M.P. Update #1 – It’s alive!!

This gorgeous piece of equipment was not supposed to arrive until the end of the month, so I thought I would have more time to do some research before I got into the hands-on stuff. Not so much! So this is going to be a big first update.

Before Delivery:

Step #1: I’ve been researching. There was a ton of research into what kind of printer to purchase, and we went with the Bambu A1 Combo, mainly because I wanted something that a) wasn’t ridiculously expensive and b) was fairly plug and play. I don’t want to have to do a lot of tinkering. Those two parameters were enough to lead me to Bambu. And voila!

After we made the purchase, and I knew it was on it’s way, I started consuming YouTube videos and articles on setting up a 3D printer, things to know before you started printing, etc. Probably the most useful series of videos that I stumbled upon were those by Lukas Engstrom, who also purchased an A1 Bambu printer as his first, and was documenting his experiences.

I didn’t go into actual setting up to start – I was looking into what you were going to need to start printing. I was looking into terminology, and what the heck some of these different parts were, and what on earth was the difference between PLA and PETG and ABS filament, and where should I start? (Bambu Wiki was a huge help figuring some of this out, I read a bunch of threads in the 3D printing Reddit, and googled a lot of PLA vs. PETG vs. whatever). Conclusion for printing: PLA is the most forgiving and least demanding to start, especially without an enclosed 3D printer, so that’s where I’m starting. I have ordered a couple different kinds – PETG, and PLA silk – so I am going to explore and experiment a bit, but I wanted to get a solid understanding before I started fiddling.

Step #2: The printer that we ordered comes with the option to print up to four different colours at the same time, so I was just starting to do a little reading into how to print multiple colours when the printer was actually delivered, so I will come back to this step in the future!

Post Delivery:

Of course this showed up on Thursday, which is when we have child activities, but my husband was not working this week, so he took the kids, and I got to stay home and play a little bit. I was a little worried when it first showed up, because the box had a hole punched in one side, but everything appeared to be in perfect condition once we got it opened up.

Set up was ridiculously straight-forward, but I still did a little research as I was putting things together. I always find still-picture instructions interesting. Some are easy to follow. Some really need a video to make things clear. So I found a video (YouTube has saw a huge increase in traffic from me since we made this purchase), and my husband and I followed along with the step-by-step instructions to get everything set up. It was quite straightforward. Mostly we had to insert a few screws, plug a couple of things in, and turn the power button on. That was it.

Ta-da! And this is where the pre-magic started to happen. The little screen popped up with “Unleash Your Creativity” but it should have said “time for calibration and lubrication”. Semantics, I guess. And luckily, it didn’t take too long to calibrate (it looks and sounds like a person stretching and warming up their vocal chords before a performance!).

After we had everything set up, plugged in, calibrated, and lubricated, I went right to printing. All of my video viewing had given me a few ideas about what to start with, including:

• waste deflector and bucket – as the machine is printing, it offloads excess filament, both for prep, and every time it has to switch a colour, and it literally launches the waste off the side of the machine. It’s kind of funny, actually! But the first thing I printed was a deflector and a little container to catch everything
• cord supports – a couple of the connecting cables see a lot of movement, and a few videos suggested adding supports for them. For longevity’s purpose, I was happy to print and add some of these
• PTFE tube support (and a removal tool) – like I said, we went with a multi-colour option, and the tubes that guide the filament from the rolls to the machine didn’t have anything to support them where they go into the printer, so I added something there, as well, and then printed a little tool to help us remove the tubes (when needed), as well as other parts (for when we get there)

And that’s kind of been the first update! I am itching to get into some “fun” prints, though I will freely admit that I was a total nerd and just sat and watched the first print almost all the way through, because it is so neat to watch. Crazy to think that someone not only built these 3D printers, but also designed the coding that gave them the instructions needed to print some fairly complex files!

I am very much looking forward to continuing to explore.