Bambu Lab P1S

[...] I say this as someone who started printing many years ago with an i3 clone and has replaced nearly every piece of multiple printers (control board, bearings, hotend, extruder, etc!) over the years for better performance. I moved away from wanting to tinker with the printers and haven't touched them since getting a P1S years ago.

I had an Ender 3 Pro, and it was also very finicky, 18 months ago I replaced it with a Bambu P1S and that thing is just a (nearly) fire and forget machine. [...] In the 18 months I've had it, I've probably gone through 10-20 rolls of filament, in the 4 years I had the Ender I went through maybe 3-4 (because every time I wanted to print something I knew I'd have to spend an hour fiddling with it). [...]

[...] I ended up getting the P1S with the multi-filament printing on sale on Father's Day and I've used the heck out of it. [...] I don't know the hours, but it's been printing the vast majority of the time since I got it, last Father's Day, and it's been super reliable. This weekend I designed and printed out a routing template for routing out door hinges onto door jambs. [...]

[...] they're more expensive but they are absolutely unmatched when it comes to the out of the box experience. [...] finally broke down last year and bought a Bambu P1S with the AMS for multi-material printing and it's been a revelation. [...]

I'm an open-source advocate (some would say zealot?) but I ended up buying a Bambu P1S a few months back because my research indicated that there were ways use it normally without creating a Bambu account, or using their slicer, or having to send all of your prints through their servers. [...] IIRC, you only had to change one setting on the printer itself, and optionally block the printer from Internet access via the firewall to prevent automatic firmware updates and telemetry. [...] So other than Bambu getting all heavy-handed with a legitimate open-source fork of their slicer software (which is definitely not okay), I'm not sure I'm clear on what the kerfuffle is about. [...]

I traded a Prusa MK3S for a secondhand Bambu P1S and it was night and day. I believe the prusa could have gotten to a place where it printed well and consistently, but the P1S just works. [...]

I have a Prusa i3 Mk3 and a Bambu P1S and I have to disagree. [...]

As someone with both an Insta360 camera and a Bambu printer, I feel it, would love to buy GoPro and Prusa, but the value just isn't there. For one, I had a GoPro whose sensor broke after about 20 minutes of recorded. I ended up getting 3 different replacements, all of which also broke. [...] I got an Insta360 with better picture quality that's also been more reliable for a similar cost. And I would have loved to buy a Prusa printer but I got a Bambu P1S combo for $600, an equivalent Prusa plus the $300 shipping to Canada would have been $2500 CAD. For making trinkets for my 3 year old son plus the few random other things I'd make it's not worth it to pay 4x the money. Maybe it'll forever be this way due to the differences in cost of living but I do feel as though there's a million barriers to entry to building a business in North America, at least a business that's not fully online.

I have a Bambu P1S and using it has been some kind of normie-friendly experience. I recall in the long past before I got this machine, my friend's early model Prusa would semi-bootstrap itself by printing some of its parts but the thing I ended up getting was a fully formed unit that just does the whole thing with a minimum of fuss. We use the 3d printer explicitly for the one-off object scenario.

[...] That's what I meant with "the P1S is the best at being the P1S when measured by the P1S". [...] The only way of not getting rug-pulled is not handing away all of your agency wholesale just for cheap immediate emotional relief. [...]

"you only had to change one setting on the printer itself, and optionally block the printer from Internet access via the firewall to prevent automatic firmware updates and telemetry" - "only" is doing a lot of work here. [...] I have a P1S myself, and I find Bambu to be a strange company. [...]

[...] If you wanted a printer of similar quality, you would have had to build your own Voron for $1000 with the obvious caveat that you have to order the parts yourself and then assemble it. Then Bambu Lab releases the P1S, which is comparable to a Voron but cheaper and you don't have to assemble it. [...] They've started building a printer that is cheaper than an Ender 3, but has the same print quality as the higher end Bambu Lab printers and despite being a gantry design, much faster print speeds with low setup and maintenance. [...] Prusa had good printers that were relatively expensive. [...] Basically, the entire 3D printing community centered itself around a terrible overpriced 3D printer from a company that still produces garbage to this day. Meanwhile if you bought a rather expensive Bambu Labs printer you never had any issues to begin with. [...]

Yes, you can use the P1S offline, but they've done everything possible to make it hard: crappy micro sd interface without the ability to use folders, USB plug absolutely inaccessible (see if you can even find it) and then, once you've found it it turns out that there is absolutely no way to use it to print with. [...] There is absolutely no way I'm going to run a Chinese built piece of software that I can not inspect on my desktop. [...]

My wife and I bought a Bambu P1S and I think the machine has had a duty cycle of 30% (excluding when we weren’t in town). [...] I wish there were better AI tools for interacting with modeling software. [...] The Bambu P1S I have is quite low friction to set up. [...]

I've extensively used Prusa MK3/MK3+, Creality K1, Bambu A1 and Bambu P1S. [...] The Bambu A1 is much better engineered than the Prusa, but the software sucks and the company behind it sucks even more they work, until they break and then they are as often as not complete write offs but it can take a considerable time before they break. The P1S is a better version of the K1 hardware wise but the software and user interface are absolutely terrible, there is no USB port that is normally accessible the one that is there doesn't work and it does not support folders. They are essentially forcing you to use their closed-source cloud based software. [...]

[...] I love my Bambu P1S for the flexibility it gives us in our house. The 3d printing community is also only matched by the software community in terms of the open-source ecosystem. [...] I've only ever made one tiny item and I don't think it's of much use to most people because I just used an LLM to build it: a mount for my Eufy E21 baby camera. [...]

[...] I pressed twice to start and the screen showed “ready to prin” with the cursor blinking on the triangular “forward” icon. [...] Switched the P1S off, restarted, same story. [...]

Bambu lab P1S hms0300-4000-173131. [...] I’ve replaced the build plate and the nozzle, but nothing works. [...] The app on my phone suggests an issue with the signal from the heatbed force sensor, but I don’t see that information in Bambu Studio! [...] Screenshot20261031201145Bambu Handy1080×2340 195 KB Screenshot20261031201141Bambu Handy1080×2340 193 KB Screenshot20261031172454Bambu Handy11080×2340 212 KB

lkraus: A Bambu printer will probably get live z-offset tuning when Ford re-introduces cars with manual spark advance This is so true There are people who just drive their cars everything stock and know that they can drive from location A to B repeatedly and reliably But there are also people who would pull out the radio head and install an android one with beefy speakers, or install leather steering wheel cover, change all interior lights into LED… While some others rip out the ignition and install aftermarket one with methanol injection for drag racing, or just swap in different wheels for off road adventure I know, I know, bbl printers are apple like and not suppose to be modified, just like how car manufacturers don’t like you to mod their car. But I also know plenty of users here are struggling with PETG, which plastic I’ve been printing comfortably since reprap era. [...] If there was 3rd party AP board for P1S that could do open source to overcome bbl limitations, I’d buy it in a heart beat.

[...] I bought my P1S before the whole LAN mode debacle and even then it was all or nothing on the cloud. I just went with the cloud because they were using some IGMP stuff for the local connection, but I had the printer on a separate VLAN and pfsense IGMP proxying was broken. [...]

[...] Being hard to repair isn't really a problem, it's that it broke at all. [...] We also have a couple of P1Ss that are very solid, the one H2D has all the problems.

[...] Creality's K1 Plus was great, but regularly needed the extruder disassembled to get broken filament out. [...] I bought 2 Elegoo Centauri Carbons. The first has been out of commission since the extruder went haywire, and I couldn't get replacement parts without going through some random support chat app, and the 2nd one's build plate delaminated the first weekend I had the printer. [...] Prusas are good, but price and availability are issues (I bought all the above new at my local Microcenter). I do have an older Prusa MK3 that I bought for an pellet extruder conversion, but for a printer with no online capabilities and a need to manually level it via paper, it cost more used than a new Bambu Lab P1S. I'm okay with putting your money where your ideology is, but imagine if the only alternative to an iPhone's walled garden was a $2000 Android.

[...] Bambu's printers are functionally best-in-class, but intrusive and proprietary in their approach to software. Their first-time setup "requires" linking to a cloud account or using a bambu app via QR code, and they've been known to disable functionality in updates, making a device-managed "LAN-only" mode unsafe to trust. [...] Camera feed is janky and LAN-only sync often requires knowing an access code, serial, IP, and then it fails most of the time anyway, silently, without saving values to retry. [...] Anyway, turns out that at least on A1 and P1S, there's enough functionality available through traditional means to skip the apps entirely. [...] Even the camera is reliable when pulled as a series of still images. I had opus vibe out a replacement front end that gives me a simple upload and monitor UI for my A1, and it just kept hitting stretch goals. [...]

[...] Just yesterday I got confused when I accidentally entered the "cache" folder (Handy sliced models?) on my P1S, so it looks like my machine definitely supports folders at least. [...] AFAIK, the hidden internal USB port is intended to charge a phone/other device used as a "touch controller". [...]

[...] I have been having a terrible time trying to get generic PETG to print properly on my P1S. [...] So this morning I set about creating a new dedicated profile to mirror the settings so comprehensively laid out in the document, only to find that I couldn’t even find the settings from the first screenshot (filament diameter, flow rate etc). [...] Donnie’s article is here: Bambu Lab X1 Carbon PETG Settings – Get Perfect Prints I am using a BambuLabs P1S Combo. [...]

I appreciate everyone’s input, but I want to clarify why manual Z Offset adjustment is still absolutely relevant — especially for people using multiple build plates, various filaments, and aiming for consistent, high-quality first layers. [...] When you sell or display parts, small flaws on the first layer (too thin = poor bonding, too thick = rough or warped) mean wasted time, wasted filament, or rework. [...] Not having quick access to this on the P1S (or having it buried in workarounds) removes a basic tool many makers rely on daily. [...]

I am the owner of a new (three weeks) P1S combo printer and I’m slowly getting desperate. [...] I bought a refill and mounted it in a Bambu Lab spool. [...] I don’t know whether using official Bambu filament (PLA) would solve my problems but it’s very expensive In desperation I moved the printer to a different location, maybe it was too close to the window or the heating radiator. [...]

[...] I inserted another card I have been using, picked any file and it started the initialization. [...]

There is no requirement to send prints through their servers. My P1S has never been logged into their cloud service in the year I've owned it.

Without looking it up I’m guessing I’ve had my P1S for 3 or more years and I’ve never had a single issue with it, to the point where I wonder what issues your friends have?

Every time there's an article on HN about 3D printing you have a flock of people who have obviously not looked at a 3D printer in 10 years come and spout absolute nonsense. As you're saying, modern printers are simply click and forget. I haven't had any maintenance or fix to do on my P1S in 2 years.

All of a sudden, after 18 months excellent printing, my stock P1S now fails every print (see pics). [...] Here’s what I’ve tried so far - am all out of ideas: Several different filaments, brand-new PLA+ Tried external spool and different ams slots Replaced hot end with new one Recalibrated the printer Checked underneath - Z belt checked, cleaned and pulley lubricated Cleand, disassembled and inspected extruder assembly Tested all 4 fans are working Checked belts Replaced & Formatted SD Card Added grease to z axis and lubricated rods Cleaned plate Attempted printing with door open & glass top removed Factory reset Uninstalled Bambu Studio and rolled back to earlier version of software (without updates) Tried printing different models IMG202512160740201920×2560 321 KB IMG202512161015041920×2560 292 KB

Snuck in my Bambu P1S. Won't be upgrading that firmware hahaha! I've had it for a few months now and it's a good consumer-grade easy-to-use 3d printer.

I used to have a lot of 3d printer problems in the distant past. Last year, I bought the Bambu Lab P1S, and it is surprisingly easy to work.

I've had a Bambu Lab P1S for about 1.5 years, fully enclosed Core XY it's a workhorse and they just came out with the new version so the P1S has dropped significantly.

[...] Anyway, I bought a Bambu Lab P1S and AMS 18 months ago. [...]

This one's a Bambu Labs P1S. Probably a little more printer than I needed, but future proofs me against myself, and in the five years since I bought the last one, they've improved SO much. [...]

I’ve only printed PETG in my P1S for about a year now with no issues. [...] Slow down speed on the slicer, specially the first layer. [...]

Sweet spot when I bought mine last year was the Bambu Lab P1S. Enclosed for compatibility with a lot of filaments but simple to use. Bambu is doing walled garden stuff with their software though, it’s worth looking into.

[...] And that it started happening to both my p1s and p1p at the same time (after being largely dormant for about 4-5 months) is extra weird.

I’ll second the cooling being off. Started this on an open chassis printer, and continued on the P1s. Seems to help PETG alot!

If you’re a single-machine user like me, then IKEA has your perfect base unit - the STORKLINTA bedside table. The P1S fits perfectly, with just the right amount of space behind it for the reel-box cardboard poop-chute to sit. No, no shares in IKEA… 20240729135024resize1007×1600 196 KB

I run this on the home server w/ caddy-tailscale, and I can slice/print from anywhere with a nice easily rememberable domain name. I run a P1S in LAN mode and have it firewalled from actual internet access.

California is just a population that tries to solve problems with maximal regulation and selective enforcement. So you get to see the effects. Here are some laws that I think the HN community would be hugely in favour of: Yeah, I'd prefer to have an offline 3d printer but it seems I've made a mistake with my Bambu P1S.

Yeah. I just bought a new p1s last week and today hooked it up, never connected it to anything but power. Printing from the SD card worked first try, zero issues.

I have a P1S. [...] If money weren’t a problem, which Prusa printer comes closest (assuming we’d want something like the Bambu AMS2)?

Aside from orca slicers issues Bambus p2s and their ams2 pro have had more hardware reliability issues in 1 month than is normal Wayyyy more than my p1s and ams combo I think there’s also some issue in their firmware that needs to be rolled back or perhaps properly tested Gonna sound harsh : This isn’t a printer anymore … it’s AI slop

[...] It was actually way faster with ChatGPT/OpenSCAD as I wanted to be able to hot swap SVG's to create different shaped tokens to print on my Bambu P1S with AMS. [...]

peter.odgaard: P1S start g-code is a painful thing to watch.. This is something you can change. There are lots of “optimized start” gcode that users have shared.

After a while, all firmware updates stops… I mean, there are still updates but not for the older models even though there are many subjects that could use attention. P1S start g-code is a painful thing to watch.. [...]