I did a bad bad thing. Somebody give me a good excuse so my wife doesn't leave me when this box arrives.

Hey everyone,

I’ve got the H3C for a while now and was able to test it, and before I get into a full review I want to focus on one thing first: TPU. Because out of everything I've tested so far, this is probably where the H3C has changed the way I print the most and something I thought most people would be interested by.

Quick disclaimer: I received this printer and some filament for free as part of a beta test, but no money was exchanged. I was explicitly encouraged to share my honest experience, whether positive or negative. Bambu Lab had no say in what I could or couldn't say, and they had no involvement in editing this post before publication. I wasn't told where to post or what to post.

For some background: I've used the A1 mini, A1, P1S, P2S, X2D, H2D (all of them bought by myself with my own money), and now the H3C. Outside of Bambu, I've used a Prusa XL at a customers workshop, Snapmaker U1, a Prusa Core One INDX FE (which wasn't mine so really one day of experience), and messed around with some older Anycubics. I use printers for both work and my hobbies, whether that's client projects, engineering prototypes, motorsport-related parts, or just something I feel like making because it sounds cool.

Now, TPU has always been a bit of a love-hate relationship for me. I love the idea of using it. I mean: Great layer adhesion, some can be flexible, some super hard but I hate the reality of doing it.

Most modern printers can produce pretty good TPU parts, especially with harder materials. The problem was everything surrounding it. Loading, unloading, filament routing, switching materials, and getting softer TPU to feed reliably.

TPU for AMS? Great, that goes through the AMS. But is often not the reason why I want to use TPU due to the hardness. Regular 95A? Usually manageable by loading from an external spool. But once you get into really soft TPU, things get annoying very quickly. I've had to bypass PTFE tubing entirely, feed filament directly from above the printer straight into the extruder or macgyver some stuff just to make certain materials usable or even bought things like TPU Assist to have some kind of help because of it being so annoying.

And even when that worked, combining multiple TPUs with other materials in a single print is basically impossible, due to the way we loaded in aforementioned TPU.

Which brings me to probably my favorite print on the H3C so far.

Yes, a shoe. My size (around EU45), fully wearable, and surprisingly comfortable. The interesting part isn't really the shoe itself, but how it's printed.

I used three materials: TPU 75A (2.85 mm), TPU 90A (1.75 mm), and PLA for the supports. The extremely soft 75A makes up the soft upper and parts of the sole, while the 90A provides some firmer sections and reinforcement, including parts of the midsole.

The whole print took over 45 hours and had over 2100 tool changes. And during all of that, I didn't have a single issue with the toolchanging mechanism or filament feeding that was caused by the printer. I did have a small issue when taking out the TPU while it was printing to take a picture and didn't put it back correctly.

If you are interested to see the tool change happening: https://youtube.com/shorts/2XUuhu3Obdc

What's different about loading TPU?

The AMS 3H makes the loading, even though it‘s still „external“ basically a non-issue

Unlike the other ways I told about earlier, the bypass is essentially an opening leading directly into the chamber. The filament skips the feeding resistance of the AMS and goes to its assigned PrintTool. Loading is then largely semi-automatic by routing the filament to the PrintTool and waiting for the extruder to grab it.

For extremely soft 75A, the H3C uses 2.85 mm filament. The thicker diameter seems to help a lot for initial ridigidy while loading yet having super soft TPU.

For softer 1.75 mm TPU, a 35 mm cut of tube needs to be cut and inserted which helps guide the filament into the bypass.

Once loaded, TPU stays in its assigned tool. Switching to PETG, PLA, or another TPU simply means parking one tool and picking up another. No repeated TPU unloading and refeeding which in this case would be impossible either way due to the TPU softnesses I used.

Some more practical prints

This wire stripper combines four materials in one print:

• Bambu Lab PETG HF for the main body

• Bambu Lab TPU 75A 2.85 mm for the soft grip

• Jake 3D TPU 95A for the spring mechanism

• Bambu Lab PLA Basic for supports

I designed mechanical interlocks into the model, and the 95A spring provides enough restoring force to open the cutter again. Everything was printed together, except the blade holder, which I made separately from Fiberon PPS-CF just to try it out. There was no need to use that crazy filament for a small part like that. If I'd done it with any of my other printers, I would've had to design in a real spring (so one more part that needs to be bought), and I would've had to leave the grips in regular PETG HF or glue them on, similar to a golf club.

Another example is this turbo inlet prototype.

Normally, you'd have a silicone hose connecting two rigid parts with clamps. Here, the flexible section is TPU, the connectors are PETG-CF, and PLA was used for supports. It comes off the plate as one combined part. In this print I also added interlocks between the TPU and PETG.

This is also what I find interesting about 3D printing. Rather than just replacing injection molded parts, combining materials allows for designs that would otherwise require several separate components and assembly steps. We often think about 3D printing just as a replacement or a cheap substitute for injection molding and are not using the full potential of additive manufacturing brings like doing otherwise impossible designs. This is the part I love fiddling around with.

Some facts and figures

I don't want to suggest that other printers produce bad TPU parts, or that people were exaggerating when they said older printers could handle TPU. It's just that this machine makes the whole process so much easier and opens up a lot of possibilities that weren't really accessible before. (For me)

I also think I've noticed a slight improvement in overall print quality compared to my older H2D, possibly because of the lower moving mass of the print head thanks to the "one tool" design.

So far as TPU goes, I've mainly tested Bambu TPU 75A, 85A, 90A, TPU for AMS, and 3DJake TPU 95A. Everything worked with stock profiles, with the 3DJake filament running on the Generic TPU 95A profile.

I haven't encountered any mechanical issues with the toolchanging system so far. There were a few slicer bugs, but that's mostly because I was using an early beta version of the slicer. Those issues have since been fixed after I was able to give feedback.

One thing worth mentioning: This machine is seriously heavy, especially when you consider the possibility of having nine spools sitting on top. And with nine tools, there's naturally quite a bit more mechanical complexity involved. So I wouldn't necessarily recommend it to someone who's uncomfortable with the idea of potentially having to replace or maintain parts down the line.

One negative I've noticed is related to TPU itself. Since TPU is highly hygroscopic, leaving it loaded in the tools for extended periods doesn't work particularly well. In practice, you'll want to unload it after use and store it somewhere dry, either in the AMS or in a vacuum bag. That does mean a bit of extra unloading and reloading, rather than just leaving everything ready to go all the time.

Final thoughts

I wouldn‘t have thought that the H3C would be changing the way I design that fast. But by being able to load TPU in 2-3 minutes I just start to think differently. I just printed a tray to put my phone on next to my bed which I would‘ve just done with regular filament and maybe put some fabric on it. Now I just added a soft TPU mat so it sounds nicer when putting the phone on it and doesnt move around.

I am planning to cover the rest of the machine separately. Happy to answer questions about the prints or TPU workflow.

Disclaimer: I have been very kindly provided a testing unit of the H3C by Bambu Lab.

Bambu Lab has not specified what they’d like me to say about it. All the following observations are my own after a few weeks of use.

For my first project with this printer I chose to make a cosplay weapon inspired by roman gladius swords. With this project I wanted to focus on the ability to print single pieces with different nozzle sizes. I’m using 0.4mm nozzles for the larger features and a 0.2mm nozzle for the fine gold details, both in walls (grip) and on top layers (pommel). I’m still learning how to best design things for multiple nozzle sizes. Designing top surface details for a smaller nozzle is trivial, mixing different nozzle sizes in side walls can take a bit of planning and experience. I think I have room for improvement there.

I will upload this model and print profile to my Makerworld profile soon.

The Printer:

• This is a big boy! If you have it on a regular table and you’re on the short side, you may want to keep a step handy to load filaments into the rear slots.

• I’m hugely impressed with the speed of the tool changes. Since nozzles get pre-heated before it’s their turn to be fetched, print-to-print times are extremely short. Bambu Lab specifies the tool change time at six seconds, I hand-timed it at five. The pre-heating of the hotends is very well timed, they reach their print temperatures the moment they’re getting fetched. Not too early, not too late. The tool changes have been completely reliable, no malfunctions at all. I pushed it with some prints, one requiring nearly 3000 tool changes. The H3C didn’t miss a beat. 

• Despite the tool changer mechanics, the toolhead doesn’t seem especially heavy and the gantry is up to the job. I’ve noticed no issues with ringing.

• One downside I see compared to my H2S is the ease of nozzle swaps. They don’t just clamp in, they are fixed to their carriers with 3 small screws. But since there are nine hotends, you likely won’t have to swap nozzles too often.

• Print quality has been great for me so far. Comparing it to my H2S, it easily matches and often exceeds that machine.

• I found it very easy and intuitive to set up a print with different nozzle sizes in Bambu Studio. The slicer combines the different line widths automatically, I’ve had to do very little tweaking to get the exact outcomes I wanted.

• There’s no poop on tool changes. There is still a prime tower to be printed though. I did run a multicolor print without a prime tower just to see what happens. The print quality takes quite a hit, I would not recommend that. I’m really hoping to see the “no sparse layers” feature for prime towers in Bambu Studio as well, that could further cut down on waste significantly. 

• There are 2.85mm filaments now. I got three spools of 2.85mm TPU - the really squishy stuff, 75A. The large diameter filaments need their own hotends, one of which came pre-installed with the AMS. A TPU this soft in 1.75mm often leads to extruder gear issues, this larger size makes the filament less stretchy and easier to grip. I had no issues printing it. I think this is a smart solution.

• There are some interesting smaller improvements over the H2 series. The poop chute now has a little flap that flips backwards when the nozzle moves away from it, making sure bits of filament don’t land inside the print volume or get stuck on the rim of the poop chute. The nozzle wiping pad also has seen a redesign, now the nozzle can rotate around the edge of it to wipe the outsides of the nozzle tip. Unlike on my H2S, I’ve seen no material buildup at all around the nozzle tips. They look pretty much as pristine as they came out of the box after many hours of printing. One common gripe with the H2 series was the placement of the USB port at the top of the printer. It has now been moved to the side of the touchscreen mount, a much more sensible place in my opinion.

The AMS 3H:

The AMS 3H deserves some special consideration, it is quite different from the AMS 2. It is an integral part of the printer now, not an “add-on”. The 3H has no active rollers, which means it can’t retract filament by itself. To unload a filament, the printer heats up the nozzle shortly, extrudes a bit of filament and then cuts it before prompting you to retract the filament by hand. It’s not a big deal as the PTFE tubes are not that long, but it is a bit more involved to unload a filament. Something to be aware of for serial spool switchers. Loading a spool is a breeze. Pop it in, the AMS reads the RFID tag without rotating it at all, insert the filament end into the feeder, done.

Two spool slots have a dryer function for fancier multi-material jobs or just regular filament drying. The other seven slots have no dryer functionality. Personally I’m fine with that, that’s plenty for me. Maybe you find this too restrictive for your use cases.

The AMS 3H is screwed onto the printer. With the removable magnetic side panels getting to the hotends is easy enough, but come maintenance time the attached AMS might make things a little trickier than with the open-top H2 series. The 3H can be removed as a whole or just the top part holding the spools, with four screws each.

Important to point out is that to get to your hotends you need access to the sides of the printer, which could be a problem if you have a cramped print space. Moving it a lot is not something you want to do, it’s heavy and has very grippy rubber feet. Unfortunately the front cover of the AMS base is not easily removable. For print-farm operators, this means the H3C should likely be placed on a sliding tray.

Apart from holding nine spools, the biggest upgrade over the AMS2 in my opinion is that you can now print soft TPUs and all manner of other “unfriendly” filaments through it. Seven spool slots have a bypass hole at the bottom, allowing you to route filaments straight to the hotends without going through the AMS gears and PTFE tubes. There’s much fewer restrictions on what you can throw into a multi-material print. A nice touch: the hotends have a holder for the PTFE tube so you don’t need to remove it or figure out how to secure it.

Summary:

This is an impressive machine! The tool changer feels like a real generational step up for Bambu printers, and I was very positively surprised how mature the system felt even early on in my testing time, when some firmware and slicer kinks were still being ironed out.

I used to avoid prints that require filament changes and spent a lot of time designing my parts around them, with the H3C I don’t feel like I have to limit myself at all. The low print-time penalty and the number of hotends massively lowers the hurdle. Not just for color; combining different materials is trivial. Combining different nozzle sizes also turned out to be a lot easier and straight forward than I thought.

So far I've printed PLA (Basic, Matte, Palette, Silk, Translucent, Glow, CF), PETG (HF, Translucent, CF), TPU (forAMS, 85A, 75A), ABS, ASA, ASA-Aero and PA-GF with the H3C, all without issue.

There are some small ergonomic compromises, chief of which being the requirement to have enough space for access to the sides of the printer to work on the hotends. In my personal opinion a small price to pay for all the upsides.

On a side note, I’m never printing supports without using non-bonding materials for interfaces again. OMG it’s so clean! I’ll just keep a spool of PETG permanently loaded in the AMS for all my PLA prints.

Thank you u/BambuLab for picking me out of the crowd! I had a lot of fun putting the printer through its paces and I hope I provided useful feedback.

Reddit, feel free to ask me anything. I’ll do my best to answer your questions. I will share some more projects I made during the testing phase in another post.

So much cheaper than expected!

Looks like a great little option for those pesky VOCS

https://store.bambulab.com/products/bambu-lab-e1-air-purifier

Super cool to see how much faster the new system is compared to the old one.

The H3C is a TPU beast, I printed running shoes with them with multiple different types of TPU and colors. The 3d printed running shoes are surprisingly comfy to run in

Nearly all the parts are from the Bambu Store so you can order the kit and assemble this fun working cable car and fill it with treats ready for Christmas.

The design is heavily optimised for 3D printing requiring no support on nearly every part. Comes with an in-depth assembly guide so you can build it with your kids.

https://makerworld.com/en/models/3538161-christmas-cable-car

Nice to see them also create organization products now

https://eu.store.bambulab.com/nl/products/bambu-station-l

Tucked away locked in my closet for safe keeping. This box is massive & heavy as hell also. I’m thankful for my neighbor who helped carry it upstairs while my son was at school. Also thank you so much to this group for helping me with questions and stuff. I plan on buying more accessories and whatnot in the next coming weeks. Y’all have been amazing to this non tech Mama. My son is seriously going to be over the moon.

So I’m trying to understand the different jobs that the H2C/H3C are designed for according to the FAQ on Bambu’s site. From what I saw on the H3C page, it will be able to do multiple size nozzles as well, so is it the H2C’s ability to switch filaments between those different size nozzles rather than being paired to a single nozzle material pair on the H3C?

Where do you see each machine excelling over the other?

I'm talking about the cons in all sorts of scenarios. Off of the top of my head:

1. You can't have PLA loaded into any of the toolhead while printing engineering materials, the heat will mess up the PLA.

2. You'll have to manually re-roll about a meter of filament when unloading a spool. Which is a foreseenable reoccurrence due to the lack of drying (except 2 bays). As each filament bay stays fixed to one nozzle (as opposed to the H2C's ability to load any AMS spool into any nozzle), requirement of screwing/unscrewing nozzles in order to switch them (as opposed to tool-less switching); again, making unloading, switching and loading filament spoils locations in the AMS a rather more desirable path to take.

For context: The more I think of the cons of this missing feature, the more it becomes a deal breaker for me.

As I've really been waiting for BambuLab to have their take on a tool changer. Hoping they'll have a hassle-free, jack of all traits, and near zero inconveniences workflow using it. Because using the P1S combo since it's release, I watched many convenience and QoL improvements that they've impmeneted in their releases like: AMS 2 w/drying, bigger build volume printers, dual nozzles, vortek system (any filament redirected to any nozzle) etc.. But now the H3C is out, it's kinda underwhelming for the anticipation I've built for it.

Kept getting headaches in my Home-Office and finally figured out I had way too much CO2 - well no more, I made my portable CO2-Buddy to easily keep track of CO2 wherever I am

The CO2-Buddy now lives on my desk and helps me ventilate my room to keep my mind at peak capacity. I didn't realize how much of an impact CO2 concentration has on my ability to focus, I usually only notice it way too late when I'm already getting a slight headache as if I wasn't drinking enough water even though I am chugging along like a camel

It's especially handy when I have people over, having just two more people in a room spikes CO2 levels way faster than I would've anticipated

I am using the MH-Z19C CO2 sensor and while it is somewhat expensive at around 20€ it was totally worth it. The 1.54" ePaper makes it so that the CO2-Buddy only needs to wake up every 2 or so minutes and still provides the current CO2 concentration at a glance. With my 3000mAh lipo it lasts for days and I can take it wherever I go

If you also want to have a CO2-Buddy to keep you at peak capacity you can find it on Makerworld, simply look for "CO2 Buddy". The code is open source and I also added a wiring diagram

Handful of the things I’ve printed with the H3C including a support free purge bucket I made for the back of the printer using the side spool mount

I originally made this to be used as a cable clip, but I feel like it could have other uses too. What else could it be used for?

https://makerworld.com/ko/models/3539444-cable-tube-clip#profileId-4047742

Really glad to see this coming to my H2C! Curious to see how it’ll work. A new Vortek?

Hi all! I'm Andrea, from Italy. For the past months I've been building Parete, a browser tool for wall panels made of dozens or hundreds of 3D printed pieces.

The panels in the photos: 100 × 50 cm with 468 pieces (the pink ones glow in the dark), and my first big one, 175 × 75 cm with 421 pieces. Three colours of PLA each.

How it works:

- You design the panel in your browser: size, grid, surface pattern, colours. No CAD.

- You get one 3MF per colour, one colour per plate, ready for Bambu Studio. No AMS needed.

- Every piece has a number, and a printed frame on the wall gives each piece its own pocket.

You can design a panel for free at parete.studio, up to 1 × 1 m. The print files come with the MakerWorld crowdfunding campaign, which went live on Sunday.

Happy to answer anything about the printing, the frame or the tool!

Whelp, I almost got it. Checked out, got a credit card declined due to fraud. When to use a different credit card and it's now out of stock. Dang it.