I’m starting to run up against the printer’s small build volume. This is my first 3D printer, and I was attracted to the easy out of the box experience. I actually intended to buy the A1, but got its smaller cousin by mistake. I could have sworn I clicked the right button, but everything from the emailed receipt to my order history on the Bambu Lab website says I ordered the mini.
I decided to keep the printer even though I knew I’d eventually outgrow it. I told myself this was my toe in the water for this hobby, and I’d re-evaluate in 6 months to a year whether upgrading to a larger printer would be worth it.
I bought the printer in November, and since then Bambu Lab has begun the enshittification of their products[1]. If I upgrade, it will have to be to a different brand.
So I like the A1 mini’s ease of use and no brainer setup, but don’t like its small build volume, the new restrictions placed on it by the manufacturer, and the fact that the printer is not enclosed. A better camera is a nice-to-have but not necessary. Any suggestions for an upgrade?
Follow-up question so as not to double-post, IIRC the A1 mini was not included in the initial enshittification rollout earlier this year. I put my printer in LAN mode and blocked outgoing traffic from its IP on my network as a precautionary measure anyway upon hearing the announcement. Have the changes made to the other products trickled down to the mini yet? Can I safely upgrade still or should I keep it isolated? ↩︎
I ranked them pretty much in the order I have them. Snapmaker might be a tiny bit above the Carbon, but it needs to be see yet. It seems Qidi is also making it difficult to run vanilla Klipper on the new Q2. But they have been very good about open software in the past. Owners of the Q2 aren’t complaining yet. So perhaps they are just slow. Again, YMMV.
What is really scary is Bambu’s new H2 series. Bambu is building a new eco-system with them. And the waiting to be released H2 automatic nozzle changing system is going to break 3D printing I believe. Instead of a traditional tool changer like the Prusa XL or Snapmaker’s version, Bambu is going to just swap the nozzles. Which makes for a far more compact and noticeably cheaper system. This appears to be the first real original idea Bambu has designed vs using already developed ideas.
No matter what you think about Bambu’s business practices, you need to give them flowers for the disruption of the status quo and then delivering good hardware to back it up. It took several years for manufacturers to catch up with the AMS systems that everyone and their brother offers now. Bambu even got Crealty to up their QC and offerings. And now a new idea tool change system? It’s about to get real for the rest of the field…