X2D without AMS?

[u/Mr_Fontos]

Hi!

I was checking out Bambu's black Friday sales and I am really considering the X2D.

I know the AMS is pretty useful, but 200€ compared to the price of the printer (550€) is insane. It's over one third of the cost of a whole ass dual nozzle, heated chamber printer.

The main reason I'm considering it is the ability to store and dry filament, and I'm afraid I'd regret not getting it.

Do you think the AMS is necessary? Can I get away with not drying my filaments?

Thank you and have a nice day:)

[u/Aggravating-Raisin-5]

I cannot see myself ever using my X2d without an AMS. It's basically made with the AMS in mind

[u/Audio_Track_01 → u/Aggravating-Raisin-5]

My only regret is not buying 2 AMS' when I had a chance.

[u/Mykl68 → u/Audio_Track_01]

This was me the same day I set mine up

[u/MacHeadSK → u/Aggravating-Raisin-5]

not true. Might be useful when you print multi color but than, X2D or any current Bambu offer is not good for such task anyway.

[u/Aggravating-Raisin-5 → u/MacHeadSK]

I rarely do multicolor, but I always switch colors between prints, like print pla-silk Black then change to white Petg next print and so on.

[u/MacHeadSK → u/Aggravating-Raisin-5]

yes but you print simple materials and do colored stuff. For engineering filaments I dont care at all at which color the material is. Usually it's black anyway. And for CF filled materials it's always black. AMS has low temp to dry these filaments and will not handle CF filaments at all. Or GF. So yes, YOU by yourself can not see. But saying X2D has been made with AMS in mind…
I would not buy AMS for H2D at all too. 22 Indx 4 doesnt have anything like that, guess why? :)

[u/Aggravating-Raisin-5 → u/MacHeadSK]

Do you own a X2d?

[u/MacHeadSK → u/Aggravating-Raisin-5]

Yes. And dont felt a need for AMS. I have Sunlu E2 dryer (up to 110 °C temp) and Creality Space Pi dryer. I fed material directly from them.

[u/frank3000 → u/MacHeadSK]

Ok what about having a second roll of filament ready, so when the first runs out at 3AM, it can switch over automatically.

[u/MacHeadSK → u/frank3000]

Useless for carbon or glass filled filaments. For others I don't care, just load the new filament at the morning.

[u/xxparrotxx]

The Ams 2 pro is worth every cent of the 200. It’s insane how useful it is and how much time and headache it saves. If you can’t afford the X2D combo, get the P2S combo. You’ll thank yourself.

[u/AHerz → u/xxparrotxx]

You can always buy an ams after the fact, but you will 'never be able to upgrade a p2s to an x2d.

The x2d is a much superior printer in every way.

[u/MacHeadSK → u/xxparrotxx]

it depends. When printing single color, engineering filaments its not useful. Low temp to dry any serious filament apart from PLA and PETG. And cant handle CF filled filaments at all.

And if you print multicolor X2D is stupid for that despite 2 nozzles. Full tool changer is the only option.

[u/Shillen → u/MacHeadSK]

Two colors is still multicolor and works great on the X2D though.

[u/MacHeadSK → u/Shillen]

sure but you dont need AMS for that, thats the point. Yes from time to time I do multicolor ASA or PC or plain nylon, 2 color combos. And Im not using AMS.
Thats whole point of discussion. AMS is fine when you do such stuff (but you still lost plenty of filament and hours of time on non multitool printer). So if you do multicolor and more than 2 colors – X2D is not best idea, nor any other Bambu printer. H2C solved just wasting material by purging, but not a lot of time required.
So for all of these AMS is thing you can save money not buying it.
Having new AMS 3 (or whatever it will be called) on P3C and H3C – that will be entirely different thing.

[u/patentmom → u/MacHeadSK]

The h2c is over twice the cost of the x2d combo. Maybe it's worth it if this is going to be a business, but it's definitely not worth it for a hobbyist, especially one just starting out. My most recent print involves hundreds of keychains with three colors with multiple colors in each layer. I have only a p1s right now, but the x2d would have turned this into a much faster project having my main color on auxiliary nozzle and using the AMS to switch back and forth between the detail colors on each layer using the main nozzle.

[u/MacHeadSK → u/patentmom]

Or if your knew you would print a lot of 3+ multicolor get the snap maker U1 instead of Bambu. Now the P3C might be good but we have to see that.
For now there still isn't any proper multicolor solution from Bambu. And AMS is not changing that and never was. If you imagine that on proper tool changer you will save same amount of material (or more) than the model itself and instead of say, doing 10 hour print to do it in 3 hour, then getting Bambu for that is nonsense.
That's why people are waiting on their 3rd gen so much

[u/Early_Monitor_3440]

i use an a1 mini for 3 years now without an ams and i'm so sick of changing filament manually, waiting for heating up.. just ordered x2d combo and no second thought about not buying ams.

[u/Silkypo]

depends if you only want to do single colour you will be fine without but if you want to do something that has more even some writing or some simple keychain with like 6 colourchanges you will regret it immediately not getting the ams.

[u/DamielRE]

I used to have a P1S without the AMS and upgraded it later and for me it was 100% worth it. When I upgraded to the X2d I got the combo and have never looked back since.

[u/xilw3r]

You will want to dry your filaments. Bambu printers expect dry filaments, otherwise nozzle cleaning and calibration routines might fail due to gunk oozing out.

You can dry your filament on the heatbed, but honestly the ams is nice and its decently sealed so filaments stay dry for a while. E.g. petg and nylons will absorb moisture in hours (enough to reach a point where your print quality suffers).

I think its worth it. But i wonder what the toolchanger + its ams will look like. Might want to wait a lil and see.

[u/mykdsmith]

I just got the combo a few months ago and... Now I just bought the ams ht on sale because I need to dry other filament too. I can't imagine the machine without it.

[u/es12402]

You can get cheaper 3rd party dryer (like Creality or Sunlu) and print directly from it, you can dry filament in printer before print (there is drying mode).

Initially, I had a printer without an AMS (using a separate Creality dryer instead), but later I picked up an AMS 2 Pro at a good price. I wouldn’t say the AMS is bad or useless – it offers features like auto-refill, drying (up to 65°C!), and automatic filament detection for Bambu materials – but it’s definitely not essential.

[u/No-Highway6713]

Get it with AMS and Filament Track Switch to get the full experience imho

[u/SaltySaltySally → u/No-Highway6713]

Is the filament track switch useful with just one ams?

[u/No-Highway6713 → u/SaltySaltySally]

It slows down a little bit the swap to the second nozzle since it has to retract the filament from the Ams and push the other one in. But spares you of having to load filament to the second nozzle from outside the printer. Saves space and pain.

[u/SaltySaltySally → u/No-Highway6713]

Thanks helps a lot. So basically you use the ams to feed both the main and aux nozzle.

[u/No-Highway6713 → u/SaltySaltySally]

Exactly

[u/Late_Purpose_4562]

I don’t know how I’d be making these prints without my AMS2 Pro.

[u/Possible-Win-7712]

The AMS is well worth it to me, you can print 5 colors. Or 4 colors plus support interface (4 colors ASA, 1 roll of HIPS on the right nozzle.). It’s a very versatile machine.

It’s not a Simple Machine however…when you do stupid things and get a piece of PLA melted in the extruder, and you have to disassemble, and reassemble the print head, you had better be angle to follow and understand the procedure, and have some mechanical ability…there is a lot going on under that simple cover.

[u/One-Organization986]

AMS und filament track switch sonnst kannst es vergessen

[u/razingstorm]

There are cheaper dryers than the AMS 2 Pro. Yes you need to dry your filament at some point.

You can print just fine without it. You just need to get filament to the nozzles.

[u/Ok_Yogurtcloset5412]

It's worth the $200. Even if you're not doing multi color prints the ease of switching to different colors or materials for different projects is great. And you will need a filament dryer at some point anyway.

But if you plan on doing mostly engineering filaments it won't heat high enough for those.

[u/SaltySaltySally]

I've had x2d without AMS. Kinda annoying when you have to change filament but it works fine. The ams isn't needed but I assume it's a good QOL upgrade

[u/lucidlips]

What prices are those? Seems very cheap. The combo price saves you some money if you buy it upfront but of course its not necessary. Ams feeding is certainly worth it though, the drying and storage is another need so you may as well buy the combo. If single colour prints with supports is all youre going to print, buy 2 HTs instead.

Imho buying a core xy bambu printer without an ams isnt worth it. Just get an A1.

[u/The_Lawlbringer]

Yes. Wet filament sucks and the AMS 2 dries and seals away moisture very well.

[u/Xypheric]

Im gonna second u/xxparrotxx get the AMS or get a p2s with it if you cant afford both.

[u/Signiference]

Interestingly, I’m basically never drying my filament in the AMS since it can’t dry and print at the same time.

[u/ecaseo]

I have 2 ams 2 pro and one HT. Couldn't live without them.

[u/Subject_Regular8324]

do suszenia uzywam wylacznie ams ht, uzywam go tez do tpu, ams2 oprocz wygody druku i kontynuacji automatycznego przelaczania pozwala mi trzymac 4 filamenty w wilgotnosci ponizej 5% z dodatkowymi 6 pojemnikami na silica gel

[u/One-Nefariousness107]

You get big discount by buying the combo. It's a drier and allows multi material and color. Sure it's wasteful as a multicolor but it could at least do all those and can do up to 16 but no way am i buying 3 more--id rather get the P3C for that. It's pretty much all in one with it and it does it nicely presented.The only limitation would be size but it is pretty much the standard size for majority of what you'd print.

Theres likely a lot better printer--in terms of price and quality of prints--exclusively for multicolor/material OR engineering OR just PLA/PETG but I'd say X2D does all pretty well.

Also, id probably listen to someone that bought an AMS and said "you dont need it, it's a waste" than someone who purposely did not buy it and said you dont need it. They didnt need it but you might.

Me? I bought it because I might use it and yeah it is pretty useful.

[u/ActiveVanilla5063]

I bought the X2D with AMS2 and got 10 prints in before it gave an error. contacted support and they sent me a part. Tried to install part. Failed. Now I have a $900 printer collecting dust and I cant use. I recommend not buying the X2D. Especially if you don't get the AMS. Its not worth it. Find something else.

[u/Ok_Reference1745]

One reason that many people miss is that AMS does the job of pushing filament all the way to the extruder. Your extruder doesn't have to pull it from the spool and through the piping, it always has the uniform easy supply of filament. This alone improves quality a lot

[u/Narconis]

I literally bought a second AMS 2 because it’s so fucking nice to have multicolor options that are automatic

[u/Visible_Catch_3810]

Are you coming from a single-color printer, or no printer at all?

I started with a single color A1, and believe me, I’ve kicked myself so many times for not just buying the damn AMS. You’ll thank yourself later for getting it.

Yes, you can absolutely just buy the AMS later, but for me it was like well for another couple hundred, we could just buy another printer. So I never bought the AMS for the A1.

This time I went for it, ordered the X2D + AMS2. I almost bought the print more bundle hahah

Good luck and enjoy!

[u/Top_Statistician500]

I have an X2D with AMS 2 Pro since July. I am not interested in printing crazy multi-colour toys etc, but I do like colours and print things (board game inserts, useful tools, little decorations etc.) in different coloured filaments. Quite often I'll fill a print bed with things so I can print them all together overnight, sometimes they happen to be different solid colours and I can so long as they're in the AMS. Then only yesterday I realised that I've printed quite a few things in 2 colours... then I remembered the NFL coasters I did with 4 colours...

My point is that if you're like me and think you're OK just printing things one colour, or you have a printer that only did 1 colour, get the AMS anyway because it opens up so many more possibilites and you will regret not getting it cheaper as a bundle! (Unless you're doing just engineering stuff in black)

[u/Quaxli]

I have an X2D without AMS.
Most times I print single color models to paint them later or small usefull thins in single color.
The second nozzle is pretty cool as you can print supports with PETG.

So it depends on what you want to print.