For years I have used an Ender 3 to print. For years I have had to relevel the bed, deal with random stringing of prints, filament snapping, and plenty of other issues. I thought this was just how 3d printing was, so I dealt with it. I know how to fix the issues, I was just tired of dealing with them. Kris got us the Bambu Lab P2S and let me just tell you, it’s been a game changer. I have had it for a few weeks now and haven’t had a failed print at all. I have been printing basically everyday since setting it up.
It feels like a completely different hobby. I have printed complex things with different color filament. I used to have to choose a color and then paint it, now I can print it in the colors I want it to be. It’s not perfect, but for a lot of things, it doesn’t need to be. The most complicated thing I printed with my Ender 3 was probably a shotgun, but with the P2S, I have printed a drawer, a Minecraft lantern, and a lot of other things.
I have put in a lot of upgrades, from the extruder, to the hot end. I added a new motherboard and upgraded the firmware. I even added OctoPi and a BL Touch. Everything I added to the Ender 3 comes standard in my new printer, but even after the upgrades, the quality still doesn’t come close to that of the Bambu Labs one. Admittedly some of my issues probably weren’t with the printer itself.
The Software problem
For almost the entire time I was using the Ender 3 exclusively, I was using Cura. At some point I lost the ability to have tree supports. Sometimes it would just fail with no warning, then I’d need to change something to fix it. It’d be one thing if the change was significant, but sometimes even just moving it slightly on the build plate made it work. Toward the end I did start using Bambu Studio though. Bambu Studio is much different than Cura, so there is a learning curve and I am still getting used to it. Bambu Studio vs Cura is like a professional software vs an open source alternative that does the same things, just not as good.
At some point I might put up an actual review of the P2S, there’s a lot of features that I haven’t fully explored yet. I have only been using PLA, it’s all I have ever used. I want to try different filaments as well as recording timelapses before I can fully commit to writing a full on review. I will say that if you are on the fence and going back and forth between an Ender 3 and a Bambu Lab printer, I would say it’s like cars. Some people like fixing cars, some people like driving cars, and some people like both. Ender 3 is for those that like fixing and working on them, but to just start printing, Bambu Lab seems like that’s the way to go.
