It seems that Bambu Lab isn’t a good fit for you and your needs. The great thing is there are plenty of other brands to choose from that should better fill your needs. I think there is a reason for Bambu Lab success and most of us like it the way it is, because it just work. And yes, regulating gun printing is a good thing in my mind. Cheers.
Brilliantly said.
The more time I spend in the Bambu ecosystem, the more I’ve started to think, and the more I’ve seen other say, it seems like Bambu’s main goal is obtaining as many copyrights as possible through Maker World. They show less and less interest in customer satisfaction or even availability of products and push Maker World more heavily than anything.
I love the warning about using another company’s filament, all while you can’t get most Bambu filament because it’s always sold out.
Legally you can carry it and use it all you want, you can’t, for the most part sell it though. (There are ways to do so, but requires some steps…)
I have a Glock 19 that I made the upper and lower (upper steel, lower ABS-GF) that I carry at times, but I made the stippling to “sharp/strong”, so I need to make some time to “tame it” to my likes.
The 1911 I made is a “service” gun, but not something I carry unless I’m going to war and the 45 cal ammo is more available than 9mm, my preferred “pill”…
So it depends on the gun I guess. Initially I make them to test the concept, or the process or work with the tools to make sure I have a good grip of the tools as well. If they come out well, perform well, and don’t break down or kill me, they can be used anyway that they are needed in my tool box.
Everyone is free to work with whichever company they choose. In my opinion, open-source systems and the freedom to build your own 3D printers are very misguided and risky. I believe that nearly every decision Bambu has made so far has been the right one. That said, I’m not satisfied with their logistics and support services, especially the support team’s approach to resolving issues. But nobody’s perfect.
I know the period before Bambu and how printers used to be very well. Rather than using expensive but low quality printers like Prusa, poor copies of Bambu, or low quality printers made from cheap parts just to keep costs down, I’ll stick with the Bambu ecosystem. Until a company emerges that produces printers of the same quality as Bambu and offers better service, this is where I stand.
I’m not a fan of any company or even any person but when it comes to printers that run with the fewest issues and technology, Bambu is far ahead of the rest.
Mr. Boy,
I understand there is a difference between the company and the company’s device, but I have to ask what you mean. After 10 years of building, and relentless/required tweaking and recalibrating, of a variety of 3D printers, from a variety of manufacturers (ask me about printing PPE during Covid), discovering a high-quality plug-and-play printer had arrived on the market and was available to the masses that required essentially none of that (tweaking and recalibrating), was a breath of fresh air, at least to me. Obviously, there are now many other offerings, from many other companies on the market that have those equivalent (and perhaps even better, I don’t know), but I am personally not aware of any other companies that competed with Bambu at that level, “back in the day”. So…I am curious what you mean when you say (without providing any specifics), they are “never the company you thought they were”. Can you elaborate? Or, are you just one of those dismissible drive-by haters?
Note: my question here is in no way intended to be interpreted to be a passive-aggressive challenge to the very (very) good post that initiated this thread. I agree with everything the OP said and very much look forward to seeing any response from Bambu Labs that may be forthcoming. In fact, I have to admit that in my more cynical moments, I can sometimes assume nefarious things. The last point is that despite the fact that over the last twenty years, and having worked very closely with different organizations in China (including with high-level government organizations), to the largest extent, those engagements were very rewarding and entirely unconcerning. Still….
As Bambu Lab closes their ecosystem more, Snapmaker is growing their open source capabilities while embracing the community around it.
I’m not the author, but unless the situation changes trajectory, my H2C will probably be the last Bambu printer I buy, and my next one is very likely to be a Snapmaker.
What features are you missing out on? What open source features from snapmaker are so intriguing or useful?
“ keeping their eco system to a cloud/server based system provides the government as much data as it can glean”. Combine that with all the other highly functional smart devices on the market from other companies in China, that require access to your WiFi (and often via a blanket “access to other WiFi and Bluetooth devices in your home/locstion required”, can you say….”digital twin”?
Yes, but this company is in China. Perhaps not typical business practices, with other-than-normal motivations? (Note the word “perhaps”)
INDX and INBXX are some of the open source initiatives that I really like that Bambu haven’t ripped off yet. Prusa’s open ecosystem allows aftermarket toolheads that can print liquid filaments that cure as they’re being extruded, like silicon. Full Spectrum is another good example of the open source community being ahead of Bambu Lab, but Bambu seems to have swept it under their umbrella (after releasing their own, less good version first)
But it’s not about “features I’m not getting” - if my partner gave me everything I asked for but then also viciously beat the dogs, I would demand she stop. If she did not, I would seek another partner. Bambu’s treatment of the open source community is like that - they take from it, do not give back, and then close it up to maintain their own competitive advantage. This starves the community that they are borrowing from. I would rather give my money to a company that did not exploit those communities.
Im confused. You were hyping up snapmaker, then continue to list achievements from Prusa and Bondtech. The only one on there from Snapmaker is Full spectrum.
I am not going to address the “beat the dogs” comment because I think that is a ridiculous comparison.
Hi Everyone,
As someone who has four Bambu Labs(BL) printers, I am not a tinkerer or anything of the sort. So I in NO WAY am diminishing what other’s have been experiencing, as I probably do not understand the issue to begin with. For me BL has been much like my iPad and Apple, it is what it is. It functions and makes what I need it to make. Do I wish that the filament settings were ALL there, OF COURSE. Do I wish that my H2D would print ABS better or tell me I am screwing something up, OF COURSE. But in keeping with the APPLE comparison, BL builds their products to work better and more reliably right out of the box. And like Apple their system is a closed off environment, it is one of the reasons I own an Android not an iPhone. The same can be said for FDM printers. I hear nothing but praises from Prusa and SOVOL owners about how OPEN the system is and how magical it is. I had a Prusa Core ONE L for 3 days and then I was like WTF I have no idea how to make this work. and promptly returned it. The one thing I will say about BL is they are honest about their closed nature. Prusa however started their whole journey as an OPEN SOURCE system and now are moving to a “hybrid” semi closed system. In the end I think each brand of FDM printers are like car companies brands. And as my drivers ed teacher used to say to me “Um Alan sometimes you SHOULD stay in your lane.” From that I take that certain FDM brands are for me and some are definately outside my scope. I wish everyone well.
I do not think we need to assume unusual motives to explain normal product segmentation. Companies everywhere separate product lines, recover engineering costs, limit warranty exposure, and reserve higher-end features for higher-end models. That happens with US, EU, Japanese, Korean, and Chinese companies.
There may be valid concerns around cloud dependency, data handling, and regulatory pressure, but I think those are separate from whether a 300°C cap or belt choice is automatically artificial gatekeeping. Without evidence that the hardware is truly identical and fully validated for the same use, I would be careful treating speculation as fact.
I’m not trying to under-sell Snapmaker, but most of what makes their open source community so appealing to me has already been coopted by Bambu. Some Snapmaker specific things I’ve admired:
- They are moving from more-closed to more open, because they have seen community contributions make them more competitive
- Instead of just implementing RFID (or worse, inventing their own “open” RFID standard like Elegoo has) they are actually able to read other manufacturer’s RFID tags
- Hardware-accelerated WebRTC camera streaming
- No attempts to cease-and-desist the open source firmware replacements
This timelapse recovery video is a neat thing from the community (but honestly wouldn’t move the needle much other than as an example) GitHub - horzadome/snapmaker-u1-timelapse-recovery: Simple python script to recover broken timelapse videos from Snapmaker U1 · GitHub
They’ve also fostered a community around Luban.
Again tho, I’m not looking for “the thing with the most features” - I generally believe in a more unixy philosophy that the best tool for the job is generally the most focused, and as much as I like the H2C, I don’t want or need it to also be a laser, or a Cricut. YMMV.
Regarding “beat the dogs,” my point wasn’t to evoke violence, but to illustrate a subjective line that I feel is being crossed. I don’t really care about how they do their product segmentation, or their support schedule, or the quality of their support. Sure, those things could be better, but my only major complaint with Bambu is the way in which I believe they are exploitative to open source communities. If not for that, I would be happy to remain a Bambu Lab customer, and I would be planning to buy the smaller, P/X-class toolchanger that I assume they are going to make. Instead, I am (currently) leaning towards the U1.
@Nephillim Thank you and nicely put. And I agree, the out of box experience is why I picked BL first. Basically my A1 preforms as expect. There are always details involved, but ultimately it’s doing what I’m asking it to do. Would I pick another brand for a different job. Absolutely. To use the car analogy, I really with my Fiat 500 could tow my 30 Airstream. It can’t. That’s why I have the F250. Each have their own job, and they do it well.
BL has the out of box and style.
Other brands have the “tinker, poke, tinker, adjust, tweak”.
Both can to the job that the other can do to some degree. But each is focused on a different market. Do I wish Bambu had a 5 TH changer, with heated chamber Monster? Yes. Do I wish I other slicers that sourced from other cloud services could talk to my A1? Yes. Can BL printers operate without having any access to the internet and allow me to plug a cable directly from my computer to the printer?
In the end the A1 doesn’t, BL doesn’t, and I don’t know. But it’s doing what I want it to do for now. What is that? It’s teaching me about 3D printing, the issues surrounding printer operation, customer service issues, issues surrounding the 3D printing community, and the issues surrounding the industry.
Will I buy a BL for my Catamaran? I don’t know. Still researching.
And really, the OP was trying to highlight why he disagreed with BL, and what he wanted changed. All of it educational material.
“Accipies quae attribuisti” Translation: "You will receive that which you paid”
Edit: spelling/grammar
Couldn’t have said it better myself. Nice post OP
I thoroughly enjoy firearms. For hunting and for competition shooting, the self defense aspect is the main part of having weapons. Fools having access to weapons is nothing new, been that way for thousands to millions of years. What the view is in America under the 2nd Amendment is the fact that fools and bad guys will get access to weapons, even their own fists can be weapons. Best to give the good people access to a means to help stop those bad guys, since the government cannot stop every bad guy in their tracks nor defend every individual.
Not trying to be rude, more trying to be educational. Self defense is not political, it is a reality everyone deals with on a daily basis; some are just more aware of it than others. Just because you don’t fear being attacked, doesn’t mean you are not vulnerable to be attacked.
That said, I get your point. But it doesn’t change the fact that MOST people printing weapons are likely printing accessories that do nothing to make the weapon more deadly. Likely only add to the looks of the weapon. CNC machines is where the real manufacturing of weapons is coming from, at least from what I understand.
Bambu Lab did not betray the “community” by becoming a serious hardware company. It succeeded because it brought unusually polished, reliable, high-performance 3D printing to people who previously had to spend months tuning, modifying, and troubleshooting printers just to get consistent results. That was the value proposition. It was never a promise to become a fully open, community-governed hardware collective.
I own an Ender 3 (in the garage somewhere), a Prusa Core One and a Bambu H2D. The Ender 3 was like buying a beater used car. Worked but constantly fussing with it and would often fail. The Core One was interesting because I got to build it but required a couple of months of fiddling before it worked consistently. It’s reliable but simple, like my ‘71 Volkwagen Kombi or my Linux workstation. It’s fun to drive but I can’t take it on the highway. The H2D, I pulled out of the box, turned it on and it just works. Like my Tesla or my iPhone.
I could give a toss really about Bambu and open source. Nobody forced me to buy their printer. My iPhone and MacBook are closed off too but I just turn it own and it works.
The Core One is still open source. It’s just too simple for my needs. Kind of like why I do development on Linux but my after work activity is on MacOS. I drive around in the van on the weekends but if I need to do a road trip or go shopping, it’s the Tesla.
If you want completely open source and complete freedom, the build a Voron.
Customers are absolutely entitled to vote with their wallets and they will. Users who prioritize fully open firmware, maximum local control and community-governed development should buy machines that align with those values and I’d suggest a Voron.