Another BL competitor coming

Competition is good. It is good for the consumer.

it’s also good for innovation and creativity as well.

Exactly and in addition to the print size, the multi-material (and not the multi-color), service/maintenance is may currently the third major demand… But may I overlooked something. The choice of sales shelves at the local retailer at least one option.

There is little doubt that BL will be coming up with new printers. All of the competition is in a frenzy to capture a piece of the market. BL has a big leap ahead with the AMS and quality printing. I would like to see not only a larger build plate but more advanced version of AMS that doesn’t require the constant swapping of filaments. Maybe something like Mosaic Palette or multiple extruders like Prusa XL

I don’t think Bambu is worried about anyone in particular but they’re worried about everyone in general. which is how it should be. The Phrozen is a unique design having a flying gantry and instead of using belts to fly it uses 4-lead screws. That’s interesting. The Magneto-X is just plain crazy but it may be too crazy and expensive. It will be way over 2K when it’s finally available. What can Bambu come up with? If it’s just bigger, who cares? If the can pull another Apple out of their hat they may leap over the completion again.

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To be honest, a feature sorely missing from the BL flagship printers is a dual extrusion head. Or a dual head setup. Here’s why.

BL sells support filament, but trying to use it in conjunction with a model creates so much waste that it’s an economic no go. Especially at the price of the support filament.

A dual extrusion system that would minimize such waste would make the support filament idea a better option. You could still have the AMS system feed at least one of the extruders. Also 2 color prints could be done with much less waste and faster if you didn’t have to wait for filament swaps and purges every time you swap colors. Lots of other benefits.

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indeed, BL could launch gen 2 with dual head while also providing an upgrade package to dual head for the existing x1 series. I’d definitely buy them both.

@quietman

You are so right but I’m too nervous to agree.

There have been so many tragedies with dual exdrudr. In the end they have to know it by themself - they’re already may too close to the sidelines to tackle such a task if they haven’t been working on it for the past 2 years on it (but maybe they did and the development is almost there, who knows).

Unimportant but only the basis for the statement:

The first to implement this correctly is probably Snapmaker on the J1, actually in a very impressive way too. QUDI gave up halfway through. Crealitys try to sell a dual extrudr just brings tears to my eyes, so I feel sorry for anyone who has ever bought a printer like this as they still want to sell belt printers for $1000 (So they could still gold-plate there K1C and I’m not interested at all because when the time comes again, they won’t care anymore). Sovol didn`t bring there SV07 plus models into the stores, so i never look at there dual Extruder model SV04 which is outdated which is actually a great regret (No rating, just not what I want as a supplier so they’re certainly not bad). And I’m not talking about Prusa - it might be unfair of me but if it doesn’t fit, it just doesn’t fit. The current XL is nice, I look at it, but key partners have to bring more to the table than just a good product. Also trust and not standing still for years. Feet on the ground and so on (my gut feeling just kept telling me no as always when it comes to Prusa and there would have to be more to come before my personal impression changed)

Finaly, the Adventure 5M game card was played because of the Guider 3 Ultra with Dual exdrudr (Guider 3 Ultra by a double purchase / double insurance far too expensive to me) but something could happen on the cheaper line of this manufacturer and than the slicer is already embedded into process line… So the J1 only lost by a small margin - also because you don’t want to bet on 3 players, there isn’t enough time for that. And if Bambulab exceeds the current price mark, I expect nothing else than a miracle before I don’t watch for another 24 months and wait to see how the printer proves itself.

Have you taken a look at the Qidi I-fast? They seem to be claiming this capability.

@NeverDie

Just by the way - as fare as i know, the I-Fast has a problem by temperatur changes. Hence the statement: QUDI gave up halfway through. Strong in mechanics, weak in coding. Problems with temperature changes and realignment of the machine - as long as only one material is used, this may not be a problem and up to you if it something or not… That was my opponent for the X1C.

Its confirmd ones in Englisch (attention both Videos are 1 year old - time is changing):

And in German confirmd by a Person how build a 3D printer on a really high level by himself (but his own printer brand is more for the upper price segment):

This is why it’s so surprising that Flashfroge doesn’t have autoleveling built into the slicer software - these problems have been around for so long… and the same problems keep popping up when you forget to pay attention to them. Then I prefer to live with the AMS from Bambulab, take always the slightest pain :wink: Lots of poop :wink: and terrible accessibility to mainternance/repairs :wink: And service would be nice, but if what comes out of the box doesn’t fit more, than the service can’t save it. Even if the service is outstanding :wink:

Getting dual extruders on a single head is a huge headache and a pain in the butt. You have to get them aligned just right, but then you’ve also got the problem of the second nozzle knocking into things. You can introduce other mechanisms to raise or lower one of the nozzles, but that adds another layer of complexity. I’ve owned several dual extruder printers and have even designed a few toolheads for other printers I modded. I never owned an ultimaker though, so no idea how well their system functions.

I don’t know. I think I would prefer changeable tool heads. I’m so sick of the dual extruder setup, uggh. Overall though, the thing about Bambu’s current setup is that it’s easy and simple. I’ve never encountered another system that just kind of worked. I actually use support material on my Bambu because I can use it with reliability.

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Yes and 100 of 100 Points!

Thats way the aligment hole on the Snapmaker J1 is so impressive they almost got me. With my last two decisions, the dual exdruder was always in the last two but somehow I’m was afraid to take the step and think that it might need another generation. The glass plate on the J1 also makes me nervous - when it shines gold, you know it’s holding up and what the farmer doesn’t know he won’t eat :wink: and the last time Bambulab taught me… if it doesn’t seem golden shimmer on the adhesive plate, see if you can get gold and if not, keep your hands off.

Interchangeable head systems have always been even more difficult to implement. Aligning them properly has always cost a lot of money and will always be very difficult. Even if it works at the beginning, a little dirt - a little wear someware and bye… Whether it’s a lathe or a milling machine or now a 3D printer, it doesn’t matter. Mechanics is and remains a mechanics issue. I’m often wrong but then please provide proof first before touching my money and then I spend money… :innocent:

The J1 is an IDEX printer where each print head can work independently. There is some mixing of concepts going on in the conversation between IDEX and dual extruders affixed to a single head where the whole assembly is moving as one even if only printing with 1 extruder. My first 3D printer was a Bibo 2 dual extruder unit and it was a freaking PITA to get the 2 nozzles perfect to each other on the Z axis, and the passive nozzle constantly colliding with infill as it passed over the print.

The IDEX way of doing things like the J1 along with Bambu’s ability to innovate I hope is their next play. Someone mentioned retrofitting the existing X1 with dual heads, but given the compact size of the printer I doubt it could ever be feasible even with single head dual extruders without dropping X axis travel drastically. A J1 inspired Bambu with AMS(s) for each head would be fantastic.

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@dana.nelson Thanks :+1: I’ll keep that in mind and again learned something new :slightly_smiling_face:

It’s interesting how they put their square calibration pit right in the dead center of the J1 heated bed. There must be something I don’t understand, because I would have thought that was prime real estate to build on. Does the build plate go on top and bridge over it after the calibration between the two heads is done?

Yeah, it’s a removable build surface on top of the glass but looks like it is a physical clip retention as opposed to magnetic.

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