5 ms·

Your entry doesn’t discuss the finishing step between printing and use. My experience has been that a great deal of sanding and other tool use can be needed to

Your entry doesn’t discuss the finishing step between printing and use. My experience has been that a great deal of sanding and other tool use can be needed to get to smooth results. Did you go through a finishing process after printing to get to the smooth results you show here?

farslan 2y ago
There are none? All the photos are straight from my Bambulab X1C. I used eSun PLA+. No special treatment was done.
- bredren 2y ago
  That’s awesome.
  - MattGrommes 2y ago
    I've also been shocked at how little post-processing prints off a Bambu printer need. They're pretty amazing machines, right out of the box.
- bambax 2y ago
  Wow. That's amazing. Is this also true for A1/mini?
  - asadalt 2y ago
    yes!
bdcravens 2y ago
To build atop of OP's response, the Bambu Lab line of printers are much higher quality than some older printers. I have 3 different ones, and I also just pull them off the build plate and begin using them. Many modern printers also give similar results, but may require a bit of tuning. Also it's as much about the settings in your slicer software, and most current ones have evolved to have great defaults and are easily tweaked.
- _yb2s 2y ago
  Even the cheapest 3D printers have generally gotten really good recently... I have a new (lower end) Creality Ender V3 SE printer, and it makes perfectly clean prints like this out of the box if you use their own brand of filament and settings they've tuned for it- and it will do so on any new filament if you take the time to figure out the right settings.
- mstade 2y ago
  I'm potentially in the market for a 3d printer for our office. Mostly for one offs and some prototyping, and we don't necessarily need one but more a wouldn't-it-be-nice kinda thing. The Bambu Lab printers look like they could fit our needs/wants really well, but I'd love to do a bit of compare and contrast before placing an order. Are there any buyer's guides out there you would recommend for hobbyists such as us?
  - szundi 2y ago
    Just buy an A1 with the AMS, cheap as hell, other people’s blabla is hardly applicable to you. It is like just more than 400 usd.
  - double0jimb0 2y ago
    Forum comments have been the best resource for me. (Followed by joining the printer’s users’ Facebook group to see what sort of issues are most common). The top SEO’d buyers guide websites are pretty useless in my experience. That said, having owned a dozen different printers for my own business’s prototyping work, the Bambu labs are truly fantastic. I retired 3 ultimaker S7s for 2 X1 Carbons and haven’t looked back. The Bambu labs legitimately print 3-4x faster and have as good if not better surface finish. AMS system is ingenious. Only thing I did was x-y squareness/skew compensation so both printers make the same sized parts (the printers aren’t perfectly square from the factory). There are guides on how to use M1005 gcode command.
  - stavros 2y ago
    Just buy a Bambu. You won't regret it. I bought one after ten years of printing on more OSS designs, and I wish I'd gotten one sooner. If your hobby is 3D printing, get a Bambu. If it's 3D printers, get anything else.
AriedK 2y ago
On the finishing: “Of course because I 3D Printed it with a PLA filamanet, it's not as shiny and glossy compared to actuall electronic devices. People use acetone and various solutions to make it shiny.” The acetone (vapour) approach only works on ABS and is pretty nasty. For PLA your best bet is sanding. You could add some putty to make it a bit easier and get better results. You will then also need to paint it. All in all if the print quality is good enough best stick with that.
- stavros 2y ago
  I have a Bambu P1S, and I'm fairly sure the prints would look worse after sanding than before. I just use them all as they are, straight out of the printer, and they always look amazing.
  - SOLAR_FIELDS 2y ago
    The primary thing people complain about is the aesthetics of the FDM print lines. They give the appearance of a hobbyist look. Sanding and finishing is one way to alleviate that. I bet PLA doesn’t sand amazing since it’s mostly just sugar but PETG sands reasonably fine. I have sanded PETG and finished with spar urethane/polyurethane for commercial products to give them a nice professional glossy sheen with no print lines. I mentioned in a sibling comment XTC-3D as another option which is probably the best hobbyist product for this, but it’s kind of a pain to work with and it’s a little expensive. So not great for commercial use. For home use though it’s totally fine and indeed usually gives better results than the urethanes mentioned above due to lack of yellowing and being thicker and better at filling in the lines and giving a smoother appearance. People could honestly probably just use that product without sanding and be mostly happy with it because it does a good job of hiding the FDM lines even without sanding
    - larrywright 2y ago
      In my experience matte filaments hide the layer lines much better. Between that and the overall quality of recent printers like the Bambu or the Prusa Mk4, I don’t find the need to do any post processing.
deleted 2y ago
[deleted]

farslan 2y ago

There are none? All the photos are straight from my Bambulab X1C. I used eSun PLA+. No special treatment was done.

bredren 2y ago
That’s awesome.
- MattGrommes 2y ago
  I've also been shocked at how little post-processing prints off a Bambu printer need. They're pretty amazing machines, right out of the box.
bambax 2y ago
Wow. That's amazing. Is this also true for A1/mini?
- asadalt 2y ago
  yes!

bdcravens 2y ago

To build atop of OP's response, the Bambu Lab line of printers are much higher quality than some older printers. I have 3 different ones, and I also just pull them off the build plate and begin using them. Many modern printers also give similar results, but may require a bit of tuning. Also it's as much about the settings in your slicer software, and most current ones have evolved to have great defaults and are easily tweaked.

_yb2s 2y ago
Even the cheapest 3D printers have generally gotten really good recently... I have a new (lower end) Creality Ender V3 SE printer, and it makes perfectly clean prints like this out of the box if you use their own brand of filament and settings they've tuned for it- and it will do so on any new filament if you take the time to figure out the right settings.
mstade 2y ago
I'm potentially in the market for a 3d printer for our office. Mostly for one offs and some prototyping, and we don't necessarily need one but more a wouldn't-it-be-nice kinda thing. The Bambu Lab printers look like they could fit our needs/wants really well, but I'd love to do a bit of compare and contrast before placing an order. Are there any buyer's guides out there you would recommend for hobbyists such as us?
- szundi 2y ago
  Just buy an A1 with the AMS, cheap as hell, other people’s blabla is hardly applicable to you. It is like just more than 400 usd.
- double0jimb0 2y ago
  Forum comments have been the best resource for me. (Followed by joining the printer’s users’ Facebook group to see what sort of issues are most common). The top SEO’d buyers guide websites are pretty useless in my experience. That said, having owned a dozen different printers for my own business’s prototyping work, the Bambu labs are truly fantastic. I retired 3 ultimaker S7s for 2 X1 Carbons and haven’t looked back. The Bambu labs legitimately print 3-4x faster and have as good if not better surface finish. AMS system is ingenious. Only thing I did was x-y squareness/skew compensation so both printers make the same sized parts (the printers aren’t perfectly square from the factory). There are guides on how to use M1005 gcode command.
- stavros 2y ago
  Just buy a Bambu. You won't regret it. I bought one after ten years of printing on more OSS designs, and I wish I'd gotten one sooner. If your hobby is 3D printing, get a Bambu. If it's 3D printers, get anything else.

AriedK 2y ago

On the finishing: “Of course because I 3D Printed it with a PLA filamanet, it's not as shiny and glossy compared to actuall electronic devices. People use acetone and various solutions to make it shiny.” The acetone (vapour) approach only works on ABS and is pretty nasty. For PLA your best bet is sanding. You could add some putty to make it a bit easier and get better results. You will then also need to paint it. All in all if the print quality is good enough best stick with that.

stavros 2y ago
I have a Bambu P1S, and I'm fairly sure the prints would look worse after sanding than before. I just use them all as they are, straight out of the printer, and they always look amazing.
- SOLAR_FIELDS 2y ago
  The primary thing people complain about is the aesthetics of the FDM print lines. They give the appearance of a hobbyist look. Sanding and finishing is one way to alleviate that. I bet PLA doesn’t sand amazing since it’s mostly just sugar but PETG sands reasonably fine. I have sanded PETG and finished with spar urethane/polyurethane for commercial products to give them a nice professional glossy sheen with no print lines. I mentioned in a sibling comment XTC-3D as another option which is probably the best hobbyist product for this, but it’s kind of a pain to work with and it’s a little expensive. So not great for commercial use. For home use though it’s totally fine and indeed usually gives better results than the urethanes mentioned above due to lack of yellowing and being thicker and better at filling in the lines and giving a smoother appearance. People could honestly probably just use that product without sanding and be mostly happy with it because it does a good job of hiding the FDM lines even without sanding
  - larrywright 2y ago
    In my experience matte filaments hide the layer lines much better. Between that and the overall quality of recent printers like the Bambu or the Prusa Mk4, I don’t find the need to do any post processing.

deleted 2y ago

[deleted]