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Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: June 30th, 2023

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  • And finally, you should get yourself an active filament dryer.

    I personally use Polymaker’s PolyDry Dry Boxes and Dryer because I like that the drying base is detachable so once the filament has been dried it lives in the sealed box until I pop it out to put it in the AMS. Check for a local distributor but they can be found occasionally on Amazon but the cheapest place is AliExpress though you will have to wait for a while for them to arrive.

    There are other solutions out there so I’d advise taking a look and doing some research by watching some reviews on the multiple brands out there at different price points so you get an understanding for yourself and what you think your needs will be.

    Aside from that, the rest is up to you to figure out as you learn ☺️.

    Want to print in more detail? Consider buying a 0.2mm nozzle. Want to print in carbon fibre or other abrasive filaments? Have a look at Diamond Back nozzles for Bambu made by E3D.

    But what I would highly recommend, if you can, go to your next and nearest 3D Printing / Maker festival and enjoy some time chatting in person with others in the community.

    Please let me know if you have any other questions and I’ll do my best to answer or try and point in the right direction.



  • Second, print the included bed scraper if you haven’t already. It’s the second thing I’d print after the Benchy.

    Third, here’s some essentials to have on hand for maintenance:

    • Super Lube I use this for the metal bearing rods on the print head gantry and print bed. DO NOT APPLY to the carbon rods on the print head. It’s also super useful if you start hearing a rubbing / grinding sound whenever the bed jiggles during levelling / moving up and down OR the print head moving about. This is caused by the edges of the belt rubbing against the sides of the belt pulleys. I fixed this by CAREFULLY applying a very thin coat of the lube to the edges of the belts on the gantry and in the base underneath the printer. DO NOT GET LUBE ON THE BELT TEETH! I literally put a small dab of lube on my finger and running it carefully along the very edge of the belts.

    • Isopropyl Alcohol like this contact cleaner.

    [Don’t use this for cleaning the build plate, use warm soapy water] This is very useful for removing lube and grease when doing maintenance on your printer and I’d say it is the go to for cleaning those moving parts before re-applying lube / grease as appropriate. Speaking of which.

    • Lithium Grease. I used this on the z-build plate screw threads after the little sachets included with the printer ran out. After cleaning off the previous grease with the contact cleaner and a microfiber cloth I smeared a healthy dose of this along all 3 screw threads and moved the bed all the way up and down to get a nice even coat before wiping off the excess.

    • a BRASS wire brush. I’d recommend a brass wire brush for gently cleaning off gunk in your nozzle because brass is a softer metal than your steel nozzle so it won’t damage it, just be careful around the silicone sock.


  • Ok so first of all, a disclaimer:

    I’m not a 3D Printing veteran so please take my advice with a pinch of salt. My experience with 3D printers has been off and on over the last 10 years so whilst I’ve seen the hobby / industry change over time, I’ve only been hands on with a printer for a total of about 4 years, and only within the last 6 months have I had a printer of my own (Bambu P1S, and now an AMS for less than a month).

    Those 2 of those 4 years were at university with a haunted and spiteful Makerbot Replicator my engineering department threw out, a tiny shitty cube printer with a disposable stick-down bed which was all the student Makerspace I helped set up could afford. The other 2 years was the brand new university FabLAB where I got my hands on an Ultimaker 2, my first love.

    So whilst I have some knowledge I can share, it’s not that deep and I don’t want to pretend I know a lot about the specifics of Bambu printers when there’s very likely to be much more experienced people in this community. I’m still getting to grips with my own printer.

    With that being said here’s some generic upgrades to consider:

    AMS Silica Box Upgrade

    This is the one is great because the measly Silica bags that come with the AMS are OK but this will vastly improve keeping your filament dry which is good because:

    • PLA when left out in average ambient air will absorb enough moisture to be unusable within 2 to 3 months and a lot sooner in a moist environment.

    • Moist filament, even if usable, will cause print artifacts and increased risk of print failure.

    • Some filaments like TPU absorb moisture a lot easier and therefore having a way to keep it dry passively in the AMS is good.

    • For this print, pick up a Hydrometer and some Silica Beads with this size bottle just enough to fill the containers.







  • May I present to you, how to measure like a Brit

    Flow chart showing the uses for metric and imperial in the UK

    It’s great fun especially when you’re trying to work out how fuel efficient your car has been when your tank and fuel pump is in litres and the fuel efficiency is in miles per gallon.

    Oh and you’ll have a jolly time following a recipe from more than 20 years ago trying to remember what the hell “Gas Mark 4” is in centigrade for fan or convection ovens.

    Oh and my personal favourite for the industry I’m in: when designing a PCB your component sizes will use imperial codes, your wire diameters will be in AWG, your track widths and PCB dimensions will be in millimetres, but your copper thicknesses will be in ounces despite the final weight for the assembly will be in grams.