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Bambu Lab A1 Mini 3D Printer Review

People were surprised by the A1 Mini from Bambu Lab. The reason is that no one expected an affordable, bed-slinger-style 3D printer from the company. So, we will discuss everything about the product in this Bambu Lab A1 Mini 3D Printer Review.

This 3D printer features a light Automatic Material System (AMS) and a more compact form. It also features an intuitive full-colour touch screen, an AMS unit to lessen the instances of jamming, and more. Moreover, it is a budget-friendly option perfect for your printing needs. 

Continue reading our Bambu Lab A1 Mini 3D Printer Review to learn more about the product. Here, we will discuss its design, functions, features, specifications, and how it performs. 

First, we will check its packaging and what Bambu Lab included in the box. 

Bambu Lab A1 Mini 3D Printer Packaging

The product ships in a cardboard box that is durable and tough to protect the items during shipping. Adequate protection is inside the box since Bambu Lab included foam on all sides to guarantee a safe delivery.  

Bambu Lab packed the following items inside the box:

  • A1 Mini 3D Printer 
  • AMS Lite
  • Spool Holder 
  • Purge Cleaner 
  • Build Plate
  • Accessories Box
  • Mystery Box

Bambu Lab A1 Mini 3D Printer Review – Design and Functionality

We had to compare this 3D printer to its bigger brothers for our Bambu Lab A1 Mini 3D Printer Review. Upon arrival, the A1 Mini is 95% assembled, featuring a direct drive. It also has a steel-tipped, full metal hotend that reaches 300°. 

The product is a cantilever-designed 3D printer with a contemporary aesthetic. It is also user-friendly, especially for beginners, because of its touchscreen interface. The latter features guides to help you run the printer. 

On its own, this high-speed 3D printer is compact with a direct drive. It features a 300° hot end plus quick swap nozzles. 

The printer has nozzles with cooling fins and heat breaks that help prevent leakage from haphazard installations. Unlike the earlier 3D printers from Bambu, the nozzles of the A1 Mini are easy to install. It is because of the strong magnet and metal buckle. 

Moreover, there are no screws, wirings, or messy thermal paste necessary when installing the printer. 

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The printer has a slimmed-down tool head and a filament cutter like the P1S, X1 Carbon, or P1P. It has a filament hub the same size as a pencil fixed at the top. 

The A1 Mini features a silicone brush located close to the rear plate. You can use it to wipe the nozzle before tapping the bed for calibration. 

The printer also features a tray along the end of its X gantry, which is necessary when disposing of filaments. Collecting these is easy since the product features a filament container next to it. 

We observed the 3D printer to give you detailed information in this Bambu Lab A1 Mini 3D Printer Review. It features a filament run-out sensor on its tool head, plus an odometer on the AMS. These detect tangles and broken filaments.

It even has a camera to monitor/record time lapses; however, it does not feature AI programming for print fail detection. 

Additionally, its camera has a manual privacy shutter and a small light. It also has a wide-angle lens, allowing you to record a part of your room beyond its build plate. We suggest putting a screen or parking the printer in a corner to avoid recording background movements. 

Like other products from Bambu Lab, this printer helps send an error code if it detects any issue/error. Specifically, it is a code that can appear as a QR code that directs you to the Bambu Wiki. The latter is considered a knowledge base to help you operate Bambu printers. 

This Wiki will aid you in identifying and fixing issues, often with video tutorials.   

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The AMS Lite is incompatible with other 3D printers, including the previous AMS unit incompatible with the A1 Mini. The reason is the hub placement is responsible for directing the colour feed to the printer. It is situated directly on top of the tool head.

On its side are four claws dedicated to securing the spools in place. These spool holders are strategically colour-coded to position spools properly during installation.

The AMS Lite features four Bowden tubes extending from each spool to the tool head. Notably, this simplified iteration offers greater ease in resolving jams. Often, it is when you deal with the breakage of the brittle filament within the tube.

Key Features of the Bambu Lab A1 Mini 3D Printer 

What makes the A1 Mini an excellent bed-slinger 3D printer? We will discuss its primary features to determine if it is worth purchasing.

Multi-colour Printing with AMS Lite

The all-new AMS Lite is a reliable, high-quality accessory for multi-coloured printing.

Plug-and-Play Design

The steep learning curve of 3D printing is now an enjoyable journey. Bambu Lab ships the A1 Mini pre-assembled, pre-tuned, and pre-squared. It only takes 20 minutes to set it up, delivering excellent precision out of the box. 

This plug-and-play design made setting up the product faster. It took only a few minutes to get it ready for our product tests. We will discuss its setup process and performance later in this Bambu Lab A1 Mini 3D Printer Review.

Automatic Calibration and Bed-Levelling

The A1 Mini eliminates the tedious manual calibration and tuning with its automated functions. It automatically calibrates the bed level, Z-offset, nozzle pressure, and vibration resonance for all print jobs.

Auto Z-Offset Eliminates Paper Method

The A1 Mini measures the absolute Z-offset by probing the bed with the nozzle. You will not need to use a piece of paper as a reference for levelling.

Automated Pressure Advanced Calibration of the Bambu Lab A1 Mini 3D Printer

Bambu Lab introduces the A1 Mini as a groundbreaking 3D printer with innovative nozzle pressure-based flow dynamics. This product does not require pick-and-match or manual pattern drawing. The A1 Mini effortlessly handles pressure-advanced calibration automatically.

Automatically Tune Both X & Y Resonance Before Each Printing Job

The heatbed and tool head of the A1 Mini has sensors. This 3D printer is among the first bed-slinger printers to use automatic resonance calibration on X/Y axes. 

Everything quickly finished when we set up the product for this Bambu Lab A1 Mini 3D Printer Review. Thanks to this auto-tuning technology, we did not experience any hassle and difficulties. 

Auto Monitoring And Adjusting The Belts

The A1 Mini can automatically check the belt tension via the vibration frequency calibration. The HMS system notifies you if the belt is loose and will prompt you to use the belt tensioner. This tool allows for setting the appropriate tension for the belt.

High-speed Precision

The A1 Mini is a bed-slinger with CoreXY, offering quality and speed. This 3D printer features full-metal rails, a nozzle pressure sensor, one sturdy frame, a powerful MCU, and accelerometers. Also, it has an advanced motion control system that uses these features for printing a 14-minute benchy.

Intuitive UI of the Bambu Lab A1 Mini 3D Printer Touchscreen

The A1 Mini has a streamlined touchscreen UI system that walks you through the system and 3D printing challenges. With this product, you do not need to be an experienced or expert user.

Active Flow Rate Compensation

The A1 Mini changes the flow control system in 3D printing. It uses a high-frequency and high-resolution eddy current sensor to measure the nozzle’s pressure. The algorithm actively compensates the flow rate based on the readings for accurate extrusion.

Prints Quietly

Active Motor Noise Cancelling and Silent Mode reduce noise levels to under 48 dB. As a result, the A1 Mini is one of the quietest 3D printers.

MakerWorld – One-click Away From Printing

MakerWorld is the next-generation 3D model platform with a single-click printing process directly from the Bambu Handy mobile app. Plus, you can use Bambu Studio to manage your printers anytime and anywhere.

User-friendly, Even Without the Internet

If you have privacy concerns in cloud printing, you can use LAN mode to remote control or live view. As a result, you can send tasks to the A1 Mini without cloud communication. 

Linear Rails

The rails of a 3D printer are crucial since these affect its accuracy and lifespan. They must ensure the system’s rigidity when printing while withstanding the wear due to high-speed motion. Also, rail systems guarantee that the A1 Mini eliminates the need for frequent adjustments. 

The A1 Mini uses all-metal rails and incorporates linear rails on the X and Z axes. Plus, it has an all-metal linear guide on the Y-axis. 

Melody of the Bambu Lab A1 Mini 3D Printer

Although it does not have a speaker, the A1 Mini can play electronic music. It drives three motors that generate particular vibration frequencies, allowing it to play three soundtracks simultaneously. You can use your MIDI files with the Web MIDI to GCode generator to make your A1 Mini play tunes.

Specifications

  • Build Volume: 180 x 180 x 180mm
  • Material: PLA/PETG/TPU (up to 300 degrees)
  • Extruder Type: Direct Drive
  • Nozzle: 0.4 high flow
  • Build Platform: PEI textured spring steel sheet
  • Bed Levelling: Automatic
  • Connectivity: WiFi, Bambu-Bus
  • Display: 2.4 inches 320*240 IPS Touch Screen
  • Storage: Micro SD Card
  • Control Interface: Touch Screen, APP, PC Application
  • Motion Controller: Dual-Core Cortex M4
  • Machine Footprint: 347 x 314 x 365mm
  • Machine Weight: 5.5kg

Hands-on with the Bambu Lab A1 Mini 3D Printer

Before we discuss the product performance and our test prints, we will focus on setting up the 3D printer. Also, we will share some details about the Bambu Studio software, its interface, and functions.

As mentioned, the A1 Mini arrives pre-assembled. It only requires installing the spool holder and filament wiper plus plugging the Bowden tubes. The AMS unit quickly snaps with the 3D printer before being secured onto its stand.

The A1 Mini auto-levels itself with the nozzle as the probe, allowing it to set the Z height independently. Setting this 3D printer up before performing tests for this Bambu Lab A1 Mini 3D Printer Review was a breeze. We had no difficulties with the settings & adjustments and finished the process quickly.

The software setup was quick, thanks to the PC and mobile apps. The latter is handy for monitoring prints and sends notifications when the A1 Mini finishes a print. The mobile app allows downloading models directly from your phone and sending them straight to the A1 Mini.

Bambu Studio is the proprietary slicer of Bambu Lab. It is the primary software for transferring files using the Cloud service or local LAN to the 3D printer. You can also store files on the SD card and send them to the A1 Mini.

Bambu Slicer is also the paint program for setting colours on your prints. 

The device tab lets you communicate directly to define the filaments in the AMS. This section also allows heating the 3D printer and adjusting the printing speed.

Bambu Studio has a range of filament presets for Bambu Lab and other manufacturers. The best thing about them is they are all handy and accurate. 

Bambu Lab released the A1 Mini with MakerWorld, a file-sharing site with a cloud-slicing function. It allows you to send models from the website to your printer. 

The software does the slicing behind the scenes and uses parameters uploaded by the designer or other users. MakerWorld also takes data from your printer and AMS to confirm the filament type and bed size.

Printing with this product is like using other Bambu Lab 3D printers – you can complete everything hands-off. Using the materials provided by Bambu Lab offers a smooth experience each time you print. You also receive optimal settings, offering you quality outcomes you can enjoy. 

The standard material profiles also did a great job. It offers stunning prints without having to fine-tune.

If you have plenty of experience with 3D printing, you will enjoy aiming for specific print aspects via parameter changes. Thanks to the extensive settings in Bambu Studio, you can customise and then save the presets as your new option.

The machine lives up to its promises of speed and quality, while its first-layer adhesion stood out during our tests. This 3D printer functioned flawlessly. 

The A1 Mini boasts its Active Motor Noise Cancellation that reduces noise during operation.

Despite not being entirely silent, its noise was not disruptive. It was low enough for home and office use.

The key considerations with this printer are managing nests of purged filament and handling relatively long multi-filament printing times.

Bambu Lab A1 Mini 3D Printer Review Summary

The A1 Mini with AMS Lite is an affordable 3D printer with high-speed performance. Bambu Lab designed it with user-friendliness in mind, so it requires minimal assembly. It is an excellent product for beginners in 3D printing. 

The advantage and selling point of the A1 Mini is its functionality out of the box. It eliminates the assembly and manual calibration hassle, allowing us to finish setting it up immediately. It is one of the features we loved while testing the product for this Bambu Lab A1 Mini 3D Printer Review.

The A1 Mini is a superior standalone 3D printer. However, it offers more when combined with AMS Lite since it allows you to print coloured models. You can also enjoy the capabilities of more expensive Bambu Lab printers.

The A1 Mini is an incredible printer with unique technologies and features for its price. It is an ideal product for 3D printing since it is user-friendly, compact, and quiet. Despite having a few quirks, you can easily overlook these since it offers excellent print quality.

Learn more about the A1 Mini 3D Printer when visiting the official product page of Bambu Lab.