My first 70 hours with the P2S — an honest owner report

Bambu Lab P Series Bambu Lab P2S
64

Maybe the images do not show it. It is a clog and a blob. Outside and inside. Did not look at the extruder wheel yet

I didn’t observe the print while it was running, but am I understanding this correctly?

At the beginning, some filament sticks to the nozzle and gradually builds up until it eventually obstructs the normal filament flow? And that is what then causes these huge amounts of filament to accumulate around the nozzle?

What I don’t understand is why the print head then moves back to the home position — basically the exact spot where there is the least amount of space available.

Never had that before

25°C, humidity around 45%, and the filament was bone-dry. The door was closed, but the top lid is sitting on a riser with the ventilation openings fully open.

I’m comparing the user experience, and so far this one has been pretty terrible. I honestly didn’t realize I’d need to be an engineer just to successfully run an “enclosed” printer. :wink:

I wouldn’t be so quick to assume that, as I work for a software company and we deal with plenty of “Error 40” cases every day. :wink:

But to be fair, sometimes it really isn’t the user — or at least not entirely.

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I really, really hope not. At this point, I’m counting on the replacement to finally put an end to this.

66

I feel your pain. My P2S has been nothing but headaches since I purchased it on July 3. Have been going round and round with tech support through tickets and have replaced everything in the tool head. Some parts once, others several times, including the extruder sensor and extruder board, nozzles, hall sensor, exterior cover…Mine in in a constant 72 F air conditioned commercial shop. Tech support was answering my tickets the next day but seem to have stopped responding at all when I asked for either a refund or offered to ship it to them to see if they can fix it. I am also about ready to walk away from the situation as I have wasted way too much production time just trying to get a decent print and not get constant “extruder not functioning normally” and “cutter is stuck” errors.

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You have a topic about this where we were helping you troubleshoot.

Why are you abandoning that and coming here to complain instead?

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I have not abandoned anything. I am just trying to get my machine working right as soon as possible. So far, no one has had any new thoughts on my issues.

CincinnatiDesigns 69

giphy (23)

1 Like
70

Thanks, cute but not exactly helpful.

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Just to keep things updated for those who might be interested:

I received my replacement machine. It took a while — about two weeks in total — but everything went smoothly.

Since Bambu only replaced the printer itself and not the AMS, which is perfectly fine for me, I had to reinstall the filament buffer, update the firmware, etc. Nothing major, though.

I’ve also completed two full calibration runs, so everything should be ready to go.

I haven’t managed to actually print anything with the new machine yet. Hopefully, I’ll find some time over the weekend.

Fingers crossed that this one behaves itself. :wink:

72

Ok, my $0.02 worth. I’m new to this, about 6 months but now have over 1,000 hrs on my P2s. I have run into similar issues and here is how I corrected it a few months ago,

Added the Babu Fan at the rear.

Changed plates to the cool plate.

Drying, drying, drying. Even though I seen 7% outside, 18% inside humidity here this summer, I was sill having issues with the filament. Drying the filament during the day and printing at night fixed everything and I have not had an issue since with Bambu or Sunlu filament. They both seem to print fine at 12-13%. PLA, PLA+ & PTEG.

As and FYI, it was typically 26C in my print room this summer during the day and went down to 24C by morning.

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Thank you for your tipps. Much appreciated and very interesting to read.

Please don’t take this as an offense or anything personal, but what you’re describing is EXACTLY what I would explicitly NOT call “works out of the box” or “just runs”.

I’m glad you found a workaround to deal with the “special circumstances” some Bambu Lab products seem to require these days. Thanks for sharing your experience.

I work in the user experience industry. If our clients had to come up with workarounds on their own just to use our products as intended, my company would probably be well within its rights to fire me. :wink:

I desperately hope my replacement machine won’t only “just work” under a full moon at Christmas, with the room temperature somewhere between 12 and 14°C.
(Otherwise, they’ll get it back)

Just my €0.02.

PS: My filament is bone-dry. Always. Just to be on the safe side, I usually dry it again before printing, and I store it in sealed boxes with silica gel and a humidity indicator.
PPS: If a product requires additional hardware just to operate properly, someone probably made a design mistake from the start.

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I guess I should have mentioned that my P2S went over 600 hours after unboxing without an issue. The problem came up when I switched to Sunlu PETG and using the textured plate. OR when I used Bambu PLA Matte, but ONLY the orange filament. It is well documented in another thread.

I print firearm frames in PLA+ and since my “workarounds”, I have not had an issue and since have become SOP’s for specific filaments. I guess my point was, you need to experiment with settings based or what you are printing and the filament being used. I NEVER rely on files that I download from Maker’s, Printibles, etc. for supports/settings and will not as a lot of the authors specifically state that you need to adjust brim’s, trees, etc. to YOUR printer.

I work in an industry where if our product doesn’t work, people die (nothing to do with firearms). However, it is still a machine, and like all machines throughout history, they are subject to breakdowns. Workarounds are sometimes required. Ask NASA.

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It sounds like you have had problems that you weren’t expecting with your printer. I did a lot research, watched youtube videos and even completed the bambu academy. I have about 100 hrs on my p2s and I’ve had it for 3 months. I guess I’m one of the fortunate ones as I have had no problems with mine. I haven’t even had to wash my pei textured plate once. I’ve had no heat creep issues. Knock on wood, I just haven’t had any problems. Hope you get yours worked out.

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It might even be that most users are not affected by these problems at all. A forum is actually a pretty good example of a reality distortion field: most people come here because they need help, have a specific question, or are dealing with a problem. So it can easily create the impression that this is the norm.

I still haven’t found the time to do a single print with my replacement machine. Hopefully, I’ll have better luck this time.

Anyway, thank you for your kind words and happy printing! :slight_smile:

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Even though I think I understand the core of your point, the comparison is quite a stretch. A product designed for the mass market is something completely different from a highly specialized one-off solution.

At least it should be.

And since we’re already talking about somewhat far-fetched comparisons: NASA’s one-off solutions cost millions and are made for only a handful of people, while a commercial 3D printer is made for millions of people and costs only a handful. :wink:

My point is: Bambu Lab didn’t become this successful almost overnight because they invented 3D printing machines. They became successful because they made 3D printing suitable for the mass market.

Ask Apple. :wink:

I have nothing against workarounds. But if the need to find them starts taking up the majority of the time I spend on the hobby, then something has gone wrong somewhere.
Adjusting print settings for a specific model or filament is one thing. Having to work around the machine itself just to get reliable basic operation is another.

I’d actually love to earn a degree in Mechanical Engineering, Materials Science, and Thermodynamics — I just don’t want my 3D printer to make that a prerequisite for using it.

78

I finally found the time to print a few things on my P2S replacement machine.

Nothing particularly complicated so far — mostly larger, technical and fairly boxy designs with few overhangs, but in some cases a ridiculous amount of support running through rather fine structural openings and cavities. I used Matte PLA, which isn’t exactly known for being the most forgiving material to print.

So far, the results coming out of the P2S have been very encouraging.

I haven’t seen any thermal issues inside the chamber, which consistently stays around 34–36 °C even during an 9-hour print — compared to more than 40 °C within less than 20 minutes on my previous machine. Any of the other problems I had before, such as ringing, warping / deformation, weird surface structures and so on, seem to be gone at the moment.

I did not use the new machine any differently from the previous one: K-factor calibration in advance, very thoroughly dried filament, a closed printer door (though there is a riser on top with open vents, as well as an auxiliary fan air-flow diverter — both of which I had already added to machine #1), and an ambient temperature basically identical to before.
I also didn’t have to touch the belts this time, unlike with my first P2S.

A few details still feel a little odd, though — for example, having an assistant warn you that the door is open while Bambu itself recommends opening it under certain conditions. That is nothing compared to the issues I had before.

I’ll do some more experimenting with organic shapes and more demanding models soon, but for now, things are looking very good.

After all the frustration and the many negative reports I posted about my first machine, I thought it was only fair to share this positive experience with the community as well.

79

You can turn this off in the settings

80

This is so interesting. I’m brand new to 3D printing and got my P2S a couple of months ago and have printed almost 700 hours so far with zero issues. I’ve used filament from Bambu, Ziro and Overture (all have been dried first). I’m thrilled with this machine and it’s ease of use.

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I have only heard of printing with the door open on the P1S, not the P2S.

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I’m not a fan of my P2S when using ASA. Had a P1S before the P2S and have purchased a second P1S for ASA. This thing has been nothing but problems with anything other than PLA and PETG for me. But as soon as you need a plate near 100c all four corners lift, even with a glacier plate. I don’t like the ventilation system on this thing at all.

I should probably try it again in case the recent firmware fixed anything, but it’s been disappointing to say the least.

83

Try the engineering plate and some vision miner NPA.

Odd that you have having issues on the p2s compared to the p1s.

If you are using imported or generic profiles. Make sure to tune the fan speed down to 10 percent or turn it off altogether.