Initially, I wasn’t too unhappy because I thought the price was reasonable for the omission of a basic enclosure, especially if they set up files to print your own. But now, the market is slowly saturating with enclosed variants that offer many of the same features (or better) at very competitive prices. Again, initially I thought the including of the STEP files to “customize” the panels was reasonable, but after printing the panels and finding the fit and finish just barely passable, its really left a bad taste. I’ve found ways to clean up some of the fit, but I can honestly say I’ve spent way more time “finishing” the printer than I set out to. Now, 2 rolls of filament in (on just the panels trying to get clean fitting panels), I’m becoming annoyed.
I think this issue will get sorted out moving forward, as every other manufacturer who is producing a printer in this space and price has found a way to do it for cheaper including an entire enclosure (or in the case of QiDi, an actively heated chamber for $100 more). So Bambu will be forced make changes if they want to keep their market share. But that would still leave the early adapters in the same position.
I’ve even gone as far as trying to get a 3rd party company (PCBWay, Xometry, etc.) to fab a sheet metal version like on the X1s, but the cost is prohibitively expensive for trail and error ($500’ish), and the same with a one piece PLA print ($250). Even worse, in PLA, that would just be a prototype as PLA isn’t durable enough with the chamber being 35-45c during printing. I’ve even considered buying a large format printer capable of the 450mm longest dimension (like a Kobra), but I had to smack myself for even thinking about doing that. I had to laugh at myself for thinking about buying a printer to finish another printer.
Personally, I’d be happy to buy an X1 panel from Bambu, but am I alone? Is the community largely happy with the naked sheet metal look or the self printed panels? Personally, I’ll decide how I move forward, but I am curious of what the community’s take is on this. No wrong answers, just curious.
Well, it would be much more expensive then outright buying a X1C. You would need to change the entire electronic setup. It means to rebuild half the machine.
I’ve printed this minimal enclosure and simply bought the required acrylic sheets for top and sides off from my local hardware store (they cut them to the appropriate size/measurements I gave them). In addition I’ve ordered the original X1C glass door (~50€).
Overall it took me less than 1 spool of PETG filament (~15€) and 50€ for the acrylic parts and things like screws. So the overall cost was like ~120€ which I didn’t found too expensive, considering I bought the original glass door from BL.
However, I am now pleased with a fully enclosed printer and on top of that it was fun tinkering with this out-of-the-box “as-is” printer.
Only thing left to do now is to install an chamber exhaust fan, for which I am waiting for my Amazon order to arrive. That would make in total an additional 50€ including all required parts (chamber fan duct DIY from Printables, Noctua fan, PicoMolex 1.25mm connectors, resistors, buck-converter).
but let’s be honest - isn’t this the joy of tinkering with your devices? for me at least it do be like that
Man will never grow up - the toys are just getting more expensive LOL
That was my thought when I bought it. But as it sits now, the mismatched finish of printable panels and polished internals is just odd.
Not taking anything away, its a beast of a printer, just would have liked it to have been more polished now that I see the price point wasn’t so hard to hit after all.
I’m confused as to why you thought you could make parts or have parts fabricated of equal quality for less than the manufacturer. If you could , then perhaps they would contract you to make them for them lol. I don’t think you will ever come close to matching the Chinese pricing for parts, especially without buying thousands of them.
If you “Have to have” the fancy parts, then you have to pay the price to get them. Sort of like paying $30k extra for ceramic brake upgrades on a hypercar. If you want them, they you pay for them…even though almost no one will ever be able to actually use them to their potential.
I never expected to get better parts than the factory parts (as I’m designing them myself), but I definitely wanted better than the printed parts we have. I reached out to PCBway and Xometry to assist in printing or making parts larger than the build area of my printers but their prices are a little too extreme, $250 for 350 grams of PLA seemed a little excessive, so that was a pass. Designing the models was quite easy with all the tools we have, so I figured it was worth a check. In all honesty, that $250 quote was nearly quadrupled from the original auto quote. Just a dishonest service IMO. They may have a value for full production runs, but I’m looking for a one off, so the services are useless to me. I imagine these services are just brokers for other shops and they still don’t want the hassle of these types of ad hoc requests, so they price accordingly.
But that has nothing to do with Bambu. My bone to pick with Bambu is the lack of panels on the machine or the inability to buy them from Bambu. But like I said, with other options coming online for cheaper with more complete enclosures and similar performance, I’d bet Bambu is going to have to make some changes. We’ll see. But for now, I just have to deal with it, and decide how to move forward.
Wrong, I’ve spent about £200 for my enclosure which is aluminium composite panel, PC door and glass top. Also this includes MC board, auxiliary and chamber fans. Around £300 cheaper. I have both machines and I love them both. Nearly forgot to mention hardened steel extruder gears and cable chain included.
I have choosen the P1P because of the price, knowing that it missing some features. But the missing enclosure was one reason to buy. I have build the P1P Vision enclosure with some additional extras, which gives me easy access from all sides. So the printer can work as designed from Bambu Lab as open frame printer. Since some days the AUX fan and a Noctua 4010 as MC board fan are installed. So it can now work as closed printer too. This is, what I expected. With all the failed parts for the enclosure it costs me around 200 euros.
Just that you did not convert your P1P into a X1C. You just put it into an enclosure.
You do not have spagetti detection, you do not have a lidar and you still have a crappy MC of the P1P. Your camara still sucks compared to the X1C one. Your heatbed is still limited to 100°C instead of 120°C. If you want to switch out everything else, you will have to pay a LOT more then 300 bucks.
Putting a casing around it is easy, but turning it into a X1C is not.
I know it’s been a while since you posted this, but would you mind posting a photo of your enclosure with the BL Glass Top? I’m thinking of doing a Mario Bros. Arc build but I’m not sure how the glass top fits into the design (I don’t want to print parts for the top if they’re not necessary).
LMAO, I was past $200 dollars about when I created this post. Its surprising how quickly costs mount up even with “free” prints. Yeah, I’m annoyed, but it is what it is. Only gonna cost me 2 P1P’s to get one P1S. But that’s my fault, no one made me spend it. I guess I should have just should used my crystal ball and just waited .
Oh well. There is a positive from this, besides getting a clean enclosure, at least this shows they are in tune with what people want. But as I’ve said in other threads, the honeymoon is over.
Well I bit the bullet this morning and ordered the X1C, so will have my highly modded P1P for sale, my new order has already shipped, just like the P1P 3 weeks ago today shipped same day and arrived Wednesday
Congrats, If I had it to do all over that’s the route I would have took too. Just didn’t think I wanted an AMS. Boy was I wrong, and paid the price for it.
Yes I bought the X1C with AMS, no brainer really, just wish I’d done that 3 weeks ago doh!
I would keep the P1P but just don’t have the space, and it is only a hobby to help me because I am disabled, keeps me active a week bit more than before
for me at least it do be like that
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