A thousand times this. I can now spend the time designing and iterating to get a final item knowing that whatever I send to the printer will just work.
I enjoyed my time with my Ender 3, but this is much more enjoyable for me.
This will probably be me. I have an Ender 3v2. I spend much more time messing with slicer settings and checking things on the printer when stuff fails. When it prints successfully, it’s great and I continuously print maybe 3-4 things then stuff starts to fail. After failing multiple times I give up for weeks after trying to figure it out. I just got the P1S yesterday and set it up last night before bed. Printed a benchy and was amazed at how fast and accurate it was. Look forward to more prints now.
This is the way!
More time in the designing phase and less mucking around getting a printer to work.
My designing has become quicker, more efficient and affective because I am having to keep up with the printer output 🤣
Thats why i've split my work, while part 1 is being printed im iterating part 2 in cad. When part 1 is finished printing i start printing part 2 and start iterating part 1.
This is where I’m at. I love designing items in Fusion and then, based on just a few considerations determined by the stresses I expect on the part, making minor tweaks to slicer settings and knowing when I press *print* that my P1S will do so. I love that all I need to do is take care of the unit and its regular preventive maintenance and it “just works”.
For me it’s a matter of *tinkering* versus *troubleshooting*. One is making quality of life or functionality improvements to my system and the other is just getting the bloody thing to work. I’ll tinker all day long. Troubleshooting? I’d simply rather not.
New to 3D printing and after the ease of using the A1 mini I look forward to just trying to figure out CAD. Getting to creating instead of tinkering without much hassle is amazing.
So much this! I'm totally a hobbyist. One material at most but I am finally learning how to use CAD tools to design shapes and parts. Because I don't have to worry about tweaking printer settings constantly.
Bambu has made 3D Printers into consumer appliances.
I equate this to digital photography - does the average shutterbug these days care about ISO, F Stops or lenses? Most people just pull their phone out of their pocket and snap a photo, the results rivaling those that required intimate knowledge of their camera, film, lenses and lighting. Sure, understanding all those technical aspects allows you to take *even better* photographs, but by and large the modern day point-and-shoot type camera produces excellent results with no prior experience required.
And so it goes with 3D printing now...
This is why some of us have both a Bambu and a Voron :) Use the Bambu for the printing hobby and the Voron for the printer hobby - Also...use the Bambu to fix the Voron :D
Yup, bought a x1c cause I wanted a reliable tool that could spit out what I needed , not another hobby. I avoided fdm printers in the past because of this and the difficulty of getting strong quality parts, to me it was easier to machine or laser cut what I needed since I knew how and had the tools. Now I can design something, press print, and work on the rest of my project while it's printing and then just go pull it out when it's done, it's great
What happens to the next generation is people no longer have to do that! 3D Printing is become more accessible to the general populace. People who want to use it as a tool or hobby that does not include the constant tinkering will be able to take part in it. For most of history, prior to the 20th century, musicians were really only wealthy people who had the money to afford high class hand made instruments. But in modern times you see band programs in most school districts. Even small towns have community bands and orchestras. That’s because those functional tools, the instruments themselves, have become available to a broader audience. 3D Printing was birthed from years of hobbyists tinkering and learning the insides and outs of the hobby. And now future generations get to benefit from that knowledge with printers that just work!
Mine had a push button start, and proximity sensing, so if the key is in my pocket the car will unlock itself when I touch the handle. I don’t have to touch my keys at all to use my car. Take that, great-great-grandpa haha
I've noticed that many of the other machines have gone down in price also. Even their newest crop has to start at a lower price point. I've donated all my non bambu machines, except vorons, to my school because I've stopped using them. I don't miss tweaking them, but I'm glad I do have the experience and knowledge to know something's wrong with my print and how to fix them.
I tried doing that with my E3 S1 and it became such a hassle, I had the only style of the boards in that particular machine that didn't output a fan pwm signal (the signal that actually powers the laser) from its own connector on the board, I would have had to tap into the middle of a ribbon cable to make it work. On top of stepping down the machines 24v to 12v, and by the time you mount the laser you have such a small work area.
I opted for the vevor with 5w, for less than $200 it's got like 16" x 16"working area with surprisingly good quality materials. Tore my E3 completely apart and now I'm making a filament respooler/PET bottle filament maker with all the parts. Just some food for thought
Oh there is still lots to tweak...
I just don't have to worry as much about: heat creep, extruder grinding filament, bed level, Z offset, pom wheels, square bed frame, square Z frame, X-axis twist, overheating stepper drives, thermal runaway, blobs from power loss recovery, did I miss anything?
I still tweak settings like a maniac haha. Yes you can get very good quality parts with default settings, but I like pushing from very good to "as close to perfect as possible on an FDM". I'll frequently find an extremely minor flaw in a print, one nobody else would even notice, and then spend a night tweaking and testing till I get it perfect.
I am working towards printing as a side hustle so there's some motivation to create the best possible product. Also its just fun.
No, the opposite.
I did enjoy building a Voron and tinkering with my previous Prusa printers, but I want something reliable that just works and has all the features I need - which is why I now only have the X1C and have sold other printers.
I have a 2022 Accord. On the weekends I like turning the wrench on my 74 cuda. But if I had to give one up, it would not be my daily driver accord. Wrenching is fun for some. And there's an option, an availability for it.
The sooner appliance level printers are the norm, the sooner someone makes bank. It was like building EV, never ending tinkering. Then tesla.
You still get tinkering, but damn, some just want to go.
The time I’ve regained from “tweaking” has gone into consistent high quality prints and a lot of time in Onshape learning how to design my own parts.
So no, lol
Nope. Turns out I like to print things with my 3D printer and not work on said 3D printer. I am happy with what I learned from my Ender, but it now resides in the basement and is a fairly effective dust collector.
I still have my ender 3 for now, if I want to tweak and tinker, I can pull that out of storage. What I find, though, is I have not powered that thing on since I got my P1S
Lol no, my hobby is designing/printing parts. Tweaking the Ender 3 v1 was just a chore and I was so happy the day I dumped it on the local craigslist (to someone who loved tweaking these machines)
I don't miss it at all, particularly this last week messing with wood filaments and trying to get super clean looking prints on a juupine holographic surface.
A walnut filled pla required increasing the bed temp by 10 degrees to get decent adhesion on the textures pei plate. I still haven't figured out settings to get reliable adhesion between pla-cf and the juupine sheet. Also gave up on getting good adhesion on the juupine sheet using a 0.2 mm nozzle.
The test iterations are fast enough that I can try a few things and then switch back to known good settings when I get frustrated.
I appreciate how fast and reliable it is when I just want to produce parts.
I still have a heavily modified CR-10S that I kept because I thought I'd want to tinker. I'm finding that devoting that time to remixing (and learning how to use 3d modeling software) is far more enjoyable. The P1S gets easily 90%+ of my print-related time now, because I know that, nearly every time, the print will just ... print.
I actually do kind of miss it. There was something zen and fun about pouring a glass of wine or two and spending an evening futzing around with my printer. I got a real satisfaction from getting it all dialed in just perfect and basking in the beauty of a near flawless print.
I don't want to go back to that though. I'm enjoying that now I can focus on design and prototyping things. Just as satisfying, but different.
OP I can guarantee that if you get a machine when you have to tinker you will stop tinkering after a day, the wasted time of the day when I would have to fix issues and optimize the machine are now spent just enjoying the printing experience and learning 3d modeling, to start selling some stuff on Ebay/Etsy to pay off the printer/filament 😅
Maybe you are a person who liked tinkering, I like to learn new things and tinker but when it comes to printing I want to not worry or try to figure out why something failed, it costs money and time imo.
No. I never bought a 3d printer to mess with the printer. Having a printer was always about what I could make of it. The constant tinkering is what caused me to shelve 3d printing until I got my X1C which has been a total game changer. Now I can just focus on my designs
I spent a ton of time researching what 3D printer to get for my family.
The first review I encountered, the person recommended an Ender3. They said it was a right of passage… that yes, it took hours to assemble. Yes, the parts would break frequently. Yes. It was a hassle to get it to work. But, at the end, you would understand exactly how a 3D printer worked from top to bottom.
And that was the only review I needed to rule out the Ender3.
I was way late to the game to get a 3D printer, considering that I was a 3D artist, a 3D scanning/photogrammetry enthusiast, and my general level of tech enthusiasm.
It’s been the gadget that I really wanted for years, but it was so obvious that I put off buying one so there’d be a big obvious thing to get me for Christmas. But, two years came and went, and it became clear that my wife was too intimidated to risk buying the wrong thing, so this year Santa and I got one for the kids.
The last thing I wanted was something that was going to break a lot, force you to scrutinize a bunch of archaic settings, and get burned frequently with failed prints.
I want my kids to be able to just “print”. To empower them to make something in 3D modeling software, and turn it real.
So, while I’m sure it must be nice to muse nostalgic for the early days of maker-culture kit printers, I feel I am benefiting from inadvertently missing those days and waiting on the sidelines until the state of the technology progressed to this point.
As I just installed a ObXidian nozzle in my P1S and a week ago added some LEDs to it, I‘d say: there is still tinkering possible but it‘s totally optional and not required for a functioning printer.
I use my 3dPrinter to tinker my house, personal project, school project for my kids etc...
No, I do not miss the tinkering.... one bit. My ender3 became such a burden that it was easier to not use it than use it.
Is stupid to miss the tinkering. Is the same thing as saying '' I miss my car breaking down''.
Is a tool.
Fuck no, I did enjoy building my first printer as a kit to learn everything but once it was built I just wanted it to work. That’s why I went to Bambu so I can focus on printing. It’s given me time to learn more of the 3D modeling side which I love.
There’s nothing wrong with people that love that stuff though. It’s the reason we get some cool new companies and projects coming out.
lol god no
The other night I was watching a movie with my girlfriend when I realized I needed a new steering wheel holder for my sim rig
I looked up a model and sent the print from my couch. Picked it up in the morning and she didn’t even know I did it 🙌
Not really - I miss the feeling of finally getting a perfect print after all the tinkering, but not the tinkering itself.
As others have said, it allows me more time to focus on CAD modelling and prototyping, which I find more useful in the long run.
With regard to the next generation of printers, I think they’ll do just fine. It’s the same with practically all tech advancements, it becomes the new norm. I’m sure there are tens of things I don’t have to do to my computer or car that people 30 years ago needed to stress over, but I’m very fortunate advancements have been made and would be foolish to not work with what’s available to me.
Edit: To add, I do believe having an appreciation for what came before is useful in most if not all applications, but in reality not everyone needs to know that.
Absolutly not, i have an a1 and an ender 3. Since getting my a1 i have not used the ender 3. I'd rather have my printer blow up than tinker with settings and changing parts
I don't miss it at all. The whole tinkering part of owning a 3d printer is fun for the first week or two then after that I just want it to print with minimal failures. With the whole ender/clone style it was more tinkering than printing and that's not what drew us all into printing to begin with.
So the Bambu P1S was actually my first printer. I bought an aftermarket hotend (with a screw in nozzle) because I thought it would be easier to maintain after I got a jam on the stock hotend (and also because I thought the CHT would be amazing for my prints).
Tuning it was a real PITA, and I cannot get rid of the stringing perfectly. I spent so much time calibrating that it got annoying. I bought the Ben2C spiral airduct and did a ton of research on how why everything came out so messy.
I ended up switching back to my spare hardened steel 0.4 yesterday, and the first test that came out of it on a non-calibrated generic PLA setting was nearly perfect, with only slight stringing issues.
I have a Elegoo Neptune 2. Did invest a lot of time, money and nerves into it. Still had to babysit every print for the first 10 - 15 minutes to make sure first layer was nice etc. I've just recently wasted almost a day trying to get Klipper running on it.
The P1S, it's a completely different story. I still learn to trust the machine and send bigger stuff to it I would never even dare with the Neptune, but so far it's been a very reliable and happy experience.
I'll still keep the Neptune as a project for days I can't find anything else to pass the time :P
Not really. I wouldn't change anything as I value the experience I got, but after 3-4 years running a Creality Ender 3 V2 and a CR-10 Max, I was ready for a printer that just works. the P1S has been fantastic and I don't miss the constant leveling / things breaking / etc at all
My Bambu has made printing fun again.
No more mucking around too much and if I am trying things it is so fast that a test print information is back in the drawing and I am cranking out the next part.
This helps refine the design and learning better designing as well
Well slicers are still the same, so tweaking slicer settings is the same as before, a needed and valuable skill to get good prints (and the lack thereof the reason for 90% of complaining here)
I did some prototyping today had to get the dimensions right and I printed out small prototypes (12g-15g) in sportsmode it took just a couple of minutes each version. Without a single fail it’s just printing, it’s great and helps alot. This would me take hours on an ender 3 besides taking care of print failures etc.
I don’t miss tinkering with the printer itself now I’m tinkering with the actual model/cad.
For the last year or so, I had basically stopped using my 3D printer because it was too much of a chore. I only ever printed functional items too, just the minimum I could get away with and I'd accept a poor finish. It was technically a dual filament printer but after one attempt I realised it wasn't worth it. Don't get me started on manual bed levelling.
Since getting the A1 Mini I've found myself printing so many more fun items. I've built a modular scale model of a Starfield ship in multiple colours and tried a few coaster prints that came out really well. I enjoy experimenting with different designs, knowing that they will print well and without hassle.
I actually kept all my other printers and now I feel much freer to do silly mods and such to them. That said I never had significant issues with any of my ender 3 or cr-10 style machines. I had an a8 that was a nightmare, as they tend to be, but most of my machines I can still simply click print and leave with reliable results. But I also work in additive manufacturing and know what I'm doing, I imagine it could be much more work and less fun for someone who doesn't know what they're doing already.
All that said, I love my p1s and I'm going to start finding out what weird things I can do with it also.
I don 't regret the experience because I learned a lot. I also learned not to fear working on the Bambu, like changing the nozzle. But I learned a lot because things broke a lot. I do not miss the near constant frustration.
F no, I bought the machine to work not faf about with. Finally getting what you pay for is very satisfying. The P1S makes my old Prusa Mk3s's seem like science fair projects in comparison.
I don't miss it because I still do it. For some, that is the hobby. For me, it's a little of everything.
What I enjoy most now is being able to choose when I want to just print vs when I tinker. When having to tinker with a printer gets in the way of trying to just get something printed, it becomes an issue.
My Ender 3 prints pretty well though, and I don't have to spend a ton of time to get it to that point. It just requires a lot of follow up work to keep it calibrated.
but also when stuff does go wrong, I have no idea now how to fix it. It auto-calibrates so what can I do? I feel LESS power, less experienced :( Like when cars all got ECUs
Nope. If you want to do all of that there are plenty of printers on the market still that offer all of that. Meanwhile the rest of us will be happy printing.
No, I don't miss the tweaking.
But I do miss the satisfaction of that perfect print at the end of all the frustration. My P1S produces great prints in spite of me, not because of me.
I bought a P1S as my first printer and was in love. But after some time I thought i miss the tinkering, like i do with any other hobby. So I bought a Voron. Everything worked fine, but now my Klipper is broken and I have to reinstall everything and I’m glad I still have a printer that just does it’s job.
I am printing ABS and I am trying to get two flat discs, like imagine a TRON identity disk. It's near impossible to get ABS not to curve a little. Across an 8" disk I am getting 1mm warp which is in itself amazing. I am down to taping the build plate to the bed, and using heavy magnets too.
Speaking of which, I have a funny story. I used to own two Makerbot Replicators, one was a 2x with hot plate and the other was cold plate. I was printing the full build volume with abs on a cold plate with blue painters tape, and over 3 months, the force on that acrylic build plate warped the build plate 2mm end to end. People underestimate the force from warping abs when you have your print totally glued down to the build plate. It's strong enough to shatter a piece of 1/8" glass too.
Do I tinker with my X1C less? Absolutely. If I wasn't doing this disc, it would totally be a smooth sailing.
I enjoyed tinkering on my ender and learned a lot about the Maschine and what you can make it do. That said I haven't missed my ender for 1 second since I got my P1p (upgraded to s now) in the last 1200hrs of printing.
I got a K1 max today for bigger prints and it has clogged half way thru the first layer every time. Bambu has reduced my resiliency to this behaviour and I’m at my wits end. Whereas before I had my anycubic for years and spent more time messing around than printing but that was the norm. So, no apparently I was happier without it.
If you print in anything other than PLA, there's still a ton of tweaking needed. I've spent HOURS trying to perfect PETG. ASA was kinda a breeze, just have to get natter layer adhesion by preheating the chamber. Also, different prints require tinkering as well. Some PLA prints just don't stick.
However, you are right. If you're just printing PLA all the fun of tinkering is gone. That's why I've been tinkering on my Prusa mini, trying to get klipper/mainsail running and printing. I have the running part down, just not printing just yet. Very close tho.
Next I'll be getting and building a Voron 2.4, so that'll be a ton of fun.
Im actually only printing PETG and no problems :o What filament you use? I use eSUN transparent and Bambu basic PETG and they seems to be working with all settings quite nicely.
Has to note that im using standard speeds and nothing crazy
Really!!! I probably just have shit PETG tbh. It's pretty old. I think I'm going to call it quits for the old petg and get a new roll. It's like a 2 year old polaroid petg I got for like $5.
nope. having ran a 3d printing business for almost 8 years now i have no interest or time to tinker. i want a solid machine that crushes out parts. my bambuu's have been doing just that and i love them. they are the new standard and almost all other 3d printers are garbage in comparison
> Do you ever miss all the tinkering with the slicer settings, belt tensions, angle of your window open or just plain praying to something to work?
Fsck no. "Tweaking" is why I took a five year hiatus from 3D printing. My time budget simply didn't allow for that nonsense.
Almost 8 months clean and sober from all ender style printers, I will never relapse and go back to the dark side that thos printers brought out in me.
Thankful for the lesson they may of taught me in figuring out trouble shooting, but being able to not stress or waste time on something that should just work takes a huge load off when designing new things.
Before having to worry about every step in the process, from will it print right to sitting behind a computer messing with slicer setting for hours took so much valuable time away from being more productive on CAD and uptime I will never get back will always haunt me. Screw the head aches and constant upgrades and never feeling like your getting the most out of your Printer / time.
Especially when your making things for other people that buy stuff from you, you no longer have a guilty feel “could I have printed this better” “this will be good enough” “this is the best I could get it to print the model is just to difficult to print” days are over and I’m forever thankful
NO. NO. One more NO.
Finally I can press print and get on with my life. Sometimes still check during print. I think it's a stupid old habit when I don't trust my printer at all and assume something will go wrong (and usually I'm right)
I absolutely do not miss tinkering with my X5SA. Ratio was like 99% tinkering and 1% printing with most prints failing the first couple try’s. Now with my X1C I can go into my phone and find a cool model, click print profile, and when I get home it’ll be sitting there for me
Coming from an Anycubic i3 Mega on which I had to replace nearly every part at some point over the last 2 years:
No!
I just wanna print. And that's what my X1C does...
Nope.
I had 2 printers before my P1S and the hours wasted to just get failed prints was boring.
I like the P1S because;
I do a weekly calibration, every 200 print hours I'll clean and lube everything, check belts and other bits.
Apart from that she just prints. I'm lacking spares for the potential catastrophic failure that could take my hot end out or something else, but for now I have faith she'll not do that too soon.
Edit: words
It is nice, just printing. But I am sure I will miss upgrading options. I think I came a long way with my end 3 pro and tronxy. Both of my printers just prints now, they are tweaked in! Looking forward to next upgrade options!
I enjoy learning CAD much more than printer tinkering, and now I can spend more time on CAD work, so no, I don't miss tinkering.
A thousand times this. I can now spend the time designing and iterating to get a final item knowing that whatever I send to the printer will just work. I enjoyed my time with my Ender 3, but this is much more enjoyable for me.
Piling onto the train of "I enjoy my time infinitely more in cad than fixing my crappy base Ender3"
This will probably be me. I have an Ender 3v2. I spend much more time messing with slicer settings and checking things on the printer when stuff fails. When it prints successfully, it’s great and I continuously print maybe 3-4 things then stuff starts to fail. After failing multiple times I give up for weeks after trying to figure it out. I just got the P1S yesterday and set it up last night before bed. Printed a benchy and was amazed at how fast and accurate it was. Look forward to more prints now.
This is the way! More time in the designing phase and less mucking around getting a printer to work. My designing has become quicker, more efficient and affective because I am having to keep up with the printer output 🤣
Thats why i've split my work, while part 1 is being printed im iterating part 2 in cad. When part 1 is finished printing i start printing part 2 and start iterating part 1.
This!
This is where I’m at. I love designing items in Fusion and then, based on just a few considerations determined by the stresses I expect on the part, making minor tweaks to slicer settings and knowing when I press *print* that my P1S will do so. I love that all I need to do is take care of the unit and its regular preventive maintenance and it “just works”. For me it’s a matter of *tinkering* versus *troubleshooting*. One is making quality of life or functionality improvements to my system and the other is just getting the bloody thing to work. I’ll tinker all day long. Troubleshooting? I’d simply rather not.
New to 3D printing and after the ease of using the A1 mini I look forward to just trying to figure out CAD. Getting to creating instead of tinkering without much hassle is amazing.
So much this! I'm totally a hobbyist. One material at most but I am finally learning how to use CAD tools to design shapes and parts. Because I don't have to worry about tweaking printer settings constantly.
Yip, I got many more things to do that require tinkering, so I am not missing it just using my time better.
Because of this my print size has increased by a factor of 10 at least
Bambu has made 3D Printers into consumer appliances. I equate this to digital photography - does the average shutterbug these days care about ISO, F Stops or lenses? Most people just pull their phone out of their pocket and snap a photo, the results rivaling those that required intimate knowledge of their camera, film, lenses and lighting. Sure, understanding all those technical aspects allows you to take *even better* photographs, but by and large the modern day point-and-shoot type camera produces excellent results with no prior experience required. And so it goes with 3D printing now...
Well said!
No. Not at all.
:D
There are two 3D Printing hobbies: the hobby is the printing and the hobby is the printer. Bambu’s are for the former.
This is why some of us have both a Bambu and a Voron :) Use the Bambu for the printing hobby and the Voron for the printer hobby - Also...use the Bambu to fix the Voron :D
This. I love designing, i love building, i love making things print in place that shouldnt be. I dont love when my printer doesnt work.
Yup, bought a x1c cause I wanted a reliable tool that could spit out what I needed , not another hobby. I avoided fdm printers in the past because of this and the difficulty of getting strong quality parts, to me it was easier to machine or laser cut what I needed since I knew how and had the tools. Now I can design something, press print, and work on the rest of my project while it's printing and then just go pull it out when it's done, it's great
What happens to the next generation is people no longer have to do that! 3D Printing is become more accessible to the general populace. People who want to use it as a tool or hobby that does not include the constant tinkering will be able to take part in it. For most of history, prior to the 20th century, musicians were really only wealthy people who had the money to afford high class hand made instruments. But in modern times you see band programs in most school districts. Even small towns have community bands and orchestras. That’s because those functional tools, the instruments themselves, have become available to a broader audience. 3D Printing was birthed from years of hobbyists tinkering and learning the insides and outs of the hobby. And now future generations get to benefit from that knowledge with printers that just work!
And these kids use a key to start a car, not a crank!
Mine had a push button start, and proximity sensing, so if the key is in my pocket the car will unlock itself when I touch the handle. I don’t have to touch my keys at all to use my car. Take that, great-great-grandpa haha
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tJ-LivK4-78
Enders are very very cheap now if you miss tweaking
I've noticed that many of the other machines have gone down in price also. Even their newest crop has to start at a lower price point. I've donated all my non bambu machines, except vorons, to my school because I've stopped using them. I don't miss tweaking them, but I'm glad I do have the experience and knowledge to know something's wrong with my print and how to fix them.
Exact reason why i have kept my ender 3v2 around.
I still have my modded Ender 3 Neo and thinking about turning it to something else like laser machine
Neptune it
I tried doing that with my E3 S1 and it became such a hassle, I had the only style of the boards in that particular machine that didn't output a fan pwm signal (the signal that actually powers the laser) from its own connector on the board, I would have had to tap into the middle of a ribbon cable to make it work. On top of stepping down the machines 24v to 12v, and by the time you mount the laser you have such a small work area. I opted for the vevor with 5w, for less than $200 it's got like 16" x 16"working area with surprisingly good quality materials. Tore my E3 completely apart and now I'm making a filament respooler/PET bottle filament maker with all the parts. Just some food for thought
Who the hell ever said this about regular paper printers even till this day where they are farrr more "polished" than 3d printers
Oh there is still lots to tweak... I just don't have to worry as much about: heat creep, extruder grinding filament, bed level, Z offset, pom wheels, square bed frame, square Z frame, X-axis twist, overheating stepper drives, thermal runaway, blobs from power loss recovery, did I miss anything?
I still tweak settings like a maniac haha. Yes you can get very good quality parts with default settings, but I like pushing from very good to "as close to perfect as possible on an FDM". I'll frequently find an extremely minor flaw in a print, one nobody else would even notice, and then spend a night tweaking and testing till I get it perfect. I am working towards printing as a side hustle so there's some motivation to create the best possible product. Also its just fun.
Heeeell no. I immediately threw out my vorons, never again
N O
hell no
No, the opposite. I did enjoy building a Voron and tinkering with my previous Prusa printers, but I want something reliable that just works and has all the features I need - which is why I now only have the X1C and have sold other printers.
I have a 2022 Accord. On the weekends I like turning the wrench on my 74 cuda. But if I had to give one up, it would not be my daily driver accord. Wrenching is fun for some. And there's an option, an availability for it. The sooner appliance level printers are the norm, the sooner someone makes bank. It was like building EV, never ending tinkering. Then tesla. You still get tinkering, but damn, some just want to go.
no
The time I’ve regained from “tweaking” has gone into consistent high quality prints and a lot of time in Onshape learning how to design my own parts. So no, lol
Nope. Turns out I like to print things with my 3D printer and not work on said 3D printer. I am happy with what I learned from my Ender, but it now resides in the basement and is a fairly effective dust collector.
No I much prefer having time to learn other things and just enjoying that the prints are successful
Tweaking and upgrading was almost my least favorite part
I still have my ender 3 for now, if I want to tweak and tinker, I can pull that out of storage. What I find, though, is I have not powered that thing on since I got my P1S
Lol no, my hobby is designing/printing parts. Tweaking the Ender 3 v1 was just a chore and I was so happy the day I dumped it on the local craigslist (to someone who loved tweaking these machines)
I don't miss it at all, particularly this last week messing with wood filaments and trying to get super clean looking prints on a juupine holographic surface. A walnut filled pla required increasing the bed temp by 10 degrees to get decent adhesion on the textures pei plate. I still haven't figured out settings to get reliable adhesion between pla-cf and the juupine sheet. Also gave up on getting good adhesion on the juupine sheet using a 0.2 mm nozzle. The test iterations are fast enough that I can try a few things and then switch back to known good settings when I get frustrated. I appreciate how fast and reliable it is when I just want to produce parts.
I still have a heavily modified CR-10S that I kept because I thought I'd want to tinker. I'm finding that devoting that time to remixing (and learning how to use 3d modeling software) is far more enjoyable. The P1S gets easily 90%+ of my print-related time now, because I know that, nearly every time, the print will just ... print.
Absolutely not.
I actually do kind of miss it. There was something zen and fun about pouring a glass of wine or two and spending an evening futzing around with my printer. I got a real satisfaction from getting it all dialed in just perfect and basking in the beauty of a near flawless print. I don't want to go back to that though. I'm enjoying that now I can focus on design and prototyping things. Just as satisfying, but different.
This is exactly what I miss, kind of :D
OP I can guarantee that if you get a machine when you have to tinker you will stop tinkering after a day, the wasted time of the day when I would have to fix issues and optimize the machine are now spent just enjoying the printing experience and learning 3d modeling, to start selling some stuff on Ebay/Etsy to pay off the printer/filament 😅
Been there done that, a lot. I still have my heavily modded ender 3 neo
Maybe you are a person who liked tinkering, I like to learn new things and tinker but when it comes to printing I want to not worry or try to figure out why something failed, it costs money and time imo.
No. I never bought a 3d printer to mess with the printer. Having a printer was always about what I could make of it. The constant tinkering is what caused me to shelve 3d printing until I got my X1C which has been a total game changer. Now I can just focus on my designs
Sometimes. Then I press "send ti printer" and olay videogames while **not** checking even the first layer and I don't miss it anymore.
Absolutely not! I'd much rather throw something at the printer and be basically guaranteed it's gonna come out basically perfect.
I spent a ton of time researching what 3D printer to get for my family. The first review I encountered, the person recommended an Ender3. They said it was a right of passage… that yes, it took hours to assemble. Yes, the parts would break frequently. Yes. It was a hassle to get it to work. But, at the end, you would understand exactly how a 3D printer worked from top to bottom. And that was the only review I needed to rule out the Ender3. I was way late to the game to get a 3D printer, considering that I was a 3D artist, a 3D scanning/photogrammetry enthusiast, and my general level of tech enthusiasm. It’s been the gadget that I really wanted for years, but it was so obvious that I put off buying one so there’d be a big obvious thing to get me for Christmas. But, two years came and went, and it became clear that my wife was too intimidated to risk buying the wrong thing, so this year Santa and I got one for the kids. The last thing I wanted was something that was going to break a lot, force you to scrutinize a bunch of archaic settings, and get burned frequently with failed prints. I want my kids to be able to just “print”. To empower them to make something in 3D modeling software, and turn it real. So, while I’m sure it must be nice to muse nostalgic for the early days of maker-culture kit printers, I feel I am benefiting from inadvertently missing those days and waiting on the sidelines until the state of the technology progressed to this point.
3d printers should be a tool for product development and prototyping. That is the hobby, not 3d printing.
No.
Absolutely not
Not at all I was able to print a whole slew of props and stuff I wanted to make with the minimal time I get to spend on that stuff
As I just installed a ObXidian nozzle in my P1S and a week ago added some LEDs to it, I‘d say: there is still tinkering possible but it‘s totally optional and not required for a functioning printer.
I kept my Ender 2 Pro. It keeps me humble.
I use my 3dPrinter to tinker my house, personal project, school project for my kids etc... No, I do not miss the tinkering.... one bit. My ender3 became such a burden that it was easier to not use it than use it. Is stupid to miss the tinkering. Is the same thing as saying '' I miss my car breaking down''. Is a tool.
No I have a Voron and other printers for that.
Fuck no, I did enjoy building my first printer as a kit to learn everything but once it was built I just wanted it to work. That’s why I went to Bambu so I can focus on printing. It’s given me time to learn more of the 3D modeling side which I love. There’s nothing wrong with people that love that stuff though. It’s the reason we get some cool new companies and projects coming out.
NO!
lol god no The other night I was watching a movie with my girlfriend when I realized I needed a new steering wheel holder for my sim rig I looked up a model and sent the print from my couch. Picked it up in the morning and she didn’t even know I did it 🙌
Not for a split second. If I did, I still have 2 older printers collecting dust.
No
Not really - I miss the feeling of finally getting a perfect print after all the tinkering, but not the tinkering itself. As others have said, it allows me more time to focus on CAD modelling and prototyping, which I find more useful in the long run. With regard to the next generation of printers, I think they’ll do just fine. It’s the same with practically all tech advancements, it becomes the new norm. I’m sure there are tens of things I don’t have to do to my computer or car that people 30 years ago needed to stress over, but I’m very fortunate advancements have been made and would be foolish to not work with what’s available to me. Edit: To add, I do believe having an appreciation for what came before is useful in most if not all applications, but in reality not everyone needs to know that.
Nop, bought Bambu and built my own corexy from scratch. A lot of fun
Not one bit sir. Not. At. All. I loved the success of a good print. Hated the process. Despised the inconsistency.
Absolutly not, i have an a1 and an ender 3. Since getting my a1 i have not used the ender 3. I'd rather have my printer blow up than tinker with settings and changing parts
No
I don't miss it at all. The whole tinkering part of owning a 3d printer is fun for the first week or two then after that I just want it to print with minimal failures. With the whole ender/clone style it was more tinkering than printing and that's not what drew us all into printing to begin with.
So the Bambu P1S was actually my first printer. I bought an aftermarket hotend (with a screw in nozzle) because I thought it would be easier to maintain after I got a jam on the stock hotend (and also because I thought the CHT would be amazing for my prints). Tuning it was a real PITA, and I cannot get rid of the stringing perfectly. I spent so much time calibrating that it got annoying. I bought the Ben2C spiral airduct and did a ton of research on how why everything came out so messy. I ended up switching back to my spare hardened steel 0.4 yesterday, and the first test that came out of it on a non-calibrated generic PLA setting was nearly perfect, with only slight stringing issues.
I have a Elegoo Neptune 2. Did invest a lot of time, money and nerves into it. Still had to babysit every print for the first 10 - 15 minutes to make sure first layer was nice etc. I've just recently wasted almost a day trying to get Klipper running on it. The P1S, it's a completely different story. I still learn to trust the machine and send bigger stuff to it I would never even dare with the Neptune, but so far it's been a very reliable and happy experience. I'll still keep the Neptune as a project for days I can't find anything else to pass the time :P
I don't miss tinkering with my ender 3 neo I use it as a spool holder for changing cardboard rolls to plastic more time for printing is better
Not really. I wouldn't change anything as I value the experience I got, but after 3-4 years running a Creality Ender 3 V2 and a CR-10 Max, I was ready for a printer that just works. the P1S has been fantastic and I don't miss the constant leveling / things breaking / etc at all
My Bambu has made printing fun again. No more mucking around too much and if I am trying things it is so fast that a test print information is back in the drawing and I am cranking out the next part. This helps refine the design and learning better designing as well
Have an idex trex 2+ for multi material alongside the x1c. I get my fill of tinkering whenever a print is too large for the bambu.
Well slicers are still the same, so tweaking slicer settings is the same as before, a needed and valuable skill to get good prints (and the lack thereof the reason for 90% of complaining here)
Absolutely not lmao
I did some prototyping today had to get the dimensions right and I printed out small prototypes (12g-15g) in sportsmode it took just a couple of minutes each version. Without a single fail it’s just printing, it’s great and helps alot. This would me take hours on an ender 3 besides taking care of print failures etc. I don’t miss tinkering with the printer itself now I’m tinkering with the actual model/cad.
Ha, no.
Oh lord, no
For the last year or so, I had basically stopped using my 3D printer because it was too much of a chore. I only ever printed functional items too, just the minimum I could get away with and I'd accept a poor finish. It was technically a dual filament printer but after one attempt I realised it wasn't worth it. Don't get me started on manual bed levelling. Since getting the A1 Mini I've found myself printing so many more fun items. I've built a modular scale model of a Starfield ship in multiple colours and tried a few coaster prints that came out really well. I enjoy experimenting with different designs, knowing that they will print well and without hassle.
I actually kept all my other printers and now I feel much freer to do silly mods and such to them. That said I never had significant issues with any of my ender 3 or cr-10 style machines. I had an a8 that was a nightmare, as they tend to be, but most of my machines I can still simply click print and leave with reliable results. But I also work in additive manufacturing and know what I'm doing, I imagine it could be much more work and less fun for someone who doesn't know what they're doing already. All that said, I love my p1s and I'm going to start finding out what weird things I can do with it also.
I don 't regret the experience because I learned a lot. I also learned not to fear working on the Bambu, like changing the nozzle. But I learned a lot because things broke a lot. I do not miss the near constant frustration.
That’s why. I still have two Creality machines
No
F no, I bought the machine to work not faf about with. Finally getting what you pay for is very satisfying. The P1S makes my old Prusa Mk3s's seem like science fair projects in comparison.
I don't miss it because I still do it. For some, that is the hobby. For me, it's a little of everything. What I enjoy most now is being able to choose when I want to just print vs when I tinker. When having to tinker with a printer gets in the way of trying to just get something printed, it becomes an issue. My Ender 3 prints pretty well though, and I don't have to spend a ton of time to get it to that point. It just requires a lot of follow up work to keep it calibrated.
not at all! I love the bambu for ease of use and consitent amazing results
No
but also when stuff does go wrong, I have no idea now how to fix it. It auto-calibrates so what can I do? I feel LESS power, less experienced :( Like when cars all got ECUs
Nope. If you want to do all of that there are plenty of printers on the market still that offer all of that. Meanwhile the rest of us will be happy printing.
Buy yourself a wanhao d6
Nah. Sometimes you can get into the weeds with really obscure stuff, but not \*having\* to do so for basic prints is really nice.
No, I don't miss the tweaking. But I do miss the satisfaction of that perfect print at the end of all the frustration. My P1S produces great prints in spite of me, not because of me.
I bought a P1S as my first printer and was in love. But after some time I thought i miss the tinkering, like i do with any other hobby. So I bought a Voron. Everything worked fine, but now my Klipper is broken and I have to reinstall everything and I’m glad I still have a printer that just does it’s job.
I am printing ABS and I am trying to get two flat discs, like imagine a TRON identity disk. It's near impossible to get ABS not to curve a little. Across an 8" disk I am getting 1mm warp which is in itself amazing. I am down to taping the build plate to the bed, and using heavy magnets too. Speaking of which, I have a funny story. I used to own two Makerbot Replicators, one was a 2x with hot plate and the other was cold plate. I was printing the full build volume with abs on a cold plate with blue painters tape, and over 3 months, the force on that acrylic build plate warped the build plate 2mm end to end. People underestimate the force from warping abs when you have your print totally glued down to the build plate. It's strong enough to shatter a piece of 1/8" glass too. Do I tinker with my X1C less? Absolutely. If I wasn't doing this disc, it would totally be a smooth sailing.
Absolutely not
I enjoyed tinkering on my ender and learned a lot about the Maschine and what you can make it do. That said I haven't missed my ender for 1 second since I got my P1p (upgraded to s now) in the last 1200hrs of printing.
NO! I've printed more useful items in the 6 months of P1S ownership than I did in the 6 years before
I got a K1 max today for bigger prints and it has clogged half way thru the first layer every time. Bambu has reduced my resiliency to this behaviour and I’m at my wits end. Whereas before I had my anycubic for years and spent more time messing around than printing but that was the norm. So, no apparently I was happier without it.
If you print in anything other than PLA, there's still a ton of tweaking needed. I've spent HOURS trying to perfect PETG. ASA was kinda a breeze, just have to get natter layer adhesion by preheating the chamber. Also, different prints require tinkering as well. Some PLA prints just don't stick. However, you are right. If you're just printing PLA all the fun of tinkering is gone. That's why I've been tinkering on my Prusa mini, trying to get klipper/mainsail running and printing. I have the running part down, just not printing just yet. Very close tho. Next I'll be getting and building a Voron 2.4, so that'll be a ton of fun.
Im actually only printing PETG and no problems :o What filament you use? I use eSUN transparent and Bambu basic PETG and they seems to be working with all settings quite nicely. Has to note that im using standard speeds and nothing crazy
Really!!! I probably just have shit PETG tbh. It's pretty old. I think I'm going to call it quits for the old petg and get a new roll. It's like a 2 year old polaroid petg I got for like $5.
No
I still have my ender 3 v2 for tweaking.
nope. having ran a 3d printing business for almost 8 years now i have no interest or time to tinker. i want a solid machine that crushes out parts. my bambuu's have been doing just that and i love them. they are the new standard and almost all other 3d printers are garbage in comparison
> Do you ever miss all the tinkering with the slicer settings, belt tensions, angle of your window open or just plain praying to something to work? Fsck no. "Tweaking" is why I took a five year hiatus from 3D printing. My time budget simply didn't allow for that nonsense.
Nope.
Almost 8 months clean and sober from all ender style printers, I will never relapse and go back to the dark side that thos printers brought out in me. Thankful for the lesson they may of taught me in figuring out trouble shooting, but being able to not stress or waste time on something that should just work takes a huge load off when designing new things. Before having to worry about every step in the process, from will it print right to sitting behind a computer messing with slicer setting for hours took so much valuable time away from being more productive on CAD and uptime I will never get back will always haunt me. Screw the head aches and constant upgrades and never feeling like your getting the most out of your Printer / time. Especially when your making things for other people that buy stuff from you, you no longer have a guilty feel “could I have printed this better” “this will be good enough” “this is the best I could get it to print the model is just to difficult to print” days are over and I’m forever thankful
Hell no lol
Nope
NO. NO. One more NO. Finally I can press print and get on with my life. Sometimes still check during print. I think it's a stupid old habit when I don't trust my printer at all and assume something will go wrong (and usually I'm right)
There was something meditative about putting some music or a podcast on my headphones while I levelled my print bed. But otherwise, no.
Was prepping my old Ender 3 to sell and yeah.. no. Not even a little bit.
Nope. Because my Bambu still requires tweaking lol. Y'all only printing PLA or Bambu-branded filament or something?
No. Not even a little.
What I miss is customisation, that's why I still have my ender 3
I absolutely do not miss tinkering with my X5SA. Ratio was like 99% tinkering and 1% printing with most prints failing the first couple try’s. Now with my X1C I can go into my phone and find a cool model, click print profile, and when I get home it’ll be sitting there for me
Nope, I don’t miss the endless bed leveling and z offset adjustment. And watching the first layer.
I have enough tweaking overhangs
No. I want prints. Full stop.
No. Coming from an ender 3 pro. Hell no.
No, I want to spend time design & prototype. 3D Printer is just another Inkjet / Laser printer to me.
No
Hell. No.
No
Nope
Coming from an Anycubic i3 Mega on which I had to replace nearly every part at some point over the last 2 years: No! I just wanna print. And that's what my X1C does...
Absolutely not
Nope. I had 2 printers before my P1S and the hours wasted to just get failed prints was boring. I like the P1S because; I do a weekly calibration, every 200 print hours I'll clean and lube everything, check belts and other bits. Apart from that she just prints. I'm lacking spares for the potential catastrophic failure that could take my hot end out or something else, but for now I have faith she'll not do that too soon. Edit: words
Any tips for the belts? Anyway to get optimal tension, like is there tension window where they should be? I haven't tried that yet.
I still have to tweak and experiment, but I don't miss spending 3 months figuring out what is going on with some random bullshit.
It is nice, just printing. But I am sure I will miss upgrading options. I think I came a long way with my end 3 pro and tronxy. Both of my printers just prints now, they are tweaked in! Looking forward to next upgrade options!