plastic gives the plastic less time to weld. In my head it'd do the opposite, there'd be more heat in the part.

[@mitchrand9466]

Installed your dust kit for my 12” Bosch. MIND BLOWN!! Excellent design and manufacturing! Best mod for miter saw period! Thanks for your hours of design and testing and making this available for us home diy’rs. Job well done🤜🏼🤛🏼

[@ndisa44]

Our much smaller farm has 6 mk3s+ machines, and we just added 4 MK4 printers running input shaping firmware. The speed of the mk4 with input shaping is incredible. One thing I would be interested in seeing a comparison of is the part strength. Printing faster results in weaker parts, and in an application where end use parts are made that's an important factor.

[@fastbikegear365]

Not a rigid golden rule. Sometimes printing faster results in stronger interlayer adhesion because the previous layer is still hot.

[@ndisa44]

@@fastbikegear365 that works on small parts. But for the production seen here, there are multiple large parts per bild surface, so there is definitely cooling between layers. The layer adhesion isn't even always the issue for fast printing, it's having the material not thoroughly and uniformly melted because it is extruded so quickly.

[@LilApe]

95% of bambu lab owners only print benchies and crystal dragons, they don't understand the compromise of strength they give up every time they boast about how fast they can point.

[@ndisa44]

@@LilApe I have a voron 2.4, which does print fast, but I also have a high performance hotend with a cht nozzle, and I have done flow testing to ensure that I don't exceed the extrusion flow level where the material is not consistently melted. Bambu's default profiles compensate by increasing hotend temp which brings additional issues

[@TheNerdArmory]

I've been printing on my 3 x1c's for 12 months straight now and they probably average around 16-18 hours a day. Any issues i've had have been my fault, bambu has sent me replacement parts every single time and their replacement parts i've purchased (only nozzles essentially) have been priced appropriately in my opinion. My experience with the machine, longevity of it AND their customer service have been top notch. I'm buying more as we speak.

[@Pajunges]

How does X1C perfrom on TPU/TPE prints? I really need this information. Reading Reddit or so, 90% of the users prints PLA or PETG.

[@zohoora]

@@Pajunges they do really well with TPU. They also now sell high speed print TPU filaments. It’s awesome.

[@notchipotle]

​@@Pajungesjust open the door and you're fine

[@brianhilligoss]

We went from a print farm of ender 3’s which in the end cost more than a Prussia i3 mk3 to keep running to the BambuLab p1s’s. our output has doubled. Close to 2500 hours and only maintenance so far is replacing the stainless nozzles to the hardened ones. Our failure rate is 3.3% total. So your 4% number is pretty much spot on. We have dropped the rate since purchasing 2 build sheets per printer and wash them in a dish washer between prints.

[@FilamentFriday]

I ran a print farm of Enders and CR-10’s for years. Your 15% success on MK3 was similar to what I had. I was of the belief that paying of the printer quicker was more important since I could get to profit quicker since I didn’t know how long demand would last. But as the demand grew and the product life continued I switched to injection molding. I got several quotes, rolled the tooling cost into the component price and within 3 months was making more money with a lot less work. I now just use 3D printers to determine demand and then injection mold. I no longer have to support/monitor a printfarm. You might check into that if you need that much production. Your parts will be better quality, stronger and I found better perception of quality by my customers. It also allowed me to select better materials for outside harsh environment some of my products are exposed to.

[@henriklagercrantz]

So did you outsource the injection moulding or did you buy the machines for that?

[@FilamentFriday]

Outsourced it. Got a couple different quotes and went with best overall quote. Been with the same company for 3 yrs now. Still working out well.

[@arduinomistakes8879]

Doing iterations? Free revisions is advantage of FDM.

[@MrBluntNose]

I'm glad that I scrolled down this far to stumble upon your comment, which is absolute Gold. It seems that even Prusa has come to that conclusion. I think that some of their components (at least the LCD screen case) is now injection molded. What was your magic number (or numbers) to decide whether to 3D print or injection mold? I most commonly hear 1000. Also what materials did you choose for harsher environments? Thank you for sharing your knowledge

[@FilamentFriday]

@@MrBluntNose - It depends on the design. Mold costs can get pricy on complex designs. Some 3D prints can be easily converted. You have to get a few quotes then work from there to make the decision.

[@bylifeorbydeath]

You definitely are helping my decision to move with Bambu, I bought the best I could or was willing to afford was Creality 2 years ago. Now, I am looking to sell my printed designs I want something that is a workhorse. My stuff is only a couple mm thick, mostly) so first layer means the world. Filling the bed with print reliability would be a game changer.. Thanks for doing the talk about money, It is helping my wife and I decide if we will move forward.

[@Jason-un8fy]

We run a print farm with 6 Creality K1 Max printers and every one has had issues, 4 of which have already been replaced in just a few months. Thank goodness for the 1 year warranty. We needed a bigger build plate for what we make. I eagerly await a larger Bambulabs machine (like everyone else)

[@martinriiser5523]

Please, can you tell more about K1 Max, we are all happy with long stories here.

[@Liberty4Ever]

I was initially interested in the K1 Max but didn't buy one. I was turned off by the early hot end issues. It seems that Creality has addressed the issues with rolling upgrades and design improvements, and a K1 today is a much better value proposition than it was for early adopters. The current Black Friday pricing on the K1 Max is very tempting. I'd also be tempted to buy one and immediately upgrade to the Micro-Swiss hotend for better reliability, increased flow rate and access to quality Micro-Swiss nozzles in a variety of sizes, hardened nozzles, etc.

[@LearnEverythingAboutDesign]

@@Liberty4Ever yeah $700 for the k1 max vs 1300 for the x1c. its hard to justify. Bambu will be releasing an X1E enterprise edition which avoids the cloud data issues and an X1L larger build volume soon(ish). I have an ender 7 and its good when its good but when it fails its spectacular :) I am currently try to decide between the K1max and x1c. From what I understand the K1 had all the hot end problems that were slowly fixed. The K1 Max benefited from those early issues.

[@Liberty4Ever]

@@LearnEverythingAboutDesign - As mentioned in the video, the difference between a $700 K1 Max and a $1300 X1C matter little over five years of continuous print farm use. Reliability and throughput are the dominant considerations. However, the K1 is currently selling for $399 on Creality's site and rumor is that it'll be $350 for Black Friday. The enclosure is a great help for ABS but makes maintenance much more difficult than an open frame bed slinger. Qidi has a consumer grade enclosed printer with an actively heated build chamber. That should produce Stratasys level ABS print quality but I'm waiting for a consumer 3D printer manufacturer other than Qidi to make a 3D printer with a heated chamber for engineering materials. FlashForge has a nice looking industrial level heated chamber 3D printer.

[@Jason-un8fy]

@@LearnEverythingAboutDesign Hi, are you speculating or do you know this? Any insight on when a larger X1 will be released?

[@peterlecraw8301]

As much as I love my old MK3S+, it's been collecting dust since I received my P1S. I don't want to tinker with a 3D printer, I want a utility I can use to reliably fabricate things for myself. I get some people really love the tool, but I care about what the tool is actually capable of doing. The P1S spitting out prints 3-4x faster than the MK3S+ (and doing so in a nearly fire-and-forget manner) is such a game changer for the industry.

[@muhammadbilaal7361]

This is the comment I was searching for here. Thank you. You have helped me figure out the right decision to make

[@muhammadbilaal7361]

This is the comment I was searching for here. Thank you. You have helped me figure out the right decision to make

[@erebus1964]

Well, this is exactly my point too. There are builders who focus on the printers and like to spend time tinkering with them. My focus is getting a part that I created out of a printer without "wasting" a lot of time with the "step in between". Originally I was in the pre-order-process for a Prusa XL, but since they did not get ready for a long time and my first printer started to have more and more issues, I cancelled my deposit and went for a X1C.

[@johnlynnbeck]

My experience feels much the same. All my bedslingers have been basically retired ever since I got my P1P. This thing will spit out parts in serial order faster than all my bed slingers will in parallel! It just sits in this perfect, harmoneous sweet spot of price point + speed + quality that, almost a year later, still just boggles my mind. I'm sitting here listening to it go as we speak, and I'm thinking "how are you THIS fast and print THIS consistently well??" And with so little effort on my part, beyond the monthly cleaning and lubricating. I cannot understate how much it has impacted my ability to quickly iterate on prototype part designs. the difference between printing something in 6 hours as opposed to 20 is HUGE.

[@JustMakingItWork]

I agree: my Prusa is sitting gathering dust, waiting for me to replace the extruder gears. My P1P worked right away for 800 hours AND COUNTING. No adhesion issues. Few feeding issues, even with the AMS. Always works on the network.

[@KenLord]

The Bambu A1 would make for another interesting comparison. Perhaps not as fast as the corexy, but probably still faster and less scrap than the Prusa. I was surprised at the Prusa's scrap rates, considering how Prusa themselves probably have the best print farm data anywhere, with 600 or so MK3's and MK4's in their own farm, which keeps them well informed on what kinds of things go wrong over the lifespans of many machines.

[@grifftech]

I have 47 Bambu P1S in my print farm and loving them

[@ShopNation]

Dude! Nice! 👍🏼

[@emanggitulah4319]

Best value printer at the moment

[@No-ub5ju]

why the p1s instead of the p1p ?

[@grifftech]

@@No-ub5ju because I needed enclosed printers for ABS, ASA, Nylon etc

[@HeroAges-x9u]

@@grifftechHow well do you find the P1S handles ABS? I am looking at buying either P1s or a Qidi X plus 3 that comes with the heated chamber. Any experience with the Qidi?

[@CueBall909]

I would really love to hear how you collect your prints (removing by hand, using g-code to push them off the bed after cooling, using printers at an angle so cold prints fall off, etc), how (or if) you clean your plates, what you do for maintenance, etc. There are a lot of folks that seem to insist that prints don’t adhere to the plate without glue, hairspray, constant cleaning with soapy water or alcohol, and such, and then other folks that insist you need a chisel to remove prints sometimes. How do you manage this with thousands of prints per week?

[@coolbugfacts1234]

I do about 50-100 hours of printing a week between my two MK3S+ printers for my etsy shop, I use textured PEI plates with PLA and PETG and basically never have adhesion or sticking issues, I just wipe the plate with a towel and alcohol, but that's mainly to clean off any dust or melted fragments of filament. I clean them with soap and water maybe every other month. For prep, the only time I would ever use glue or hairspray is for TPU, because TPU sticks way too hard to PEI, it will destroy PEI. Other than that, the prints stick great, and they're always completely loose when the plate cools down, but I can also pop them off by hand right after the print is done. I take the skirt and nozzle clearing lines off with my fingernail.

[@clonkex]

I used to have tonnes of trouble getting prints to stick on my CR10S. I tried glue sticks (didn't work), painter's tape (worked too well) and clean raw glass (sometimes worked, sometimes didn't). Then I bought a (way overpriced) sheet of transparent adhesive PEI and stuck that on the glass build plate. Since then (about 4 years ago), I've literally never had failed adhesion. All I do for prep is heat the bed, use a splash of non-acetone-based nail polish remover on a tissue and wipe down the hot bed and it's good to go. I don't even know if the nail polish remover is necessary but I've always used it. I even did a terrible job of applying the PEI sheet so it's kind of bubbly, but it doesn't seem to affect anything.

[@antoniocross5956]

I'm currently running my print farm on Prusa Minis. They are printing 24/27/365 since 2 years with very little problems (usually just some nozzles that need repacement). Had to change all the heat brakes and extruders with the ones from bondtech. Very reliable machines. If you don't have/need much footprint, I totally can recommend those little helpers :)

[@djvincon]

What nozzle do you use and do you have any upgrade tips for the mini?

[@antoniocross5956]

I use the standard e3d v6 nozzle. For sure u need the bondtech IFS extruder and heat brake as an upgrade. Am currently looking to upgrade the heat block with the one from slice engineering and combine it with the cht nozzle from e3d to fully use the new input shaper

[@g36pilot92]

Appreciate your honesty, transparency, and attitude. As a RC aircraft hobbyist, I began with a Creality Ender 3Pro for learning w/o major investment. Purchased a BL A1 Mini to learn their infrastructure. Ordered a BL X1C to grow into.

[@reiniertl]

Maybe the overall life of the P1Ps is shorter but in that time they may produce much more and more efficiently than the Prusas. I hope you consider that as part of future analysis. I loved this one, although I was expecting this kind of result. I have a Carbon-X1 and although I don't print in a production environment I was really concerned of wear due to vibration and speed. Still the machine is a monster. After one year of mild use I did the first maintenance and was expecting to see some wear in the carbon rods but they looks like new, all other parts are still like the first day.

[@b0kix953]

This makes no sense, with input shaper on the MK4 the print speed is almost the same as on the P1P.

[@BrianHockenmaier]

@@b0kix953 I would have to see data to believe this. The extreme disadvantage of the bedslinger architecture cannot be overcome by software magic. The P1P also has vibration testing and software adjustment, and it doesn't have to throw the print bed and part around for every move

[@b0kix953]

@@BrianHockenmaier The MK4 isn't the first bedslinger that can print fast, look at all the other fast printing bedslingers on the market like the Ankermake. Slice the same file in Prusaslicer with a 0.2 MK4 IS profile and on Bambuslicer, you will get a similar estimated print time.

[@BrianHockenmaier]

For a short print or a long print? Bambu has probably half the estimate for heating the bed and leveling and other prep for small prints. The other consideration is these "fast" bedslingers only work with PLA. Any performance material like nylon or ABS is going to warp when being thrown around in the open air like that. As someone who prints with PLA only 1/3 of the time, the fundamental design of the bedslinger will simply never work well for me. BTW my first printer back in 2013 was a bedslinger and I loved it. The tech has since evolved

[@b0kix953]

@@BrianHockenmaier Both. I was looking at the actual print time without the preparation, you can try it yourself. This is nothing to do with PLA or any other material. Obviously you will need an enclosure for the MK4 if you want to print ABS but that's also available from Prusa. We have 6 MK4s and 3 X1Cs at work and we print a lot with the MK4s because the print quality is better, and most importantly the mechanical properties. If you print really fast you loose a lot of strength and especially layer adhesion even with PLA.

[@craigdoesthingswithhissons]

i bought a p1p because the last video you posted "3D Printer I'd buy" it's been out of the box for 5 months now and haven't had a problem other than an air pocket in the filament that caused a clog. easy fix. wayyyy better than the ender3 I had before

[@workingTchr]

Novice PIP owner here. This convinced me to get the hardened 0.6mm print head as my next upgrade. Interesting that you didn't go with the P1P enclosure or the X1 model. That was my thought too since PLA seems to do everything I need. I did have an issue Bambu resolved very well. I shipped my printer without all the protection in place and the print head fan got ruined. I didn't know at the time what the problem was (just ugly prints) and opened a ticket with them. After a few days they shipped me a new fan and cover at no charge. They DO however request copious documentation (printer log, Bambu Studio log, photos, etc) but they came through.

[@DoRC]

I've had my P1P for several months now and have around 1500 hours of print time on it. So far zero issues.

[@jlest3036]

I like the video and can't wait for some additional updates, but I have to disagree with the printer cost not being a consideration. The Bambu is 34% cheaper over the MK4, so all things being equal, would have a much shorter payoff time. I understand things like lifespan, maintenance, parts, etc., but that is a huge difference not to be a factor, even over a 5 year amortization. In moving forward with your 9 additional P1S printers, you saved $7200 over the equivalent cost of 15 MK3+ so are already way ahead. Additionally, for just a little additional cost you could move to the enclosed P1S and add additional parts to your inventory with the ability to print with higher temp materials.

[@JeffN-yy6rw]

I run 66 P1Ps. I maintain over 200. Some of them are 9 months old. Some are less than a week old. They run 22 hours a day on average and 7 days a week. Stock extruders last anywhere from 3 months to 8 months printing regular PLA. The only reason they fail is because the hot end fan collects stringing and dust. Once that fan collects enough stringing, it is compromised. Heat creep begins, and the extruder begins to struggle. Regular maintenance using a blower or canned air at the hot end fan is required. This is the P1P's greatest weakness which is poor ventilation at the hot end. I recommend getting hardened steel extruder gears and a stockpile of hot end fans to help mitigate future issues.

[@Kman31ca]

Just so you know you can change the carbon rods out. They sell the entire assembly for 90$ and with the P1P it should be easy to do since it's already open.

[@Martian74]

This week I became a sales engineer, and one of the brands I have to sell is Bambulab, also Markforged, Raise 3D, formlabs, Optomec, NanoDimension(PCB printing) etc. Thanks for letting me know a bit more about Bambulab, I own a Prusa Mk3s+ which helped me get the job. I have an engineering degree in robotics and mechatronics and like 3D printers.

[@arbjful]

You should make your own 3D printer, or a robot arm

[@Martian74]

@@arbjful I already did, that is how I got my job. They could see I was interested in these types of products so I would be good at selling them.

[@YourLocalRaccoon]

The fact that you didn't just go with more Prusa printers shows you really are unbiased. Respect.

[@3DandTeePrinting]

I Will Definitely be watching for the Longevity of use. Currently have 2 P1P's. One is 6 months old and the other just 3. They are run daily for about 20 hours a day on average still haven't had any issues other then replacing the nozzles and gears to hardened steel about a month ago. Technically that was OPTIONAL but counts towards cost of use since it wasn't an original investment at time of purchasing them. No wear on the rods very slight wear on the oldest ones belts but nothing major. Hope yours runs just as good.

[@mopemaster]

One thing that you also should throw in for the decision is the power consumption. My Bambulabs are using ~60 Watts and my old Prusa Printfarm all the Prusas where more in the ~100 watts area. Given the 40% less power and the faster printspeed my energy cost for my printfarm went drasticly down.

[@ShopNation]

I actually have not seen a significant difference in power consumption

[@TMS5100]

the prusas are using switching power supplies to run the heatbed and the heatbed is low voltage DC, you get huge efficiency losses that way. mains AC beds are far more efficient and way faster to heat up.

[@AMakerDad]

I ran into the load cell issue you described in your video. This was fixed by feeding the filament through a "reverse bowden" all the way to the print head. I use a 3mm ID, 4mm OD PTFE tube, installed an M5 quick release fitting into the print head, and have the filament feed up to the roof of the enclosure, through an external filament sensor, and then back down to the print head. This eliminates the variable tension that the load cell would otherwise see trying to unspool filament while doing the bed levelling. Prusa should really have shipped the Mk4 with the festo fitting that they ship on the XL. The reason for using an external filament sensor is that I had an early failure on a prebuilt Mk4 - the ball can get stuck on the plastic housing. Also - filament spools are often wound with a kink on the end of the filament to retain it in the spool - by the time the filament sensor on the print head trips, this kink in the filament can stop the printer from ejecting the filament during the filament change. By using an external filament sensor and running an octoprint plugin, I burn about 500mm of filament, but it is dead nuts reliable when it comes to changing the filament when the printer runs out. Also - as you've mentioned - input shaping makes the XL and Mk4 a completely different printer. It did take me a little bit to get input shaping dialed in (a printer in head banging mode puts a LOT of stress on the filament feed tube). But once it's dialed in - I am sure you will see that the Mk4's output is a lot closer to that of the Bambu. I routinely see a 30+% decrease in print time on my machines now that I am running input shaping.

[@chrisbaker3760]

I have just about finished shifting my print farm from bed slingers to corexy printers. A mix of Vorons, Bambu and Creality K1. I cover a wide range of products so need a range of machines to handle it. I do like the reliability and speed of the Bambu, but data security is a worry given the sensitive nature of many of my contracts. Having them in the farm frees up some of the other (often more capable machines) for those jobs by handling the trivial jobs. It's still something to be aware of if you deal with NDAs. Your use case here it doesn't matter though. Anyway, great video

[@pawekowalski2088]

Can you compare the reliability of K1 to Bambu?

[@DigitalDoyle]

I run my 2 P1Ps in LAN only mode and use OrcaSlicer and it works great. Having a few issues that are mostly my fault and not the machines', but am learning and working thru them. I also have a K1 that I really like a lot and am dialing in. Still fairly new to all this and coming from 5 Ender 3 Pros that are currently mostly being used as filament dryers, but soon using OrcaSlicer I'll have the Enders tuned and back in service until I just wind up replacing them outright.

[@jelithompson]

My pitiful comment is that in accounting terms you depreciate the cost of a tangible asset not amortize it. Keep up the great videos. This whole series has been great! There are so many problems/opportunities that go into getting this started and you have no idea how much I appreciate you sharing your experience (I have no 3D printing experience but this had really helped open my eyes to the viability of this as a business)

[@ShopNation]

Noted! Thank you for the correction

[@stevenmitchell7830]

My first batch of 20 P1Ps just hit 3000 hours which prompted me to change the nozzles for the first time. No problems at 3000 hours.

[@ShopNation]

Excellent! Glad to hear it

[@indeedentertainment]

BambuLab is assasinating the competition...the same people that work in BambuLab helped build DJI, and they did the same thing to the drone market back in the day.

[@gone4days956]

their customer service is ass

[@Hallointhehouse]

No, it is not. I even had contact with them today and I was helped by a friendly person. Even when sending a ticket I get response within 2 days. Stop stating fake news.

[@JimHarmer]

Insanely well presented video! Thank you! We run Bambu p1s in our farm since we use materials very sensitive to temp changes. They have been extremely reliable.

[@arbjful]

What material is that?

[@grasstreefarmer]

I'm less concerned if a printer is 'open' or 'closed' and more concerned if parts are made available. As much as i hate to admit it Bambu have made parts available, in lots of regions, like no other company has before. I build my own printers but the parts avilablity has really made me question why. I now use some Bambu parts in my printers because they are so available and relatively low cost with good quality. Other companies really need to stup up their game.

[@Vaasref]

Bambu Lab is the Tesla of 3D printing. Sleek user experience, well thought out tech. Crushing all competition at the same price point. Only beaten by knowledgeable DIYer able to use the most exotic techniques and custom hardware or completely unaffordable luxury or professional hardware. Tesla parts are common and well made so it made sense to develop a parallel DIY oriented market using them as core blocks.

[@notchipotle]

yup, I live in southeast asia and bambulab parts availability is the best, beating old players like creality.

[@skaltura]

This is super interesting research, i wish you could add more printers to this; Say Creality K1 and CR-10 SE

[@bluerider0988]

Good video. One item you didn't consider was print quality. I can say that the quality of the prints on the MK4 with input shaping far exceeds the quality of the prints on my MK3S+ printers. I produce some precision parts that have some tight fits, and the finish is so good on the parts off of the MK4 that i don't have to do anything to them except hit them with a heat gun (90% of my parts are PETG) vs. some manual cleaning and fitting of the parts on my MK3S+. Yes cleaning the nozzle on the MK4 is a must or your first layer can be messed up. I'm not sure why they don't incorporate a brush into the printer to clean the nozzle before each print. Seems like a pretty easy thing to do. I haven't used the Bamboo so I'm not sure how part quality compares.

[@CheapCheerful]

Quality on the Bamboo is surprising, even my wife immediately noticed how smooth and clean the surfaces were.

[@logitech4873]

The Bambus compare really well too the MK4 + input shaping. Very similar results. The Bambus have some very minor artifacts, the MK4s have a different set of very minor artifacts.

[@Carterisforreal]

You were one of my first channels I subscribe to. Garage shop projects, I was immediately interested. I am happy for your progress and your success. I’m a woodworker at heart (garage stile like you were)! That said I’m having a hard time with understanding your videos recently. Not your fault, your success is my ignorance I guess! Keep Shop Greatness going!

[@ShopNation]

I get it, believe me I struggle with it too!

[@henrik.norberg]

As someone just starting a company with a need to print my own products in multicolor and after 100 hours of research my only choice is Bambu Labs printers. For me the P1S with AMS looks like my best candidate. Now I will unlikely have more than 4 printers, unless that part of my business grow bigger than planned, so maintenance is less crucial but I rather do other things. The "print and forget" is what I'm willing to pay for over "insert cheap alternative here" as my time cost $100/h at least. I love tinkering as a hobby, not at my work. This video was reassuring that I'm on the right path, thanks.

[@thepeakoflife]

Love my P1P. Upgraded everything except the shell, getting an ams, and chain. I made my own shell from whiteboard material from the dollar store. Looks more premium and I can draw designs on the shell with dry erasable markers

[@btechnomage]

What is the price difference of the P1P plus upgrades vs the Prusa Mk4?

[@jja5606]

@@btechnomage P1P is half the price of a MK4. There is no reason anymore to buy a Prusa.

[@btechnomage]

@jja5606 With the time put into upgrades, aren't you looking at comparing to the kit which is almost the same price (mk4 $800 vs P1P $700)? I mean, the P1P looks like a nice printer, but I feel like ruling it out by not comparing apples to apples is the fanboy approach. Isn't that what the Bambu users are accusing Prusa users of being?

[@jja5606]

​@@btechnomage Prusa MK4 prebuilt is 1200€, P1P prebuild is 600€. P1P don't need any upgrades, well you can buy a extra PEI bed for around 15$ but that is also true for the MK4. P1P is 200€/$ cheaper then kit MK4. Only advantage for the MK4 is that it's quieter. So if you have limited space and working next to your printer the MK4 is a good option. I all other scenarios the P1P wins. You can buy the AMS for the P1P but that is like buying the MMU3 for the Prusa. And the AMS is better. I don't own a Bambulab printer myself. I have a i3 custom steel frame. All my latest printers are linear bearing core xy printers self built.

[@TheMisko1987]

did you change the nozzle or any other consumable parts and how many hours of printing does it have?

[@garydurn7983]

Big thanks for this - I like your take. My farm is based on Neptune 4's and after 6 months the reliability data is similar to your MK4. 1 mechanical fail per 20kg of filament (always hotend) and bed adhesion issues between product batches (partly mitigated by aftermarket PEI plates). All production done at 250mm/s, so far so good on quality.

[@locusm]

Its 9 months on - hows it all going?

[@Amarand]

I currently have seven of the X1C units with AMS. One of them I’ve had for well over a year. It turned into a production farm the week before Thanksgiving 2023. I rarely have issues, but when I do, it usually takes down a printer for anywhere between two and four weeks for warranty repair. Bambu isn’t the most responsive and you’ll be performing all (literally all) of your own maintenance and repair. The P1P is way easier to maintain, as a lot of the repair steps require removing those sides that the P1P doesn’t have. I use third-party textured PEI plates on the bed, and high temperature (60°C) to keep parts nice and sticky during printing. I rarely have print failures but when I do, it’s usually in the first few layers, so not a big deal. I think Prusa needs to rethink the bed slinger versus Core X-Y. I’d buy a set of Prusas in a heartbeat with that tech. I do worry about Bambu in the long-term. It feels like there’s always one printer in my farm that’s down, waiting on diagnostics and parts from Bambu. Prusa looks so much easier to maintain, plus open source everything. There aren’t many third party replacement parts for Bambu so…here’s hoping they stay in business over the long term! I’ve had one printer down for a week so far, waiting on a response from Bambu, and I realize that it’s Chinese New Year starting today but I also know that it takes them multiple days to get back to you with an engineering response, add a week for the first set of parts then maybe they missed the mark and now you’re waiting on a second set of parts…. One thing I love about Prusa is the community. Hopefully Bambu catches up. Thanks for the great video! Can’t wait to see how those Bambu P1P’s work out for you over time!

[@OverlandTrailer]

"Take a deep breath and know you're wrong!" ha ha ha. The truth can be brutal. Love it. Looking forward to another update.

[@dav3yb]

Just bit the bullet and ordered a P1S. The $100 off sale was just too tempting. Upgrading from a Prusa MK2s, so I'll be getting a lot of feature upgrades. This video certainly didn't help me resist buying a new printer.

[@TheLindsay720]

I was nervous watching this as I bought a P1P based on the last video 😆 Thanks for the informative content!

[@fidelperez4837]

i have almost every brand of FDM and resin 3D printer. All work but most are weekend toys or the odd part, not farm machines. The prusa MK4 is very nice and some good upgrades over the mk3. It would be solid for any production shop. That said, I LOVE my X1 carbons. Speed, accuracy, ease of maintenance and replacement parts. negatives for me are the waste of filament before and after print (i think this can be reduced though). The ~ 6 minutes for calibration and leveling before each print (which can be turned off, but I wouldn't chance it). Still the best I have used so far. I was also skeptical of the 'print house' ability but this is a solid test and as long as rod, cutter, and head wiper maintenance is done regularly, it should be ok. head replacement is easier with the packaged assembly so my downtime is very minimal. Absolutely the best for prototyping though. The fast print option is staggering when you're doing initial design work.

[@crabwire57]

Excellent video! Wish I had the need for a farm. I think using multiple machines to produce items/parts is totally impressive! Good luck!

[@Platttraining]

You say it honestly and you're not the influencer type, but a man building a business and not a hobby. True, I got my Prusa's and love them. I am putting my new P1S+AMS into production in the morning. Today, I am finishing my heavy duty cabinet for it. Your P1P production numbers are hard to ignore. It's about the business.

[@markscott7625]

Another data point for comparison would be MK4 with IS firmware as mentioned by @kmccontube. I think that would be a closer comparison of capabilities with the P1P.

[@RuskiVodkaaaa]

Man you were not joking how reliable BL printers are...just got my P1s, been printing non stop for 2 weeks and have yet to experience a SINGLE failer...it's mindblowing for someone who used an ender 3 which needed fixing and tinkering literally every other print. It honestly feels so weird not having to do some much work, basically just click print, check first layer, and forget. Even crazier when you consider its stock speed is like 5x faster then the max speed an ender could put out; it's just crazy how much Bambu Labs shook the whole market up with their printers, nothing comes close to the X or P series right now, not even Prusa.

[@lukaskrieger3607]

I find it very interesting to see the difference of the part finish ( 11:07). The parts of the Prusa look more glossy. I like the finish of the Bambu more.

[@modziutki8638]

This matte look is caused by bambu printing speed, plastic isn't melting as fast as it should

[@LilApe]

@@modziutki8638 Also means the layer adhesion isn't as great so the parts are weaker. I would bet money that the prusa parts are mechanically stronger than the bambu parts.

[@Skibidirizzler99]

I’ll bet $1000

[@swdw973]

Just a note for the future. E3D and Bambu collaborated to develop an ObXidian nozzle for the P and X series. I contacted them and was told they won't be available until March. Big Tree Tech will be releasing a Revo quick swap nozzle for the P1 and X1. Haven't heard a date yet.

[@FluorescentApe]

Thank you for making these expensive and time consuming tests! I really want to buy the Bambu Lab x1, and this gave me a good idea of how it performed. I'm not doing any professional or commercial work. It's only for personal 3d prints.

[@TRABWorkshop-ri4ql]

I have had the X1C for quite some time, I print functional parts, truth is you don´t need the extra stuff that the X1C have over P1S, I would buy the P1S if I was buying today, but in any case, you will not regret it.

[@FluorescentApe]

@@TRABWorkshop-ri4ql thanks for the input! I bet the P1S will work just perfect.

[@makerspace533]

We don't have a print farm, but we do have a makerspace with 300 members with a wide assortment of 3D printing experience. We switched to Bambu Labs P1Ps about 6 months ago. We currently have 4 machines that are active about 50% of the time. What a difference it made switching to the P1Ps. We have very few bad prints. The bad prints are caused by users specifying the wrong printing parameters, bad model design, and printing on a dirty bed. We encourage members to always wipe the bed down with a clean paper towel and a little isopropyl. A few oily fingerprints on the bed can cause real problems with adhesion.

[@robertmorey4104]

Good analysis. I love my Mk3 but want Bamboo labs for my next one. It would be neat to see your opinion on each printing various engineering materials. What did you use for this comparison?

[@AngieWilliamsDesigns]

Glad to hear that’s the one you purchased. lol. I just purchased the Bambu P1S with AMS. We have done like 3 prints today. It was a gift for my son and me. We are sharing it. LOL. So far… it’s me learning all the stuff and him just saying… I want to make this. LOL. He is 15. So far I am loving it. But there is so much to learn. We haven’t done a multicolor print yet. Right now we have a 17 hour print running that uses supports. Hoping that I set everything up right and there is no failure. Thank you for the recommendation.

[@petermuller608]

Could you go into why you chose the P1P vs P1S or X1C?

[@mohammedhammouda2692]

p1p is the cheapest between the two and the sweet spot for the performance/$. P1s is just an enclosed p1p as far as I understood. X1C is a fancy p1s with a Lidar sensor and, HD'er camera and a big touch screen. Plus, it may be able to operate a larger selection of materials (not sure of this last point, please recheck). He actually recommends the P1S in one of his videos I think. I would get that since its only about 100 bucks more than the p1p. you can also print an enclosure for the p1p btw. Bambu offers the stl files for that so you can print them at home.

[@Kevinnovator]

I appreciate your candor and scrutiny. Its always refreshing to see someone being as objective as possible. After watching two of your videos it has led me to buy a Bambu Lab P1P myself. It will be my first printer and I am now confident that it will make for a better 1st experience.

[@kmccontube]

Get those MK4’s updated. You should see a big increase in productivity.

[@SparrowHawk183]

As you noted, without using the Prusa MK4 input shaping, this test is skewed in Bambu's favor. I would love to see a follow-up with MK4S high flow nozzle and input shaping enabled.

[@chrismiller4863]

Both seem like great machines and competition will bring out the best from both. Never understand the extreme fanboy takes whether it is cameras, phones, cars, or whatever. It is possible for more than one company to make good products and we are far more like to see innovation when there is good competition. I have a Bambu X1C and love it but I am sure I would be equally thrilled had I bought a Prusa MK4. Really appreciate the thought you put into your test and for clearly sharing the caveats and conclusions.

[@charleshirst6220]

A question: as a model engineer wanting to embark on 3D printing, how does the quality of finish compare? A closeup of the part at 12:36 as produced by the two manufacturers would be very interesting. Thank you (and thank you for an excellent video series).

[@rtanderson2]

I think that input shaping on the Mk4 would significantly change the standings and value proposition of that printer.

[@abbofun9022]

Like your no-nonsense approach and focus on the true real-life criteria for a business.

[@swankymanatee6968]

I remember getting laughed at somewhere when I said that the Prusa mk3 (and mk4 now) is probably still the best print farm, printer. I really do want to see if the Bambulabz offerings can compete. I stand by what I said; I think Prusa still makes the best farm printers.

[@davidmann4436]

Any update on your Bambulab printers vs the new prusias? Are they holding up? When are you going give an update or followup to this video. Looking forward to a new report. Thank you for your content .

[@OldManHonken]

It would be cool to see you throw an Ender 3 into your farm and show it's production stats compared to the P1P and Prusa. As an owner of an Ender 3 and an X1C I agree with your opinion. But the numbers would be interesting.

[@jja5606]

The new Ender 3 V3 (core XZ) with linear rails on all axels could be a good print farm machine, will probably release soon. Also Bambulab A1 Mini. Both should be low cost and high speed and reliable. You probably want linear rails or rods on all axels for production printing. And there is not many low cost machines like that. Sovol 06 is probably the cheapest one. But a low cost test with these 3 printers would be very interesting to see the result of. Sovol 06 would probably loose since it's soo much slower. Production output is a factor having to maintain 20 printers instead of 30 printers also saves a lot of time.

[@omegadeepblue1407]

​@@jja5606Sovol SV06 will lose bwcause the extruder is flawed

[@ShopNation]

I was very close to buying 3 Enders for this test but would have just thrown them away

[@omegadeepblue1407]

@@ShopNation or just convert them to Core XY, it doesn't sounds useful but sounds funny

[@OldManHonken]

@shopnation you could donate any 3d printer you're done with to a maker space or school.

[@tstrrtstrr745]

I run a printfarm with 4 MK3S+ and 2 X1C. 95% of products are ASA or PA6-CF. X1C is so much faster and extremely low failure rate as well, currently around 2500 hours. Looking forward to long term reliability. Considering replacing the MK3S+ which are coming closer towards 20000 hours with either Voron Tridents or more X1C.

[@cliffgroce1492]

I was the first person to watch this video

[@scioli700]

I was not the first to watch.

[@robinhoward9113]

I don't run a print farm, have run Anycubic, Creality, Geetech XYZ, Prusa, QIDI and Bambu Lab printers. The Prusa, QIDI and Bambu. have been the most stable printers. most of my prints are automation brackets and hardware. ABS.ASA and PETG. QIDI X-plus and the Bambu Labs P1S. are my go-to for ABS and ASA. Prusa MK3 and Bambu Labs A1 are my go-to for PETG. most of my prints are one off and specific to each job. speed is not my driving factor I print using .02 and .04. the newest are the of course the Bambu. Mk3 and X-Plus about 5 years with maintenance, minimal repair and down time my P1S about 9 months and A1 about a month just maintenance so far but getting ready for new nozzle and maybe extruder gears on P1S. the other printers are rarely used CR-M4 and kobra 2 max for a few large prints.

[@alexshepherd]

My use case is probably similar to yours. I had a Prusa and a Voron 2.4, I needed to produce the same parts in larger batches and it seemed a good idea to build a faster printer - the VzBot. Quickly I discovered that being dependent on a single faster machine is a bad idea; as soon as something goes wrong, production stops. It’s also diminishing returns to get higher speed - a lot more tweaking is required to get prints running twice as fast, meaning a run of 20 parts will actually take longer than it would have done on the slow machine. Along the way, there were many quality problems to solve, the most important being part strength. Also, slowing the machine down doesn’t work either, as a high-flow hotend produces new problems at slower speeds. I believe I’ve learned the best way to double output is to double the machines, not try to double the speed. Of course, that’s the whole basis of a print farm, it just took me a few thousand dollars to prove it The fast machine was good for one-off prototypes

[@MonguzTea]

Prusa looks ancient next to the p1s.

[@LilApe]

P1P looks like an unfinished PC case.

[@hologos_]

@@LilApeThere is still more metal than on Prusa printers 🤣

[@LilApe]

@@hologos_ P1P motion system literally glued together lol. The prusa is at least press fit and uses screws.

[@hologos_]

@@LilApe Is it glued? How come they provide replacement parts of the motion system that can be switch by a user? 🤣

[@LilApe]

@@hologos_ Jesus how clueless are you with bambu printers? The rails are literally epoxied in place on the molded blocks. When you buy a new set of rails, they still come epoxied in place in the new blocks. dude gonna bump his gums on reddit yet have less experience with bambu lab printers than me.

[@mrmillmill]

Great info on printers and print farms! He decided to include Bambu Lab P1p in his print farm since it beat prusa in output of filament used (18.6 kg), prints produced (192), uptime (922 hrs) and scrap rate (4% compared to 10% & 15% in prusa)

[@mccauleysm85]

As a product developer are you not concerned with BambuLab's user agreement and purported ability to rip off your designs through their bask door access?

[@eternity1243]

Just use lan mode problem solved

[@mccauleysm85]

@@eternity1243 using the Lan only solves it if you don't use the camera for remote monitoring though correct?

[@LilApe]

@@eternity1243 Until you have to update your printer, you have to connect to the cloud. By then, BL has all your information and data. "jUsT uSe LaN" isn't an option.

[@herr_rossi69]

​@@eternity1243But if you want to make an update, you have to go online again. And nobody knows what will be transferred. Or has something changed?

[@pctatc66]

I was part of the Kickstarter for the X1-C combo 18 month ago. It was a monster machine back then and it still is today. Its way more machine than I need, but its perfect to print my diy projects. I doubt I have 50 hours on the machine. Still runs like a top as it should.

[@LilApe]

Prusa will out live those P1P's, it's already been proven. My P1P was dead only 10hrs after delivery with a bricked stepper motor and bambu CS fought me on a refund, had to do a chargback in the end. My oldest MK3 has 25k hrs with only nozzle changes, even still on the same smooth sheet.

[@ShopNation]

Is that really proof? Not saying it didn’t happen but I’d say I have a slightly larger sample size

[@LilApe]

@@ShopNation Well I'm not talking about my own user experience as I'm just one person. I'm looking the broad market. It's been 1.5 years since BL's launch and it's easy to see all the complaints about them and their QC issues. To the point where they had to make an official statement regarding it. When you have over 200k MK3's in circulation with less than a 1% warranty claim rate, while you have >60k bambu printers with a seemingly endless amounts of social media posts about poor customer service experience and warranty claims for warped build plates(2mm deviation that BL claims is "within spec & not warped"), faulty AMS units, etc. Seems to me its obvious which one has already proven to out live the other.

[@cheroso1000]

Your videos are always nice, humble, data based and honest.

[@reesewoodworks]

I’m new to 3D printing and our first one has been the Ender 2 pro, which has been an awesome printer, but has limited size and manual bed leveling which is most annoying. I’m planning to upgrade and the P1P was where I was thinking and your videos on printing have been super helpful in figuring out the pros and cons of the different models!

[@koomafloo9946]

You wont regret it, P1S w/ AMS owner here, its a click run and walk away printer. Insanely fast and very accurate, absolutely zero setup needed.

[@tihruytssgjjvsavcxtbvhj3429]

Imo the $100 for the P1s is fine. Worth it for the panels and fan and camera.

[@CowboyJuice]

Comically, this only made me want the K1 more. The issues I had with the Bambu labs printers seem to be your concerns too, and the issues I've had with creality are usually easy as shit to fix/upgrade Keep in mind, I'm not a print farm. I just want to prototype.

[@jameswilby6279]

I find these 3D printing videos among the most informative and helpful out of the crowd I've seen here on KZbin. I'd be curious to see a video on other stages of your production such as post processing.

[@JeffsPrints]

Would be curious to see this run again with the input shaping added to the Mk4s! Great video though, excited to see over time

[@jeffpoulsen435]

Thanks! Great video. Had the right information for my circumstances. I'm a mechanical engineer using 3D printing for prototyping and build jigs. Occasionally we need to produce a lot of one part for assembly jigs in our production area. I have been considering Prusa Mk4's and Voron 2.4's to add into our line up. This is the first time I've seen a video that includes the Bambulab P1P in a context that is close to what we need. I will check back for updates.

[@technicallyreal]

3 mins in, I'm noticing that the reverse Bowden tube on the P1P isn't anchored.. that's going to cause issues. Reverse Bowden must be anchored otherwise the toolhead can yank on the filament when moving which can cause filament slips or skipped steps as well as increased wear and tear... Edit: Wanted to mention that at 8:35 you could benefit from a reverse Bowden on the Prusa to avoid the issue you had ;) Edit 2: The bed adhesion issue with the P1P could probably be solved with their new gold plate which is insanely good compared to the black one.

[@michaelmalmborg3479]

No 1: Travis, thank you soooo much for being soooo generous and sharing this with us. No 2: I'm just a bit curious why you did not chose the enclosed P1S. You don't think the cooling fan make any difference? And PA... you don't print a lot of that and hence do not need a more controlled temp? Is it the enclosure making everything less accessable... lowering the productivity level? Hmmmm.....

[@Mildly_Amused]

Any updates on this? I'm curious if you kept data over a longer period of time about reliability, uptime, and output.

[@ChippWalters]

First off, another great video and I really appreciate your candid approach. That said, I think price needs to be a consideration. Especially when you consider that you can buy two P1Ps for basically the cost of an MK4. That doubles the efficiency rate and output for the same amount of money. Surprising that you didn't mentioned this.

[@ChippWalters]

I should also mention that I had an MK3s+ and got the first Kickstarter Bambu unit. Since then I've added two more x1c's and an A1 and A1 mini. I gave away my prusa because it was so much more difficult to work with. I don't care about brand, I only care about what works and doesn't work. I'm more focused on getting a good print than I am on tweaking every setting and modding my machine . I've had very little go wrong with any of the printers. Early on there was a logic board that went out of the first X1C which was replaced immediately and this was a common fault for the Kickstarter units. But, all the other machines have been working great and the workflow, especially with Bambu makerworld where I can upload models privately, has been superb. Way better than anything I ever had with Prusa. I think Prusa has a long way to go and I agree with your video on the BlackBerry comparison. It's not just about the specifications, it's also about the customer journey including setup, first print, ease of use and so much more. Just your example of having to wipe the nozzle shows that Prusa hasn't thought through the customer journey at all.

[@SHMEEE85]

I had been wanting a 3D printer for years but only for hobby printing. After doing the research and watching your videos regarding the Bambu printers, I went ahead and got the P1S. It's shipping my way now but watching this video has made me that much more confident in the purchase. Can't wait to see what the next update on your experiment shows.

[@zviratko]

Carbon rods are the least of the problems, those can be changed (and it isn't that hard). Also, mine are just fine after 5500 hours, so unless you print lots of ABS/ASA and have to clean them often (which wears them out), I don't see them as the main problem. The main problem are the Y axis bearings, most idlers and any structural shift (squaring issues). Not sure how often those fail, and most of the failures are not going to impact print quality, but for those of us who can barely tolerate the noise, adding a squealing idler or bearing won't help and is gonna be unsolvable.

[@danielheinrich8046]

Wow. Shortest sponsorship shout-out ever! Nice! You know you did great when it's slower to skip the ad then to just view it. ❤ Well done 😊

[@fluppir]

Great share! I also took a gamble starting with 5 P1S printers, but if I have more need for industrial prints I will get more P1P’s. Thank you so much for sharing your journey!!

[@SirTools]

A little late to the party here, but this has been the number one topic at our small print farm. What printers to add with concerns over maintenance and downtime etc. I cannot thank you enough for sharing and it will be interesting to see how things go over time.🤠