Oh No! I Bought a 3D Printer

Truth be told, I've been thinking about buying a 3D printer for almost a decade. But I was a dumb teen who didn't have any money, now I'm a dumb twenty-something with some money. The stars seemed to align I guess. I had someone start printing stuff for me at work on occasion, and I was really impressed with the quality. Then a temp at work quickly convinced me to buy one after showing me his War Hammer figurines and showing me the holiday prices for Bambu Labs 3D printers.

Around New Years I placed my order for a Bambu Lab A1 with AMS Lite. A bed-slinger style printer that, when working with the AMS is capable to print in multiple colors. Sadly, due to high demand I had to wait almost to the end of January to receive my printer. Once it arrived, I was printing within the hour, the simple instructions made assembly easy and the printer connected to my PC and phone through the companion software. 

After a solid month of printing, the most difficult thing about owning the printer is finding what I'm gonna print next. The most serious issue I've encountered owning this printer was a series of failed prints due to cold ambient temperatures and probably poor bed adhesion. I'm keeping my printer in a cold garage but a space heater we had in there anyway has solved part of the problem, washing the print bed in hot water with dish soap has consistently cured any other issues I've encountered with bed adhesion. So quick tip, don't touch your print bed with your meat paws and think you're gonna get a solid print next time. Flip it or wash it.

One really cool thing about the Bambu Labs line of printers and I'm sure many others is that you can mod or augment your printer with some really cool prints thought up by the community. For example, I gave my printer a Mangekyou Sharingan so that it could avenge the murder of it's clan. But seriously, I printed a compact poop bucket so that my printer isn't slinging plastic shit all over my garage. To replace the absolute trash camera built in to the A1, I printed a mount for a deco camera. I think it's intended for use as a baby monitor, but it allows for SD storage and remote viewing without a subscription. It triggers recording once the printer starts moving so I can look back and see why a print failed which is really useful. 

As most people do, I started my printing journey using mainly PLA filament since it's easy to print and good for general use items. I bought Creality PLA since it runs cheaper than the majority of other brands. I wouldn't endorse it per say, but I've gotten some really good results from this filament. The only thing I would complain about is that the colors I purchased are a lot more pastel than I expected. More of a soft brick red and a baby blue that the vibrant red and blue I thought I was gonna get. For print that require more strength, my go-to filament is PETG. On open enclosure bedslinger printers, they don't have the high ambient temp necessary for other durable filaments like ABS; so the A1 is a no-go for that.

"Ok, Jon. You've talked about the printer enough, what are you actually printing?" A ton of random bullshit is what it feels like. I've printed some cool stuff, like a Ouja Board tray to keep my keys, a stand for my Aeropress, battery cases for all the cameras, and I've even printed a Native American Drone Flute for my coworker. I mainly bought the printer to solve problem I encounter during projects, printing parts for cameras, cases for hard drives, and so on. All this to say, during my ownership and journey looking through everything the community has to offer, I am enjoying it much more than I anticipated. So if you're interested, I think you should look into it as well.