I tried the ultimate budget 3D printer

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I still think it's incredible that we live in a time where we can think of an idea, a problem, and with some basic 3D modeling skills. Create a physical

modeling skills. Create a physical product or solution that day. Cable

management under my desk is all 3D printed and so are these brackets that hold up my mini PC. And then so are these magazine display holders, which actually turned out pretty nice. And

then so is this this little bracket which holds this massive light tube.

This seat bracket as well for my racing sim. These wind simulation vents. This

sim. These wind simulation vents. This

butt kicker mount on the back for the base shaker. even all the stuff that

base shaker. even all the stuff that I've 3D printed for my PC builds. I

mean, these are genuinely things where your only other option is to get something fabricated or maybe mil out of wood. But we're not in the 1800s

wood. But we're not in the 1800s anymore. And we have these desktop 3D

anymore. And we have these desktop 3D printers. This one is the Bamboo Lab A1

printers. This one is the Bamboo Lab A1 Mini. I have been so so curious about

Mini. I have been so so curious about this thing. I've been using the X1

this thing. I've been using the X1 Carbon for a very long time. This is the bottom of the product stack is the cheapest Bamboo Lab printer that you can buy. So, I'm curious how much of my

buy. So, I'm curious how much of my really good experience with the X1 Carbon trickles down into this thing right here. So, what exactly are we

right here. So, what exactly are we looking at here? Well, this is your filament roll, which goes through this tube right here into this hot nozzle, which is rapidly drawing your 3D model

layer by layer. It is a magical and really satisfying thing to watch. This

is known as a bedslinger 3D printer because the bed does actually move as one of the three axes. And the biggest object you can print on this thing is a 180 mm cube. That doesn't sound like a whole lot because this is the mini

variant of the A1 at the end of the day, but that is a surprisingly productive amount of space to work with. This vent,

which I printed for my racing sim, can actually fit on the A1 Mini. I would

even go as far as saying like 85% of the stuff that I've ever 3D printed would be fine with this amount of space. Now,

hardware-wise, this thing is actually built surprisingly well. You've got a steel and aluminium frame, and I actually think it looks quite aesthetic as well. Most of the cheap 3D printers

as well. Most of the cheap 3D printers out there don't look that great. This

one, though, looks like a little piece of lab equipment. It could be part of a clean setup at home. I was actually really surprised setting this up, too.

It does actually have a camera built in right there. It is a pretty big

right there. It is a pretty big downgrade in terms of the responsiveness and the frame rate compared to my X1 Carbon, but the resolution is quite good and it's more than enough to be able to open the app and just inspect the print

if you're not able to see it. Even

comparing the specs to my X1 Carbon, the A1 Mini holds up extremely well. The

nozzle gets just as hot. The build plate goes up to 80° and the tool head speed is the same. It's only the acceleration that is cut in half. You can even swap

to a different size nozzle tip as well.

Default is 4 mm, but you can go as detailed as 2 or for really fast printing up to8. The biggest difference is the lack of an enclosure for the A1 and the A1 Mini, but we'll see how much

of an impact that actually makes. So,

the hardware is nice, but what actually makes a high-quality 3D print is this right here. It's the software, it's the

right here. It's the software, it's the tool head speeds, the temperatures, the retraction amounts. The cool thing is

retraction amounts. The cool thing is though, you don't have to worry about any of this stuff. You just select the presets and Bamboo Lab has it all figured out. Especially if you're using

figured out. Especially if you're using their filaments, you get an extremely well-c calibrated experience. All you

need to do is drop in your 3D model, click auto orient, select your printer, the build plate you're using, the filament, and then what kind of quality you'd want to print with. The higher

quality presets use thinner print layers and slower print speed. So, your print is going to look really good, but it's going to take almost forever. What I use is usually something like.12 or.16.

That's going to give you a really good balance between print quality and print speed. If your print has overhangs like

speed. If your print has overhangs like this one, you can select create supports. And then there's two more

supports. And then there's two more things that I usually do above the default settings. There's a setting

default settings. There's a setting called avoid crossing wall, which I usually always check. And then I changed the wall order to inner, outer, inner.

After all that, you just click slice plate and then sends it off to the printer. So, I watched on very closely

printer. So, I watched on very closely to see how the A1 Mini would get ready for a print. And for the most part, it's actually the same as my X1 Carbon. It

has automatic bed leveling, which is an absolute godsend. the single most

absolute godsend. the single most important part of getting a successful print by far and also calibrates the flow dynamics of the filament. From

there, it wipes the nozzle and starts printing. And damn, this thing is quiet.

printing. And damn, this thing is quiet.

Like, eerily quiet, especially when the nozzle fan isn't running. This is easily something that you could have sitting on your desk and it wouldn't be annoying.

Another difference I noticed, the A1 Mini didn't do any first layer inspection like my X1 Carbon does.

That's because it technically can't. It

doesn't have the micro LAR sensor. That

sensor enables the X1 to scan the first layer for any defects and send me a notification if it thinks the print will fail. But yeah, obviously at a fraction

fail. But yeah, obviously at a fraction of the cost, I'm not complaining. Just

watch that first layer yourself before you walk away and do something else.

Watching this thing print though, very impressed. Extremely fast, just like my

impressed. Extremely fast, just like my X1. And so far, the model looked

X1. And so far, the model looked basically perfect. And it was. This is a

basically perfect. And it was. This is a pump res bracket that I made for an NZXT H510 build. And I printed it here in

H510 build. And I printed it here in matte black PLA. This is pretty unreal print quality. There's some slight

print quality. There's some slight sketchiness where the overhangs and supports were, but man, look at these layers. Like, there's no visible seams.

layers. Like, there's no visible seams. gaps, artifacts, no blobs, just honestly an almost flawless print. I've only used 10% infill for this one, so the top layers do look a little bit thin, but an

extra top layer, and this would be perfect. The bottom layer also has a

perfect. The bottom layer also has a texture to it because I've used the default textured build plate, but you could swap this to a smooth surface if you really want. But yeah, first print couldn't have gone any better. Now, PLA

is all well and good, but what if you want to print something that needs to be stronger or have a higher temperature threshold? for that. PETG is a really

threshold? for that. PETG is a really good option, but it does need higher print temperatures than PLA. So, I was interested to see if the A1 Mini could handle it. Turns out it's no problem at

handle it. Turns out it's no problem at all. This is an airflow vent, which I

all. This is an airflow vent, which I printed for a previous PC build. Thought

I'd try this translucent PETG. It's kind

of like a smoked transparent material, and it's okay. You can definitely see a lot of layer lines on this print, but that's no fault of the printer. It's

more so just the material. Again, no

gaps or seams or anything like that on the print that needs cleaning. The

surface is very smooth. Something that

you want to be very careful with with PETG, though, if this sounds like something that you'd want to print with, is that it absorbs humidity in the air very quickly. And at that point, it's

very quickly. And at that point, it's pretty much useless. Ask me how I know.

The P1S, the X1 Carbon, they have the heated AMS2 Pro system as an option, which can solve this issue. There are

third party filament dryers, though, which you'll be able to use with the A1 and A1 Mini. and Bambu Lab's own AMS HT which should get support for the A1 series pretty soon. I do have my hands on one of those, but it's just not

compatible with the A1 Mini yet. So,

yeah, PETG on the A1 Mini. It is

definitely doable, but you will need a third party filament dryer for the time being if this is something that you're going to be printing a lot of. The same

goes for nylon composite materials like this one here. If you want the highest strength and highest heat deflection, this is basically as good as it gets.

But just like PETG, it soaks up water in the air like an absolute sponge. And at

that point, it's basically unusable, so you'll want a filament dryer on hand.

Can you actually print this stuff on the A1 Mini, though? Well, in Bamboo software, they say it's unsupported. But

then they say you can so long as you upgrade the nozzle, which is actually quite easy to do. It's just a couple of clips here and then a easy swap. I don't

have the upgraded nozzle on hands, but I still really wanted to see what this filament would print like on this printer because I use this stuff a lot.

So, I kind of hacked together a little bit of a profile, copying the settings from the A1 to create a kind of custom A1 mini profile, but it's the exact same temperatures, volutric speed, and all

the stuff that really matters. I printed

this exact part on my X1 Carbon only recently, and it did come out a lot nicer. On the A1 Mini here, there's a

nicer. On the A1 Mini here, there's a lot of stringing. There's some dots and some blobbing, and that kind of stuff.

It's almost definitely due to the humidity in the air and then getting into the spool and the filament as well.

Had my filament spool been sitting in a filament dryer while I was printing and also not printing in such an open area that could be prone to humidity, then yeah, we would be getting much cleaner

results here. This is still a nice

results here. This is still a nice functional print though, it's just not so clean. Basically, the more advanced

so clean. Basically, the more advanced the filament is in terms of strength and heat deflection, generally the harder it is to print. PLA is absolutely no problem on this machine. In fact, it is

actually mind-blowing how good this thing prints PLA. It's quiet, fast, and just produces flawless prints. It's by

no means an engineering grade material, but for most things, even brackets that I'd actually want to use, they don't need to have insane properties. So, PLA

is perfectly fine. PETG and nylon composites can also print on this as well, but until Bamboo Lab updates their AMS HT to be compatible with the A1's, you'll need a third party filament dryer

to get the best results. Until then, a P1S or X1 with the new AMS2 Pro, which has active heating, is a more hassle-free solution. ABS is also

hassle-free solution. ABS is also something that I tried, and it didn't work. It's actually very impressive how

work. It's actually very impressive how many materials you can get away with without really needing an enclosure, but you will need one with ABS. It is

becoming a less popular material these days because it's pretty hard to print and releases so many VOCC's into the air as well. So, I don't think this should

as well. So, I don't think this should be a dealbreaker for most people. But

yeah, there it is. The A1 Mini. I would

say if you don't need to print parts that need like insane strength or heat deflection and they don't need to be too big, like bigger than this for example, then this thing is kind of a steal. If I

really had to eek out one complaint, I mean, this is really reaching, but uh loading in new filament can be a little bit tedious. You just have to keep

bit tedious. You just have to keep pressing that extrude button to see that new filament come through the nozzle. It

just doesn't push through enough by default. At least that's been my

default. At least that's been my experience. Apart from that, I can

experience. Apart from that, I can definitely see why this thing is so popular.