Advise for first time buyer

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Hi, i am about to buy my first printer and was about to pick up a P1S but saw the A1mini when i was on the site and now i cant decide.
i get the A1 mini with ams for cheaper then P1S without but cant print the same size or materials.
Noice level and space is not a problem for me but money is.

I am an enginering student and i will use it to make parts for prototypes and models, multicolor is not a prio but having spools of different material might be good.

What would you choose? P1s without ams or A1 mini with

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Buy the biggest printer your budget allows.

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3

is it woth the 200 euro difference and skipping the AMS?

4

You can always buy an AMS later. You can’t buy a bigger bed later.

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5

The P1S will allow you to print more material types than the A1 mini. You are an engineering student, the potential for the different material types may be better suited to your prototyping and functional builds.

Since cost is a concern, you should spend some time looking into the different types of filaments (pla, abs, petg, tpu, nylon, pc, etc.) and use that information to help you decide. While an AMS is nice, it isn’t necessary for most prototyping or functional parts.

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6

Listen to this community member. This is exactly why you want a P series. If you’re engineering student, you want the broadest choices of materials and the enclosed environment of the P Series allows that.

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The only thing you know for certain right now is that you don’t know what you don’t know. By that I mean, unless your school has a curriculum road map that is cast in stone, you likely won’t know what assignments will dictate what filaments you’ll use in future projects. You must ask yourself if the savings are worth boxing yourself in for the future.

If money is truly tight and if I were back in university, knowing what I know now and money was a “deciding factor” which it was back in my day :wink: :man_student:, I would buy the A1 and fabricate an enclosure for it myself. But there are a lot of very serious drawbacks to that approach that you simply can’t ignore. But on the other hand the fact that it is 50% of the cost of the next model up you can’t ignore either.

BTW: You can always build an effective enclosure out of Cardboard or any cheap material that will keep heat in for the A1 but you can’t change the max print bed plate temp, at least for now, a serious permanent drawback in my view.

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So, if I were to outline your choices as an engineering student. Here’s what I would say are your options considering cost and functionality.

You’ve already realized that an AMS is a luxury item and here’s a secret that isn’t always discussed. The slicer supports pause-at-layer, which gives you the option of manually changing filaments during a print. A “poor-man’s AMS”.

  • A1 - In summary, this is the printer for Fine Arts majors, not Engineers who need to get stuff done. The A1’s use-case is clearly aimed at someone seeking good looking designs for not a lot of money. Plus, I have reservations about trusting bed-slinger approach when it comes to dimensional accuracy. This may cause frustrations in filament tuning when you’re up against an assignment deadline.

  • P1 Series - At twice the price of the A1 Mini, what’s not to like? :wink: But seriously, there is more under the hood and an order of magnitude greater capability with the P1 series as far as its extensibility through customization and it’s positioned perfectly between the X1 and the A1. As far as filament support goes, the only noteworthy thing is that you may have to change out the extruder for more harsh filaments but that’s it and those parts are cheap by comparison the to the eye-watering expense - from a student’s perspective - of the X1.

NOTE: To put a glass top and door on a P1P is about €76,00. So it may be worth going for the P1S just for that fact alone and if you want to mod it later with custom Modplates like the P1P, you can always remove the sides and modify it to your desire. Remember, the P1P and P1S are identical other than the enclosure.

Here’s a table that I would consider viewing. This is extracted from the Bambu Lab website but it only mentions those items that might be of interest to an engineering student.

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P1P A1 Mini
Cost €599,00 €319,00
Max Bed Temp 100℃ 80 ℃
Max volume Build 256x256x256mm 180x180x180mm
Filament Support
PLA, PETG, TPU, PVA, PET: Ideal Ideal
ABS, ASA Capable Not Recommended
PA, PC Capable Not Recommended
Carbon/Glass Fiber Reinforced Capable Capable
Additional Costs
Enclosure Rich support for customized enclosure from Bambu and the 3D community.(€76,00 for add-on glass door and lid)

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While you’re doing your research. Ask yourself what filaments you might find yourself needing as a student. Carbon Fiber(CF) and Polycarbonate come to mind as two that an engineering student would find themselves desiring if one is making strong parts or wanted dimensional accuracy. You simply cannot do these with an A1.

This filament guide does a nice job of comparing the choices. While not inclusive of all the possibilities such as Nylon, it covers most of the items you might be faced with.

Good luck :four_leaf_clover: on your pursuit of engineering and please let us know what path you select on your printer.

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Thanks to all of you, it semester like everyone favors the P1 series iver the A1 for my intendent use and i agree on Nosy of your points.

AMS seems to be a luxury i should live without for the uppgrade of a bettet overall printer.
I cools easily make an enclosure for the A1 but it still seems inferior and even though money is tight the current deal of 659€ for P1S is a stretch but affordable so i Will go for that one.

Thanks allt for all the input!