So i have seen soo much from bambu and there is amazing things coming from them. Why is it so good? What makes it so good? And for less than a prusa! Anyone have one?
There’s quite a thorough debate about the Bambu vs Prusa in the New mk4 is out-thread
Short answer is: Bambulabs is great engineering at a great price. Cutting edge stuff. But - many solutions are proprietary.
Prusa is great engineering and open source community driven development at a little higher price, and currently at a slower pace of adaptation. If you want to support open source community and tech and have full access to all hardware and software details (for modding and such) Prusa is the way to go. If you want the latest and shiniest machine to the lowest price Bambu is a great contender.
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I am NOT anti Bambu Labs - clearly the machines are very good at producing clean fast prints.
My observations suffer from cognitive bias a bit too, but I am concerned because of the closed source thing, that in a few years they won’t be repairable. My perception is that they are designed as an appliance, a consumable item to be thrown away at end of their service life.
While that might be acceptable from a business model sense for commercial end users, I don’t think it’s acceptable in any community in 2023 to build a tool which is not inherently upgradable to extend its service life as long as is practicable.
(Says the hypocrite who’s upgrading his unused LR2 to LR3!)
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So I just cannot believe that they produce ao many clean prints at their pricepoint. My real reason for tbis is why? Maybe if they are so closed source tbat will not be revealed, but doggone it. The prints i see are simply unbelievable, why, what is it they are doing?
I have bamboo x1 carbon great machine I started with a ender 3v2 which I learned to. Print the bamboo is more of a plug and play where the ender is for ever being tuned don’t get me wrong my ender puts out great prints the bamboo just does it easier
I always feel I should start a Bambu topic with “I’m not arguing” even when I clearly am!
In real life I haven’t seen any prints that are better than my MK3s, but they’ve all been produced in half the time! Actually the stock prints are not as crisp if you pull out the micrometers, but that’s nit picking.
Isn’t that “just” a factor of light weight components, lots of melting capacity and tweaking the software? I’m sure any voron could do it with the same amount of development? (just as any Ender can print as well as a Prusa in that context)
I just wish there was truly objective commentary so we could actually compare. Will someone from this group buy one please, just for the benefit of us all!
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And there you have it, my wish has come true! 
I have so many questions!
Can you tell me is glue really necessary on each build plate?
There was a bambu X1 at RMRRF. It was used as an example that the chameleon can be attached to “any printer”. Meaning, this was the least friendly to adaptation. 
. The prints looked good though.
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So i keep an eye on reddit\fosscad. There are alot of them using bambu. It is clean right out of the box. I would put some of the content here, but it may not be appreciated by all. There is a large group drinking the kool aid. I just want to understand why.
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I think their “lidar” (not really lidar but thats irrelevant) can calibrate settings for different filaments, not just detecting the bed position. I don’t know how much benefit is actually implemented, but I think there is a lot of untapped potential in this type of feedback. In theory it could automatically tune input shaping and probably make other advanced settings automatic.
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Now that makes sense and would go to what is said above with closed source!
The Open Source folks need to stop complaining and implement some awesome features with a microscope and structured light!
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I really truly hope the open source stuff built into the new prusa xl starts to motivate others. I mean look how far printing has come. And really if closed source helps to advance i am for that too! I drank the klipper kool aid. I really like it. But I have to say I really would consider a bambu if i could spare 700
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I have a few months to make up my mind. I’m looking at all the other tools that cost a similar amount - Tablesaw, bandsaw, jointer and a lot more and I’ve hand them for 20-50 years.
Then I look at the new generation stuff that cost a lot more - phones - seven years on average, cameras, five years (but I keep the lenses)
Then I look at software or streaming costs - Photoshop, youtube premium combine the two subscriptions and theres’ a bambu written off every three years! 
I don’t know where I’m going with this, perhaps I’m trying to drag myself into the consumer world!
'cause fundamentally they’re really good??
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I have no problems with “closed source” - just “closed maintenance”.
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I use Magigoo glue it’s more of a release glue I use it on my glass bed of my ender it works there is no damage to the coating on the magnetic plate of my bamboo I’ve used it for 4months still looks new
There is starting to be more open source parts on the market now I bought my bamboo because for me it is more about the printed projects than the printer it will do every thing for you but you still need to have a good understanding of how a 3d printer works and how to fix it any printer will print well if you know how to use the slicer I will say the bamboo puts out a consistent print but it still needs maintenance
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It’s like a Nespresso coffee machine
Does it make the best coffee you have ever tasted no but it does make a very consistent cup
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Just to fill this conversation in a bit more - I can buy a voron kit without printed parts and hotend for about the same as a Carbon x1 - why would I do that?
I get that the P1P and Mk4kit are close in price and specs (one is fast and noisy, one is slow and reliable) so that’s a kind of arbitrary decision based on what the trolls are saying this week I guess, but why pay a lot more for a Voron?
I started with an Ender 5, then built a voron trident and got a bambu X1C about a month ago. I am blown away by the bambu. Things just work. I have not had to do anything to it and its printed a lot of stuff. The AMS is built around their spools and I have had some non bambu spools that it could not unload. The multi color prints have turned out great and again it just works. Before the bambu I was looking at adding the ERCF to the voron to get multi material, but I think I will keep my voron the way it is.
I do worry long term about the maintenance. I think things like nozzles, extruders etc won’t be a problem, but the belts, bearings, wiring, and AMS don’t seem to be built for service ability.
In answer to your question… Why is it so good.
My other 3d printers took a lot of trial and error. I had so many failed prints on my Ender. I kept upgrading things thinking it would help new hooted, direct drive extruder, new bed, added octoprint. With the voron I ended up with great hardware but I had to spend hours tweaking the settings to get great prints. I had to edit lines of code to add a nozzle brush, or setup auto bed leveling. With the bambu it does all this for you. It has great auto bed leveling, it calibrates so many things for you, the slicer is very easy to understand, their wiki walks you through anything you don’t understand. They created filament profiles that seem to work just fine. None of my other printers would print anything but PLA without having to edit a bunch of settings. They have “lidar” that looks at what the printer puts down and then makes all the adjustments that typically you have to do manually. You could get one and be printing multi color prints and all types of filament without having to tweak anything.