Bambu P1S Combo review

Bambu Lab is a model that has appeared nearly of nowhere and rapidly established a fame for top-notch print high quality. Utilizing a CoreXY movement system, its printers are additionally a lot sooner than conventional “mattress slingers” so you possibly can have your cake and eat it: great-looking prints with out the lengthy wait instances.

The P1S is likely one of the firm’s newest fashions, providing lots of the flagship X1 Carbon’s options at a extra inexpensive worth.

Which means it’s appropriate with the Bambu AMS – successfully a CD autochanger (keep in mind these?) for 3D printing – and has the identical construct quantity, print speeds and high quality.

There are a number of disadvantages, however these gained’t be deal-breakers for everybody. You may find yourself deciding to spend much more on the X1 Carbon, however there’s nonetheless lots to like right here.

Options & design

• 256mm cubed print quantity
• Absolutely enclosed design
• Absolutely automated mattress levelling

The P1S is basically a totally enclosed model of the P1P. Being shielded from temperature adjustments and drafts within the room is essential while you’re printing with sure varieties of filaments resembling ABS that want a constant ambient temperature that’s greater than room temperature.

Construct quantity is identical 256x256x256mm, as is CoreXY motion system and management panel, with the primary distinction – apart from the facet and high panels forming an enclosure – being a built-in digital camera that allows you to monitor prints.

Given the tiny worth distinction between the 2, the P1S is the apparent alternative.

For the uninitiated, all Bambu printers come just about able to go and with the P1S you simply want to connect the display screen, spool holder and take away the packing materials (and delivery screws) earlier than starting to print.

With the P1S Combo, setup takes about 40 minutes as a result of you must extract the AMS from the print chamber first. Happily, Bambu has an awesome YouTube video and step-by-step directions that present you precisely which screws to take away and the right way to join all of it up.

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Once you swap it on for the primary time, you’re prompted to attach it to Wi-Fi and hyperlink your Bambu account, which you’ll should create, in all probability within the Bambu Useful cell app.

After that, it runs an in-depth calibration that takes round quarter-hour. As soon as that’s achieved, you can begin printing. As you’d hope for at this worth, mattress levelling is totally automated, so the primary layer needs to be excellent each time.

You’ll be able to select whether or not or to not run a a lot shorter calibration earlier than every print, however that is 5 minutes properly spent, particularly for something that takes greater than an hour to print.

One of many chief variations between the P1S and Bambu’s flagship X1 Carbon is the display screen. On the latter you get a pleasant color touchscreen, just like that on the Creality K1 and K1 Max, reviewed. It makes the X1 Carbon simple to make use of and exhibits you an image of what you’re about to print.

The small dot-matrix monochrome display screen on the P1S is undoubtedly its worst characteristic and feels misplaced on what’s in any other case a premium machine. Even low cost bed-slingers now have touchscreens, so the actual fact you must use a path pad to navigate to menus and choices on the P1S is disappointing.

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There’s nearly sufficient data and management, resembling present temperatures, remaining print time and the flexibility to load and unload filaments. And as most individuals will begin prints from the Bambu Studio app on their pc or by way of the cell app, it’s not an entire catastrophe.

Unusually, the P1S’s mattress is restricted to 100°C, which is 10°C lower than the X1 Carbon. Not that it makes a lot distinction: you possibly can nonetheless print ABS, ASA, PETG and different filaments with out warping points.

AMS – Automated Materials System 

• As much as 4 reels of filament
• As much as 4 AMS models per printer

The AMS sits on high of the P1S and has house for 4 reels of filament. 

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You’ll be able to nonetheless cling a fifth reel on the spool holder on the rear, however that is an both or scenario: you can’t have all 5 reels out there for printing on the identical time. 

The AMS is a very intelligent little bit of equipment. You merely insert the filament from every spool into the feed tube slightly method and that’s it: from then on the AMS handles loading and unloading routinely. 

It’s air-tight, or at the least near it, and two giant packs of silica gel assist to make sure no moisture could be absorbed by the filament whereas it’s within the AMS. 

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Swapping reels out and in can also be simple as none are left routed by to the print head. It’s important to push down fairly laborious on the gray tab however then the filament could be pulled out and a brand new spool dropped in. Poking the filament into the tube is sufficient: the AMS takes over.

Efficiency

• Very good print high quality with most filaments
• Quick
• Just about no failed prints

It’s the tip end result that issues most, and that is the place the P1S stands head and shoulders above the competitors. Print high quality is totally astounding, from the clear, even end to the precision that means that you can print intricate working fashions whose elements aren’t fused collectively.

Jim Martin / Foundry

Bambu was adequate to ship quite a lot of filament to strive together with carbon-fibre infused PLA and PETG to the a lot tougher-to-work-with TPU.

In reality, it was solely when printing with TPU that print high quality took a nosedive. It was acceptable for small issues just like the spiders you see above, however though this cellphone case printed efficiently with some strategically positioned helps, the small backside chamfer was fairly messy on the highest edge and total high quality was merely nowhere close to fashions printed with extra inflexible filaments.

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I’ll let the P1S off right here as a result of TPU is tough for any printer, however I’ll say that it’s annoying to should swap between utilizing an exterior spool and filament within the AMS. You’ll be able to’t put TPU within the AMS, and which means disconnecting its feed tube and manually feeding the TPU (or no matter you’re utilizing externally) into the print head.

I couldn’t discover a method in Bambu Studio to print from that exterior reel with out additionally disconnecting the AMS’s energy cable. It confirmed the TPU loaded appropriately, however nonetheless gave me no choice to print from it, throwing an error as a result of – in fact – there was no matching filament within the AMS.

Velocity is the opposite spotlight. That’s one thing it is best to anticipate from any CoreXY printer, however in case you’re upgrading from one thing like a Creality Ender 3 or some other mattress slinger, it appears unbelievable to have the ability to get such prime quality prints in so little time.

A 3Dbenchy takes lower than 20 minutes, round 1 / 4 of the time most entry-level 3D printers take, and the default velocity of 300mm per second means prints hardly ever take greater than an hour or two.

Reliability is nice, however not excellent. Nonetheless, aside from one or two disappointments the place issues didn’t keep on with the textured PEI plate, the one instances prints failed was after I made a mistake resembling choosing the flawed plate in Bambu studio or forgetting to take away the prime tower from the construct plate earlier than beginning one other print. It’s slightly irritating that the P1S can’t use its digital camera to detect failed prints, and it’s additionally annoying that you would be able to’t exclude a particular mannequin that’s failing on the construct plate and proceed to print the others as you possibly can on the X1 Carbon. However these are all the explanation why you may need to go the entire hog and simply splash out on that printer as a substitute.

Multi-colour printing is, in fact, the opposite large cause to decide on a Bambu P1S. There are workarounds for doing this on different printers, however having an automated system that adjustments colors with out ready so that you can go and intervene is a big profit.

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As a result of the outdated color needs to be purged from the nozzle earlier than the brand new one emerges, color adjustments can dissipate a good quantity of filament. And whilst you can prepare it in order that there are minimal adjustments, that works solely in sure circumstances, resembling when colors change vertically within the mannequin, as proven above.

In case you needed, say, the articulated axolotl proven under with every section having alternating colors, then the filament would should be modified at the least as soon as for each single layer of the print. That doesn’t simply dissipate a whole lot of filament, it additionally provides a whole lot of time.

Jim Martin / Foundry

Bambu Studio means that you can specify how a lot filament needs to be “flushed” for altering from any color to a different, however will even routinely decide how a lot must be purged if you wish to guarantee no color bleed. For instance, within the mannequin under, I intentionally lowered the flushing quantity between pink and white to indicate that you find yourself with pink for some time (take a look at the underside) till the pink is totally gone. The sample seen right here is just because the white is just one layer thick.

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There are additionally choices to flush into the mannequin’s infill, the place the blended color gained’t be seen. The default setting in Bambu Studio can also be to print a ‘prime tower’ that helps with the color adjustments, besides, when filaments are swapped the P1S nonetheless ejects a coil of filament out of a chute on the rear. It’s unusual there’s nothing to gather them: they merely find yourself on the desk behind the printer, or on the ground.

Jim Martin / Foundry

The purpose right here is that printing with a number of colors when the printer has just one nozzle isn’t notably quick or environment friendly. It does work properly although, and it’s fairly wonderful to observe the AMS in motion, loading and unloading totally different filaments as required.

There’s one other profit, too. Even in case you don’t want a mannequin to have a number of colors, the AMS means you possibly can rapidly and simply swap to a unique color for the following print routinely. Don’t underestimate how useful that’s.

Bambu Studio & Useful app

You don’t have to make use of Bambu’s slicer or app, however you’d be barely mad to not. Studio isn’t a Cura clone, so can take slightly getting used to in case you’ve solely ever used Cura.

For first-time customers, it’s nice to have all the things in a single app: preparation, slicing and print monitoring. Studio has quite a lot of instruments, together with the flexibility so as to add helps manually, but in addition –and crucially – a portray device that allows you to add totally different colors to things.

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There are many nice tutorials on Bambu’s wiki that educate you the right way to use the instruments, which is nice as a result of they are often fairly advanced. Portray particularly isn’t as simple as you may anticipate, though if you choose the proper choices it’s doable to rapidly fill sure areas with out having to color them manually together with your mouse.

Jim Martin / Foundry

As Studio can sync colors from what’s loaded within the AMS, you don’t should set these up manually both, and it’s so simple as right-clicking on an object and altering filament color to a type of out there.

The most effective issues about Studio is that it’s going to apply presets based mostly on the filament you’re utilizing. And though you don’t should solely use Bambu filament, there are presets for all of them which implies you don’t have to consider what mattress and nozzle temperatures to make use of: they’re set routinely.

As I used to be about to publish this evaluation, Bambu Lab launched www.makerworld.com, and built-in it into each Studio – the desktop software program – and the Bambu Useful cell app.

This mounted one of many drawbacks I’d have talked about in any other case: the shortcoming to browse for one thing to print and ship it to the printer all inside the apps.

Each apps present the digital camera feed and print progress together with any issues or errors which may want your consideration.

Jim Martin / Foundry

One oddity with the P1S is that while you print from both of the apps, it doesn’t retailer these fashions on the microSD card that should be inserted into the slot on high of the printer itself for distant printing to work. It is doable to print from a number of pre-sliced fashions, however if you wish to re-print something you’ll should look within the Print Historical past within the apps. 

Worth & availability 

The Bambu P1S prices $699 / £639, or $949 / £869 for the Combo model. You should buy a P1S immediately from Bambu’s web site.  

If you have already got the P1S or need greater than 4 colors you should purchase the AMS individually for $349 / £309. Simply notice that you simply additionally want the AMS Hub to attach multiple AMS to the P1S. 

For different choices, see our roundup of the most effective 3D printers. 

Ought to I purchase the Bambu P1S?

Bambu has an enviable fame for glorious print high quality, and P1S definitely lived as much as the hype in my testing, besting each different printer I’ve reviewed. 

Nonetheless, even in case you don’t go for the Combo, it’s dearer than some rivals. It’s $100 greater than the Creality K1, and lacks the X1 Carbon’s touchscreen, which the K1 has.

Whereas it does have a helpful built-in digital camera for monitoring prints, it doesn’t have AI monitoring that might provide you with a warning to a failed print, reasonably than discovering solely later that one object (or your complete print) hasn’t labored. Relying on the place you retain the printer, these items might or will not be an issue.

In the end, it’s solely the display screen that actually lets the P1S down, however as I mentioned already, you possibly can largely keep away from it through the use of the desktop or cell apps. And, lastly, having made full use of the Creality K1 Max’s giant construct quantity simply earlier than reviewing the P1S Combo, it’s a disgrace that there’s no related providing in Bambu’s vary. As long as you gained’t typically must print objects greater than 256x256x256mm, although, the P1S actually is a superb alternative and, even with that primitive display screen, it’s simple to suggest.