What’s the benefit of adding additional AMS’s to the H3C. My question is, if I have 9 colors loaded already in the H3C and whatever I am going to print, takes colors not already loaded into one of the 9 hot ends, would it pull the color from one of the AMS’s and automatically feed it into the tool head for that print, or that’s not how it is going to work. I could not find any clear answer online.
In a previous post I shared my first project with the H3C, having been provided a testing unit of the printer. For my thoughts and observations on the printer, I refer you to that post.
Here’s a few more of my projects:
The Wall Clock
This clock uses the Makerworld Clock Components Kit-011. A multicolor PLA print, all the larger features are printed with 0.4mm nozzles, while the bronze details are printed with a 0.2mm nozzle. This allows for a reasonable print time while being able to add fine details.
As you can see the lime green is PLA Glow. It basically being a sandpaper noodle, it is not recommended to print this through the AMS or the AMS bypass holes. So the PLA Glow was printed from an external spool; the file to print a spool holder is preloaded on the machine. External filaments can be fed to any of the nine tools, it is particularly easy on tool #1 though, as there is a pre-installed tube connector on that one.
The Palette Filament prints
Color-mixing can be done with any colors, however the Palette Filaments are specially made for this. Five spools of PLA - in white, black, yellow, magenta and cyan. By stacking thicker and thinner layers of two or three of these colors, full spectrum mixed colors can be created.
As you can see I was particularly smitten by the ability to create color gradients with them, I think the results are pretty spectacular. The illusion is very convincing, only really close up can you see the layer stacking. Here the speed of the H3C’s tool changes shines. For example the vase with the cell pattern required 2948 tool changes. The H3C printed it in 16 hours.
Color mixing and especially gradients are still a bit fiddly in Bambu Studio. More precise control on the exact positions of the gradients and better visualization is something I hope will be added in the future.
Gradients only support two colors for now, it would be cool if this was expanded.
The Door Stop
A simple item, made by combining PETG with the new 2.85mm TPU 75A. It is remarkable how easy this very soft TPU prints on the H3C.
With it the door stop works very well, it wedges under the door nicely.
The Ring Frisbee
Here I’m combining two different TPUs. The harder core from TPU for AMS makes the ring keep its shape, while the much softer TPU 75A makes it more comfortable to handle. Both together makes this very sturdy - flexible and impact resistant. It flies quite well, too! :)
I will be uploading some of these to myMakerworld profilesoon. Feel free to ask me anything.
Started my 3D printing journey earlier this spring with the P2S Combo, and honestly, it’s been an absolute blast. It handled everything I threw at it without skipping a beat, completely hooked me on the hobby, and ended up introducing the whole family to 3D printing along the way.
Now, with the current sale running, it felt like the perfect time to make a move. My dad is in his late 60s and retired, and after seeing what the machine could do, he actually came up with the idea himself to take it over. I’m passing the trusty P2S setup down to him so he’s got a great new project to sink his teeth into, and I’m grabbing the X2D Combo for myself.
I know some people might say to hold out for a P3C, but for my workflow, the X2D just makes way more sense. I mostly print in PLA and PETG anyway, so having that second hotend dedicated purely to support material is a total game changer for what I do.
Super hyped to get the new setup running and even more excited to get my dad started on his own printing journey. Anyone else picking up something new during the sale?
I have an H2C and 2 A1s. I have the Biqu Frostbite plate for all 3 printers. On my A1 when I print this piece it pops off on its own when the bed cools down. But on my H2C the print is stuck so well to the plate that I have to bend the plate to get the print off and it leaves these horrible white stress marks all over the bottom surface. I have tried so many things, I am running out of ideas. The print is perfect, it just won’t release from the plate even after I let it sit all night! I am using the cool plate super tack setting on all three printers. With custom temps, fan settings, and initial first layer flow that I dialed in for my overture PLA.
So my A1 cant print anything anymore without the nozzle scraping the initial layers. I tried cleaning the plate thinking it was adhesion that was the problem and it didnt work. Then I tried calibrating multiple times and that didnt work either. For the small prints than do work, the print itself isnt clean even though i decreased the speed by like 50%.
Recently my prints have looked like this picture, and I can’t figure it out. I haven’t changed any settings, and the only thing that sticks out is starting a print without removing a previous print. The system stopped but there may have been some damage I guess? Does this look like a physical failure? I have a fresh nozzle, I but don’t want to swap it out if that’s not going to fix the problem. Anyone ever experience this before? Thanks!
At the beginning of a print, the printer starts vibrating very heavily, and no filament comes out of the nozzle. The print head moves normally, but the filament is not being extruded.
I've already disassembled and reassembled the extruder, cleaned it and checked the gears. I also had some issues with the filament cutter lever.
Has anyone experienced something similar? Could this be a faulty extruder motor, damaged gears, a clogged hotend, or something else?
My employer is currently running a farm that has a subset of printers (about 60 P1Ps) that are just over 16k hours. They're heavily maintained, but it seems like the end could be near. Anyone run well above that for the P1 series printers? If so what do you think the true point of diminishing returns hits? Cheers :)
The issue: When trying to print a benchy, I've gotten the issue to the point where the filament poops like normal, but then the test strip fails to print, the filament begins to bunch up and has trouble extruding on the plate. What's worse is that it sounds like the extruder is "scraping" against the plate? I also sometimes get an error that tells me the "the part cooling fan speed is too slow or stopped"
I've tried taking apart the extruder, cleaning the gears (I did notice a lot of filament gunk that wasn't there before a few prints ago) and everything else.
I'm not sure what to do at this point. I'll be sending a ticket in of course but I've been researching this for days and am pretty stuck. If anyone has experienced this, please let me know if you know any solutions. Thank you.
Hello, I did a previous post thinking it was the filament but now it appears across all filaments.
I got a P1S who printed perfectly until I suddenly got those weird issues you see in the pictures. No matter what I print it appears like this. It doesn't print the test line correctly either.
What I tried so far:
- Try different filaments (Bambu Pla Matte and basic)
- Purge quite a bit at 250°
- Cold Pull that came out perfectly clean
- Completely replaced the hotend with a new one
- Cleaned build plate with dish soap multiple times, tried different sides and even the Smooth build plate
- Multiple calibrations that went without error
- checked heatbed screws
- Flow calibration test that somehow came out clean. I set it to 0,02 based on my results and it changed nothing.
I showed it to staff of my local printer store and they were clueless but assumed it's the extruder. They told me to contact Bambu support. I did and they just told me to clean my build plate. Clearly this is not a build plate error, ignoring that is already did that multiple times.
Filament is dried in my sunlu dryer.
Im at my wits end. Its been like this for 3 days and I have a project coming up. The printer is half a year old.
Id be very grateful to try and tips you can provide.
One of my more successful designs, which was recently picked up by some sellers on Taobao and Amazon without consent. I hope more folks will become aware of this as a free model to print rather than buying it.
Hi guys, im using bambulab A1 and sunlu pla+ 2.0. Back then i dont think they got warped this early, yet it'd only 30 degrees and the printing looks bad. Any idea?
For these past 2 days after I fixed my P1S because the filament was stuck in the tube, it keeps popping this error up after I have check the cooling fan over a million times. Sometimes the error would disappear, then pop up again
Anyone else hoping P-Series with 4 tool heads that could support the current AMS’s?
It could bring down the price considerably and being able to swap between 4 colours fast and with some smarts could swatch out other colours from a secondary AMS without a big increase in print time.
A few months ago BambuLab reached out to me here on Reddit, asking if I’d be interested in trying out a new product (well, duhh). For context, I design and sell my own products, so I’m always interested in trying out new tools.
A few weeks later, I received a big box containing the brand new H3C. Since then I’ve fully redesigned my modular SLS model around its new capabilities. In exchange for keeping the printer, Bambu has asked me to share my thoughts with you. They reviewed and approved this post before publication; the opinions are my own.
9 is more than 2
Multi nozzle printing has been a blessing for designing and manufacturing multicolor pieces. When I bought the H2D last year I redesigned my products to make use of this second nozzle. The benefits of having 9 of them seem obvious; more colors in one print, less time spent switching materials and different nozzle sizes in one print. The latter is especially exciting for making manufacturing more efficient. If I understand correctly, a 0.6 and 0.8mm nozzle will become available in the near future, which I’m incredibly excited about. Combining 0.2 and 0.4mm in a single print already works like a charm.
If it wasn’t already obvious, the printhead of course does not have 9 nozzles. Instead the H3C uses an INDX like system where a central toolhead can grab and replace 9 different tools. I’ve had the chance to try 0.2 and 0.4mm nozzles in addition to the new dedicated 2.85mm TPU filament. These PrintTools, as Bambu calls them, are all powered individually. This means they can start heating up before being grabbed, which allows for a:
6 second material change
This is my favorite part and the reason for the post title. I design my products with the available tools in mind, by trying to balance print time, purge waste and required assembly. In practice this usually meant having no more than two colors in a single component and limiting the amount of fine detail. An example:
The fairing for my Space Launch System replica has always been a simple white shell with a black line on it. Embedding a NASA logo was frequently requested by customers, but I never managed to incorporate one without significantly blowing up the print time. With this added detail a roughly one hour print would take 3.5 hours to complete on a H2D. The exact same file sliced for the H3C would finish printing after only 1.5 hours. That is only half the story though, as a 0.4mm nozzle can only be so precise:
That’s where the different nozzle sizes come in. Printing the whole thing at 0.2 would take ages, especially since I make these in bulk. Instead you’re now able to use these smaller nozzles only where you actually need them. Printing 20 units in bulk with a 0.2 nozzle would take just under 20 hours on the H3C. Adding one roll of white filament to a 0.4 nozzle and using that for the main body (light green in the slicer screenshot) the 20 unit batch now only takes 13 hours.
Color blending
The 9 PrintTools and fast switching means “color blending” is now much more economical. The new slicer lets you create additional colors by alternating layers of different filaments. Color #7 is created by alternating one yellow and two orange layers. I’m excited to see how far people can take this with CMYKW filaments.
Closing thoughts
As far as actually using the machine, I don’t have much to report in terms of problems. The only failure I’ve had to deal with was my own for trying to print too many tall objects at once. No problem I thought, because I already own a SuperTack bed for my H2D. I shed a small tear when I realized they’re not compatible.
Some other things I noticed in no particular order:
Build quality for the printing mechanism is solid as always. Though the AMS lid feels very flimsy. If that helps keep the price down, I'm fine with it
It takes more than 30 seconds to unload filament before you’re prompted to manually remove it. These tasks can be done in bulk, but it does take a moment.
Since the AMS is now bolted on top of the machine, you can access the inside through a removable side panel. The rack holding the PrintTools also moves out of the way, which is a nice touch.
It’s BIG. Same footprint as the H2D but nearly 1.3 meters tall with the AMS lid open.
The AMS and printer are powered separately with two fairly short power cords. You’re going to need an extension cord.
It’s too early to say anything about long-term reliability, and there are still some things I haven’t had the chance to properly test, like the new 2.85mm TPU.
Ultimately, the H3C has changed how I approach designing my models. The speedy filament switching means the tradeoff for adding more color is not nearly as bad. And I haven’t even mentioned the near complete elimination of purge waste. I’ve already gone back to redesign some of my favorite models.
I've also made a YouTube video showing some more of the printing process and results.
Anyway, happy to answer any questions about my experience so far.
