Introduction

Until joining the Looth Group my only real exposure to 3D printing happened around 2015. I was working at a startup and a coworker brought his printer in for a week and we played around with it. It seemed like an absolute pain to deal with. Everything was an ordeal and it seemed to me like that was the hobby.

Cut to the present, joining the Looth Group, and realizing that the technology had advanced considerably and the printer itself didn’t need to be the hobby and I could focus on printing and designing things.

If I had realized this outside of the Looth Group I don’t think anything would have come of it, but watching the 3D Club archives and joining in the new sessions really opened my eyes up to the utility of 3D printing and how many things could be accomplished.

From my perspective, the ability to create and refine jigs/tools without cutting into any wood and the ability to create organizational solutions pushed me over the edge.

Choices

It was clear that Bambu Lab was the only option for me. Normally, I would gravitate to a more open-source ecosystem where I could customize and hack things as needed, but that was not my goal and it’s what I was honestly looking to avoid with 3D printing. So, I had to relax some of my technological tinfoil hat tendencies to make this happen.

Once the Black Friday sale started I couldn’t stop thinking, evaluating, and planning. All along my thought was to get the P1S and AMS and call it a day. It felt like the best long term solution for me and I’ve found with tools and things, the buy-once-cry-once philosophy is the safest and most cost effective bet for me.

However, there was a lot of back and forth due to cost and timing of the purchase. I won’t detail all that consternation but I ended up with an A1 with AMS Lite Combo. The price point mixed with functionality met almost all of my needs and it was hard to find anyone saying anything bad about them.

I will say, I was on and off the fence regarding the AMS and I’m glad I listened to everyone online and in the Looth Group saying “get the AMS” (if you can). Definitely the best advice I listened to during this purchase and I’m 99% sure I would have ordered one within the week if I hadn’t got the combo.

Unboxing and Setup

I watched one unboxing video on Youtube just to know what I was getting into and it seemed like getting it running wasn’t going to be much of an issue. Someone in the Looth Group said something to the effect that everything in 3D printing is bigger than you think, and the box was no exception.

I worked through the instructions to set it up, ran through calibration, and everything went smoothly.

The main reason I was planning to go with P1S was due to the enclosure and this “curious” guy. Here he is watching the calibration with big-eye mode engaged. He cannot be left alone with it because I know he will chew the PTFE tubing so I’ll be building a removable enclosure to keep it clean and him away. For now it lives behind a closed door when I’m not around. But the setup was smooth and trouble free.

First Print Experience

I ordered a 4 pack of black and white Elegoo PLA+ from Amazon based on Ted Bergstrand’s recommendation. The price was even better with Black Friday and it has worked out flawlessly. I just started clicking around the onscreen menu and figured out how to load up the AMS and load a print with the SD card provided. So from a UI/UX perspective Bambu was already killing it for me.

A little bit later I had one of those Benchy Boat things. It was at this point I was seriously hooked.

Mods

Top Mount Bracket

https://makerworld.com/en/models/375535

I moved my garage workshop inside to my home office for the winter so space is limited and I needed to figure out a way to make it take up less space than having the AMS Lite sit beside it. I already knew it was possible to mount it on top so I fired up the Bambu Handy App (they need a better name for that), found the mounting bracket I wanted to use and sent it to the printer. This uses the same screws used to mount it to the included stand so that seemed good and everyone seemed to agree that the Bambu designed version could be improved. That one does pivot for spool changes so there’s that but I don’t need that feature.

Z-Axis Stiffener

https://makerworld.com/en/models/92486

No sooner did I get it mounted on top that I moved on to printing something else and I realized how wobbly the whole situation had become. The printer didn’t seem to mind the swaying, but I did, and canceled that print. I found that the Bambu version of the mount also had a plate for a z-axis stiffener print along with it so I printed those next.

This was a 10+ hour print so I just fired it up before bed and when I woke up I was impressed. The included accessory kit came with the screws to attach the stiffeners which I didn’t realize until the print was done so that was a nice feature.

The stiffeners are a really cool design and made a huge difference in the stability of the top-mounted AMS.

PTFE Guide

https://makerworld.com/en/models/183639

I printed out a Bambu plate scraper next and realized I did not like the PTFE tube situation at the top (note this picture is before I changed around the short and long tubes connections to make them fit better, long tubes to the back, short tubes to the front, and sliding that cable wrap down further).

I found a print that I liked that helped guide the PTFE tubing so printed that next and attached them. They weren’t loose but didn’t click into anything so I took a thin strip of carpet table and put it in between the numbered tubes to hold it down.

AMS lite cable guide

https://makerworld.com/en/models/541937

While I was watching it print I didn’t really like the floppy cable that connects the AMS to the back, especially when the bed went all the way back so I printed out this cable clip that fit perfectly on the z-axis stabilizer.

PTFE & Cable Guide

https://makerworld.com/en/models/658962
The other thing I wasn’t loving was the way everything went into the print head. The filament hub didn’t seem sturdy enough so I found this bracket that holds everything more secure. It clicked right in and everything felt much better.

Compact poop bucket

https://makerworld.com/en/models/451897

I didn’t want to have a standalone poop bucket so I found this little guy. It looks great and fits great, but I think I’ll be printing out the larger version. I left an accessory box to print overnight with this attached and woke up at 4AM in a panic because I realized I was doing all kinds of filament changes and no way would this hold it all. It in fact did not hold everything, but any overflow just falls right out from the top so it wasn’t a problem.

Looking Ahead

The machine feels perfect now. I will be adding an AMS Lite Spool enclosure next but PLA+ without it has been fine. I have some PETG coming soon so I’ll get that thing rigged up before I go live with that material.

https://makerworld.com/en/models/188758

Now it’s on to gridfinity and exploring my desire to over engineer accurate jigs! I highly recommend exploring 3D printing and the A1 if it fits your needs. These overnight prints have me feeling like I’m in “The Elves and the Shoemaker” and the possibilities are blowing my mind.