For offline storage, I am using Sterilite Gasket Top boxes with desiccant and hygrometer for monitoring. I have an AMS and am using some of the AMS desiccant models available.
Your 2nd paragraph is what Iām expecting.
As for plastic nuts and bolts, Iām not doing any since none of the filaments is suited to the abuse those things take in a fabrication / welding shop. I sometimes snap steel bolts. I may place a hole for a metal insert and press one in place or cage a nut after the fact. If the final material is slightly off, thatās something Iāll learn about and get accustomed to.
I can see using metal screws for my hobby quads and planes. Those things are usually tiny and being off a bit might mean a few thousands of a millimeter. The bulk of what Iāll print for the hobby would be TPU to hold a GPS, antenna, etc; tiny squishy things.
The various filaments is something Iām going to experiment with. I want to build my own library of how various ones react to different situations. I expect to whittle a selection down to just a few types for specific purposes after a while.
I downloaded and installed the Linux version of BS. I executed it and it showed up but thatās as far as I got. Engineers are famous for having āanalysis paralysisā and I am so afflicted. I canāt tinker with it before I have a real live piece of gear to use it on.
Well then it may be time to pull out your credit card 
My recommendation based on what youāve written (I can into detail āwhyā if you like):
- P1S+AMS or X1C+AMS
- gold PEI plate if not included
- 0.6mm complete hot-end and spare 0.4 nozzle at minimum (0.6 prints faster and stronger, I do about 2/3 of prints in 0.6)
- probably spare extruder
- you get a bit of PLA, tough PLA, and PLA-CF or PAHT-CF with the printer, I believe
- buy some more Bambu PLA, some PETG, TPU, PAHT-CF, PET-CF, maybe ASA, and perhaps another couple of filaments
- bambu liquid glue (you can read the debates about using glue or not with the PEI plate, but itās good to have some)
- quart of alumina dessicant and a 4-pack of temp/humidity meters plus storage bins
- filament dryer (the Sunlu S2 that has the fan works well for me)
If you start with the X1C+AMS bundle youāre looking at roughly 2000 USD. With a P1S itās probably a tad less and I donāt know what additional extras you need (hardened 0.4 nozzle?).
Either way, if you use your printer youāll probably reach $3k within 6-9 months, it depends a bit on how much filament of what price you buy. But as a ballpark budget figure thatās what I experienced.
If you start with a much cheaper printer I fear itāll cost you a lot less 'cause itāll be more of a project in and of itself so youāll consume less filament 'cause you wonāt be printing one project after the other 
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It is included in Bambu Studio. Hover over the input fields and you will get an explanation of the function of that field.
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Well, everyoneās tastes is different - If I would recommend something to myself if I were a beginnerā¦ (and only as an alternative).
Some TPU 58D in Black (the hard stuff for quick actions, white pigments usually have more problems with UV) and PETG
an Elegoo Neptune 4 Pro with an add. complete exdruder head.
I donāt have a Neptun 4 Pro but just yesterday I had a discussion with a P1P user.
If I had thais under control (harder start, but a calmer life in the event of future problems because the basics have been learned) another Elegoo Neptune 4 so that parts can be replaced when the problem is first identified and the correct spare part can be reordered.
and then an X1C but with the knowledge that it might come with problems and you donāt yet know how sustainable the expenses were. The X1C for prototypes that you can then order from print farms with peace of mind.
What a great shopping list, even if I donāt understand some of it. Youāre hired!
However, this will be put off for a while, December or January, since I wasnāt expecting to be at a decision making point so quickly and because I just spent somewhere north of $2000 on new RC gear. I have HDZero goggles, a new digital radio and all the parts for a long range 7" FPV quad in bound. Itās my first all digital setup and is going to take a bit of hands on experience to get it running properly after I build it.
Iām going to start lurking on the X1C section to start getting acquainted with its idiosyncrasies.
Then everything is fine 
Iām about to throw more than one Crality S1 Pro in the trash because whatās going on is just crazy. The Neptun 3 is on sale with 10 kg of fillament for 300 USD on the US marked - the Neptun 4 comes with a clipper and network interface for 260 USDā¦ Itās just crazy whatās going on.
Iām on an island. When I order from Amazon, I get things in 2 to 3 weeks. Everything gets shipped to my freight forwarder in Miami and then the ship delivers it to me on the island at considerable expense. There is no such thing as āfree shippingā or ānext day deliveryā for me.
Ordering tiny things from some print farm would cost me at least $15 per package and a 2 to 3 week delay. Larger items start costing by the pound and size so one of my welders cost me $180 just from Miami to the island. Island living has free sunshine, but everything else is very expensive with a long delay.
Itās why I seriously got into welding. Freight charges for certain things cost more than the item itself and I decided to build lots of what the businesses needed and get exactly what I want as opposed to purchasing them sight unseen at huge expense.
Hello IslandBill,
I also wanted to go into 3D printing with my brother-in-law, but we stayed away from it because he lives on an island. And unfortunately heās not an engineer - that would have been such a messā¦ .The A1 would be just right for him, but as a hobby and without the AMS lighte.
In any case, no matter what you buy, you will buy twice!
3D printing farms have up to 30% of their printers under repair and those guys are absolute 3D professionals.
Even I have other printers in addition to the X1C. I havenāt had any problems with my X1C yet, but Iāve been printing for enough time that I know it can fire at any time - is the display defect or the motherboard? A defective transformer or a defective motor, ther you can quickly identify the source of the errorā¦ What do you order to fix the error? Ok, since youāre an electrical engineer youāll figure this out better than meā¦
I donāt know how many printheads Iāve already unscrewed - and two months ago I had one where I couldnāt find the error. Iāve drawn the line and just screwed in new ones and stopped troubleshooting the heads.
One of the X1C purchase options includes some spare parts. Thatās what Iām going to order, their max offering with spares, filament, etc. On top of that Iāll use the list that 3dsurfr produced for some extras.
Again, because of where I am, I have to prepare more so than someone that can get an overnight delivery. I also saw a video of some printed options for the X1C & AMS that looked like a good idea and Iāll try to print some of those early on as more prep work for a more robust setup.
Hi IsalandBill,
everything fine - have you also seen the transformer as a spare part? How many refrigerators have you replaced due to your islandās power fluctuations?
Iāll take a break now - youāll do it right
Yup, thatās why I listed some stuff in my post for you 
- Extruder: Iām still using my first extruder but I did switch to the spare for a few hours. I had heat creep and some filament melted into the grooves of the feeder gears in the extruder. Of course I didnāt know that, all I knew was that something was amiss. The extruder is not trivial to take apart, it was late evening, I was waiting for a print to get done. I didnāt want to break the extruder out of hurry, so I switched the spare one in. I then fixed the initial one calmly the next day.
- Complete hot-end assemblies: when you want to switch nozzle size itās pretty quick to switch complete assemblies, itās a PITA to switch just the hot-end (you have to heat it up, etc), so you want a complete assembly for each nozzle size you āplan to use regularlyā (I know you donāt know). My guess is youāll either use the 0.4mm and 0.6mm or the 0.4mm and the 0.2mm. Look in detail at what you get with the printer and buy accordingly.
- I bought spare kits of wipers, blades, cutters, silicone socks, PTFE tubes. I have not used any of these, not even the spare that comes with the printer. OTOH these items donāt break the bankā¦
- The gold PEI build plate is the most loved plate for high temp stuff as far as I can tell (for anything but PLA), I certainly find it much nicer to use than the smooth hot plate unless I need a smooth bottom surface, of course.
- For some filament/plate combos you need glue, either to make the part stick, or to make the part release. You get a glue stick with the printer. I bought the liquid glue and find it much nicer. After a bunch of months Iāve used maybe 30-40% and I use less and less with the gold plate (some people use none). But thereās no danger to run out and get stuck: you can use either or hair spray, etc, so no need to stock up.
- I ended up putting the AMS on a drawer shelf below the printer, I had to order the long PTFE tube and the long 4-pin cable so I can pull the drawer out.
BTW, since @KanneKaffe mentioned PLAā¦ a while ago I printed some very simple right angle brackets in PLA Basic and PLA-CF. This morning I had them laying on my work table outside in the sun. Air temp 80F/27C. Itās October, not July/August and it was still just morning sun. Yet:
The crooked bracket in blue-grey that is on top is in Basic PLA. Below it is a blue/black one in PLA-CF that was laying on the same table but didnāt deform (even though it has basically the same softening temp). This is why I donāt use PLAā¦ (Which doesnāt mean others arenāt successful with it!!!)
Have fun & report back!!!
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Bambu Basic PLA?
I have never seen PLA that warps in direct sunlight. I think itās a special feature of high-speed PLAs. Thatās why I recently sent 4kg back to Amazā¦ the other day. It warped much earlier at higher temperatures.
But it looks very strange to me in the picture. As if it had shrunk a lot afterwards.
Iām assuming the extruder is the bulk of the moving assembly that inputs filament and squirts out melted filament. I suppose having a spare is good planning.
BTW - Just today, a water pump went out that pressurizes one of our pressure tanks. Luckily I had a spare and in 30 minutes, water was flowing again. The wife was pleased. I understand spares, especially when delivery time is 2 to 3 weeks.
On videos for the A1, it was praised in how easy it was to replace the āhot endā as opposed to the process on the other printers; 30 seconds and youāre done. I never saw what it takes on the X1C, for example, but the insinuation was that its a PITA. Youāre saying one has to replace the hot end to replace a nozzle? Doesnāt a nozzle just screw into some port? Am I correct in saying you have a sub assembly of hot end already paired with a specific nozzle and you replace the entire gizmo as a unit when you want a different nozzle size?
I noted your reference to the gold plate but have no idea what constitutes it being a recommendation as opposed to other plates like the defaults. I assume itās just one of many plates available and you find this one very useful. For my uses, I donāt care about finish. I care about toughness. I want a plate or plates that will cause no to few issues with the various filaments.
This glue and hair spray thing made me cringe when I first heard it. It sounds so primitive, so flakey. I canāt see using hair spray at all, but if some form of glue is needed on occasion to keep the part solidly in place, so be it.
I watched videos where people are using glass plates but I never got an understanding if this is possible with the offerings from Bambulab. Iād like to know how glass fits into the overall scheme of things. Glass is tough, easily cleaned, flat as reasonably possible and sounds like the perfect substrate upon which to build gizmos.
Iām thinking of welding up a steel cart (nice and heavy) with drawers on the bottom for supplies and the printer on top along with the AMS as itās usually shown. I put everything on casters to be able to move it around easily. I might even wrap some 16 gauge sheet steel around the whole Bambu assembly as added protection for when itās not in use. That would also cut down on noise as I could put 1/2" foam boards as the inside of that steel shell with a cut out for any fan exhaust. I also considered add a clamping ability to it to attach this cart to something more substantial to avoid vibration as much as possible. I even thought about adding a sealed drawer of dried sand to it, again for limiting vibration and adding mass. The sand grains would dance to dampen vibration.
Because print times are sometimes very long, I considered putting the whole thing into non A/C space during a print job so my A/C bill isnāt trying to fight a hot box. Is that reasonable? It would be in A/C space when not in use.
I see youāre not a fan of vanilla PLA. I planned on adding Bambu filament to the order to avoid a foreign unknown during my education period. Some PLA comes with the order so I can play with it. Specifically, what filaments would you recommend and in what quantity or ratio?
Interesting. So maybe my dislike of PLA is due to the Bambu Basic PLAā¦
The extruder pulls the filament from the spool and pushes it into the hot-end. It controls the rate at which filament is dispensed. It must not get hot itself (thatās what the heat break is for).
It is not great on the X1, but after youāve done it a couple of times itās not all that bad. This is for swapping out the ācomplete hotend assemblyā, so you will want to have one per commonly used nozzle size. Then you have just āhotendsā, which is the nozzle with the piece that heats the filament. Those are spares for when the nozzle wears out or something else happens to it. To swap āhotendsā you get to fiddle for a while with all the parts (no heating necessary, I was confused). More info at Replacing the hotend/ceramic heater/thermistor/cooling fan | Bambu Lab Wiki
I didnāt understand the build plate thing before printing eitherā¦ The build plate has conflicting requirements: while printing, the print has to stick to it extremely well so it doesnāt move at all despite all the sideways forces applied by the nozzle potentially high up for a tall print. Then, when the print is done it has to let go of the print so you can get the print off.
For filaments printed relatively cold, like PLA, the cool plate is typ used. I donāt have much experience. For filaments printed hot Bambu (and other printers) use build plates that have a PEI coating. Thatās a thermoplastic you canāt print with the X1 'cause it needs too high a temperature. The reason itās used is that PETG, ABS, ASA, PA, and more sticks to it pretty well while everything is hot, but then when the plate cools those materials are released. This works so well on the textured gold PEI plate itās almost foolproof. It works well on the smooth PEI plate too (which Bambu calls āhot plateā) but the release isnāt quite as easy and it transfers glue smears and the imprint of the previous print more readily onto the next one. (Note: prints do NOT stick to PEI if the place has you finger grease on it, you make that mistake onceā¦)
Once youāre familiar with the two PEI plates (plus the cool plate for PLA, although the gold PEI works well too) you can decide which problem youāre trying to solve with a G10 or glass plate and which downsides youāll getā¦ Theyāre not āmust havesā as far as I can tell.
WRT building a steel cart, etc. consider:
- thereās a āpoop chuteā at the back of the printer that you need to get access to
- some filaments (like PET-CF or TPU) donāt go into the AMS so you have to hang the spool somewhere and feed the filament into the back of the printer, so you want access (mostly left rear for poop and filament)
- I find that doing any maintenance on the print head or the rods is much easier if you can remove or slide back the lid, I hated having the AMS sit on top for this reason (however there are frames/stands you can print to lift the AMS off the glass, etc)
- you may want to think about which bins you will use to store your filament with dessicant and how you can fit those into your cabinet
My printer is only semi indoors so I may be off-base, but I donāt think itās a huge source of heat. Indoors Iād be mostly concerned about fumes.
I canāt recommend PLA (but that doesnāt mean it canāt work for you!!), what I find the most useful:
- Bambu PLA-CF is the stiffest (and easy to print) material you can get at that price-point, you will want at least a roll of that
- PETG is used by many people, is quite durable, quite stiff, quite tough, not too difficult to print. I buy PETG from California Filaments 'cause theyāre a bit cheaper than Bambu and their PETG is stiffer, which I value. They also have lots of colors. I donāt think thereās anything wrong with Bambu PETG. Iāve been disappointed by their PETG-CF from a value perspective: it adds too little for the price increase. (Cal filaments PETG is stiffer, for example.)
- Itās worth getting a roll of clear PETG (or better, PCTG if you can find it): it has its uses and also can help you understand stuff like layer bonding, etc.
- Lots of people use ABS as a stronger filament. I have no experience as Iāve gone to ASA from the beginning. Some places call it āthe better ABS replacementā. I have not tried Bambu ASA (they didnāt have any when I started) and have used mostly Polymaker ASA (available direct and on Amazon). ASA costs ~40% more than PETG and 60%-100% more if you go bargain hunting on the PETG side.
- Get a 500g roll of PET-CF, itās the stiffest filament you can get from Bambu, I believe
- Get a 500g roll of PAHT-CF (high temp nylon with carbon fiber), itās the strongest/toughest filament from Bambu that is not super hydroscopic like PA6
- For the above: best probably to get the carbon fiber filament bundle
- For your quad addiction you may want to try a roll of PLA-LW (Bambu calls it Aero) (thereās also ASA-LW), which is foaming filament which results in parts that are 50% lighter, dunno whether thatās used for quadsā¦
- Get some TPU, Iāve printed very little of it so canāt make a recommendation
I print about 45% PETG, 45% ASA, and 10% other stuff. If the price difference between PETG and ASA was smaller Iād print more ASA. Iām sure you will end up with different tradeoffs and thus filament type use. But I donāt think that you would end up with a pile of PETG or ASA and feel like you have no use for it at allā¦
One thing I did initially was to focus on black and white filament 'cause I was focused on functional parts. But then I discovered āwall controlā and āgridfinityā (search on printable or thingiverse) to organize stuff in the shop and suddenly I did care about color 
.
Finally: a filament dryer is a must-have for you. Everything except for PLA must be well dried. New filament, even if vacuum packed, is not guaranteed to be dry. My drier runs 24x7, it always has some spool in it. The AMS with extra dessicant keeps dry filaments mostly dry for weeks but it doesnāt dry moist filament.
Phew, hope this helps!
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TPU is purchased by Shore hardness grade, depending on the application. Each TPU has a wide range in terms of flexibility due to the number of walls, the filling density and the type of filling. There are overviews where it is indicated which degree of hardness is suitable for which things.
As far as PLA is concerned, I recommend a test, itās pretty good, but itās not mine. Take hot water with 70Ā°C to 100Ā°C and several identical object samples of PLA from different manufacturers. Hold all the samples in the hot water and see which PLA behaves how. You will notice some astonishing differences. While one high-speed PLA, for example, immediately becomes soft and steadily yields more and more, another PLA can hold this temperature for an astonishing number of seconds until it suddenly flips from solid to soft at a certain point of heating. If you get bad PLA first, itās annoying. But everyone knows that materials from different manufacturers, and thus mixtures, also deliver different results and behave differently after printing. Even if the basic material is always the same. Sometimes itās down to the ink additives.
I also have to find a suitable glass plate. I have always printed every material on glass and then 90% of the time I have no more problems with warping. If PLA or other materials still show material warping when printed on a flexible printing plate, this is a thing of the past on glass. The prints are also easy to remove. Mostly they do so directly after printing, when the glass cools down. Borosilicate plates last for several years. Some still have a coating, which is quite good.
Iāll use this thread to finalize an order. Since I know very little, getting an experienced user to suggest a starter pack is very helpful.
Iāve considered pumping super dry CO2 or Argon into the AMS. I have those welding gasses in large cylinders and thereās no moisture in them at all, like 0%. They are inert but should suck up moisture in every crevice. I expect the AMS to hold a level of moisture given the desiccants it contains and the air tight seal itās supposed to have.
I built an insulated container (steel, of course) to make āblack garlicā (saw it on the internet and had to have some. Not available locally). It contains a heating element, fan and a thermistor thatās used by an outside control to keep the temperature at a set value. The garlic is vacuum sealed using my commercial sealer, so no smell is detectable meaning the container is clean. That gadget should be able to heat spools to expel moisture. I could use my welding gasses to periodically purge the chamber of moisture laden gas. I also have scuba tanks with just absolutely dry 2000 psi air.
Iāll ask the quad forum members what kind of TPU they use. TPU is used to construct holders for antenna, GPS modules, battery non skid surface, camera mounts, etc in the RC hobby.
Does someone even make lab glass for the 3D printing community? I suspect it has to be thin for heat transfer. It would be interesting to learn about its benefits and weaknesses. The fact that itās near perfectly flat should be a big plus along with being impervious to solvents for cleaning purposes.