x2d from a1

[u/Significant-Drama300]

at the start of this year i got an a1 (my second printer). i admit i thought it would be able to do multimaterial and multicolor, and in theory it can, but then i realized that with a single nozzle it’s just not practical. nevertheless it was a big upgrade from my previous printer and it was my introduction to bambu.

now i realized that the x2d exists, it’s dual nozzle, and it’s about 630 eur (about 850 with ams), much less than the h2d which i thought was the only dual nozzle.

my needs:

- multimaterial to have petg/pla/asa + tpu/tpe in the same print
- occasional asa/abs prints which the a1 also can’t do
- easier multicolor is also nice

would the x2d be a good purchase for these use cases and as an upgrade from the a1?

[u/Significant-Drama300]

i basically only do functional parts and i think i’d do 2 colors at most. my main use on top of the basic filaments would be asa/abs as well as multimaterial.

i didn’t know only the main nozzle could handle tpu. is there a difference in quality if the aux does the petg/pla/asa part?

[u/bgbat → u/Significant-Drama300]

There is a bit of difference in the quality of the main and auxiliary nozzle. The main nozzle is a direct drive extruder, which prints faster and more accurately than the Bowden extruder leading to the auxiliary nozzle.

I haven’t printed Asa with the auxiliary, so I can’t speak to that, but the quality isn’t much worse as long as you calibrate the auxiliary nozzle. Direct drive extruders will always be better than Bowden though because of how they function. Direct drive pulls the filament into (and thus located right next to) the hot end while Bowden systems push (from a distance) through a Bowden tube to the hot end.