Bluewing

Hey, it’s cool. I got that tee shirt too.

How many is multiple? I want to know because this is important information to me. But I also want to be unbiased in my evaluation of risk.Your link is the first I have heard of the mini having issues. And they only list 1 mini, all the rest are A1 machines. I cannot find in my searching for any other mini that has melted or caught fire. It certainly does not show up in any other 3D printing forum I have been in except here this one time for one machine.

I’m in the US and on 120V power. Which only provides a quarter of the power vs the 240V mains used in Europe, to the heat bed making it far less likely to happen. Plus, I use a surge protector for it. Nor do I run overnight prints because I don’t trust ANY 3D printer. And that includes my Prusa. I’m no Bambu fanboi, but one reported case of a mini catching fire is statistically irrelevant.

That said, there is an inherently greater risk of fire with certain types of hobbies. And 3D printing is one of them.

I’m giving it a go too. I got some noticeable warping on my first try. Shows promise, though the implantation of Orca seems a bit unstable for me running in Kinnonite. I intend to follow and test versions now and then.

I got tired of waiting for that and was going to buy the Qidi X-Smart-3, but I waited just a couple of months too long and had to settle for a an A1 Mini combo instead, and no it’s not connected to the cloud.

I do have to admit, I do like the AMS lite because it allows me to use every last gram of filament off of a spool and then auto switch to a new spool. But I did have issues with their software/firmware in the beginning. It damaged both of the plates I had within the first month. I had to wait for the next firmware update for the fix.

For PLA, any brand that has the blue you seek. PLA is not that complicated.

Ahh yes, the “make it so only Bezos and Musk can afford firearms for their minions” approach to gun control.

They actually have all the gun laws they need. They just don’t really bother to enforce them, and they enjoy just adding more useless laws on top of the pile they already have. They need to look good “thinking of the children” and pander to their voting base.

This time though, it’s about surveillance and right to repair things you bought and paid for everyone disguised as “gun control”. A slippery slope many gun owners have warned the rest of you about for years now.

Brands mean a lot less than people think. Most brands are just relabeled filaments. A couple phone calls and you to can have your own brand of filament. Nor are there aren’t that many make lines in the world. And the base stock comes from an even smaller handful of manufacturers.

I have yet to meet a filament that I couldn’t get to print decently, and I have a very low taste in filaments. The cheapest of the cheap! Some of them took extra effort, but in the end I got what I wanted from them.

Try setting the scarf steps to 1 and the Bridge Flow ratio to 1.5, (as low a 0 and as high as 2). Then under Speed uncheck the Slow Down for Overhangs and set the speed to 20mm/sec. This is often a good place to start and works well on my Bambu mini. For testing, I print an upside down box with a 50x50 cavity and a height of 8mm.

Prusa is a good choice if you are willing to spend the money. My Mk3s has been and will always be a tank to print with. These days the Core 1 is what you want from them. But multicolor printing is going to cost a noticeable amount more. If you set on multicolor prints, this is a hang up for many.

If you decide you can’t/won’t spend Prusa money, then maybe look a Qidi. A bit rougher around the edges, but seems to have decent hardware. They really lean into being able to print high temperature engineering filaments. My next printer will be the Q2 as soon as management, (Grandma), OKs the funds. I probably won’t get their AMS because I already have a Bambu A1 mini with AMS lite. But Qidi has their own version of AMS that won’t set you back as much as Prusa will.

Not that it matters too much, but Prusa runs on Marlin firmware and Qidi runs on klipper. Marlin is more beginner-friendly, but klipper is a lot more adaptable and changeable in the hands of someone that knows what they want. While still being very approachable to beginners.

Isn’t amazing what slicers can do? There ain’t no guard rails where we’re going!

Ha! Years ago, I once spent nearly 2 whole days trying to unknowingly splice PLA and PETG together. All because I was an idiot and didn’t read the spool labels. I just assumed, with the obvious results and damage to my ego…

Always, always buy Gates belts. And belt tension is a real issue with CoreXY printers. And I consider the belts to be consumables that need to be replaced on a schedule. If you’ve been running those belts for 2 years, replacing them will make you happy again.

As an old toolmaker, Welcome to the world of understanding your process! And knowing the limits of that process.

I wonder what he actually expects for a tolerance day to day. A +/-.1mm IS doable if you’re careful. But there is enough randomness in the FDM process, even outside the slicer, that I wouldn’t bet the farm on any 1 random piece hitting that tolerance. Let alone repeating that level of tolerance every time over say, 100 parts.

As I know from reading various outside sources and have heard, there have been NO actual fires reported and verified caused by the NTC failure in question. Just some scorch marks and a bit of localized melting.

This does not mean that a fire is impossible, but that you would need to have an exceptionally bad day for the fire resistant plastic of the housing and board to catch fire.

This issue does not affect the mini. That’s a different control board. I own a mini.

What you are thinking of is the NTC thermistor that was failing. That part was meant to limit the inrush current when the nozzle was rapidly heating. Its failure will just stop the nozzle from working at all. Which is precisely what should happen at failure. It is suspected they either got a bad batch of NTC thermistors or they were pushing the inrush current too close to the max rating. Bambu replaced a fair number of control boards and took the hit for not addressing these failures by not recalling the affected batch and replacing the offending board.

The plastic housing of the printer is a fire-retardant, high-temp polymer. And as far as I have read and know from my following of the issue, there have been no reported and verified fires caused by this particular problem. Just some scorched plastic and a bit of localized melting with the blown NTC.

But there does remain a non-zero chance of a real fire because of bad NTC. But it needs to be ignited by dust or little bits of filament that invades every nook and cranny on every printer in existence. If it bothers you and you are worried, clean your A1’s insides every year. Make it a routine maintenance thing.

Disclaimer: I do own an A1 mini (which is not affected by this issue). While my mini does exactly what I originally bought it for (before the ongoing attempt of Bambu to crash the plane), I’m under no illusion that Bambu is not a company I wish to support.

Chamber pressures for the 5.56 Nato is 58,000psi. And 9mm is 35,000psi. It takes a pretty good piece of pipe to contain those pressures. Your average seam welded pipe is around 4000 to maybe 10,000 psi.

Zip guns made from hardware store pipe are just barely good enough to contain a low pressure 12ga bird shot shell.

An application of hair dry heat will make the white marks go away.

It’s more that stainless steel is cheaper than brass these days.