The One to Beat: Bambu Lab X1-Carbon 3D Printer Review
Today, I'm reviewing the Bambu Lab X1-Carbon Combo 3D printer.
*This site contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated
Bambu Lab X1-Carbon*: bit.ly/3XzuET9
Bambu Lab X1-Carbon Combo*: bit.ly/3JzYQaX
Bambu Lab Filaments*: bit.ly/3pusOqd
Bambu Lab Build Plates*: bit.ly/46scg2K
Models printed in this video:
*This site contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated
3D Benchy: www.3dbenchy.com/
Clockspring3D Torture Toaster: www.printables.com/model/6098...
Maker's Muse Puzzle Cube: makersmuse.gumroad.com/l/YLFCX
In3DSpace Prusa LED Light Bar: www.printables.com/model/3267...
Klipper Ringing Tower: www.klipper3d.org/Resonance_C...
Raw Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License
creativecommons.org/licenses/b...
00:00 Introduction
01:11 Facts Features and Stats
03:49 The Need for Speed
06:24 Print quality
11:39 Software: Bambu Studio and Bambu Handy
14:50 But not open source
17:27 Parts availability and pricing
18:35 Bed adhesion difficulties
20:05 The heat beds aren't quite flat
21:52 Poop chute and noise levels
23:06 Should you buy one?
That's how a review should be done. Gold star, James!
That's how a review-review should be done. Meta-gold star, somebody else!
couldnt agree more! very straight to the point and detailed
agreed
Absolutely appreciate the professional approach
Completely agree.
This review was so relaxing to watch. No distracting music just a wise man talking, i am so tired of youtube....
"I haven't been able to test the spaghetti detection," is a flex that hits hard in the 3D Printing community!
What a review. They sent me one. I tried it. I went out and bought one. Is there any better endorsement than that? Of course, you, as always, did a great job of pointing out the strengths and weaknesses of this machine. I admire your consistent integrity and unending level of thoroughness in covering the details. That is one of the magnificent reasons that I treasure watching your channel.
Why would you even need to buy another one, given this one prints super fast, you wouldn't even keep up with designing. Hmmm...
Thank you James. Purchased one this morning using your link. I absolutely love your videos. Please keep up the good work.
Probably the best review of anything, that I've ever seen. Clear, concise and no bs. Thank you very much!
Logged in just to say 100% great review. Clear and concise. Pleasure to watch and listen to. Ty
Great review. Lines up with my experiences with my x1c
Love how detailed you get when reviewing something 👌
Totally nailed it James! I love your unprecedented quality to details, what doesn't sticking to specs but real life usage. My consideration to buy this printer just increased a lot. I will definitely buy this printer!
I have 2 X1Cs and I agree totally. Great unit. Great job reviewing it!
Thank you James for the great review and info.
I own the X1C for four weeks now and my experiences with the printer are exactly the same. I was a huge fan of Prusa, but now my MK3s+ is out of work. I've ordered a P1P as second Printer which arrived yesterday. My first experiences with this machine are also amazing!
Very Helpful review. I just bought an X1-Carbon Combo myself and this was really helpful giving me a good idea of what to look for.
Just bought the Bambu Lab X1-Carbon Combo 3D Printer due to your thorough review. Used your link. Thanks for the review.
Thanks for your review ... I got lucky and purchased my Bambu Lab X1 Carbon with the AMS when it was a Kickstarter campaign at a discounted intro price. I received mine mid-summer last year and although I don't print nearly as much as you do, I have experienced ZERO problems. My printing experience has been for the most part flawless. I am old, as in late 70's, and I find the Bambu Lab support to be wonderful. I asked a few questions when I received the printer just to make sure I was totally prepared to use and not destroy the unit before I could experience my first print. If Bambu labs has any problem in the USA, it's having filament in stock. It seems every time I go to purchase filament it's out of stock. Maybe it's just poor timing, but that is my experience. I also would echo your review and add I love the product, service and I agree that the filament ( when in stock ) is worth the little extra cost to make printing a "Slam Dunk", in MY EXPERIENCE... Thanks for sharing ... Stay Safe and Well...
Still out of stock 😂
Great video. Appreciate the disclosure at the beginning and the efficient nature of info delivery throughout the video! 🙏
James, I wish news outlets delivered information with the level of candor and transparency you showed in this vid. Thanks for sharing.
What a pleasant surprise - informative content in a review. Thank you.
Brilliant review, thanks James.
Really nice dialogue with discussion of how things work. I am leaning toward getting one once I get through my dro and cnc issues.
Thank you for this video. You presented very useful information in a comfortable way and just what I needed to feed my decision process.
Thanks for a great review! I have had my X1C for 4 months and compared to my last 6 cheap, unreliable printers, its game changer. No more tinkering just printing and yes its fast but the quality of the prints is still amazing. I can't wait to see more Bambu innovation we will no doubt see some even better machines in the future.
This was the exact review video I was looking for. I’ve been researching for hours on what should my next printer be and this printer sounds like a solid choice. Great video 👍👍
This is one of the most useful 3D printer reviews I've ever seen.
When I saw the early reviewers prior to production release it looked compelling and so I ordered one. I have had no other prior experience with an FDM printer. I use it in support of my design work and it's fantastic to go from SolidWorks model, to 3MF file to sending the sliced file to the printer and pull out a finished part in 30 minutes. It is an excellent tool for this work.
A direct and thorough review that is objective and well made. Thank you!
Great review! I learned a lot, thank you for sharing.
Your advice is always sound. You taught me how to make my plasma table work! Just ordered X1-Carbon with your affiliate link.
Hey, thanks for being so upfront on the compensation and affiliates and such. Solid stuff.
I've had my eye on this printer for a little while, but seeing this has pretty much just sealed the deal. Definitely wouldn't be the first time I've bought something because I saw you use it (and like it) and you haven't let me down yet!
I have been printing on a prusa for many years. Thank you James for your honest and sincere opinion on this printer and the other things you do. You are a class act. Thank you
Prusa MKS3 owner here, and I really liked your review. I think it was pretty fair and unbiased. I'm not in the market for another printer, but if I was I think I would at least consider the X1. In the "But not open source" section, you mentioned that many people's default expectation is that a 3D printer is to be OpenSource. I don't think of it in terms like like. For me, the issues I have with Bamboo is 1) this hobby/industry/community (or whatever you want to call it) is based on Open Source, and the advancements made over the last 10+ years couldn't have been made if it weren't for Open Source firmware and Open Source slicers. My guess is that their firmware relies on innovations made by others, and leveraging innovations made in software that is Open Source, yet closing your own source seems a bit hypocritical and a bit like "cheating" to me. 2) Our hobby/industry/community has grown due to innovations and discoveries made over the years, and with the innovations being openly discussed, shared, and improved on. By closing their source and not "paying it forward", it hurts the industry. PS. you said, "Prusa has set a real precedent in the 3D printing industry by Open Sourcing their printers". Prusa isn't alone in this (there's Lulzbot/Taz, and many others), and they weren't the first, so I wouldn't say they they set the president. I mean, RepRap... _they_ set the precedent.
I'm fine if they steal. I'm not fine if they keep filing patents based on the stolen ip that will be used to kill the competition, just like dji.
You're 100% Correct Been Printing for 8yrs+, mainly designing custom system for personal use, not having a Open Source Software Options is a absolute Deal Breaker.
well said!
I’m 100% with you on your very polite reaction. Very well said! The very first precedent was set by Ultimaker btw. Don’t get me wrong about my thoughts on the X1, this is indeed the bar that’s set in modern days 3d printing. I’m really stoked about the build in LiDAR and tagged spools that will help set up the parameters of one’s print. There are only 2 points (better just 1.5 actually) of attention to dare criticize the X1 on; -1; It is a bit of a thing that topic you’ve pointed out on the closed source feature. It’s not the most respectful way of entering the market. I do understand that they have a business model to carry out. Too bad that they’ve chosen to drop open source. This will be a dealbreaker for lots of enthusiastic new (or extra) machine buyers. A bit like the AnkerMake story now isn’t it? -1.5; The other point i’d say is the noise level of the machine. It looks like the guys in the Lab made of Bambuuu are very well articulated in the fact that working at 4 times the printing speeds it’s not exactly a focal point to reduce noise levels as this will be highly contradicting on itself. Next to good cooling at very high speeds i can see why this isn’t all that bad and urgent.
By innovation you mean company's cloning others by having "open source" allows for taking other work to just sell it your own. To me: open source is just a gateway to get other company's produce the same tech. The real innovation comes from the community's feedback. The companies make those innovation come to life. I think in my opinion that Bambu Lab made a smart move by close source their systems. Allows for other company's to do their job for once and innovate instead of cloning it. Still Creality managed to clone their Corexy printer from Bambu Lab and market it a 100mm faster than theirs. Qidi tech attempted at doing the same but failed in some features. So really competition comes to life.
Great review! I print mostly ABS and had issues with adhesion on the textured PEI plate since the very start. Decided to do exactly what is advised against. I rubbed it down quickly with acetone and it has been perfect ever since!
I got my X1C for Christmas. Initially with the one AMS but once I started to look for multi-colored designs out there I found a lot of them wanted 5-6 colors so the obvious solution was to get a second AMS. Now I have both stacked next to the printer and I really like this arrangement because I find it really handy to not have an AMS on top of the machine - it's nice to be able to take off the top glass for maintenance and to be able to see inside the printer when changing nozzles. Changing nozzles is fast but those connectors are tiny and I'm always concerned about breaking a wire at the connector. While single colored prints or ones that change color per layer the printer is fast, but when you do a true multi-colored print it takes forever. The Prusa XL design which has dedicated toolheads is likely to be a lot faster for filament changes, but I think it's capped at 5 toolheads which is barely enough, especially if you want colors + support. Even for people (like James) who aren't that interested in multi-colored prints the AMS is very useful as a drybox for the filament, James quickly mentioned this at the end but I think it was understated how nice this turns out to be.
Great review. Thanks for the info. This may be my new 3d printer.
Great job on the overview of the BBL game changing printer. I played around with a Creality Ender Pro before it and the ease of use, quality of prints and the speed is to a whole new level. The only drawback I have seen with my Bambu printer is that when you need to fix a clogged extruder or get rid of a piece of filament stuck in the AMS, it really requires some serious surgery. I am pretty adapt at this stuff, and it even intimidates me. Some of the procedures are just out of reach for most people. I have a ton of spare parts and have not used any of them. Thankfully, it works most of the time!!
Great video James I am saving for the p1s combo. Thanks 😊.
Great review James, thank you. I’d buy one if I had a production need.
Appreciate the no nonsense, factual, experience based review! Nice job!
The best, most honest and accurate review of the Bambu Lab X1 Carbon I have seen. On the cool plate, I use it all the time and never had a problem with adhesion, never. Clean it, add glue stick, done. Never a problem.
This machine is the answer I’ve been waiting for, I love this tool, yes a quality tool that works
Great review! I'm printing some prototypes on my X1C as I'm watching this.
Brilliant review James. I bought a Qidi i-fast 7 months ago, and already I'm very tempted by the Bambu X1-Carbon. The fact that you got one for free, then went out and bought another says everything. Although I'm quite capable of tinkering (engineering background), what I actually want is a 3D printer that just gets on with the job, with minimal input from me. I don't need to tinker with my colour laser printer, my oscilloscope, my dishwasher etc. These are all 'tools' that do a specific job for me. I now realise that I want the same from a 3D printer, so that I can get on with the job of designing things, with fairly quick prototyping.
New to the 3d World. Son-in-law bought an original Prusa i3 MK3 a couple of years ago (guess who had to assemble it) for my grandson. New house, new school and new friends my grandson lost interest (he will come back) so I inherited it. Started to play around, watch some videos and actually printed out a few things. Sooooo. Next steps. After watching this video it looks like I will purchase the X1 Carbon. This was of the best reviews to date, as others have said "This is how a review should be" Thanks
WOW! What a fantastic, thorough review. Thank you for helping me in my decision making process. Between yours and a couple of other reviews, I’m now not so apprehensive about considering this printer.
Great video, thank you for your objective perspective and experience.
Great video! Just decided to go for this printer
This is a well done video, good job. I will be adding one of these to the arsenal, and will use your link as a thank you.
Love that you named one "Fear" and the other "Loathing".
This machine is amazing and I love it. I have had it for 4 weeks and it has printed non-stop. My students design and model objects, so prototyping is a part of this process. I have 4 other 3D printers in my classroom, all different manufacturers, but this machine blows them away, because of the crazy speed. Most teachers aren't interested or equipped to tinker with machines, so this would be the perfect machine to encourage them to enhance lessons. It is basically plug and play. I can't say enough about the ease and value of this machine. It's actually a useful and reliable tool, rather than a new issue. I LOVE THIS MACHINE!
Reviews don't get better than this. Thanks.
Thank you so much i got my X1-Carbon AMS combo last week this is a hige help and kind of opened my eyes a bit on what to look out for and also kind of what to expect from my Bambu Lab X1-C. Awesome review brother!!!
Nice job reviewing this printer !!
Man you sure did an amazing job reviewing the X1C. I am for sure going to pick one up now 😊
Awesome info. I have been using my X1 carbon for a couple of months now. I find it a fantastic printer. I did switch to whambam pei plates and adhesion in awesome so good you have to use glue stick. Thank you for your review and keep the signal 📶 going strong 💪 🇺🇸😎
One of the best reviews I've ever seen.
top shelf content. refreshing
Great review. Thanks! I'm in the market for a 3D printer as a home hobbyist. I'll definitely consider the X1C.
We've been tested this machine in the studio, the real power is that it only took roughly 1/4 of time to achieve the quality of Markforge(of course Markforge does have lots of unbeatable features) with carbon material, plus just like you said it speed up the iteration process. It's truly amazing in the product development field.
You've convinced me to add this printer to my buy list. Excellent review!
I'm new to 3D printing world, I've been interested for a decade plus but never took the plunge. I'm BEYOND happy with this purchase. As a 3D Design and Animation major from early 2000's I was the designer slicer and printer except with paper and an exact knife. I've made some really cool stuff over the years but my career took me in a different direction. I just wanted a printer that was reliable with high quality and zero to little desire to tinker. This review just AGAIN solidifies that I made the right choice. Cloud based bothers some but I'm not here to make money, just see my ideas and creativity come to life. I've already found so many uses in the last 3 weeks of printing and excited to see what the next 12 months look like for me. The slicer is beyond intuitive for a newbie and your detail here described is exactly my experience thus far. Fantastic review and honest opinion.
Great review that is both clear and honest. I LOVE mine. It’s my first printer and I am exactly the person who what’s to print stuff and walk away. I am their market. I too want to know early on in the design process what works and what doesn’t. I’d buy a second unit in a heartbeat. I’ve had a few issues, but frankly I’m taking full responsibility for me being a newb. Every person I show the prints to just drool at the quality. I do get a jammed nozzle at the very end of the completed print when using Bambu ABS-CF. Not sure why but using nylon cf is a win every time. 👍🏽👍🏽
If the next version offers a bigger build volume (300 x 300 x 400mm or greater) and it's quieter - plus fixes to the things you highlighted, I'm interested! I have 22 machines in my mini factory in my shop, mostly bed slingers. Full enclosures, fume extraction and fire suppression devices. Print safe! Great video!
With every video I wonder how you only have 100~k subs. Superb quality videos, some of the best out there in this area 👏🏻👏🏻
I am thinking of getting into 3D printing and I know this one is on the high end for a new person. After watching this video I feel like this may be the way to go for ease of use out of the box a great way to start making things for myself and my family. It also sounds like the customer support is great. I am a big fan of buy it once. Thanks for the great video, earned my sub for sure.
Just bought one online and this is the first video I’ve seen on it. Great job.
Awesome review! Well done.
100% agree on the ability to print and refine sooo quickly.. Love my P1P.
This is a fantastic video, thank you!
Thanks for this great review, I'll get one or more of these soon now.
Great review. Very well done.
Top notch, even handed review. You get who this printer is for! Pretty much matches my Kickstarter unit experience. For PLA printing the Cool Plate is a “Cool” Plate. I have over 800 hrs on mine. I have been using Windex as a release agent from day 1 and it works great. I have had bubbles occur (they are easy to remove), but it’s because I haven’t let the plate completely cool before removing large parts. A recently acquired second “Cool” Plate is the solution to my impatience.
I have this printer with the AMS unit, with over 1,000 of print time. I love it. I don’t believe a single print job has ever messed up. 😊
Does it require a lot of manual maintenance? Tuning rails and such?
Great review, Going to click on your link and purchase 2 of them for my shop. Thank you
Excellent review! Many Thanks.
Owning one of the early batch Kickstarter printers has fundamentally changed how I think about 3D printing. When designing parts to be printed on older printers (for more than a decade, at this point), I'd always have to keep in mind printer limitations - this is much less of a factor for the X1, since dimensional accuracy stays spot-on with very little effort between different materials, without hours of tuning for each new filament type. If you want an "appliance" that just spits out parts day after day, and reliability, accuracy, and production speed are your priorities (versus cost), the Bambu X1 is a great choice.
Love your video 👍🏼 you explain this product so well. You get to the point you give your feedback and suggestions i find it very entertaining. Planning to buy one in the near future thank you for this video 👍🏼 you have a new subscriber 👏
I have a X1C with AMS, that I later upgraded to a new hotend fitted with the 0.6mm nozzle, plus OEM nd aftermarket PEI sheets, and as an early adopter, struggled with their default profiles and bed adhesion (latter needed cleaning). I switched to Orca slicer, dialled in the filaments (haven't used Bambu stock) and it's been very good. I don't run it as fast as it can go, as I prefer better quality, but like you the increase in speed makes iterative prototyping much easier. I have had other closed source machines and I'm not getting hung up on this like others, because I've also done open source fiddling, and I just what something that works. I could have built a Voron, but I didn't have the time, and this wasn't much more than a kit. I will make my own printer one day, but for now this printer just works most of the time. Like others, I wish it wasn't so cloud based, but I honestly don't think any of my stuff needs to be that secure. :)
Awesome review, thanks !
Perfect timing. I am about to order one of these, and appreciate your review! Will use your affiliate link.
I'm using the X1 for my printing service business and it has repaid itself fully within the first 2 months and less than 700 print hours. Couple small replacement parts, otherwise rock solid. No need to say more I think.
Replacement parts needed within 2 months of use?
Yeah, 2 months repairs seems problematic
@@antoniorios3856 700 print hours
@@antoniorios3856 Look into "bathtub curve" or "infant mortality". People assume that something new should be reliable, but that is when the manufacturing defects tend to show up. After that they become reliable for a long time until parts start wearing out. The "infant mortality" is the whole point of warranties. Also 700 print hours in those tw months is beating on the thing pretty hard.
@@OccultDemonCassette 2 months of doing one print and 2 months of doing ten thousand prints? Time is meaningless, print time is important. 700 hours is a lot of print time.
Great video+explanation+presentation! Thank you SO MUCH for sharing your knowledge! Well done mate - NEW SUB 🙏🏻
I ordered mine yesterday after doing 3 weeks of research and debating between this and the prusa mk4. The speed and quality on this thing got me and the prusa is out of stock until september. I can’t wait for this thing to arrive this week. Great video!
You made the right choice.
I purchased the Bambulab x1c and have not looked back. An occasional hiccup, usually cause by me forgetting something during the model design. I was tired of having to tune the printers each time I changed filaments, or from PLA to PETG, etc. The X1C just cranks out the parts for my projects, and so much faster than my prior printers. Not having to bed level all the time saves me a lot of time. I love it.
I do really like the project based slicer, with the ability to have many build plates in one "File". it would be nice to name the plates and/or attach notes to the plates.
Fantastic review thanks
Thank you, absolutely excellent review. I have a 6-1/2 year old Wanhoa Monoprice Maker Select Plus that I've modded to death and can't go any further with it. While it's a work horse and does what I tell it to do, I'm ready to take the next step. Larger and faster prints, multicolor, multi-filaments, etc. Again thanks for the excellent review, love your work on your channel.
Fantastic Presentation. Loved the titles of the sections, quite poetic, and diggin your Fear and Loathing Nicknames. That was a super informative video. You got a subscriber, Thanks for all your insight! Sam
Great review. There are times I like to tinker (or I wouldn't be a maker) and there are times I just want an appliance that works (which is why I didn't build my own refrigerator or TV). This is one of those appliances that might be a little locked down, but it works, like my iPhone.
I had been looking at this James, and your video was the stimulus to buy. So I did, and used your affiliate link. Thanks for great continual content. …long time subscriber….
Thank you for such a fine review of the X1! I Will be buying a new printer in the near future and I'm 99.99999% sure it's going to be the X1 Carbon. Thanks again for a stellar concise review!
In terms of bed-adhesion I experienced the same flaws with the cool plate. I highly recommend the "high temperature plate" which works absolutely perfect with PLA, without messing around with gluestick.
I also recommend the High Temp plate. More consistent adhesion / no glue required / yields a dead smooth finish on your part.
Where did u get the plate any link at all ?
I've had an X1C and AMS since ~December, and it's been transformative (life-changing?) After years of futzing with the hardware and endless fiddling with settings, I finally have a *tool* I can use to make other things with. It's hard to overstate the difference this has made in what I do and how I use 3D printing. I can actually design something and iterate it 5 or 6 times in a day (I'm a noob Fusion 360 user, so there's lots of iterating ;-) Or if I want a bunch of something (Gridfinity bins, for example), it'll just crank out piles of them. The one downside? I"m spending a whole lot more on filament these days :-0 (But I'm having good success with even cheap brands like bulk-purchase Eryone PLA at $12-13/kg and only minor tweaking and perhaps slightly slower speeds, so that helps with the cost.) The AMS is surprisingly useful, not because I do multicolor prints, but because as you said, I can keep 4 different spools bone-dry and ready to go at a moment's notice. For my usage, it's been very well worth the added cost. I honestly can't say enough good about the printer, and the Reddit community for it is very helpful as well, making it even nicer. The one decision people might be wrestling with is whether to get the less expensive P1P or the X1C. This is purely anecdotal, and could simply be the result of more P1Ps being sold, but FWIW I've seen a lot more P1P than X1C owners asking for help solving print problems on the Reddit forum. Like I said, it's entirely anecdotal, but I can say that I myself have had next to no issues with my X1C/AMS combo. (The biggest one has been trying to run old, brittle filament through the AMS and having it break inside. Once you've been through the process of clearing the resulting jam once it's pretty straightforward, but still a pain. If you have old filament, do yourself a favor and run it as an external spool.)
Just to add, I bought a P1S about 6 months ago and it has been a work horse. I design a print, slice it and send it over to the printer. The P1S takes over and makes my design (sometimes flawed) and prints it. No hassle with levelling, bed adhesion or anything using a textured plate. I don't print pretty things. I print parts I use in my projects. And this printer does exactly what I needed a printer to do. The ONLY difference between the P1S and the X1 Carbon is the lidar. Nothing more. So yes, your assumptions are really anecdotal. Best money I've ever spent and I'm considering a second one.
Very informative. Thank you!
I am very happy with my x1c printer. I have never used my cool plate. The day I ordered my x1c I ordered the whambam plate for mine. Have never had a first layer issue yet with 250 hours on my printer. I only wish the bed alignment tabs at the back of the printer were alittle taller to help placing the sheet back down
Mine is on the way! Thanks James
Still waiting on it... UPS says something about weather? Perhaps climate change has impacted my shipment.... ha!!!
I love seeing new innovations and development in this space. There is a huge market for a printer that "just works" without much or any tinkering. I think the x1c is a great step in that direction but has missed the mark in a few key areas. The problem with the heated bed shape is an easy fix for bambu labs. Thicker machined beds are the standard for higher end machines and not including one here was a mistake. The cloud integration is the second big miss. There is no need for it and just adds to the complexity. I still think they are great machines and headed in the right direction but I will be holding off on my purchase until some of these and some other shortcomings are addressed by either bambu with an updated model or another manufacturer.
My main work/personal fdm printer for nearly 10 years has been a modified Makergear M2. The X1 is the first printer in that time that I felt was worth upgrading to and I was not wrong.
Got a M2 as well... 7...8 years old now? It's getting long in the tooth and the bambu is looking mighty attractive
A few years ago I decided I wanted a 3D printer but didn’t have a job to get one. Fast forward to 4 months ago I finally have a good paying job and was ready to get one. I was gonna go blind and just get a elegoo Neptune, but I was told by someone do I want to get into working on 3D printers or do I want to 3D print. So I did my research. Your video was one of the first I saw and I instantly fell in love with the Bambu printer. Fast forward again to yesterday and I finally bought one. I can’t wait, I also have bought some filament and the ams hub because I plan on getting more that one. Thanks for the awesome review it really helped me buy my first 3D printer.