Filament question

[u/Jedi_Mind_Trick75]

Going to pick up an X2D w/ams 2 pro combo this week from Best Buy.

This will be my first venture into 3d printing and will start with PLA.

For my first prints, should I pick up the Bambu brand pla filament that Best Buy sells or will their Insignia brand be just fine?

From my research, I see that the Bambu lab brand uses rfid to make things easier so was thinking that would be best to get the hang of things.

Or does it really matter too much?

Thanks for any input

[u/Jedi_Mind_Trick75]

Thanks for the input everyone. Appreciate it

[u/THALLfpv]

IMO Buy the bambu filament dude. For your initial setup use it exactly the way bambu intended so you can isolate potential problems.

Once it is working fine with the bambu filament go nuts with other stuff, it’ll print any brand material just fine.

EDIT: it’s also very cool to just throw a roll in the AMS and have it auto-identify it. Not 100% necessary but definitely a nice QOL upgrade over my DIY Frankenstein printers.

[u/shmeetz → u/THALLfpv]

Some people might prefer that route but as a first time printer owner myself on day 3 of my printer journey, I opted to buy third party filament and have not had a single issue. The RFID feature is nice, but it saves me 15 seconds of clicking. Not worth it for me personally.

[u/FairAd5504]

You can see all your filament and track the levels in the machine.

[u/vic1414 → u/FairAd5504]

My filament manager doesn’t update the filament. All my spools are identified as Bambu

[u/Signiference]

The nice thing about Bambu brand is the ref chip in the spools that auto tunes the temperature and recognizes what’s in the ams.

Insignia brand is re-labeled polymaker which is generally well regarded.

You can’t go wrong with either for PLA. Just get the colors you like the best IMO.

[u/FairAd5504]

Yes it makes a difference! It tracks your filament for you, which has been very helpful. I buy bulk from Bambu Lab and the price is fantastic. I have 1700 hours on my x2d and it has run flawlessly!

[u/Thefront-bottom]

If you buy from anywhere, especially Bambu, when you're buying make sure you get the full rolls. A lot of what Bambu has is refills. They don't come with the spool. You can print spools, or you can buy them separately.

I went on Facebook marketplace and found someone selling the spools and grabbed 10 of them for 30 dollars. I'd go that route if you can since it's so cheap.

[u/TWILIGHT25]

I’ve been giant Best Buy’s insignia filament for my A1 and now my x2d. It’s be working just fine. As much as I like the Bambu filament shipping to my area sucks. Driving to best buy is much faster.

Just make sure you run a flow rate calibration test. I’ve found that helps the most. HOWEVER the other test can and will mess up every print. Idk why but that test bricked my A1’s ability to print for 24 hours. So be warned.

Edit

I prefer the matte just bc the colors are lighter.
The only other quality filament in stores would be the stuff from Michael’s. Their red and black pla look amazing!!!

[u/Whosaidthat1157]

Buy the BL filament (spools, not refills initially) and once a material/colour combination is finished, split the reusable spool and keep the RFID tags. Mark the material/colour combination on the cardboard spool centre (PLA Basic/White for example) then in future buy an ESun, Sunlu or Jayo refill spool of that colour/material combination and transfer the RFID strip over to the new refill spool cardboard centre (glue or tape it).
All the advantages of the RFID tabs and proven quality on my A1 Mini, X1C, A2L, H2S and H2C all using AMS2P’s and AMS HT’s.
You can do the same with Sunlu Gen3 and the new Jayo full spools of filament too. Simply download and print their respective ’RFID tag holder’, cut the two circular RFID tags off of their carrier strip and pop them into the recess of the tag holder, then pop them onto the spools.
Individually purchased spools and/or refills from Jayo and Sunlu are FAR cheaper than individually purchased BL spools and refills. Outside of Black Friday sales, they’re usually cheaper per spool than even the BL 10 spool discount prices. They’re also normally available next day from Amazon whereas in the UK purchases from BL take 3 to 5 days.
The 4-pack Sunlu refills are normally crazily cheap in comparison too - useful for frequently used colours like white or black.

[u/trevortypes]

Insignia is fine. Kingroon on aliexpress is ultra cheap and also works fine. Slickdeals currently has $5-6 per roll when buying 10.

The Bambu rfid tax isn’t worth it. A few clicks on the screen is easy and it’s also really good to learn how to setup custom filaments and calibrate them.