H2C Stargate to the creation, no-cap

Bambu Lab H2 Series
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Finally hooked up my H2C. All the remaining nozzles arrived the very next day after the printer, because of course they did.

Carrying this thing to my second floor office was… an experience. Either this printer is ridiculously heavy or I’m officially old. Probably both.

Then came the screw phase.Tiny screws, all eager to escape into another dimension. I’m 50 now, so glasses were recently mandatory, and I had to use a headlamp just to locate the screws. Felt like a surgeon performing open-heart surgery on a robot.

That said—everything was packed exactly how it should be. Whoever works in the design department deserves a raise. Attention to detail is absolutely on point.

For reference, I already own a Bambu Lab P1S, a Q1 Pro, and a few others I won’t name (out of respect… and embarrassment).

This machine is next level. Actually, scratch that—it’s a level and a half above the P1S. The precision and build quality are beyond anything I’ve owned before. The lights, glass, rods, rails, seals, fans—this thing feels like Star Trek. Or a Stargate to the creation co-cap, as my daughter calls it.

The day before it arrived, I watched 3D Nerd assembling the Core One.

Holy frapole.

Thank God I never even considered doing that. I have a mechanical engineering background and work in IT, but designing something and assembling a billion tiny parts are two very different skill sets.

Now, about the AMS 2 Pro. On YouTube, it looked expensive.

In real life? Why didn’t I buy this sooner?!

I have the Eibos Polyphemus, and until yesterday I thought it was the best thing since sliced bread. Yesterday I realized it’s… kind of garbage.

The Bambu AMS is quiet, doesn’t spin nonstop, and has a soft hum that isn’t annoying at all. Same with the AMS HT—I can actually have it running in the same room. The Polyphemus drove me insane; I had to move it downstairs. It’s getting sold this week.

Having the dryer built into the AMS is chef’s kiss. No more drying silica every few weeks, no more moving filament rolls back and forth. Just leave it overnight and wake up to 20% humidity or less. The comfort is unreal. This alone will speed up my workflow by 100%.

The printer itself is beautiful. It looks like it belongs in an office—not a basement workshop. I set it up in full offline LAN mode and it’s fast as hell.

Bed adhesion? Incredible. I didn’t even wash it.

Noise? Way quieter than the P1S.

I left it printing overnight—something I could never do with the P1S unless I wanted my wife to unplug it in self-defense.

The screen is next level too. I usually never touch screens on printers… but now I actually will.

Only minor complaint: making the silica compartment in AMS 2 just 3 mm narrower was a low blow. Now I can’t reuse my old AMS silica containers. Pain.

Next step: venting it outside. Currently hunting for a good single-hung window vent model that’s winter-ready.

If you’re on the fence—don’t think twice. Buy it. Thank me later.

This thing is sexy.

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That was an excellent read. I laughed out loud more than once. Well played sir. As a Fellow 2C owner, I also couldn’t agree more.

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One thing i think reviewers are missing and might in fact be against their nature since many of them are ‘pro’ fiddlers and have been for many years is how the h2c protects you from mistakes and adds comfort. I already have 200 hours on it but 10min ago i was had 2ams+2ht’s in drying mode (drying 10 spools). Wanted to start printing so turned the 2 ams units off from drying i needed to use. One of the HT units protected me in several ways first since it was pla-support it didn’t even allow me to dry it with it ‘in the feeder tube’ but now i want to start printing it stops me with a notify ‘HT with the pla-sup’ is too warm and needs to cool down for good operation. People complain that you can’t dry while printing but more and more i think they use all these sensors and eco system parts to protect us against lessons long time 3d printer people have learned over time and just makes sure all is in place to have a lesser rate of failed prints. This layer of assist and the machine keeping a eye on your actions only becomes clear over time and will probably improve more over time and where bambu extra cost, hardware and software integration will rule (and as a result be more closed).

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Funny how we experienced the exact same thing: brain-fart protection activated.
I left ABS drying overnight in my HT unit. This morning I pulled the ABS out, tossed in some matte PLA, and hit print… and the AMS was like “nope.” Wouldn’t even try to feed it.

My first thought:
“Great. Day two and it’s already broken.”

Second thought:
“I probably cooked it overnight.”

Then about five seconds later it hit me:
“Ohhh… this thing is literally saving my butt.”

The ABS had been drying at 80 °C. If the AMS had fed the PLA, it would’ve turned into molten spaghetti inside the system. Instant clog city.
So I left the lid open, waited about 5 minutes until the temp dropped to ~40–45 °C, tried again — fed perfectly. Zero issues.
Moral of the story: yes — Bambu Lab is actually really cool this way.

About cost — I was thinking about it last night, and honestly? Printing has gotten way cheaper.

Back in 2017, when Prusa was making waves, a printer was about $1000 USD (if I remember right). That’s before:

extra plates
nozzles
a few rolls of PLA at ~$50 each
shipping to Canada
All in, it was around $1650 USD, and that didn’t even include duties.

I remember a friend of mine was buying gold at the time — about 1.5 oz — and we joked that the printer was a way better (and way more fun) investment than shiny metal. We could print gold bars with gold filament:)

Fast-forward to today: That same 1.5 oz of gold ≈ $9,000 CAD.
Meanwhile, printer prices have basically dropped 50%, and I’m not even going to compare:
an H2C
2× AMS + HT
to a Prusa MK2.
Different universe.

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Indeed but the message was very clear in my view, i even played with ‘feeding’ a few times to see how quickly the message came up/went away when i put it in the little hole to see where the detector was :slight_smile:

We hear they made 1500 prototypes and i am sure there are many use cases they didn’t catch yet but i also am more convinced they are trying to catch and protect us from making mistakes and helping us along and i wonder how many of the other brands are doing this. The downside is probably people who ‘fiddle’ with their bambu printers of this and upcoming ‘levels’ and go outside of the box and get themselves into trouble. We have already seen that with some of the gcode hacking.. not saying hacking the gcode is bad but i can see how these two forces will collide in the future.

But its cool tech for sure and i wonder if they have teams inside r&d trying to f… things up and making test cases for them to detect.

Daniel.

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This is not specific to the H2C, it’s a AMS2/HT feature that protects user from loading filament in a to hot unit.

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yeah i assume this has been buildup over a few years for sure its just that both of us probably are effected for the first time…

Daniel.

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During print - yes. But I own a H2D and it takes forever to extrude filament that belongs to the actual print. And the H2C is supposedly even slower.

Besides: Nice read!

That’s actually useful.
I mean I have printed on other printers before, the one before H2D was a Prusa MK4S. So I was able to get beautiful prints without being told whenever I do something wrong.

But now, it seems I lost my brain when buying the H2D. I actually find it really useful, all these little helpers that say the I use the wrong hotend, wrong plate, etc.

Only thing where I disagree: I don’t like the drying feature of the AMS. I simply prefer the Creality Space Pi X4 for that task.

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I think this is a good example its not that the ams2 pro’s or HT units are the best dryers but you don’t have to take them out and can just run them way easier before or during printing (if they are not in use). I also have a external one that is better but we are lazy by nature.

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Agree completely!!! My biggest complement “Everything just works”.

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Overall, they’re not the best, but the comfort is unreal—especially when the dryer is in a different room and you have to go back and forth.

I’d love to be able to use them while printing, and also operate them when the printer is turned off. Having a temperature meter display on the AMS 2 Pro, similar to the HT, and the ability to control it directly from the display would be great.

That said, with the awesome H2C display, I’m okay with the compromise.

I would also move the vents to the top lid rather than the bottom. Every time I open the lid, the humidity drops, which shows that moist air is escaping upward. Having the exhaust vent at the bottom isn’t ideal.

I might drill a small hole in the top and add a TPU plug or valve so it can be sealed when not in use.

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I love mine too. had mine for a month now. Beautiful.

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Fun to read and informative as well. There are a few people on this forum who should take note of your method of getting across your point. Here’s hoping that the rude take note.

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Ever since buying the X1CC when it first was release, I’ve been saying to myself, this thing is incredible. The H2D and AMS2 I bought a few months back are a REAL step above the X1CC. And I might have fallen for the C if I had known it was coming out so soon. Yes, for the haters, you just can put in a roll of filament and PRINT. 99% success rate. I always screw up once in a while, but the printer rarely does. Prusa? So 1990s. Sorry

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You lucky. I had to carry it to the 3rd floor. With a little help of a friend.
Unpacking the tons of cardboard which are used for a safe transport reduced the weight I have to carry a further floor alone.

My only problem occured when trying to untightening a screw with the delivered 2mm hex key tool and when I tilted it to much: the head of the hex key broke as the material is to briddle.
If I hadn’t had my own hex key (with a rounded head for slanted access), getting it up and running would have been impossible because some of the screws are too deep for the shorter end of the hex key.