Bluewing

Run your AppImages with Gear Lever. It can even add the executable to your start menu.

***This review is based upon reaction to other reviews. I have NOT even been the physical presence of the machine and this review is worth what you paid for it.

Discounting the whole “Bambu evil” for a moment, it’s not a printer I will buy or recommend to others.

After watching a couple of reviews, I will give Bambu their flowers yet again for designing some pretty good looking hardware. I am impressed that somebody FINALLY added a separate enclosed dryer so you can keep your PLA loaded while your drying that spool of PA6 to their AMS system. The tool change speed is impressive, it’s faster than anything else currently on the market. And wastage of filament is even superb. Though that is to be expected from all tool changers. It does however, remain to be seen how well it will stand up to the general population of filthy savage users. More complexity in a tool as delicate as a 3D printer is generally not a good thing for them.

But cost is the perhaps the biggest drag here. $2500+ is a LOT of money to spend on a tool I only use maybe 50 hours a month at most. And the majority of consumers are also like that. Add in the fact that they introducing such a printer to a market with so much consumer stress and reluctance to buy frivolous hobby items at this point in time. Plus the sheer size of this thing makes it unsuitable for apartment dwellers and other with scant floor space and headroom. For example, while I’m 6’4", Grandma is a towering 5’ 3 1/2". She would not be able to reach the AMS unit without a step ladder. And mount that printer to the 2 bases, (at extra cost), most people shorter than me are going to have a hard time reaching that AMS at some point.

Nor do the majority of users, print with much beyond PLA or PETG for filaments either. Those are cheap and readily available. Frankly, they are “Good Enough^tm^” and “Easy Enough^tm^” for users to master well. Expensive and hard to print engineering filaments aren’t on their radar.

This is a printer that is aimed at print farms and engineering departments, NOT consumers. And Bambu is screwing the pooch in not aiming it solely at business and ignoring the unwashed savages with this machine.

No you probably can’t take them. They belong to whoever “owns” the park.

A connoisseur of crap wood I see. Those “fast growing, purpose grown” trees make the worst lumber and boards. Just look at the loose wide grain of the wood.

But, if you like that stuff, I got 80 acres of red pine I’ll sell you.

I use Orca because I have a mixed environment with a an old Prusa mk3s running klipper and a Bambu A1 mini combo and I intend to add an Elegoo CC2 later this winter.

I want a one slicer to rule them all. So, Orca it is.

Oh, I did that once. Misplaced the decimal on the PA. It took me far longer to figure it out than I care to admit.

Yeah, I wouldn’t want to print much of those materials either. But being able to do so when needed as safely as I can matters. Perhaps I can find other materials that would be suitable replacement in those moments. The Q2 would certainly broaden the material choices I could use. PLA, PETG, and TPU can do a lot. I’ve been using them for years. But there are times when I need something different.

I’ve already used those thoughts to get my choices down to 2 printers. So, now it gets to be more about user experiences with each machine.

But your reminders of what to think about is great. And the fact that you like your machine even as a beginner is what I want to know.

So I shouldn’t print for 6 months out of the year?

I would agree, but the cost is more than I want to spend for a second machine. Sadly, I want to replace my trusty Mk3s with something around the same size and enclosed without spending a lot.

Besides, I believe that if I want to honestly bitch about or praise something, I should actually have real experience with it. See my A1 mini combo.

The effort to build one is what keeps users from building a Voron. Otherwise, it would eat everyone else’s lunch.

I do still print a lot of PLA even after all these years. It’s a far better material than people who just parrot things know. When designed properly from the get go, it can provide excellent service. But you need to understand the material properties and how to create a proper design for it. And most 3D printer users can’t design their way out of a paper bag when it comes to functional parts.

Prusa Core One is a great machine. My first printer was a Mk3s. It’s still a real tank after all these years. But I’m looking for something a bit cheaper right now.

At this point in life, I’m more interested a “turn-key” setup than a project. I’m getting too old to want a project like that. But Vorons can be an awesome printer when done.

Yeah, the CC2 should work with ABS/ASA, the question is due to the immediate lack of a chamber heater, warpage on a larger piece could be an issue. Though one could edit the g-code to allow for some chamber pre-heat by soaking the bed for a time before printing. Air filtration is more of an issue for me really. And that would need to be added also. Which would quickly bring the cost up.

The devil is in the details…

When temps hit -20F, you ain’t venting anything outside. The heat loss becomes too expensive.

See, that’s what I like about Qidi. Users often will say they would buy another.

Yeah, that’s what I’m starting to think about filaments. ABS/ASA are about as fancy as I really want to get. I did do some reading on the Open Centauri project. They sound like they have a good start.

A very good rule is to think about the poor schmuck that’s going to need to fix whatever you design because you might be the schmuck that ends up fixing it.

Nice work!

The issue I have with the enclosures I see that most people design for themselves is the complete lack of ability to have easy access for maintenance and repairs.

It’s can be a royal pain in the butt to pull your printer out to do simple tasks for maintenance so you put things off until you end up have bigger problems that are harder and more expensive to fix.

I rocked the Lack setup for years with my Mk3s. I finally had to give it up since I needed to reconfigure my setup and the Lack no longer worked for it. I do sort of miss it though.

As an old toolmaker, that’s not as true as you think. It requires a lot of other knowledge besides running a lathe or mill. I speak from experience, having had to learn how to make repair parts for antique and collectable firearms at times.

Actually, those conversion cylinders are perfectly happy with modern smokeless powders suitable for their caliber. Though it’s more about velocities than pressure. I can load any smokeless .45 Colt for my cylinder that is listed for the standard pressures, (about 11,000psi). But it is highly recommended to keep your velocities no more than 850fps, (the original velocity for the Colt SAA). Frame stretching is the issue. Those cap and ball revolvers are made from a bit softer metal than modern revolvers. Remington’s are stronger than the open top Colts.

Enders are a fine kit from which you can build a working printer…

Jokes aside, they are the perfect machine for those people that want to tinker. Which is a very valid part of any hobby. Enjoy and carry on!

Clean sand does work. But what you probably want is granite resin for this project. It’s very popular with machine tool hobbyists and even expensive manufacturers like Hardinge.

Here is an explanation of how to use the stuff

Think of one and I’ve done it.

Yes, “bedslinging” is the proper way to build a milling machine for metals. Gantry designs exist for CNC woodworking, but are uncommon for metal.

Do not use 2 leadscrews per axis. You cannot time them well enough to prevent binding over long moves. If you are worried about moving the mass with the motors and leadscrews, buy bigger ones. The best way to drive the Y axis is with another stepper and leadscrew.

You can drive ballscrews with belts if you need to offset the motors. But your belts need to be as short as possible and as stiff as possible. Otherwise you will lose steps and make junk rather than functional parts. So no long light duty toothed belts like 3D printers use.

And when thinking about motion despite what your eyes tell you, it’s always the tool that moves and not the part.

Being poor doesn’t equal robberies and physical danger. I live in one the poorest rural areas of my state. We don’t need locks as a rule because we choose not to steal from or assault our neighbors. We understand we are in this together and we need to help each other to make it.

But you would not choose to live here because of the perceived lack of “big city” amenities. Cell service is spotty at best. Even electricity can be optional due to weather. It’s often dangerously cold. Heath care is an hour plus away. (I was just informed I need to switch an antibiotic I was prescribed just yesterday for another. I now get to make another 100 mile round trip to then nearest pharmacy to get it), Even groceries are an hour away. So we grow and forage a lot of our food. Jobs are few and poorly paid and require travel to get to. Our kids often need to leave the area and move 100s or even a 1000+ miles away to find work and higher education.

It ain’t about the money. it’s about the “want to”.