That’s their market my brother bought 3 of them because he wanted to start a 3d printing business (with no additional planning so it did not last). Now I have one and my dad has one. I haven’t actually set mine up because I have my old Creator X clone dialed in and don’t really need anything more. Those two would probably never have gotten started if not for how easy the Bambus are. It took me a month to get decent results off my first printer and they were up and running in a few hours tops.
Those two would probably never have gotten started if not for how easy the Bambus are. It took me a month to get decent results off my first printer and they were up and running in a few hours tops.
I’ve got to admit, I’ve never understood that sort of issue. I’ve owned two 3D printers, a Monoprice MP Select Mini (bought back when it was the only ‘cheap’ printer in existence… holy shit, probably almost a decade ago) and a Creality Ender 3 V3 SE (because it was the best ‘cheap’ printer as of a couple years ago), and both of them gave me decent prints pretty much out of the box. After bed leveling, obviously, but without any other weird hardware adjustment or excessive experimentation with slicer settings.
I feel like the vaunted ‘superior ease of use’ of the Bambu stuff is overblown, but IDK, maybe I’ve just been lucky.
My first printer was an FLSUN delta printer, can’t remember for sure, but I think it was a Q5? This was before Bambu had hit the scene really. That thing was an absolute cake-walk to setup.
You had the bottom frame with the build plate already attached, 3 legs with motors and belts already attached, top section that holds extruder and basically all electronics, and the hot end/effector assembly already assembled and 6 poles for arms. One bold in each end of the legs and the frame is done, one bolt at each end of the 6 poles to connect the effector to the carriages and the motion system is done, and then 2 JST/Molex like connectors and it’s done.
Slapped the SD card in, did the auto bed level, and was printing without issues in well under an hour, and it was the first time I’d been in the same room as a 3d printer.
Not to mention that when things eventually broke (usually due to my own mistakes), I could buy “off-the-shelf” parts to fix it, I didn’t have to reach out to FLSUN. Bambu being the “apple of 3d printing” has always been a red-flag to me, and honestly I feel like they really pushed this idea that other 3d printers are very difficult to get working when it just wasn’t true (by the time they hit the market).
My Ender 3 required a little bit of assembly (attaching the Z-axis frame and the control panel, along with associated wires), but my Monoprice one came completely assembled. It was literally just plug it in, check the bed for level (which wasn’t automatic, but also required little to no adjustment out of the box), feed in some filament, and then print the lucky cat gcode that came on the SD card.
Admittedly I started pretty early on with the commercially available ones and I’m sure things have improved since then but that was my experience. I was fighting it for weeks screwing with leveling and temps, I completely burned through one set of leveling screws and had to replace them before I gave up and took the extruder apart and constructed a jig to make sure the nozzles were even. After that I started getting better results. By comparison my brother was given the exact same model by a coworker of his and he gave up on it because he’s just doesn’t think about technical things the same way I do. When he got the bambu though he was able to just go with it because he didn’t have to really troubleshoot anything.
I never bought a Bambu in the first place because all of this was foreseeable. Bambu costumers simply didn‘t care at the time.
That’s their market my brother bought 3 of them because he wanted to start a 3d printing business (with no additional planning so it did not last). Now I have one and my dad has one. I haven’t actually set mine up because I have my old Creator X clone dialed in and don’t really need anything more. Those two would probably never have gotten started if not for how easy the Bambus are. It took me a month to get decent results off my first printer and they were up and running in a few hours tops.
I’ve got to admit, I’ve never understood that sort of issue. I’ve owned two 3D printers, a Monoprice MP Select Mini (bought back when it was the only ‘cheap’ printer in existence… holy shit, probably almost a decade ago) and a Creality Ender 3 V3 SE (because it was the best ‘cheap’ printer as of a couple years ago), and both of them gave me decent prints pretty much out of the box. After bed leveling, obviously, but without any other weird hardware adjustment or excessive experimentation with slicer settings.
I feel like the vaunted ‘superior ease of use’ of the Bambu stuff is overblown, but IDK, maybe I’ve just been lucky.
My first printer was an FLSUN delta printer, can’t remember for sure, but I think it was a Q5? This was before Bambu had hit the scene really. That thing was an absolute cake-walk to setup.
You had the bottom frame with the build plate already attached, 3 legs with motors and belts already attached, top section that holds extruder and basically all electronics, and the hot end/effector assembly already assembled and 6 poles for arms. One bold in each end of the legs and the frame is done, one bolt at each end of the 6 poles to connect the effector to the carriages and the motion system is done, and then 2 JST/Molex like connectors and it’s done.
Slapped the SD card in, did the auto bed level, and was printing without issues in well under an hour, and it was the first time I’d been in the same room as a 3d printer.
Not to mention that when things eventually broke (usually due to my own mistakes), I could buy “off-the-shelf” parts to fix it, I didn’t have to reach out to FLSUN. Bambu being the “apple of 3d printing” has always been a red-flag to me, and honestly I feel like they really pushed this idea that other 3d printers are very difficult to get working when it just wasn’t true (by the time they hit the market).
My Ender 3 required a little bit of assembly (attaching the Z-axis frame and the control panel, along with associated wires), but my Monoprice one came completely assembled. It was literally just plug it in, check the bed for level (which wasn’t automatic, but also required little to no adjustment out of the box), feed in some filament, and then print the lucky cat gcode that came on the SD card.
Bambu are not the only easy to setup anymore, but they did influence the trend.
They also have MakerWorld/Bambu handy that makes it really easy to start a print from anywhere.
So they are extremely easy to use.
But they are trying to leverage that to close their ecosystem and lock users in with shady practices…
Admittedly I started pretty early on with the commercially available ones and I’m sure things have improved since then but that was my experience. I was fighting it for weeks screwing with leveling and temps, I completely burned through one set of leveling screws and had to replace them before I gave up and took the extruder apart and constructed a jig to make sure the nozzles were even. After that I started getting better results. By comparison my brother was given the exact same model by a coworker of his and he gave up on it because he’s just doesn’t think about technical things the same way I do. When he got the bambu though he was able to just go with it because he didn’t have to really troubleshoot anything.