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DevLog 20250615: Bambu A1 (First Setup)

Overview

Calibration

This is the second 3D printer I've tried to set up, and the first one bought for the company. I plan to run some custom experiments with hardware components.

Surprisingly easy to use, and Bambu is definitely doing a much better job than my last one, which I bought online and had to assemble manually.

There's a sense of satisfaction just watching it calibrate - and seemingly everything works:

  1. A sense of precise control and movement in the XYZ axis
  2. A sense of numerical precision, much like playing Minecraft or modeling in Blender

The engineering wonder of linear motors and control systems (possibly advanced embedded processors too) really awes me. I'm not sure whether the material (PLA) is newly invented or has long existed, but apparently the way proper 3D printing works depends on material properties.

It's interesting to note the active noise canceling, speedy nozzle movements, and how not smelly it is.

The only concern is the touchscreen - it's way too bright.

Test Print

There was some confusion about filament getting stuck, but it was easily fixed. After tinkering a bit, replacing the nozzles also seemed straightforward.

First Print

Test Print - Layers

Surprisingly, there are a lot of non-setup problems when doing actual prints for practical purposes:

  1. PLA-Matte collapses slightly with a 0.2 mm nozzle and 0.2 mm layer height
  2. PLA-Matte doesn't work at all with a 0.4 mm nozzle / 0.2 mm layer for a twizzle object

Problem

This video snapshot shows it:

Looking OK on First Layers

Starting to Crack

Print Destroyed

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