After a long wait, I finally received my A1 Mini this week, only to find out that I can’t print ABS with it. I’m really disappointed – I thought this would be the perfect replacement for my Prusa Mini. Why does the heated bed only go up to 80°C? Why, why, why?
I have so many small parts to print, and the Mini’s build volume is more than enough for them. Plus, it fits perfectly in a cabinet. I had even dreamed of owning a few of these with the swap mod, so I wouldn’t need to restart the printers constantly and could even take a weekend off for a vacation. Am I really the only one who wants to print ABS with the Mini?
Have you actually tried printing ABS, even with 80 degress bed temperature (yes, i know that it’s too low)?
Just a question. A few years ago i had success printing ABS in my old open printer with also 80º. It was hard, but nothing that a bit of 3dlac won’t solve. Try it and make a good profile for it, respecting the fan limits and drafts around the printer.
I can try and print some ABS with my A1 at those temps to see how it goes. Just need to order a few abs samples.
The problem is that I can’t even create a custom filament profile, since the software doesn’t let me select ABS due to the 80°C limitation. I think that with an enclosure it could work, as long as everything is nicely heated up, but I still don’t understand why this decision was made. Even Prusa has accepted that we want to print ABS on a printer of this size.
Treat the profile as PETG and change everything to match what you need, except the bed temperature. Then save it as a custom filament profile and make some tests.
You must be doing something wrong. I opened Bambu Studio, went to edit the generic Bambu PLA profile and changed it as i wanted. Then i proceeded to save as a new Profile, for example: “ABS custom” and that’s it.
You can see in the picture that i changed it without a problem
Ok, thanks for the help. I’ll give it another try. I haven’t found this page in Bambu Studio yet, so it seems something is still not set up correctly. Still, the question remains about the decision to limit the heated bed to only 80°C instead of 100°C like the A1. This makes the A1 Mini a worse printer, and the A1 itself unnecessary – in that case, I’d rather buy another P1S.
I think that the A1 was a more revised version of the Mini and if i remind correctly, they even said that the heatbed on the A1 was also 80º in the start.
Either way, that is something that only Bambu can answer.
I also leave a picture already marked to show where can you go to modify those parameters, in case you need it. Also in the options, enable “Advanced Settings”
Don’t forget to click on save and give it your own name when you are finished. Then it appears on your filament list with that name
Thank you very much for your effort. This was also intended as a general discussion, because I just don’t understand their decision when they were otherwise trying to be better in every aspect. It would probably also be easier in production if all printers used the heated bed from the X1. Unfortunately, the X1 is too expensive to use as a workhorse. So far, I’ve found the print quality of these printers amazing, but I don’t need features like LIDAR. Most of the time, I print with the same filaments and use the AMS mainly to keep the printer running when a spool runs out, or to add a logo or mark different sides of a part to make the assembly instructions easier. I’ll now try printing a test part overnight on the A1 Mini with ABS and see how it goes.
I’ve also had success printing ABS-GF and ASA on my A1 mini. I have it inside a ventilated enclosure with an exhaust duct running to the window. The ventilation deals with the odors of printing these filaments while also keeping the interior of the enclosure within the recommended operating temperature of the A1 mini (10-30C). I haven’t tried regular ABS but Bambu ABS-GF prints well with this setup. ASA also works but I’ve had issues with it warping for larger prints.
Before I can print anything properly, I need to calibrate the filament flow, and that already doesn’t work because the filament won’t stick – not due to bed adhesion issues, but because of excessive warping, which is caused by the insufficient temperature. Also, I hate it when bots from China reply here telling me that the most important thing is to keep the temperature around the printer below 30°C.
I’ve been printing ABS for years on my Voron and Prusa printers, with the latter housed in a custom-built enclosure. Now that they are getting older, I was hoping to replace them with Bambu Lab printers, but that probably won’t work as long as the A1 Mini is just a crippled version.
You have been given many options. As you are an experienced user printing ABS since many years, you should also know some basics of ABS itself. Bots or not, they gave you the right information so the print won’t fail. Any open printer is not designed to print ABS and other kind of filaments and yet, with the help of the community, it is possible to some degree.
About your case. In the start you said that you could not even change the filament parameters and yet it is something that an experienced user should know how to get around. Flow in these machines (A1 and A1 Mini) is made in auto mode or, disabling it, manually. Since you mention that you printed ABS in other machines with an enclosure, that would be a good start with the mini. Adhesion is something that can be resolved easily if you want to bypass the fact that the A1 and A1 Mini were not supposed to print this kind of filament.
I get it, you wanted the “new best toy” on the market but you failed to search reviews before aquiring it. It’s not the machine fault at all.
Try and enclose the Mini, then apply some 3dlac or glue stick and start there. Tune your profiles, like you would in other machines. Then try, try and try.
It is possible to print ABS in these machines as already said and shown, period!
Sorry for the seemingly harsh answer but when a user comes and asks for help, he usually gets help. When a user asks for help and already has in his mind that he will trash every opinion then any help won’t be enough.
Post your results with time, be patient and try workarounds. We are here for help
I’m not sure why you think I’m a bot from China but the reason I mentioned keeping the enclosure below 30C is because Bambu specifically recommends not enclosing the A1 printers, presumably because the components were not designed for operating in high temperatures. My point was that it’s possible to enclose the printer and keep it within the recommended operating temperature if you have proper ventilation.
That’s why I didn’t ask for help, but instead opened a new topic where I wanted to discuss why the printer only has an 80°C bed and why they try to make it impossible to print ABS using the slicer. That’s also why I opened this topic in the discussion section of the forum and not in the help section. Then you tried to help me because I’m new to the Bambu Slicer as well, which I had never used before, and I appreciated your help and gave it a try. But I don’t need people telling me that the printer isn’t made for ABS because it doesn’t have an enclosure. Name one filament that requires 300°C at the nozzle and can be printed without an enclosure?
I would love to buy fully automated industrial printers with an enclosure and heated build chamber, but unfortunately, the parts would then be too expensive, and no one is willing to pay the price. So I have to find another way, and I think I have the right to be disappointed with Bambu Lab. Unfortunately, in all the tests and reviews, no one ever prints ABS – but that also applies to the Prusa Mini, and it still works. Even if it wasn’t made for it, the electronics and all other parts can withstand the temperature. The heated bed at 100°C seems to make the difference.
That’s just one of its design parameters. My car only goes about 140 mph yet if I watch NASCAR I see cars that go over 300 mph. Should I go to Dodge’s website and start questioning why my car won’t go that fast? Of course not, my car was just not made for the same use as those other cars. Just like the A1 mini was not made for the same use as some other printers.
I’m pretty sure the slicer does not limit you to anything other than what settings your printer is capable of. The slicer doesn’t even care what you name the filament if you set your own parameters. You can name the filament ‘24 carat gold’ if you want - just like you can name it ABS - and set any parameters that your printer is capable of. It then simply loads up whatever filament you actually put in it and applies the parameters you set for it. It doesn’t actually ‘know’ what the filament even is - it just knows when you tell it it’s printing whatever name you give it to use whatever parameters you have associated with that name.
Polymaker Fiberon PA6-CF20 (Nylon reinforced with carbon fiber) prints at 280-300 with a bed temp of 40-50 and at room temperature. They state that if your printer is enclosed the doors should be left open when printing this filament to avoid heat in the chamber.
ABS needs 100c bed and the mini only gets to 80c. The work around is to print the first layer PLA then switch to ABS. The ABS will stick to the PL:A just fine while the PLA sticks to the bed just fine. See if you can rig up some sort of enclosure as well. ABS is very sensitive and can warp with the slightest breeze while being priinted. Some people don’t have an issue without one but it likely will help.
