Bambu Lab A2L Review: Great Printer, Bad Timing — CNC Kitchen (raw transcript)

Auto-generated transcript (yt-dlp en auto-subs, cleaned). Timestamps preserved at ~1min granularity.

This is Bambu Lab's new A2L, a single nozzle bed slinger with roughly twice the build volume of the A1, the ability to mount accessories like a vinyl cutter, and a price low enough that you could buy three of them for what one of Bambu Lab's bigger printers cost. I've put almost 400 hours on it over the past month, but it's arriving maybe at the worst possible time for Bambu Lab when a lot of the community is furious with the company over how it's treated some of its most dedicated users and the open source work it was built on. So, why am I reviewing it anyway? Why does the vinyl cutter finally make sense on this machine? And why, despite some genuinely cool innovations, I'm not really convinced it earned the two in its name? Let's find out more. Guten Tag, everybody. I'm Stefan, and welcome to CNC Kitchen. >> [music] >> This video is sponsored by VoxelPLA. Check out their affordable filaments at voxelpla.com. Before we talk about the A1 mini to A2L

[00:01:01] itself, I need to address the obvious question. Why am I reviewing this printer at all? This machine was provided by Bambu Lab as a review sample. I, at least until now, had a good business relation with them, and I'm also part of their affiliate program. That makes transparency here very important. I think Bambu Lab currently deserves a lot of criticism for how it handled parts of the community, open source, and the direction in which their 3D printing ecosystem is developing. But, at the same time, many people are still buying their machines, and those people should get a honest technical review, but also be informed about from whom they're buying the machine. So, this video is not an endorsement of every decision Bambu Lab makes as a company. It is my attempt to look at the product objectively while also informing you about the system around it and the concerns that currently exist, and I hope you can appreciate that. The short version of the current controversy is Bambu Studio, which is their slicer, is based on open source software, but the

[00:02:00] tightly integrated network plugin that provides access to Bambu Lab's cloud remained closed source. Many people see this as a clear non-compliant with the AGPL license that Bambu Studio is built on. Last year, Bambu also restricted cloud access for third-party slicers. Then, just recently, after a developer managed to restore cloud communication in an Orca Slicer fork, Bambu threatened legal action. I'm not a lawyer, so I won't be able to give a final legal judgment here. But, Bambu Lab actively chose the shortcut of using open source software, and they will simply need to deal with the consequences. And the network plugin isn't the only example. We had similar things happening in the past with projects stemming from the community being marketed as their own, and this seriously saddens me. I simply cannot understand why they are constantly keep shooting themselves in the foot by mistreating the community that made their company up to the point of legally threatening them. Not only do they anger the most dedicated customers,

[00:03:00] but all of that has now come back to haunt them through a pretty classic Streisand effect, where more issues are being discussed publicly now, and bigger names have joined the fight against Bambu Lab. I have also shared my position with them in the background because I simply hate public drama, and I think this can have more impact than making the hundredth drama video. Sometimes, maybe also just for the sake of views. Honestly, I hope the whole AGPL debate eventually goes to court because without a clear legal precedent, I don't think the community and companies will ever come to a common understanding. And that precedent would also matter for many other companies that do not play fair in the open source space. What we should keep in mind, though, is that we would probably still be printing at half the speed with the Ender 3 V8s and the Prusa Mark 7 S Plus Ultra if it wasn't for Bambu Lab completely changing the market over the last 4 years. Even though I'm very grateful for this, it still doesn't excuse the bullying behavior we see more and more from them. And if you are

[00:04:00] another company, this is your time to shine. Bambu Lab is only getting away with that because the hardware and user experience they provide is simply the best on the market. Don't focus on pushing AI slop onto your customers. Make your experience with the machine as best as you can. Innovate and don't just copy. And work with the community. This will pay out in the long run. But with that said, let's actually get to the printer. So, this is the A1 mini L or should I call it the A1 L? Well, more on that later. I received the A1 mini L in the combo version including the AMS light. I got the machine about a month ago and in this time I was able to put more than 350 hours on it printing everything from small test parts to genuinely large functional prints. The L in the name stands for large because this is finally the bigger version of Bambu Lab's more affordable A series printers. The build volume is 330 by 320 by 325 mm which is very close to the volume of the H series machines. This

[00:05:02] might not be as large as some people have hoped, but Bambu Lab has said before when talking about its flagship H series printers that their results showed that roughly 320 mm cubed build volume covers most consumer use cases for shoes to cosplay parts. Anything bigger than that increases costs disproportionately and makes it mechanically harder to handle. But I mean, what do you think about this format? Is it still too small for you or is it just about right for the kinds of parts that you going to print? Mechanically, the A1 mini L is a Cartesian printer with a moving bed. That makes the mechanical system simpler and cheaper, but it also comes with some downsides which we'll see later when we look at the print results. At $469 for the standalone version and $100

[00:06:00] more for the combo with the AMS light. It is very competitive compared to Bambu Lab's own larger A series printers. You can actually buy three A2L's for the price of one H2S. Of course, there is also competition from brands like Elegoo, Anycubic, and Creality and some of those machines undercut the price of the A2L dramatically. Like many larger Cartesian printers, the A2L does not arrive fully assembled. To save shipping volume, the frame comes detached from the base of the machine. Everything is packed very well and the box includes everything you need for assembly including a tiny amount of filament that is just enough for your first print. If you do it carefully, assembly takes less than 30 minutes, but I would strongly recommend properly reading the manual because there are quite a few screws to install and they come at different sizes and lengths. On Bambu Lab's other machines, the accessories usually came in a simple but still nice accessory box. I still use those boxes to store spare parts and tools for my other printers. On the H2L, it looks like Bambu did a bit of cost cutting because the accessories are now just packed in a bag. I mean, this is not a deal breaker and I'm sure they assume that you can just print your own storage box, but it does slightly spoil the otherwise very nice unboxing

[00:07:00] experience. During assembly, three details stood out to me. The first one are the diagonal braces at the back of the machine. They have stabilized a significantly larger frame and this is something you can commonly see on larger Cartesian printers. The second detail is the frame itself. At first, it almost sounds if something is loose and rattling around. But this is not a flaw, it's really intentional. Bambu Lab added a so-called granular damper on the top of the brace of the frame. These are small internal containers that are probably filled with metal balls. When the frame starts shaking, the balls move around, friction converts some of the motion into heat, and dissipates vibration energy. Whether that actually helps is really hard to judge, and I wasn't able to do a comparison print with and without. So, we simply have to believe that it helps. The third thing that I've noticed was the very wide 20-mm belt. Like the X belt, it has a 1.5-mm pitch, which

[00:08:00] should help reduce VFAs. But what I have found even more interesting is that half of the belt has actually no teeth. That actually removes another possible source of VFAs, which is a tooth belt running over an idler. I actually have not seen this before and seriously enjoy seeing details like that. If you buy the standalone printer, you get a spool holder that mounts to the top of the machine. If you buy the combo version with the AMS light, the AMS sits next to the printer and connects with four PTFE tubes. The standard spool holder or the AMS light still only holds the typical 1-kg spools. On an A1 or an A1 mini, the reason to buy an AMS is usually multicolor printing. But on large printers like the A2 L, it also makes sense for another reason. Large prints can quickly use more than one spool of filament. The AMS allows you to load several spools of the same material and automatically switch from one to the next when one spool runs out. For longer prints, that can be extremely handy. And regardless of whether you regularly do

[00:09:01] very long prints or you're just simply looking for a good value filament supplier, you should definitely check out today's video sponsor Voxel PLA. The Voxel PLA Plus High Speed and Voxel PETG Plus High Speed are made in the USA and are engineered for reliable, tough, high-speed printing. Most of the prints you'll see in this video were made with Voxel PLA filaments. What I always find reassuring is that they do not just sell this stuff. They actually test it at scale in their 250 machine print farm in Southern California. So, their materials and printer upgrades are built around real-world use. I use their filaments all of the time, even for extremely complex prints. And despite the name, Voxel PLA is about much more than filament. They offer a full lineup of Bambu Lab printer upgrades from anti-vibration solutions like the Hula feet to proper filtration system for enclosed Bambu Lab machines. Their newest addition is their Bento box designed by Through the Frame. It is a dual operation charcoal and HEPA filter

[00:10:00] for the P2S. By opening and closing a flap, you can switch between recirculation mode for high-temperature printing or exhaust mode for cool prints and clean air in your workshop, which I am a total fan of. The really cool part is that this is not just a random third-party accessory. It is fully integrated into Bambu Lab's firmware, which might actually be a first. So, whether you need reliable PLA or PETG for your next big project, want to reduce vibrations, or want cleaner air around your printer, Voxel PLA has you covered. Their filament comes in many colors, starts just at $69.99 per roll, and they also offer bulk pricing as low as $12 per roll for businesses, schools, and print farms, which is almost unheard of US-made products. US shipping is also free on orders over $75. And for a limited time, you can get 10% off orders over $100 by using the code JustinA1 at checkout. Thanks again to Voxel PLA for sponsoring this video. Now, let's power on the machine.

[00:11:01] The screen guides you through the setup process. The preferred way to use the printer up is to connect it to Bambu Lab's cloud using your Bambu Lab account. That gives you remote monitoring and control from everywhere. But especially after the current controversy, I want to point out that you can also use the printer in LAN-only mode without connecting it to Bambu Lab's cloud. In that mode, you cannot use the phone app, but you are still able to send print jobs over your local network from Bambu Studio, and even from Orca Slicer. And only feed it print jobs and firmware updates from from included SD card. How you use the machine in the end is up to you, but the further you move away from Bambu Lab's own services, the less convenient the experience will become. And that convenience is honestly one of the main selling points of these printers for many users. After setup, the printer runs through a calibration routine. It does vibration tuning, motor noise compensation, and a very detailed bed leveling process. In total, that takes around 45 minutes. Once that is finished, you can either start printing the files included on the SD card or

[00:12:00] slice your own models. Speaking of the micro SD card, this is also where your files are stored for reprinting and where time lapses are saved if you enable that feature. But what you can print depends on the specs, so let's look at those. The most obvious feature is the build volume, which is 330 by 320 by 325 mm. This is roughly twice the volume of the smaller A1. And if you care about serial production of smaller parts, the build plate of the A2L is about 60% larger than the A1's. The H2D and H2S build plate do not fit the A2L, but the H2C with its narrower bed uses exactly the same sheet. That means the A2L can benefit from that existing ecosystem. The bed itself only heats to 80° C, which pretty much limits this machine to PLA, PETG, and TPU. That might be a downside for some users, but honestly printing ASA or other high-temperature materials on large open-frame printers is usually not what you want to do. For

[00:13:00] those materials, I would rather use an enclosed machine. But for the typical casual 3D printing user, an 80° bed is not a huge problem or limitation in my opinion. One feature I'm sure we will see on more printers soon is the hybrid magnetic bed. Usually printers use a magnetic sheet glued to the bed, but on larger prints, especially with anything other than PLA, the magnetic forces holding the print plate down might not be strong enough. Instead of the part lifting from the plate, the entire plate can lift from the bed. Bambu's solution is to add stronger dedicated magnets into the corners. And that is a clever idea for a bed at this size. Temperature distribution was better than I expected. You can no longer directly see the heater rods through the surface, and I measured only in about 3° difference across the bed, which is quite acceptable. It is hard to judge how flat the bed actually is because the machine does not give you the measured bed mesh values. But the first layer it printed was flawless. This was a one-layer sheet, and it peeled off perfectly.

[00:14:12] Because the A1 mini is a Cartesian printer with a moving bed, you need more desk space, especially behind the printer. A similarly sized A8 printer roughly needs a minimum of 500 by 600 mm on the desk. The A1 mini needs around 600 mm in width, and once you account for the full bed movement, it needs at least 650 mm in depth. And even then, the bed still moves over the edge. If you also want to place the AMS light next to the printer instead of mounting it on the wall, you need almost 800 mm of width. So, definitely keep the footprint in mind if you are tight on space. Apart from the rear bracing, the A1 mini looks very much like a scaled-up A1. Even the screen appears to be the same. The extruder also looks almost identical to the A1 extruder and also uses A style nozzles capable of 300° C.

[00:15:02] By default, the printer comes with a stainless steel nozzle. So, if you want to print anything abrasive like fiber-filled filaments or even glow-in-the-dark materials, you should definitely get a hardened steel nozzle. Even though the A1 mini hot ends closely resemble the hot ends of Bambu Lab's newer machines, they are not the same. The melt zone is shorter, which you can also see in the slicer where the A2L cannot melt as much plastic as, for example, the H2S. That seems to be a cost-cutting measure, but especially on a printer with that volume, high-flow nozzles would have been a nice thing. There are, however, two notable changes on the print head. First, the A2L now uses a servo motor for the extruder, similar to Bambu Lab's other second generation machines. That should provide higher torque and also give the printer additional data to detect jams and clocks in the nozzle. The second major change is the rail system in the front of the print head. You might know it from the H series machines, where it is used for accessories. It is also the reason why those machines have an H in their name for hybrid. So, technically,

[00:16:01] the A2L is now also a hybrid machine. The laser module will not work on it for obvious safety reasons. But, you can use the cut and draw module. On the A2L, the cutter and cutting sheets have to be bought separately, but the upgrade is reasonably priced. It could be very useful for making custom decals, labels, or iron-on tags for your projects, and we'll take a look at it more closely later. The A2L also does not reinvent multi-color printing. It still uses a single nozzle multiplexing system, which means different filaments are fed into the same nozzle. During a filament change, the filament is cut and the remaining material has to be purged out. The purging process happens at the left end of the X axis. The purge station almost looks the same as before, but it now has a new trick, an additional flap in the front, which acts as a blob detector. If a print partially fails and material starts accumulating on the nozzle, the blob can trigger this flap when the print head moves to the purge station. In theory,

[00:17:00] that can save you from a blob of doom. I never had such failures during my test, so I tried to activate it manually during a print, which didn't do anything. Maybe it's just activated when the print head really moves to the purge station. I can imagine it being useful on larger prints. The current limitation is that the print head only moves to the purge station during multi-color printing. So, on a larger single-color print, the printer might never actually check for a blob at all. I wonder if Bambu Lab will add quick moves to the purge station every few layers to check for this kind of problem. Still, it is another interesting and in my opinion innovative feature. Or maybe it's just partly a workaround because even though the machine has a camera, it does not have spaghetti detection like on some of Bambu's other printers. And honestly, the camera is still as bad as the one on the A1 and A1 Mini. The frame rate is poor, the position is not ideal, and the build and light does not really help that much if the room is dark. This is fine for very basic printer monitoring,

[00:18:00] but if you want to properly check your prints remotely, you should get an external camera. And that brings me back to the name, A2L. The two suggests that this is a second-generation machine, but the only second-generation features I really see here are the servo extruder motor, maybe the blob detection sensor, and maybe the cutting module. Everything else feels much closer to the A1 and A1 Mini. The wider belt, the braces, and the additional magnets in the bed are not necessarily second-generation features. They are mostly things you need when scaling up a printer. You could argue that the A1 and A1 Mini were already second-generation machines due to their newer tool head and nozzle system compared to the X1, or you could argue that Bambu simply added the tool for marketing reasons. I mean, what do you think? What would you have wanted to see on a second generation of the A series printers? For me, there's no second generation AMS light. There are no major innovations like what Anycubic, for example, did on its Cobra Max and

[00:19:01] its more efficient multi-color print head. And Bambu still uses plenty of old hardware like the weak camera. If this machine had launched 2 years ago alongside the A1, it would have simply looked like the bigger version of that printer. But I mean, do we actually need a completely new second generation A printer? Isn't what matters really most its prints? I put more than 350 hours of printing on this machine, and almost everything turned out really well. Let's start with the basics, a 3D benchy in PLA. It printed in 38 minutes and looked almost perfect. The extrusions were very consistent, the details sharp, and I could see basically no VFAs or ringing. The top layer was nicely extruded, and the first layer had the perfect thickness. Next, I printed clock springs torture toaster. The only really complaint I have is that the 0.1 and 0.2 mm tolerance test were stuck. Everything else was again very smooth, and the overhangs looked good, which they also should on an open printer where you don't have to fight the heat of an enclosure. The case our print test also

[00:20:00] looked great, and here even the 0.2 mm pin was loose. The surfaces were smooth, and the spikes were almost perfect. I also printed a few gridfinity bins. Those usually show VFAs very clearly, but the side walls were basically perfect. In terms of surface quality, this printer is probably near the top of my list. The 1.5 mm pitch belts seem to do their job, and Bambu's print profiles are very well-tuned. After that, I moved to larger prints because everything we had printed so far would also have fit on an A1 mini. I printed a few parts for my hydroponic tower in PETG, and they came out great with very smooth surfaces. Then I wanted to show another use case for a large print plate. Printing many parts at once without having to restart the printer regularly. The print went well, and the parts looked good, but I wanted to demonstrate the cancel object function. That feature allows you to deactivate one or more parts during the print if there's a problem with them instead of stopping the whole print. Unfortunately, you cannot do that directly on the screen of

[00:21:00] the A2L or inside Bambu Studio. You have to use the Bambu Handy app. And if you have more than 64 objects on that plate, I printed 79 here, the feature doesn't work either. And that was a bit of a bummer. So, simply keep in mind that cancel object is possible, but not if you fill the plate with too many small objects. Now, let's go bigger. For larger parts, skew can become important. In other words, how close the X and Y axis are from being perfectly perpendicular. To check that, I printed Vector 3D's cauliflower test. With a skew of 0.04°, the machine is pretty accurate, but because of the closed home where you cannot compensate for the small remaining error yourself. Now, to my favorite print. I recently stumbled upon one of the most iconic animals from one of my favorite childhood games, which is getting a remake very soon. This is a scavenger from Gothic, an action RPG I played a lot as a kid, and I wanted to print a really large version that would use most of the A2 L's build volume. The print should have taken more than 30

[00:22:01] hours. Unfortunately, the first two attempts did not finish. Both failures were caused by firmware bugs. The first print randomly paused after a day, and I was not able to continue it. Bambu Lab fixed that issue and sent me a new firmware. For the second attempt, I wanted to use the AMS lights filament backup function. If you load two or more spools of the same material into the AMS, the printer should automatically switch from one spool to the next once one runs out. Unfortunately, that feature was also broken. Again, I received a new firmware that fixed the issue, but for the third attempt, I still used a fresh spool then tried again. And this time, third time's the charm. The model turned out amazingly well. There was no lifting from the build plate, nothing came loose, and supports released cleanly. And now, the only thing missing is me learning how to properly paint models like this, but that is a story for another day. >> [screaming] >> The Mandalorian helmet took almost two days to print and also looked great without any real issues. It shows how

[00:23:00] well this machine can work for cosplay, especially if you're not an expert. It was as simple as loading the model into Bamboo Studio, enabling supports, and sending it to the machine. Then, I started my biggest project, printing a ramp for my garden so that my electric lawnmower can drive from the front to the back of our yard by itself instead of me carrying it around twice every day. I 3D scanned the step, designed a ramp around it, added a texture to the top of it using bump mesh, which you should definitely try out yourself, cut the ramp into pieces, and started printing them from PETG. This project revealed a few problems. First, large parts, especially when they are not printed from PLA, can warp. For the next part, I added a layer of build plate adhesive to the bed and used the brim. That finally held everything in place. You could also really see the corner magnets do their job because the part tried to lift from the build plate, but the corners of the plate stayed down. The second issue was surface quality on the taller parts. The higher the print got, the more artifacts appeared on the

[00:24:00] surface. I had not seen this on other larger prints, and it was probably caused by the kinematics of the printer. A Cartesian printer moves the bed, and therefore the print, back and forth. As a contrast, on a CoreXY machine, like many enclosed printers, parts are kept stationary, and only the tool head moves in X and Y. When parts become taller, they also become less stable. And since my ramp pieces were relatively slim, the print orientation mattered a lot. If the larger side of the part faces the bed it becomes especially unstable. So, whenever possible, you want the more stable orientation aligned with the movement direction of the bed. Bambu Lab tries to mitigate this with something they call adaptive vibration compensation, where they seem to actively adjust the input shaper values depending on the weight you already printed on the bed and how tall the print is. But, this doesn't help much if the print itself is unstable. One feature in Bambu Studio that did help, though, is slow down at height. When enabled, the printer reduces speed and

[00:25:00] acceleration as it gets higher on the part. So, it simply prints more slowly and with less harsh movements the higher the part is. Changing the orientation, enabling that feature, and also using the latest firmware seemed to do the trick because the last part came out really well. But, this still shows one of the big limitations of large Cartesian printers if you want to print fast. And why a CoreXY design can be beneficial for tall and unstable parts. And this is also not something where the granular dampers help because they stabilize the frame, but not the actual part. By the way, another side effect of the large and heavy moving bed is that it introduces more vibrations into the workbench. In my case, it was enough that parts and tools on the bench started moving around. And more than once, I had things falling down during a longer print. During editing, I even noticed that my good camera was almost about to fall down the workbench. So, it might be worth looking into some decoupling. Finally, I also printed one of my usual

[00:26:01] color test models, the wool hex tile from a 3D printed Catan set. The A2L supports up to 19 colors if you combine four regular AMS units with one AMS light. And yes, the A2L is compatible with the box style AMS, the AMS 2 Pro, and even the AMS HT if you work with materials that need to stay dry. For my testing, I exclusively used the included AMS light. In terms of print quality, it performed well, but it has the typical purge waste you get from a single nozzle color change system. Printing really large parts in multiple colors is not what this machine is best at. It creates a lot of waste, and because the filament changes are slow, it also takes a long time. If multicolor printing is your goal, especially for large parts, a multi-tool and multi-nozzle system still makes much more sense. That said, color changes with the AMS light can be faster than with the box style AMS because the filaments are already loaded very

[00:27:00] closely to the print head in the four PTFE tubes. So, they do not need to be retracted all the way back into a closed AMS unit every time. But, that can also be a downside. If you use filaments that are prone to breaking under stress like some PLA plus materials, the filament pieces inside the PTFE tube can shatter into many small pieces. Cleaning that out can be a real pain. The third material that you would probably print on the A1 mini is TPU. You will not win any speed records with it, but if the filament is dry, the results are great. This was 98 TPU fed directly from the top spool holder and the benchy printed in only 1 hour and 13 minutes. Let's also have a word on print speed. Generally, the A1 mini L is a pretty quick machine and in my tests, it was only about 10 to 20% slower than the Core XY H series machines. There are two reasons for that. Due to the motion system, Bambu Lab limits speed during infill and travel moves and probably more significantly limits accelerations. The other limiting factor is the hot end melt rate itself, which is a bit lower

[00:28:01] on the A1 mini L's older and cheaper hot ends and which might actually be the more critical difference in the end. Overall, after more than 350 hours of printing, the part quality was very good. Many of the bugs and problems I encountered were fixed in the firmware during my testing. So, hopefully you should not have to deal with them by the time the printer is available. Speaking of reliability, one topic that recently also got a lot of attention because of the Streisand effect around Bambu Lab is the issue with the NTC thermistors on the A1 and supposedly also on the P1. On some units, especially on the 110 volt system, these components can reportedly fail catastrophically. Bambu Lab changed the design at the end of last year and removed the component entirely. So, you might be wondering how this is handled on the A2L. I partially disassembled my 230 volt version and noticed that Bambu added a lot of protection around the electrical system. I'm not sure if this is just touch protection or actually fire protection, but I also found that

[00:29:00] there is no NTC thermistor on the AC board anymore. So, at least that specific point of failure should no longer be present. If you have an older A1, you should definitely keep an eye on it and I have linked some resources below that you should check out. I also had the A2L connected to a smart socket during the whole testing period, which allowed me to monitor power consumption. When heating the bed and the hot end at the same time, the printer briefly draws around 900 watts. During printing, depending on the print job, it averages around 120 watts for PLA and around 140 to 150 watts for PETG at the higher bed temperatures. Honestly, this is less than I expected for a printer with such a large bed. During printing, the machine is relatively quiet, hovering at around 50 decibels. Since that number alone probably doesn't tell you much, let me do a bit of a demonstration. >> Guten Tag, everybody.

[00:30:10]

The loudest component is usually the part cooling fan. It is not fully on during normal printing, but it ramps up for overhangs and bridges. Because the machine is fully open, there's also no air filtration. So, make sure your print room is properly ventilated and please do not print in your bedroom or let your kids run the printer in their rooms. So, enough 3D printing. Even though there is no H for hybrid in the A2L's name, it is Bambu Lab's first non-A series machine that supports accessories. There is no laser module for it and there also will not be one, but you can get the cut module. And I think on this machine it actually makes a lot of sense. The cutting upgrade costs around $60 if you buy it with the A2 and it includes the cutting platform, the cut and draw head, and some accessories. The sticky cutting plate has a working area of 300 by 300 mm, which is large enough for A4 or

[00:31:00] letter size sheets. Honestly, I never used the cutting module on my other Bambu Lab. So, I finally wanted to try this one here. I wanted to make some swag and also a t-shirt I secretly wanted since I was a child. After removing the front cover, you slide the module into the front rail, lock it into place with a lever, and plug in the cable at the top. The cable is necessary because the cutting module has a force sensor. That sensor is used for leveling and for precisely controlling the pressure onto your work piece, so it stays consistent during cutting. After installing the cutting module and the plate, the printer performs a quick calibration and then it's ready to go. Cutting is prepared in Bambu Suite, which is a separate tool available for Mac and Windows. It works fairly well. The A2 L does not have the bird's eye camera from the H series, so precisely placing a cut on existing vinyl is difficult. But, Bambu Lab says there will be an option to use your phone to capture the cutting plate and help position designs. In my case, I stuck the heat transfer vinyl onto the cutting plate, prepared the design in Bambu

[00:32:01] Suite, selected a material profile, and sent it to the printer, which at that point is basically a plotter. After the design is cut, you use the weeding tool to remove the vinyl you do not need and then transfer the design on a shirt with an iron. One sheet did not cut properly at first, so I had to redo it. Everything else worked fine. For a first try, I actually think it looks quite good despite the E that I messed up with the iron and some things not perfectly aligning. There are many more things that you can do with the cutting module and Maker World already has a lot of prepared projects for it. On the H series machines, I honestly saw the cutting module as more of a gimmick. Those are around $2,000 high-performance 3D printers, and using them as a plotter felt a bit strange. But on the A1 it makes much more sense. The bed is big enough for common paper sizes, and the machine itself is more casual and accessible. For example, I mean, if you are a cosplayer, you no longer need both a 3D printer and a separate plotter. You can print your helmet and then cut the decals for it on the same machine.

[00:33:02] Everything is neatly integrated and explained on the A1, and nothing feels like you need expert knowledge. And this is both the blessing and the curse of Bambu Lab machines. They work really well, and they are extremely approachable as long as you stay inside Bambu's ecosystem and cloud. The moment you try to step outside, things get complicated. No cloud means no convenient remote monitoring through the app. No Bambu filaments means materials are not automatically recognized, and you do not know how much is left on a spool. And I want to be clear that these are not just minor annoyances. I also fully understand the concerns about Bambu potentially abusing open-source software, about an increasingly closed ecosystem, and about where your data goes once it is processed through the cloud. If those things matter to you, then you should not buy this printer or any Bambu Lab machines in general. You will likely have a better experience and more peace of mind with one of the competitors that take open-source and data privacy more seriously. And to be

[00:34:00] honest, voting with your wallet will probably have a longer-lasting impact on a company than another drama video ever will. For a lot of people, the relationship with Bambu Lab feels like the relationship with Nvidia or Tesla. Their products are excellent, but the company behind them can be questionable. So, with all of that on the table, here is my recommendation. Buy the affordable workhorse for PLA, PETG, and TPU, for cosplay, functional parts, and the occasional cutting job. And if you are comfortable with living inside Bambu Lab's ecosystem, the print quality is excellent. The large build volume is genuinely useful, and the AMS light adds real convenience for longer prints, and the cutting module feels finally more than a gimmick on a machine like this. But, don't buy this printer if you need open software, if you mainly print engineering materials, if you want the least possible dependence on the cloud, or if you simply do not want to support Bambu Lab in its current direction. And

[00:35:02] go with realistic expectations. The open Cartesian design means tall, slim parts can suffer from the moving bed. The camera is still basic, and the firmware still had some hiccups during my testing. At the end of the day, the two promised a second-generation machine, and what we actually got is a very good large A1. So, maybe they really should have just called it the A1L. As a piece of hardware, it is excellent. As a purchase, it depends just as much on how you feel about the company as on the machine itself. And that decision is yours to make. My job is not to patronize you. It is to inform you about a product, the software, and the company as honestly as I can, given my position. The rest is up to you, and I hope you can appreciate that. If you are looking for alternatives, I have listed other large Cartesian printers down in the description. >> Thanks for watching everyone. I hope you found this video interesting. If you want to support my work, head over to Patreon or become a YouTube member.

[00:36:00] Also, check out the other videos in my library. I hope to see you in the next one. Auf Wiedersehen, and goodbye.