Thursday, October 30, 2025

New 3D printer: Bambu Labs A1 mini

For some years I've occasionally used a Creality Ender 3 printer. Worked fine and good value but when I dug it out recently during a visit from EX0AA the bed levelling drove me bonkers. Ross had recommended Bambu printers but I was a bit off them due to stories of their locked down platform. I checked the site and they had their lowest end model - A1 Mini - on sale for AU$329.

For that money it's an amazing piece of precision manufacturing. Automatic bed levelling is great but I was amazed to find that it has a camera built in so you can watch the print from your phone if desired. It takes a while to prepare itself but then prints much faster than my old Creality.


My first print is an end fed antenna winder for portable QRP operation. I design with TinkerCad but am trying to learn something a bit more sophisticated. Quite happy with the result.


There's more to learn and I'd like to be able to send print jobs to it without needing to be logged in to the internet site.

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