Bambu P1S Combo Review: Clean, Fast, 3D Printing

It’s a known issue that many users print the aptly named “poop chute”, which collects and redirects waste to the side where it is easier to empty. I resorted to the simple solution of placing an empty filament box on the back of the printer to hold it.

Before printing, Bamboo also cleans and levels the bed into a grid, and warns you if it hits any obstructions like leftover supports or a faulty bed scraper. I’ve tried several printers with auto-level before, but they were slow, and usually required a second check by hand before really going through. I haven’t had to adjust anything on the P1S for over a month now, so that’s how I’m used to it, with the printer handling the initial setup, regular re-leveling, and nozzle cleaning.

bundle

Photograph: Brad Bourke

The Bamboo P1S is sold on its own, but I think the bundle that includes the Multi-Filament Handling AMS is worth the extra cost. When I unpacked the AMS, I had dreams of vibrant, multi-colored prints, and while that’s certainly possible, it’s not the component’s best feature. Changing color or material mid-print forces the nozzle to dump a small coil of extra material, and you have to print a tower on the side to reduce Z-axis variation.

This results in a significant amount of plastic wastage, additional printing time and effort in customizing models and slicing for layers and colors. I also noticed that there was a lot of extra length in the purge coils when changing colors, and gradually reduced that amount in the Bamboo Studio, but your mileage may vary. To preempt any questions: Yes, it felt weird inspecting your 3D printer’s poop to improve its diet.

Instead of printing complex multi-color parts at once, I found AMS more useful for reducing the time spent working with the printer to swap filaments. However it takes you through the process, switching a single filament is quite a practical process. You have to wait for the nozzle to heat up, pull out the old filament, push new filament in until it drips again, then place the roll on the spool holder, and make sure it purges out any leftovers. With AMS, I simply load the colors I want onto the rollers for a multi-piece project, select them in the slicer, and it handles everything from heating to purification.