Reducing waste from Bambu Lab AMS (lite) prints

[@AndySmallfry]

Theres a model on printables called "Bambulab Profile for up to 60% purge reduction" and it does exactly that. Pretty much it moves the filament up close to the cold end before cutting it. This reduces the physical amount the needs to be extruded.

[@dustinbailey1980]

Is there a way to save it? Do I need to set the multiplier and auto calculate on every print or does it keep the change

[@AndySmallfry]

@@dustinbailey1980 for the profile it is a G-Code edit that changes the amount of purge and as long as you save if the profile you'll be fine. But for the auto cal, that's usually done per print.

[@keoghanwhimsically2268]

@@dustinbailey1980Yes, it’s a nozzle profile that you can save as a user profile. Once saved as a user profile you can select it from any print for that user.

[@TROPtastic]

​@@dustinbailey1980 For the Profile mentioned, there's some G-code that will be there for every run. Recalculating will be needed if you change filament combos.

[@rs3dpt]

I did this and it works very well! It's insane the amount of filament saved, plus i'm using only 0,3 on flushing volumes, and the purge tower i give it 10mm width and 10 purge amount

[@sambarney5100]

Your channel and CNC Kitchen are probably the best resources for 3D printing.

[@ivangutowski]

welcommeeee to C EN CEE kitchen !!! :D

[@hagus42]

You can also purge into an object. So if you have a tool or something where you don’t care about color banding, that can be an option instead of duplicate models

[@jippenfaddoul]

If only the video covered that around the 4:40 mark and showed that the results were actually not that great...

[@poselennov]

​@@jippenfaddoul @hagus42 said about purging in technical model instead of wipe tower, not "flush into infill", which was really to that great for such a small model as Marlin.

[@B3MDUSA]

@@poselennov exactly correct. And because it’s an entirely separate object, one can increase the perimeters and.or infill on that object only.

[@TheBullBelgium]

add a object,can be the same model. right click on it in prepare screen,flush options- flush into this object

[@TimSheehan]

​@@jippenfaddoulno the video covered purging into infil of the multicoloured model, not purging into a separate colour-doesnt-matter model you're printing at the same time

[@boots3372]

KZbin videos that save me money are my favorite KZbin videos. Very well earned "Like".

[@petersvideofile]

IDEA/QUESTION: Based on the extruded junk at 8:32 and also by the graphic shown at 1:27 is it fair to say that more material could and should be pushed out of the extruder and perhaps it should be cut BEFORE the transition in color takes place. Like couldn't one calculate the amount of material that was between the cutter and the nozzle tip then do a volumetric calculation to prematurely cut and exchange the filament? This almost seems to simple, like it should be being done already. The graphic shown at 1:27 doesn't indicate if it does the cut before it wants to start printing in another color or not, but I was left with the impression it is cutting and exchange at the instant it wants a color change. If the flow of filament is pretty laminar and doesn't mix too much (hard to tell from the 8:32 poop), then perhaps this technique of prematurely cutting and swapping would save even more filament (if it's not already being done). Just and idea, which seems really simple so I kind of have to assume it's already being done and I'm just never heard anyone say it.

[@alixcozmo]

I’ve had this idea too, I’m curious to whether it’s possible

[@bepamungkas]

Bambu palayed it safe (see 4:30), which makes sense since the amount of waste is still less than failing prints would produce. You can play around with the behavior to save a lot more if you have a well defined print requirements. I've seen 3 printers from the same shop tuned differently based on model and color complexity it assigned to.

[@sonofbrun6033]

Layer height also makes a big difference. Fewer layers means fewer filament changes.

[@nickoli2356]

I was about to say this 50% and a .28 layer height should make a world of difference

[@K0BRAKID]

​@@nickoli2356is 0.28 the highest a layer can be?

[@timbervandenhul9383]

​@@K0BRAKID you generally don't want to go beyond 80% of your nozzle size. So for a .4mm nozzle the max layer height would be .32mm. For a .6mm nozzle the max layer height would be .48mm.

[@metaloutdoors8617]

If your using a 0.4mm nozzle max it can do is 0.32mm but I would say 0.3mm safety but it comes at a cost of quality of the print.... So 0.3mm for speed but costs quality ​@@K0BRAKID

[@Sephiroce]

@@timbervandenhul9383 why is that?

[@gibsonsimpson]

Excellent analysis. Glad to see if you print multiple models, the waste doesn't increase and the time increased slightly. Great info to know!

[@umake3dprinting]

I use S3D for my Bambus, also for AMS prints. I’ve added a pre-toolchange gcode that makes the filament retract to about 8-5 millimeters below the cutting section before the switching filament starts. There is way less filament to purge, and has been reliable since.

[@fatboy1271]

I love S3D, so I'm happy to see someone is using it for Bambu/AMS!!! I haven't tried it yet...

[@jamalmahroof3298]

Would you be able to share that gcode?

[@CrudelyMade]

Filament could be saved if they had a slicer feature that could do variable infill or use the waste material on a second model where colors don't matter. But a model with 10% infill has plenty of room to use up some of that otherwise wasted filament.

[@jjptech]

Thinking exactly the same here

[@meesterjochem1]

This is possible. Add a second object and with right mouse button choose flush options --> into this object

[@ultramegax]

You can do a second model with the infill...

[@CrudelyMade]

@ultramegax , exactly I'd take a second model, with whatever colors over a pile of refuse filament.

[@CrudelyMade]

@@meesterjochem1 that's good to know. I'd still like to see a 'variable infill with refuse material' feature that would add extra infill up to 100% on the current model. i.e I choose 10% infill to save time and filament. but if i'm not going to save time, and the same filament can make the current model an 85% infill with the refuse filament, I'd feel better about that than a pile of trash.

[@woodwaker1]

I like the way you visually showed the results in the bins. I like the AMS, but I try to print with less than 20 color changes and fill the build plate with as many copies as possible. I think your results could be even better if you ran some tests to get the color swap amounts down to the bare minimum.

[@boboscurse4130]

The AMS waste has had a positive effect on how I design. It's a real consideration.

[@wktodd]

If it could cut before the colour change , using the stub of first colour until it is almost changing, then a small purge to the second colour , before returning to print the second colour.

[@Dave_the_Dave]

I believe this can be done in that filament change Gcode section. Basically retract the filament a bit before cutting it, so you only cut off the blobby tip.

[@roysigurdkarlsbakk3842]

Just one thing… If you use flushing volumes / autocalc, IMHO that works well, also with at factor as low as 0,3, but I guess that depends on the model. But, if you later change filaments, which you generally do a lot with a 3d printer and forget to go by flushing volumes to update the calculation, note that that will not update automatically and you'll end up with a flushing table written for a completely other world than the one you're in and if you, perchance, start a print at night and go to bed and wake up the next morning to find your flashy new print, it'll look like rubbish. Beleive me on this ;)

[@astropgn]

Imagine if the slicer had a "low priority print" that only prints with the flushes? It would print the main object with the correct filament, but when it is transition, instead of throwing away the filament it prints another object, something that you defined as low priority in terms of color. That second object will have an arbitrary color, but at least you wouldn't waste material.

[@AntiKipKay]

Yeah would be a great opportunity to make some fidget toys on the side

[@ares7181]

@@AntiKipKay this exists, right click an object and select "flush into this object"

[@joshsherrod2535]

@@ares7181 I use this for extra clips and things basically spare parts that the color doesnt matter its a good way to get some use out of the purge.

[@Prof.Polymath]

I don’t have a bamboo labs yet but if I did; this would be one of the most useful videos I’d ever seen. Great video, great process, and really well presented. Thank you for sharing. 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼

[@spencerdiniz]

Another factor that wasn’t mentioned, but I imagine would also be able to reduce waste is orienting the part to minimize filament changes. For example, the marlin model, if printed vertically, I think would require less filament changes… with the tradeoff that it would require supports.

[@Exodus1337]

I think one of the most important tuning areas for multi material solutions like the AMS is print orientation. Instead of requiring material changes for every single layer, orienting the model vertically would reduce them significantly. Of course this is not a viable solution for every application, but nevertheless very important to keep in mind while doing multi material prints.

[@K0BRAKID]

Yep multiplier, orientation and layer height it seems

[@Cpgeekorg]

I have a p1s+ams on order that should be here next week and this experiment will be EXTREMELY helpful to guide my workflows for multicolor printing. thank you!

[@ggaub]

We MMU2 users have been doing these things for ages, of course. One of my go-to methods is sacrificial waste/wipe/purge objects that can be scaled to the size of the main printed object. The four stones from The Fifth Element are my favorite, and I set the whole object as purge/wipe. These can then be quickly sprayed with stone color paint, or even left as-is. I find that people like the crazy colored stones as much as the painted ones. With purge to infill/object, and printing multiples of the multicolor model, per-print waste is greatly reduced. My new XL is putting that to shame, though. It does need some better tuning for print quality, but the only waste is the priming tower, which some people have even disabled with success.

[@ChrisUG]

Orientation can also massively affect tool changes

[@IdeationGeek]

Exactly, orient object to maximize the mono-color layers, so that no filament change be needed to print that layer.

[@5mmTech]

For that particular model, I'd be curious to see you shift it to a vertical orientation with supports and see how that impacts the volumes. By having the color changes oriented to the direction the model is sliced, I'd imagine significantly fewer material changes and purges. Obviously, you would now have material in supports, but it would still be interesting to see the impact.

[@JH-zo5gk]

I bet the tool change count would go up. Figure those changes only happen once per layer.... so by making the model taller your increasing the changes. I would guess very few of those layers are going to save you more then 1 change.... on this model

[@mrfoameruk]

I thought that, but you would need to figure out what that would do to the model. ie this one might then need support and it might leave an ugly finish but a comparison would be good

[@creativecraving]

Bambu's going to great lengths to ensure a beginner user can get a quality print result! I'm thrilled with that decision, even though I definitely want to optimize this. With Bambu, I always know I'll have a working printer for those times when I get tired of experimenting and just want to finish.

[@alexsnow3319]

Brand new to quality machines. Went from a Monoprice Delta 2 POS to a Bambu X1C. I have been watching and such about the X1* but because I never had one, I couldn't gain muscle memory on this stuff. This video got you a subscribe. Now, DO MORE!!! lol

[@kellyjean4981]

This is great info. I am thinking about getting the P1S and would prefer to not waste so much filament. You gave some great solutions to this problem, but it was also helpful to read through the comments and see suggestion such as having that waste actually going towards making another object… Thanks again

[@davidoshea7838]

Wow! I used this technique on a two color print and went from 46.44m to 35.4m and 3h 58m to 3h 8m on print time. Thank you so much!

[@chicarbiomed]

50% multiplier is amazing! Thanks!

[@username9774]

You could try retracting the filament a bit, before it cuts it off in the nozzle. There should still not be that much danger of filament clog since it didn't leave the hotend, you might still get away with saving 1 cm of filament per colour change.

[@TROPtastic]

Some smart person figured that out and gave all the G-code changes (and a very detailed explanation) in a Printables "file" called "Bambulab Profile for up to 60% purge reduction."

[@realgoose]

With the flushing volumes dialed in, the prime tower can be turned off altogether. That saves time and waste. Or setup a sacrificial model for all priming to go into. I have also experimented with not flushing and only priming objects. That saves more time and can work well enough to eliminate bleed.

[@Pamesahne]

That might work, but the reason for a prime tower is not filament flushing but priming the nozzle pressure to reduce stringing as well as underextrusion. Its similar to the initial purge line before every print. Its up to the user to decice if a prime tower is worth it. For me, the stringing is negligible and I reduced the prime tower size and prime volume to 1/3rd, which already helps a ton.

[@jasongill9808]

Fantastic treatment of this experiment. It was very well organized and easy to duplicate. Well done!

[@Hollingsworth7171]

Thank you that is awesome information, I currently have a print going and these changes would have saved me 11 hrs!!! Luckily this is only one part of a 4 part model and I plan on using these settings on the rest and in the future !!!!

[@OmegaSimPilot]

I'll be getting the P1S with AMS this Christmas and this video was super helpful to know before I start getting into multi-filament...thank you!

[@Petrolfox669]

As always TT is the most professional and informative printing information source online. I would have given up a long time ago without your channel. Thank you, sincerely.

[@maxhammick948]

Would it be possible to add a retraction to the colour change G code just before the filament is cut? If you can pull the blob up until it's just below the blade, you're still cutting off the blob and any stringy bits but you're also saving a lot of filament. I am assuming that the filament path between the knife and hotend is smooth enough that the blob can't get caught on anything, of course.

[@boggisthecat]

See the top-rated comment.

[@WreckDiver99]

When I was in paint automation we developed "Purge out with next color". Automotive paint can ben SUPER expensive (hundreds of dollars per liter in some cases), so purging out was EXPENSIVE on things like Overhead Reciprocators and Bell machines because the line length was so long. Even when we put the color trees closer, the costs were still high. So we developed purging with next color. It wasn't "Perfect" and we still wasted paint, but we GREATLY reduced the waste as well as the use of MEK (MethyEthylKeytone) which we used to dilute the paint, clean the nozzles, etc. It was an art for sure on the amount to purge and such, but in a day we could save 5+ gallons of paint per line. 6 figures at the end of the day, AND a reduction in MEK use which makes the EPA happy. :)

[@oleurgast730]

Actually one major reason bambu (and the SMuFF-Project long before Bambu) uses the cut&poo appoach is, as shown in the video, the risk getting a bad filament tip on unload. So the cut%poo reduces the risk of failiure by a lot (and a failed print would be 100% waste of course). However, Prusa tried to optimice unload doing "ramping", wich needs a bunch of fine tuning - and was a pita, so the MMU2 was never a big success. Until the Revo came and the reliability of the MMU2 got a real boost. Even without a MMU2 you can see how much nicer the filament tip looks on unload. The Nextruder nozzle even have a more nice filament tip than the Revo. Have not tested Trianglelabs Unified Nozzle (TUN) yet as a cheaper alternative. Theese Nozzles with integrated heatbreak are actually an alternative solution to get a nice filament tip on unload. At least with "normal flow" nozzles. Testing a RevoHF nozzle, I got worse results for the filament tip. So my conclusion: For full colour prints I hope the MMU3 on a mk4 should be faster with less waste. While the mk4 does not use HF-nozzles and prints slower, without cut&poo not only the waste should reduce, but also the time to change filament should decrease. Resulting in less time for the multi-colour print over all, at least on smal single objects. However, on bigger prints or batches of multiple prints the faster speed of a high-flow nozzle might be more relevant for the over-all printing time. Still the waste of "classical" change should be less. On the other hand, with multi material (PLA/PETG support interface trick) or just a few filament changes in your prints (colouring just the bottom or printing colour litophanes with just a few layers), cut&poo matters less in time and waste. However, if colouring just the first few layers (for example to embed text and graphics to a display case) I would prefer the Revo anyway, as you might not only use only one colour starting from the 4th layer, but maybe also a bigger nozzle size - so a quick change nozzle is the best for such prints, using 0.4 or even 0.25 for text and graphics in the first 3 layers and than 0.8mm for the rest. Imho there is no "one for all" solution. It very depends what you use a filament changer for - and how often you use it at all. Actually the main advantage of the AMS isn't multi colour at all. The main advantage is the filament being transported by the AMS-feeder to the extruder. The "filament-buffer" (in the A1 integrated on the top of the printhead) synchronice the AMS feeder. The AMS-feeder pushes filament to the extruder. If the extruder does not use it at the moment, a spring gets compessed, a slider moves and a hall-sensor detects the magnet inside the slider - and the AMS-feeder stopps. So the filament always is slightly pushed to the extruder gears. The extruder does not need to pull the filament, all it's force is used to push it through the nozzle. If you ever had under extrusion due to long reverse bowden, a not optimal spool-holder or printing out of a drybox, you lnow the advantage of this solution... Unlike on the MMU2 (MMU3, ERCF, SMuFF, Chameleon 3d...) due to sychronicing the feeders, the AMS feeders are always engaged to their filament. If it comes to over all printing time, the next logical stepp would be to cut the filament tip outside the extruder. Actually disengaging the extruder gears on unload (so the molten filament tip isn't pressed by the gears), of course after ramping. So it could be pulled out reliable and after passing the hub the printer imeditly could print the next filament. While the unloaded filament is pushed into an external cutter, removing stringing an any deformation by just cutting the tip and be loaded directly in front of the hub afterwards, ready to go. This would reduce filament changing time by a lot - maybe to times you would use a toolchanger normaly. For reducing waste one method seems to miss: wipe2object. Still you need a "waste tower", but just to prime the nozzle after filament change (so a small one). Instead of wiping or purging the contaminated filament you print it into an object were the colour does not matter (functional part or an object wich should be painted afterwards anyways).

[@woodwaker1]

Great analysis. I have an X1 Carbon with AMS and it works well, just have to plan to minimize waste. My Prusa XL with 5 heads is a totally different experience. It switches filamnent with a slight delay when the heads swap. I just finished my first print with over 250 changes, worked flawlessly and not much longer than the print with no changes.

[@davey3765]

HOTDOG! I knew that change multiplier needed to be set to .75 or lower - this is great! Thanks David for the tip!

[@DEKU-1GAMING]

This was great!! Thank you!! I have my first Bambu A1 mini. I love it but it definitely has a lot of waste when making bigger projects with 4 colors.

[@AlexFromNL]

The slicer should use part of the 'flushing' filament for the inner infill, where the bleeding does not matter. For instance have a setting which inner parts can accept bleeding, i.e. after 2 mm from outer edges.

[@WorldoftheWoods]

This is amazing content! Super helpful. I will absolutely be printing as many duplicates as I can on each sheet for this reason. So much less waste overall. I also intend on keeping every bit of waste over time until I can set up a functional recycling system at home, or when the day comes that filament recycling is a normal thing. Thanks!

[@stan110]

At 6:15, I literally spit out my water. I was shocked. I thought my Prusa mmu3 wasted a lot of plastic for the purge, but Bambu's default is twice as much.

[@gregoryaparker]

This was a very informative video. I just started 3d printing last month on a small learner model but I'm going to move up to a Bambu Labs P1S in a couple of months. Thanks and have a Happy New Year.

[@Underestimated37]

See if the infill isn’t going to be visible, my go to would be to have the printers purge process purge during the printing of the infill, instead of on a separate tower, the filament is used, and if you need to push more out and increase the density, it actually strengthens the print.

[@conorstewart2214]

Maybe bambu could save more filament by retracting before the cut. Pull out to the point where you almost have the nasty end issue but you are still cutting solid filament.

[@eriequiet]

That’s a pretty good idea 👍

[@deanhobson-campbell4105]

The other option is to run a few calibration prints and manual change the purge tower transitions. The blacks to whites will always take the most but you can definitely get some short transitions for the other way round.

[@martinsalinas7250]

Thank you so very much for this ... i have a PS1, and i hate the waste..so i am going to change the parameter in Flushing... to see if that helps! .. Most Awesome video!

[@jajaum3d]

Excellent video thank you very much! Just one thing to keep in mind: when switching to a single color print after using multiple colors, there might be some color bleeding due to the absence of a purge block. So, a bit of extra attention is needed to ensure a clean color transition. However, for multicolor prints, this method works wonderfully.

[@shanemshort]

turning on infill combination can also half your filament changes as it prints two layers of the same colour at the same time.

[@Napa39]

7:53 The Auto-Calc button does its calculations based off of the Multiplier. You don't need to click "OK" and reopen the dialogue box, just click "Auto-Calc" and go from there.

[@eideticgoone7035]

I was hoping to see the special case for optimizing the printing of support material. Often the material for support is only necessary at the interface between support and model. Material changes can be skipped by printing layers of support in model material right up until the interface is encountered. This will eliminate the vast majority of changes and purges for when switching to and from printing a support structure within a most layers.

[@fellwind]

Make that video. People need examples!

[@hassosigbjoernson5738]

Isn't there already an option in the slicer to click that enables that support material only at this contact points?!

[@eideticgoone7035]

@@fellwind I don't yet have this printer. But I found this article and video: "Printing soluble interface supports with Prusa i3 MK2 Multi Material" (search) dated 2017.

[@eideticgoone7035]

@@hassosigbjoernson5738 Looks like there is in Prusa's slicer. Not sure about the Bambu. I don't own one.

[@craigcampbelljr.4097]

@@eideticgoone7035 It's an option in Bambu's slicer as well. I've tried it. Personally I haven't found a lot of use for the specialized support material yet, but I also haven't attempted to use it that much either. YMMV.

[@mattburnsey]

Great video. Love how thorough you were. Thank you!

[@tratzum]

I just got my A1 and it a great consumer printer. I was using a ender 3 with the 3d Chameleon. The 3dc is a great low cost solution to add the color change ability and when tuned right the 3DC does color changes way faster with very little waste. Down side is the 3Dc takes hobby level of attention.

[@crowguy506]

For a stripy model change the orientation. It’s horizontal changes that matter not vertical ones. The purge multiplies with the number of layers, so low resolution is your friend.

[@davidplush7960]

This is a good video. Just got my A1 mini, new to multiple filament printing, and your advice slashed the amount of PLA poos. Keep the great advice coming please!

[@connorwhitson9935]

IIRC Prusa MMU changed through filments sequentially (maybe Bambu does the same, Tool1 >2>3>4, etc) You could position your filament colours (tool position) to print in sequence to reduce overall purge volumes (avoiding Black to white)

[@ShogoKurihara]

Amazing test. Thankful you put effort into it so we don’t have to

[@mikesilluzio9399]

So glad to hear you will have a Hydra Prusa XL. There is very little content available since it's so new. I have been dying for a creator that I know and trust, such as yourself, to get on the XL train. Looking forward to it! Thank you, Michael!!

[@captainobvious1721]

Outstanding video. Thank you. I too am concerned about the amount of waste generated. Especially from ma business standpoint, the waste really cuts into profits.

[@gzaos]

That the reason I didn't buy the ams, but if I was doing multiple same print, glad to see that is a valid option.

[@D_Andrew_G]

Great video and thanks for the very clear diagrams and results

[@audigex]

The slicer could definitely do a better job of using the purged material for infill, too. It wouldn't solve the problem but it could certainly help

[@Mr_Denuto]

This is why I am not keen on the purge style of multi colour. Would love a smaller 2 head option of the Prusa XL though

[@MCsCreations]

Fantastic! Thanks, Michael! 😃 Stay safe there with your family! 🖖😊

[@gdutfulkbhh7537]

Well done; that was really useful. Personally, I design models to push-fit so I get my colour changes for "free" - or paint the model. I hate all the wastage and the long print times... though I'm still glad I chose to buy the AMS.

[@3D4Everyone1]

Great info in this video, the waste is insane. I have recently done an A1 video and make a point of the waste, good to see someone has some good way to reduce it. I also find that reducing the width and prime volume of the prime tower also helps, I half the size of it and it seem to work ok. Thanks for sharing.

[@DoublePlus-Ungood]

Well damn that was extremely helpful, thanks. Just got an A1 so this is really great, totally new to all of it.

[@briancarty2793]

Brilliant. Thanks for the excellent recommendations.

[@JK31201]

Great video as always, thank you. There were a few things I think would have been nice to see as well. 1) it would've been nice to see you play with the multiplier and push the limits. 50% works but does 40%? 35? Etc. 2) Something else that I was looking for was a data point on your graph for doing multiple of them but showing it per model. So you had 51g of waste but that's for multiple models. Divide that by the number of models and show that each model only had 10g of waste or however much and then see how many you can fit on build plate (not actually having to print them all) and calculate how low you can get waste per model of you are mass producing. Thank you!

[@benjaminvdvyt]

I'm missing orientation. I think a lot could be gained from it. Most of it is in layers, and while the layers wouldn't be flat, it would reduce to like 2 colours per layer instead of 4. And a bunch of layers would just be orange. Of course there would be a hit to print quality, but that's an experiment worth testing.

[@bhukiYT]

very good I watched this before my first multicolor prints happen :)

[@Ab0minati0n]

Changing the wall order to infill/inner/outer should also allow the purge volume to be lower but I am yet to experiment with this

[@TheBoojah]

Yes! Both purge and prime to infill and if that's not enough do it to the inner perimeters too. Could even add more perimeters as needed, better have the plastic in the object than a purge tower.

[@bru_haha]

10:22 How did printing 5 copies of the model require slightly over 2x the ‘model filament’ vs a single copy? I expect it to be 5x unless some other changes were introduced in the slicer settings.

[@randomlight5038]

could you modify the "swap filament" G-code to first pull back filament so the glob is just unter the cut line and just purge way less after that ?

[@creeper360bill]

I've seen some gcode on printables that makes the x1 do this

[@alexhalterman5278]

Fantastic video with great explanations and visuals

[@destroyer4923]

Perfect analysis my friend, always at the top. I could take a Creality K1 and discover the reason for so much resonance, it would be a challenge. Thanks

[@markburton5292]

wonder if you did a large retraction but not enough to completely remove the filament and then did the cut if that would help the purge?

[@PritpaulMahal]

That's what I was thinking too. I don't know where the blob would catch but I assume it's in the tubing and not the hot end

[@markburton5292]

@@PritpaulMahal doing a measurement on my unused spare bambu hotend its 23 mm long it would be interesting to do maybe a 17 mm retract before the cut and see what happens both to reliability and purge amount needed. i don't have a bambu AMS. i tried multi color with a pallet 2+ but wasn't really happy with that so stopped doing multi color or multi material. but I still keep an eye on it and the Bambu AMS has been tempting me.

[@travisbrigman6224]

Thanks!

[@Hosteggy]

Increasing infill is another trade off if you don't need it, just uses more filament which can be waste. I think a proper working 4 in 1 out hotend is the key here. BambuLabs could perfect that and would only cause short retractions needed to change each color. I have a design in my head that will still allow the filament to retract and be smooth to get reinserted again automatically.

[@Nifty-Stuff]

I'd LOVE to see "flush into different object" or "purge into different object" where instead of a wasted purge block and/or poop-chute, all the waste could be printed into a separate color-independent model. So, no waste at all! Perhaps on one corner of the bed could be the main model, and then another corner could be the separate "purge model" (so height wouldn't be an issue, but wouldn't bump into models)

[@startide]

Reading other comments : it's already possible

[@x9x9x9x9x9]

Thanks for this. I am super impressed with this A1 printer. Coming from my old sidewinder x1 to this is wild. I had my sidewinder dialed in very well to where I rarely had to even level the bed. The 1 time I used multi material before this was 2019 with a friends prusa mmu and it was such a pain to mess with. Anyways fast forward to 2 weeks ago and I have tried to avoid going with a bambu machine because I was/am one of those "they're not open source so they suck" type of people. But the fact everyone preaches about these machines, I sucked it up and got one and yeah its great. Its just so easy to use. Anyways thanks for this video as always.

[@slappomatthew]

Thanks this is the video I have been looking for.

[@srmofoable]

TLDW - 1)reduce flush volumes to .50% multiplier from auto calcs 2) Print duplicates at the same time

[@springersound1844]

For single color prints I have gotten used to printing several objects at a time to save the filament used at the beginning of the print.

[@AlexanderTheGreatCommander]

Behold the holy grail of bambu printer videos

[@iTand]

Great video! This is super helpful for a newbie like myself

[@paulmazierski5945]

Great video....very analytical and helpful!

[@DEKU-1GAMING]

This was great! Thank you! I'm hoping to get a better printer for purging from bambu. Hopefully next year model has that feature.

[@aalborgfantasy]

There is also an option when you print dublicates, you can purge into the dublicates... And at some point, waste material goes down to zero...

[@ken830]

You can calibrate the flushing volumes manually with test/calibration prints to reduce it further.

[@meytechify]

With such a small model purging into the infill it sounds logical that you would not get a huge change. If you were to scale up the model size where you have more internal volume and then more infil would that give a better percentage of wastage?

[@Davis676]

Why not shift the cut command in G code up a few lines, so the filament will be cut, print a few more lines, and then purge. Could probably use a matlab script to locate the cut command and shift it up.

[@leanazulyoro]

4:04 what about using the single color print and manually painting the colors? Does that reduce the amount of internal wall? And how would that affect the result?

[@acb_gamez]

You can also reduce the size and volume of the wipe tower which speeds up the print dramatically.

[@spock81]

Prusa just released a Dev Diary talking about a new ramming procedure for the MMU3 for Mk4, basically a pseudo cold pull. It should reduce the purge requirement a fair bit. I'd be curious to see a comparison between the Bambu AMS and Prusa MMU2/3 and the XL for multimaterial quality, reliability, and waste.

[@Bastyyyyyy]

i think the biggest problem is the price for the XL :P need ALOT of filament waste to justify the 2000€/$ price difference ^^

[@mobilechaosyt]

Was that 5 at once with purging into infill? I would have expected that to be better. We really need a way to use the filament after cutting but before purging so you can use a little more of the clean stuff.

[@WhyplayGaming]

Hopefully purge into infill will get better. Its a shame theres not an option just to add additional infill just for the purge ammount,

[@xXCreepyNeighborXx]

really well done educational video, i was really hoping to get the a1 with the ams to do multi colour prints but after doing some research and seeing this video really seems like unless youre doing multiple of the same model to sell theres really no point trying to do multicolour just for home use

[@C.Sharpe]

Flush into infill will likely work a lot better for larger models where infill takes up a larger percentage of build volume

[@BeeWhere]

Great info thank you, I'm considering getting back into 3d printing with the Bambu mini because multicolor looks like fun. Even if it does waste, I also assume a larger print with more infill would reduce the waste because there is too to purge.

[@txmexnittro]

Awesome and thank you for sharing! I'm going to have to try it out! Thank you

[@bloodyfinger5]

Be nice if someone could come up with a way to use a dye to change the colors as the machine is printing to prevent waste .

[@9Blu]

XYZPrinting has their da vinci color series that does (did?) something like that. Could make amazing prints by printing a color layer on top of the 3D print. I am not sure they are around though. Their website doesn't seem to have been updated since early this year.

[@Rawstock92]

When is the "purge to Lego" feature coming?! In all seriousness, a set of usable purge block options (like Lego-compatible bricks) that can be multicolor would be cool ...