Category: Uncategorized

We’ve got some news to share about Bambu Lab’s A1 3D printer recall. There’s been quite a stir in the 3D printing community, and we’re here to break it down for you.

Bambu Lab, known for its innovative 3D printers, recently issued a recall for their A1 model due to issues with the heatbed cable. In a detailed press release, the company outlines its findings, the current solutions, and compensation options for affected customers, emphasizing their commitment to safety and customer satisfaction.

New Findings: The issue, initially thought to be widespread, affects less than 0.1% of all A1 printers sold. Problems were identified near the cable connector, with external factors and craftsmanship being potential causes. Some issues were traced back to the printer’s placement during installation, causing undue stress on the cables. Bambu Lab is awaiting the return of affected units for a thorough investigation to determine the exact cause of these malfunctions.

Company’s Response: Understanding the complexity and seriousness of the issue, Bambu Lab advises all A1 users to cease using the printer until further information is available. This precautionary measure reflects their prioritization of customer safety over immediate functionality.

Compensation Options: Bambu Lab offers two primary compensation options for customers who purchased the A1 printer through their online store:
Return for Refund: Customers can return their A1 printer for a full refund. This process may take up to 15 business days, considering shipping and processing times. Additionally, customers opting for this will receive an $80 discount voucher for other Bambu Lab models, including the A1 Mini, P1, and X1 series.

Wait for Heatbed Replacement: Customers preferring to keep their printer can wait for a new, upgraded heatbed, expected to be available by the end of March. Bambu Lab will provide a detailed guide and a $120 discount voucher for any product in their online store as compensation for the wait. The warranty period for these customers will be extended by an additional six months.

Important Considerations: Customers are encouraged to register their decision on a dedicated page to help Bambu Lab optimize the recall process. Official resellers will offer the same compensation, and customers are advised to contact them for details. The company acknowledges that the plan may change based on new findings from their ongoing investigation and assures customers that any updates will be communicated promptly.

A few A1 users reached out to Bambu Lab with concerns about wonky temperature readings and heating issues. After some serious detective work, Bambu Lab figured out that these problems mainly come from damage at the base of the heatbed cable. It seems that in a small number of A1 printers, too much bending can hurt the cable. This damage might not cause immediate issues, but it can lead to more serious problems like inaccurate temperature readings or even short circuits. Yikes!

What’s causing the damage? It looks like a few things could be to blame:

• Rough handling during shipping.
• Accidental pressure on the cable during setup.
• Unexpected bumps and knocks after installation.

If you’re a bit worried about your A1, here’s a quick guide to check your cable:

Damaged Cable:

Healthy Cable:

If your cable looks like the damaged one, or you’re just not sure, best to contact Bambu Lab’s support team with a photo of the cable’s base. They’re offering to either replace the whole printer or send out a new heatbed assembly for those of you who are handy with DIY repairs.

For those with no visible cable damage (which, thankfully, is most A1 owners), Bambu Lab’s got a preventative solution: a Cable Protector. This handy little tool is super easy to install and will keep your cable safe from bending too much. Bambu Lab is sending these out to all A1 buyers, but if you’re itching to get it sooner, you can download and print the 3MF file for the Cable Protector right away.

Apologies to anyone who’s been inconvenienced by this. The good news is Bambu Lab is all about making their A1 printers stronger and more reliable. They’re even updating their packaging to prevent any cable damage during shipping. So, if your new A1 arrives with some extra padding or looks like it’s been opened and resealed, that’s why.

Stay tuned for more details on these packaging changes. They’ll be releasing a wiki article to fill you in on everything you need to know. And as always, if you’ve got questions or need some help, Bambu Lab’s team is just a message away.

That’s all for now, folks! We’ll keep you posted on any new developments.

https://blog.bambulab.com/a1-recall-update/

https://wiki.bambulab.com/en/a1/maintenance/heatbed?ref=blog.bambulab.com

Cable Protector:

https://makerworld.com/en/models/158862?ref=blog.bambulab.com#profileId-174376

Introduction to Filament Swatches

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Filament swatches, are small samples of filament material used to test and evaluate different properties before committing to a larger print job. These swatches offer a practical and cost-effective way for users to assess various aspects of filament materials, such as color, texture, strength, and flexibility.

Filament swatches can be traced back to the early days of 3D printing, where experimentation with materials was limited due to cost and availability. As the industry/community evolved, the need for a more efficient way to test and select materials became evident, leading to the creation of filament swatches. These small samples allow users to experiment with different materials without the expense and waste associated with larger test prints. They usually come in the form of a card but occasionally you can find themed swatches, one of the coolest ones I even found were small spools of filament.

Filament swatches have become increasingly important in the 3D printing community, especially for those who are constantly exploring new materials and techniques. They serve as a bridge between the theoretical properties of a material and its actual performance in a print. By providing a tangible way to assess materials, filament swatches help users make more informed decisions, leading to better print quality and material optimization.

Types and Uses of Filament Swatches

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Filament swatches come in a variety of types, each tailored to specific needs and applications in 3D printing. The most common types include PLA (Polylactic Acid), ABS (Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene), PETG (Polyethylene Terephthalate Glycol), and specialty filaments like woodfill, metalfill, and glow-in-the-dark materials. Each type of filament swatch offers unique properties such as different levels of strength, flexibility, temperature resistance, but are mainly used for aesthetic qualities like color and finish.

Specialty filaments like woodfill and metalfill provide unique textures and finishes, allowing for more creative and aesthetic prints. These filaments are particularly useful for artists and designers who want to experiment with different looks and feels.

In practical terms, filament swatches are used to test print settings like temperature, speed, and layer height, ensuring optimal results before committing to a larger project. They also allow users to compare different materials side-by-side, making it easier to select the right filament for a specific project. By providing a hands-on way to evaluate these factors, filament swatches play a crucial role in the 3D printing process, leading to more successful and satisfying printing experiences.

So with the beautiful weather upon us there is an immediate need to go out and soak up some sun. For me this is getting out and riding my bike to my day job or just to go out for a ride for fun. Although after pulling out my bike and having a closer look, I thought I could easily print some upgrades.

Mud Guards

First of all, we’re going to get some mud guards on the bike. These will prevent water from flying up in my face and up my back.

This is why I love Thingiverse, for a project like this I can search around on there and find some designs I really like. Like these mud guards made by: Reddukem. This design will be a nice addition to my bike.

https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4657095

Then the next print is a the front mud/splash guard. This one is printed in 4 pieces then assembled and zip-tied to the frame, not to fond of the zip-tie but aw well. Then there’s the front fender as well.

E-Bike Conversion – Motor Mount

So along with printing some of the basic things, I thought I’d take on a project that’s a little more challenging. Plus it’ll help get around town a lot easier. The conversion I’m taking on is similar to a lot of the cheap kits available on eBay or amazon. The link to the motor is as follows: Amazon

Sprocket Mount

After completing the motor mount I decided to model a sprocket mount(which I didn’t need) for the rear tire. Also, all of these prints(besides a few small things) will be done with carbon fibre nylon and petg. This way I can be a little bit more confident about performance.

So even though I didn’t end up using the entire sprocket mount, I still ended up using one piece(the main hub) which centres the sprocket on the wheel.

Controller Mount

Now you need a place to put the main controller for this project which conveniently comes in a easy to mount aluminum extrusion case, however all the connectors are dangling in the breeze so I wanted to try and button that up. This gentleman did an excellent review of this product.

So far so good! Now I still have some work to do here but I wanted to post this update, so excited with this build. I still have plans to print a case for a small oled and the front and rear light housing. Very promising and super fun project, HAPPY PRINTING!

Check out the Tough Key Carabiner I made this week. Inspired by the steel key carabiner you see all the time. I plan on adding my own stl section to the website but for now you can grab it on cults and thingiverse.

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Thingiverse Link:

https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:5929674

So a few months ago I had an idea I was sure someone had done before, but as it turns out not really. The concept relates to 3d printers part cooling and how it could be improved.

So typically a fan is used for part cooling, specifically a 4014 or 5015 typically mounted to the carrier next to the hotend. Now if you’re printing a stock profile out of the box this doesn’t really matter to you but if you’re printing fast, like 20k acceleration fast, there is a good chance the fan mounted to the carrier is causing some resonance issues.

CPAP fans are employed or a beard air cooling solution is used if they’re printing with PLA. These solutions mount the fan motors away from the carrier so that distance acts as a insulator/barrier against resonance and also provides much more output that your typical 5015.

Although cpap fans are extremely popular right now, especially for high speed this isn’t what I want to use. I’ve been testing a pond pump, repurposed for part cooling of course.

So after some preliminary testing the idea is to have one 5015 fan mounted to the rear of the carrier with the experimental pond pump cooler mounted to the front of the carrier. The 5015 would be routed to the hotend via 3d printed ducting and the air pump output would be via H.A.K(puenumatic tubing) and a copper spout to focus air flow.

The pump itself will be mounted to a shelf on the exterior of the cabinet and controlled via SSR.

So after doing some testing with the SSR and the pump, I’ve had problems controlling the airflow. First I had the SSR wired in backwards and the output for it inverted and it worked fine(I could control the output) but after I switched it over from inverted to not and fixed the wiring, all it would do is switch on/off. This is something I’m going to have to come back to.

So the last couple of weeks have been a handful to say the least. I spent quite a bit of time getting the new setup for the Ender done. The cloned duet board is really nice but I’ve had a few issues getting everything to work properly. The main thing that fooled me with this board was the motor pin-outs. On most other controller boards the pin-out for the motor connectors is somewhat standardized.

Generally the pin-out is as follows, A+, A-, B+, B-. With the big dipper it is A+, A-, B-, B+. So that sent me for a loop, but everything else was pretty straight forward.

I’m currently using three of the four fan outputs, two fans are running directly off the power supply(something I intend to change in the near future). There are four steppers being used, two for X&Y movement, one for the extruder and one for the z-axis. I am using a inductive proximity switch for bed probing and there are two micro-switches and an optical end stop for the x-axis. I have reinstalled boothys corexy carrier to retry some high temperature printing.

So with all that out of the way I can get back into finishing off this printer. I recently spent some time modifying a cloned V6 into a water cooled version. I really want to use this on my current setup, just because I really think I can push this to 400c easily. I would really like to do the same with the hotend I currently have installed(BMO Dragonfly) but I’m a little worried that I might ruin it. The overall goal is to be able to print ultem and peek without issues. I have plans to redo the interior of the enclosure with sheet metal.

With the sheet metal I plan to create a barrier between the printer and the current enclosure. Also with the sheet metal in place I could basically have a chamber inside of another chamber. This could facilitate higher temperatures in the “printing” chamber while keeping the steppers and other components cool.

One other thing I’m thinking about is the part cooling, a month or two ago I talked about using a pond pump to push air to the hotend for part cooling. Seems like an okay idea, but I’d really like to try and re-use this old ps3 blower fan I had laying around. The fan is 12v, 1.38a and it also has a moulding around it to form a scoop that feeds air through a radiator.

Part 2

So I did the unthinkable… I did the same thing that I did with the V6 to the BMO Dragonfly. Everything seems t be working fine. The only real way to tell is to put the printer through its paces.

Looking at the printers positioning in the cabinet compared to the the intake and exhaust I think the air flow through the cabinet will be fine and be able to maintain a stable temperature. Again the idea for the cabinet is to have a hot side and a cold side, but I haven’t fully implemented it yet due to my free time being limited from work.

So moving forward with this build I really want to complete the “firewall” and start thinking about how the cabinet can preform if I put some type of chamber heater in there.

The cabinet as it stands is fairly large and has a lot of extra components, and right now those components aren’t operating in sync with each other to create a controlled environment(which is my goal).

As for the firewall its self it’ll be made from a sheet metal from a chemical cabinet(trying to save a few dollars here) and will be measured, cut then mounted with small sheet metal screws. Also the overall shape of the wall will be in a “L” to cover the back wall with enough space for the printer to slide under(so the mounted steppers on the back of the printer will be behind the firewall).

To the right of the printer will be a solid firewall that will block the exhaust port to the right and house 1-2 rolls of filament for printing. Overall it will be a very tight fit but I think I can make this work to my advantage for heating the camber.

The wiring on this project has also been a challenge because of all the different independent components that had to be integrated into one seem-less machine. There are two SSR’s on the back of the machine with one 24v industrial power supply(meanwell) and one 12v computer power supply. Then there is the Fysetc Big Dipper Duet Clone(amazing board) with a raspberry pi.

Now I also have a 4 channel relay board mounted on there for future use but to be honest I don’t really know if I’ll need it. We’ll see but for now I’m just going to button up the wiring and make it sound and finish the firewall and see where it takes me from here.

Hello everyone make sure you check out the new article on Fysetcs Big Dipper!

Product Testing: Fysetc’s Big Dipper

So in the last few years 3D printing has become more an more popular and with that rise in demand, production would rise to fill that demand with different style of printers. One of these styles of printers is the resin printer, extremely detailed when it comes to printing small objects or models, some makers use these to create jewelry, dentures and other fancy things.

In this post I wanted to talk about how I have recently acquired one of these printers(anycubic photon mono 4k) and how I’ve been using it. I also wanted to talk briefly about some of the plans I have in the future for this printer. In anycase, when I received this printer, I was ex-static with enthusiasm. I literally could not wait, ever since resin printers hit the scene, I’ve wanted one.

After ordering a few days passed and it was delivered, really big box. It was packaged well, and it came damage free. I also ordered some clear UV resin to test out. So I unpacked everything and set it up. I added some clear UV resin to the vat after the required setup(which was fairly easy).

NOTE: This printer comes from the factory with a screen protector already installed, they tell you to tear it off and replace with a new one(comes with the printer).I would just clean it thoroughly and continue with printing, and save the screen protector for when the factory one wears out.

After my print was done I removed the build plate and tried to chisel the print freefrom the build plate without much luck. Ended up destroying the base off the model. I mean it was on there very well, like the adhesion was way to strong. I noticed that this build plate had a laser etched pattern(checkerboard). So after doing some research and trying some other methods for removing prints from the plate(with no luck), I finally caved and bought a removable build plate(which I wouldn’t go without now) and that ended up working reliably.

So after that little hiccup I continued printing some really detailed models for fun and even bought a subscription to a site that provides high quality table-top game models. So I can really say that resin printing is great for that sort of thing, but can we use it to create something truly useful or even experiment with the resin we print with?

That’s what brought me to this idea, adding material to the resin(and some other YT creators). Here I’ve added carbon to the clear resin. About a gram of carbon to 100ml of resin(turns out you can use a lot less than a gram if you’re just looking to affect color and maybe half that for UV protection).

So the first model I printed with the added carbon turned out great. I only used maybe 50 of the 100ml for the print and after draining the remaining resin into a separate container there was still a significant amount of carbon left in the vat(not good). I had to add a small quantity of acetone to alcohol to remove it.

Next I tried quartz, which failed. The reason it failed was mainly because the quartz I decided to use wasn’t fine enough and each grain size was probably a little too big. Even though this one failed I would like to come back to it because I think you could make prints that retain a certain resonance or oscillate when you pass current through it.

The next one that I recently ordered is the tungsten. It has a very fine grain size(2um-10um) which I think would be perfect for this application. Turns out, it wasn’t perfect for this application.

What ended up happening with the tungsten prints was a little exciting once they were actually successfully printing, but there were some problems. The main one with tungsten, once it settles in the resin, it is very hard to mix it up again. So basically it was printing a solid layer of tungsten for the first layer and then nothing else.

The other print that I did that contained a very small amount of tungsten and carbon, here I didn’t have the same issues with the tungsten settling. Further testing is needed, I was thinking about employing some type of whipper system to redistribute the tungsten after every layer change. Another option is to use some type of vibration device strapped to the vat, this might work but I have the feeling it won’t do the job.

So with all that said I think the possibilities for mixing resin could be endless, and lead to many other applications. Like I said before further testing is needed.

Finished building this a while ago, just wanted to post it. The results were great, considering the webcam module I used was only 5 dollars. Printed a mount for the camera with a small dial I could glue onto the lens, for manual focus of course. Then I looked up a rack and pinion print on thingiverse for a quick mount with some movement and then glued my camera mount to that one. The result like said before was simply awesome, now with a bit of software everything will be complete.

The other little do-dad, you see holding the pcb is a small clamp for holding these boards while doing light soldering work. The screw action works well and holds the boards firmly, there’s also a magnet in the base for rigid work holding.

I’m going to be releasing both of these on thingiverse together in a pack or both in one at the end of the week. Not sure yet…

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UV Resin Oven…

I don’t have to many shots of this but I’ll be sure to fix that shortly. This is an old microwave oven I converted to a curing oven for my resin prints. Very simple conversion, I wouldn’t recommend people do it though, there are a million other enclosures that could be repurposed for this. But for me that’s what I had laying around that I could “up-cycle”. Fits underneath my electronics bench perfectly too.

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Modifying my Enclosure for the Ender…

Doing a couple operations in one here, taking the ender out of the enclosure and re-installing the hot-end carrier for the MK2 conversion by Boothyboothy over on thingiverse. I’m remaking the aluminum plate named the “Tool Plate’ in Boothys assembly. Which looks like this…

And the one I made before…

So the idea is to give this another go with the Phaetus Dragonfly BMO(groove mount I believe) and see if I can print some PC. Anyway folks, thats all for today. More coming soon.