I have gotten back into the world of 3D printing. A few years ago, I bought my first 3D printer, the much beloved(though not by me), Ender 3 V2. It was released in May of 2020, and described to me as a tinkerer’s printer. Every part on it could be upgraded. And as soon as you bought it, there were scores of places people online would tell you that you needed the metal extruder, the metal bed leveling nuts, an upgraded bowden tube, an all metal hot end, automatic bed leveling sensor…etc etc etc.

I thought I liked tinkering, and I do, but I never got to do the thing I bought the printer to do…actually print. Reading Amazon reviews now, I see things like, “Spend money, buy a better one.” or “Waste of money” Makes you wonder why so many people loved it.

So, while I am making one last attempt to fix the Ender 3 V2 as a backup(depressingly ordering $30 worth of parts the day before Microcenter announced clearing out the Ender 3 V2s they have for $50 a pop…and a later model with all the enhancements for $70), I have moved on to the Bambu Labs series. This summer I acquired a Bambu A1 Mini. The A1 Mini has a print area of 180mm square, and offers multi-color filament printing with the optional AMS add-on. There is also its slightly bigger brother, the A1, with its larger 256mm square print area.

Some of the advancements are because it has been 4 years of advancements. I was printing my first print less than 20 minutes after I opened the box. And my second…and third. And even without doing my own design, there are thousands of things I would find useful to print in future. I haven’t had to upgrade anything, I haven’t yet had to replace anything…it just works

This is what I wanted over 4 years ago. I wanted to just make stuff. And now I can.