So I got a 3D printer. Having lots of fun with it so far, but still doing plenty with my GF, too. Sooner or later I’ll start coming up with good projects that use both.
Anyhow, one sort of unique thing about the BambuLab X1 is that when you use it for multi-material printing (which like many other multi-material printers requires purging excess filament from the nozzle on each color change), the purged material gets dumped out the back instead of creating a big block in your build area. But what to do with whatever gets dumped out is left as an exercise to the reader.
There are a handful of 3D-printable designs for buckets that catch and accumulate your purge waste, but I thought that kind of structure might be better done with wood:
The little circles on the side are just the right size to friction-fit some little round magnets snugly enough that they hold the whole thing against the printer without pulling away from the wood.
The cardboard prototype weathered a couple of purge-producing prints pretty well. But now I’m in the middle of an extra-purge-heavy one and finding that the waste piles up and over the back before falling down into the rest of the bucket. So it’s back to the drawing board before I post a good version in Free Laser Designs.
One thing that attracted me to the BambuLab printer is that this startup seems to be trying to do for FDM printing like Glowforge has for laser cutting — making what’s been more of an arcane tinkerer’s hobby more accessible to the casual enthusiast.
This printer might involve less tinkering than others, but not none. (I had to unclog an extruder already. And then replace it because I broke it in disassembly.) So I have a handful of spare parts — some that came with the printer or its Kickstarter bonus, some that I ordered. As well as some consumables like glue sticks for the build plate. (Including all the extra ones my daughter keeps trying to give me faster than I use them up.)
And we can’t just have those strewn about the workbench, can we? So, some boxes.py and a bit of tinkering later, we have a nice little caddy for all the extra bits:
Thanks for the initial info and ideas. I just received a BambuLab X1C as well, and look forward to GF projects which incorporate 3d printed elements. I’ve only had it a day, but I think your explanation on the Bambu being close to the GF of 3d printers is pretty accurate. To have a successfully printed anything (useful) within an hour of assembly is remarkable, considering I’ve never used a 3d printer. I was even able to download a couple free objects and figure out how the support function works, with only one small spaghetti mutant restart, so far…
Obviously my opinion is completely naive. But selecting and designating certain elements or layers in predesigned files, within the relatively simple UI, and having it automatically switch filament colors while printing - that’s just awesome in my book.
Anyway, hopefully you’ll post some of your GF combined creations in the future.
