The A1 has been working almost non-stop since I got it set up on a new desk, with black, white, red, and blue filaments loaded into the AMS Lite device. As with any new-to-you-format printer, the first set of tasks was to print “the missing pieces” of the printer itself. This included a handle for a scraper blade, a spool for a refill roll of filament (this particular color wasn’t sold on a spool, which confuses me), and a super-specialized tool for disconnecting the feeder hoses that route filament from the AMS device into the print head.

Big Projects

I have two long-term prints going on right now. One of them is a wall-mounted organizer. This is less of “a thing” and more of “a system” because it requires that I print a full-plate-sized honeycomb frame, and then print inserts which snap into the open spaces. By printing as many of these plates as I want or need, I can connect them together using multi-space bridges. The connectors come in several varieties, including ones which are designed for screws and allow the system to be mounted to the wall.

I am hoping to then print small drawers which can snap into this frame, because there are a lot of prints that require small screws of different sizes, and I thought having them organized in small containers and easily accessible near the printer would be best. Also, I can find other inserts to hang other tools, should the spirit move me. This project will take as long or as short an amount of time as I feel I need to devote to it, adding more panels and more inserts as needed, so I don’t need to do it all at one time.

Another print that is currently running while I write this is a wall mount for the AMS Lite device.

The AMS (Automatic Material System) Lite is a stand-alone version of the AMS system that Bambu Labs includes in higher-tier printer cabinets. As the A1 has four filament inputs, the AMS Lite allows me to provide four different filaments on a holder which runs the strand feed mechanism. Normally the feeder is part of the printer itself — and the A1 does allow for single roll use with an on-printer feeder — but this is Bambu’s answer to how four different sources can be used simultaneously with a small form-factor print head. As you can see in the above image, the AMS Lite comes with a free-standing desk mount, but this takes up valuable real-estate.

Bambu provides print files for a mounting solution that attaches the AMS Lite to the top of the printer, but anecdotal evidence points to the possibility that this unbalances the printer and causes undesirable vibrations.

Instead, I’m printing a wall mount. The printer is right up against the wall and is conveniently centered on a wall stud, meaning I should be able to bolt this bracket to the wall, and then securely elevate the AMS Lite off the desk and off the printer, freeing up space and keeping the printer itself stable.

Downsides

So far — knock on wood — everything has been going smoothly. None of my prints have failed, but there are two general issues. The first is “poop”.

For other printers that only have a single filament feed, changing colors is a manual process which requires that the current filament be cut and backed out, the excess extruded and discarded, and the new color pushed into the print head. The A1’s multi-filament feed handles color changes by cutting the current filament in the head and then backing it out, replacing it with a feed from the next color. However, it still needs to clear the nozzle, and it does this by automatically extruding the remaining bits of the last filament until the new filament has sufficiently taken over. The waste, colloquially called “poop”, is scraped from the nozzle and slap-shotted aside using a spring-loaded paddle. Because of this obnoxious and somewhat violent system, I had to print a “poop bucket” to collect the waste. There’s no way to reclaim this excess into new filament without paying thousands of dollars for a machine that melts and extrudes the plastic, and I’m surprised that there aren’t more services than there are that will take excess filament and recycle it. I’ve seen videos of people who melt the excess themselves and use it with silicone molds, but that’s committing to creating a lot of otherwise useless objects that will probably get thrown out anyway. Poop reduction strategies are really the only solutions at this point.

The second issue is with the spools themselves. As the feeding mechanism pulls filament, occasionally the leading strand will get stuck underneath itself. As the filament is pulled taught, it clamps down, essentially strangling the feed. The printer does recognize this and will pause, but the only fix is to rotate the spool manually to generate some slack. If I fail to do this, the printer will pause until I do, and will then recalibrate it’s feeder, a step which includes generating a bundle of waste filament that ends up in the poop bucket. Right now, the AMS Lite mounting bracket is set to take about 8 hours to print, and I have been adjusting the spool every five minutes to get slack in the line again.

What’s Next?

Who knows, really? MakerWorld.com is Bambu’s community repository for printable objects, and it seems to be updating by the minute. I’ve been through project sites like Thingiverse, Printables, and others when looking for projects to print with the Elegoo resin printer, and most of those sites seem to publish the same kinds of models over and over. It’s very easy to see “what’s trending” in popular designs, but that doesn’t mean I am interested in the same. MakerWorld’s offerings seem to be more varied than other sites, and the projects aren’t just for Bambu printers.

I’ve been collecting projects that look useful, interesting, or fun. The thing about having a 3D printer is that once I see the things I can do with it, many problems I didn’t know I had suddenly have solutions. Just this morning I found a project for a pot and pan lids organizer. Could I have already bought one at the store? Sure, it’s not a new concept, but considering how many projects I can get out of a roll of $20 filament, why not print something I never thought I needed?