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Some people like to use tools to make something possible/easy. Others like the tools themselves. The Bambu printers, at the time of their release, were an incr
by nomel 2mo ago
Some people like to use tools to make something possible/easy. Others like the tools themselves.
The Bambu printers, at the time of their release, were an incredibly superior pieces of hardware and software that was priced very very well and, this was a really big deal, worked fully right out of the box.
It was a pretty clear choice in either dicking around with the tools, or actually using the tool to make things. They caused a huge shift in the industry because it was silly to NOT buy a Bambu, if you wanted to actually make things.
I love open source software, but I also know that a team of focused, dedicated, high skill, engineers, who are financially motivated with big paychecks, to do well, will often do a better job making something proprietary than a bunch of volunteers doing it for fun, on the weekends. Ffs, we didn't get a half ass implementation (thanks to shite 8 bit boards everyone was using) of motion/vibration compensation in all the open source firmwares, a tech from the 1960's, until right before Bambu's release. It's still not available in most. Pressure compensation was still relatively new.
- Symbiote 2mo agoPrusa's printers also worked out of the box. They cost slightly more, and their staff aren't volunteers.
- dspillett 2mo agoMore than slightly more, certainly when comparing like-for-like, particularly when considering multi-material features.
- ChickeNES 2mo agoIt's a worse printer too. Not to mention overpriced since it's built in the EU
- gilfaethwy 2mo ago> overpriced since it's built in the EU Externalized costs are real. "Overpriced because it's built in the EU" implicitly argues that there are no fundamental differences between the labor conditions, environmental controls, and societal impact of the production process.
- ChickeNES 2mo agoYes, those do not concern me. I already buy plenty of stuff from China, so a 3D printer is no different, why would I make an exception?
- legastenigga 2mo ago[dead]
- fn-mote 2mo agoI am confident that my job cannot be outsourced to China, but I still worry a lot about outsourcing everything else in my life. I recognize that my neighbors could easily lose their jobs to the same forces that are causing me to buy a Bambu printer.
- inigyou 2mo agoThey will lose their jobs no matter what you buy, because that's not up to you, but up to billionaires
- nomel 2mo agoNo they did not. Calibrating flow and pressure advance was entirely manual. Vibration compensation/input shaping did not exist until 2023 [1], and was also entirely manual. The Pursa XL (only thing remotely comparable) was over double the price [2], with the Core One (Bambu competitor) not coming out until 2024 [2]. Their MMU was a clusterfuck of tinkering [4], so when Bambu released the AMS, people were trying to figure out ways to get it to work on the Prusa! Even now, the new Prusa MMU alone is almost as much as a Bambu + AMS!. Bambu shook the industry because it was better in all ways that mattered if you actually wanted to make something. [1] https://www.fabbaloo.com/news/prusa-research-unveils-mk4-input-shaping-firmware https://www.fabbaloo.com/news/prusa-research-unveils-mk4-inp... [2] https://www.3docity.com.au/blogs/3dprinting/corexy-printers-compared-bambu-x1-vs-prusa-xl-vs-voron-2-4-which-is-best?srsltid=AfmBOoqm7JhqFIt891w1KGhGNxWU-RyA7ypObAcs95fiui47J-DToAcv https://www.3docity.com.au/blogs/3dprinting/corexy-printers-... [3] https://toms3d.org/2025/02/11/finally-prusa-takes-on-bambu-core-one-review-and-x1c-comparison/ https://toms3d.org/2025/02/11/finally-prusa-takes-on-bambu-c... [4] https://www.reddit.com/r/prusa3d/comments/x3m76q/did_you_regret_buying_a_mmu2s_or_are_you_happy/ https://www.reddit.com/r/prusa3d/comments/x3m76q/did_you_reg...
- Palomides 2mo agoif you absolutely needed a huge multi color/material printer, sure, but a prusa i3 mkwhatever was entirely adequate for normal 3d printing out of the box
- nomel 2mo agoNope. You will get absolute shite prints if you skip the manual, eyeballed, first layer cals [1]. Bambu manual effort is a few seconds [2] of navigating a menu, then print. But, these cal's are NOT equivalent, with Bambu doing linear advance cal and input shaping (completely manual on i3). Prusa being "adequate" (and expensive) is partly why Bambu now has 41% of the market, while Prusa has < 3% [3]. [1] https://youtu.be/GE-lrRbU124&t=245 https://youtu.be/GE-lrRbU124&t=245 and https://youtu.be/GE-lrRbU124&t=524 https://youtu.be/GE-lrRbU124&t=524 [2] https://www.youtube.com/shorts/XruRPpODE6Q https://www.youtube.com/shorts/XruRPpODE6Q. [3] https://www.3dprintingjournal.com/p/consolidation-has-become-a-fact-90 https://www.3dprintingjournal.com/p/consolidation-has-become...
- mrheosuper 2mo ago>slightly more I wouldn't say "50%" is slightly more.
- poulpy123 2mo agoAt the time I bought my bambulab X1C there was nothing at the level for a similar price (or even more expensive)
- cyberrock 1mo agoSetting aside printer capability, to a lot of users, wifi would be a top requirement for "working out of the box", and unfortunately i3 MK3S+ didn't have it before Bambu hit the market. On one hand, I understand how they ended up there, because their contemporary rivals Creality and Anycubic didn't include it either, and most of their userbase understood that they needed to run Octoprint on a Pi Zero or buy Prusa's wifi module. But on the other hand, if anyone did any bit of market research, they would realize this is quite an abrasive purchasing experience for a $10 wifi module. It just felt stingy.