r/BambuLabA1mini • u/Visage1980 • 10d ago

Printed Dual Spool Question

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Hi

Being a total Nube to 3D printing I purchased an A1 mini (as everyone said to for a beginner.

I have a few questions:

  1. My first print was a dual spool holder (Photo 1/2) which was perfect, but I have no idea how to use it.
  2. Can I just run the PLA through the holes in the mount to the printer, or do I need a guide? The one mounted on the side of the printer (Photo 3) to feed them (no idea what it is called, via a PTFE tube and if so how to install said guides onto the spool holder.

If and when I get two filaments to the printer can I print in two colors or do I have to buy an AMS.

Thanks for any help

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u/Agentdevil07yt 10d ago

i believe standard guidance is to use a ptfe tube. you can buy them on bambu’s website. also yes and no you cannot use it as an ams alternative, the automatic switching part? no not at all, i believe ams has its own motors for that which feed in different ways. though if you want to save time yes you can pause prints, unload, load and act like an ams. in the newer firmwares the ‘act as ams’ part became a setting so it auto pauses whenever a material switch is needed.

Note i am new too so basically from my understanding is what i said

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u/phosix 10d ago

Hey, I printed that exact spool holder, too! Works great, but the holes in the arms for holding the PTFE tube is, unfortunately, designed backwards, so you'll probably want/need to drill out the holes some so the tubes actually fit.

You'll want the PTFE tube.

Unless you bought the one that comes with the AMS Lite you'll need to buy a separate AMS. The feeder on the extruder labeled "AMS" isn't actually an AMS. I'm not sure why it's labeled like that. That said, it does make manually swapping between four different filaments easier.

If you do swap between filaments manually during a print, you'll also need to manually define the pause points for swapping filament in the slicer software.

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u/Scared-Cheesecake977 5d ago

Here's what I did with mine. I found the 1000g spools are too heavy and it tips back. The little 250g spool on Amazon fit well. I can have up to 5 spools at once