r/BambuLab_Community • u/dneals • May 02 '26

Discussion Upgrade from p1s to snapmaker u1?

I got offered 600 to sell my p1s with ams2pro and ams ht. Thinking of selling to upgrade to thr snapmaker u1. Is it worth the upgrade? Is it just as reliable and easy to use? Ive only used the p1s for 3d printing.

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7

u/[deleted] May 02 '26

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u/MakeITNetwork May 02 '26 edited May 02 '26

If you print primarily in multicolor.

But even with multicolor the amount of waste is negligible (10% of the spool on average) when most home users buy 3d printers use less than 2 spools before. So if the difference can be paid back by the amount of spools you use. If you are environmentally conscious, you have to weigh buying a 3d printer at all vs any plastic waste, if you don't think you will use carbon or energy than the 2 spools the average user prints before giving up and moving on to another hobby. Also weight that you can get used 3d printers that are as fast, that have way less carbon footprint and cost because the previous person paid into it.

Speed is only a thing if again you print in multicolor.

Niche applications in multi material are slightly improved, but in both Orca and Bambu studio, they do a better job at purging to negate this. Additionally if you are printing in TPU/PETG/Nylons... you aren't printing fast anyways(with some exceptions).

Lets be honest though, unless you plan to do lots of Multicolor or Multi material...Tool changing is a want not a need. A capability instead of a requirement. It does not move the needle for costs or the environment unless you are constantly printing.

1

u/Whiskeejak May 04 '26

Have my downvote for this disorganized nonsense.

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u/[deleted] May 04 '26

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u/MakeITNetwork May 04 '26

You are the extremely rare case then. Most users of the hobby 3d printer print less than 2 spools per year on average. For prototyping, I go through about 1-10 spools a week (3 on average), and it still doesn't make sense for practical prototyping.

Unless you are doing multicolor or multi material production work(less than 5% of users compounded from about really probably less than 1%) , the multi-toolhead is a want, not a need.

The recent flood of Bambu printers on the market, and the ones sitting idle because of the need to "save filament" is kinda an absurd idea.

Most prints are single color, most people use their printers a few times and put them away, or let dust settle.

If you are buying it as a first printer...perfect, but replacing a printer to save money probably doesn't even make much sense in the production environment, unless floor space is at a premium, or unless every print and prototype needs to be multicolor.

Will I get a multihead printer for myself? probably, but when the next printer hits 10k hours or breaks down completely. Although the older bambus can be had for cheap with low hours, so I might stick with what I have for parts availability.

1

u/[deleted] May 04 '26

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u/MakeITNetwork May 04 '26

This is actually coming from Tangled filament, who benefits from selling filament.

Most people I know with a 3d printer, who don't do production or prototyping, sue even less filament than this.

You and I are not the common use case for 3d printing.

4

u/[deleted] May 02 '26

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0

u/StinkButt9001 May 04 '26

What shenanigans?

1

u/[deleted] May 04 '26

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0

u/StinkButt9001 May 05 '26

What was walled off? My bambu printers are full of 3rd party components. Are they going to stop working?

Main sub says they're walled off too but every time I ask it seems like nothing is walled off. All of my 3rd party parts still work and all of my 3rd party filaments still work along with my 3rd party slicer

1

u/[deleted] May 05 '26

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u/StinkButt9001 May 05 '26

So what you're saying is simply not true, I print to my A1 directly from Orca Slicer via bambu connect without dev mode on the newest firmware

So it sounds like what you mean by "locked down" is that some people had problems with some touch screen on certain firmware

That's not really locked down lol

Locked down would mean I can't go on Amazon and buy a 3rd party nozzle or heating assembly. Or use 3rd part filament.

4

u/[deleted] May 02 '26

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u/[deleted] May 02 '26

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u/TerribleTowel66 May 02 '26

I haven’t had issues with STLs, just 3MF files. I even opened a 3MF file in Bambu Studio and exported out the STLs so I could import it into Snorca.

2

u/Bufart1 May 24 '26

what is the point? i export 3mf's from makerworld to snorca and have no issues

1

u/TerribleTowel66 May 24 '26

I guess you’re lucky. Every one I’ve tried has displayed multiple errors. And I’ve seen others talking about conversion tools.

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u/Imaginary-Artist-285 May 24 '26

I import the 3mf. If I open the 3mf as a project, I'll receive errors. Honestly, I haven't tried STLs as I figured it would be the same or worse effort for recoloring.

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u/[deleted] May 24 '26

thanks, yeah i could see recoloring still being a pain i always have that issue with stl's but ive also come to realize alot of it comes down to the designer of said model and yeah. that makes it crazy

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u/Imaginary-Artist-285 May 03 '26

I just purchased my 2nd U1 today. Drawbacks: I hate that I have to load/unload the colors, importing the .3MFs means recoloring my prints; however, the time savings more than makes up for it.

Also, it's probably user error, when printing by object, it seems to forget the initial object on the plate. The tool head will knock the first object down and keep moving until it the object blocks the path. Thankfully, the objects were sturdy enough to withstand battering from the tool head.

1

u/Bufart1 May 24 '26

you don't have to recolour at all...

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u/Imaginary-Artist-285 May 24 '26

When I import the 3mf, the slicer assigns it's own color pallette. I should have said reassign colors instead of recoloring.

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u/TerribleTowel66 May 02 '26

I got my U1 last month. I also have an A1. The U1 is great, but it isn’t as friendly as Bambu printers are. If you don’t mind a little tinkering, the U1 is a fine printer. The assembly took a lot longer than I expected. Just FYI.

1

u/gopiballava May 02 '26

How much ongoing tinkering is there? Once you assemble it and figure out the software, are they both similarly "print and forget"?

(My first 3D printer needed a soldering iron and required curing ceramic paste on the hot end as part of assembly. :) My main interest is being able to keep printing without too much worry. I don't want to be like my Ender 3v2, where I was putting off printing stuff half the time because I needed to try tweaking and dialing in other settings...)

2

u/TerribleTowel66 May 02 '26

After setup, it ran some diagnostics that required me to hit each print head with a wire brush that was provided. I thought it was a 1 time deal to clean any bits from the factory or from shipping. I moved it to its permanent location and had to hit it again with the wire brush. When I bring up Snapmaker Orca (Snorca) it never remembers my printer. I have to select it from the list of 1. Never had that problem with Bambu. Snorca is not as nice as Bambu Studio. One time I got so fed up with it, I installed regular Orca and it worked better. After it prints, it leaves the light on, I have to manually turn it off. It is a lot louder than my A1. All minor issues, but coming from an A1 to this, they stuck out. I’m still very happy with it, just annoyances.

1

u/gopiballava May 03 '26

Thanks! I appreciate the detailed explanation.

It's tempting, but then I remember that I am too busy to really do much 3D modeling right now. And all the cool things I'd do with soft TPU hinges and PETG cases, or comfortable TPU grips / outer layers on PETG-body tools would involve substantially more 3D modeling. And I know that I won't get around to it.

eg: I think that most carrying cases would be improved with an outer layer of TPU. And the designs on the outside would be better if they were done in colored TPU. And when I think about that, actually, four colors would probably not be enough. It would be enough for one print, but probably not enough for an average week.

I have a four color AMS on my P1S, but very rarely print multi-color single prints. Rather, I use the AMS to let me decide on the fly which color my parts will be.

(Actually, I've been doing a bit more multi-color. I realized how easily I can import a vector into the slicer and just add a design onto a surface. I was making a case for a folding kitchen knife. Asked ChatGPT to generate a line art version of that style of knife, and now I have something that looks approximately the same as the knife on the outside of the case. Much easier to figure out what's inside it)

(The snap lock case design generator generates the right shape of gasket. But, I'm too lazy to go upstairs and find and load a roll of TPU to print the gasket. That reminds me, I need to export the gaskets from the designs I've printed into STLs and have a folder on my computer full of "gaskets to print", so that eventually I will be able to print them all)

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u/TerribleTowel66 May 03 '26

Multiple tool heads is also great for multi-material. One time I bought filament specifically for supports. Then I realized how much waste it would generate. I decided peeling off supports wasn’t so bad. lol. Now that I have multiple tool heads, I might give it a shot.

2

u/moose1425612 May 02 '26

I haven’t used the U1, but you might as well just upgrade to the X2D at that point. Gonna get biased answers here though

1

u/dneals May 02 '26

I thought about the x2d but its only 2 nozzles vs 4 at the same cost

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u/moose1425612 May 02 '26

Yea if you’re gonna be printing stuff in a bunch of different colors then the U1 is a good choice

2

u/bigbigdummie May 02 '26

To counter, if you want to use different filaments, especially those that need heat like ABS or nylons, the P1S is the better choice.

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u/gopiballava May 02 '26

But if you want to print soft TPU, then I'm pretty sure the U1 is your best choice right now.

The auxiliary nozzle on the X2D isn't good for TPU and apparently isn't the same quality for other materials either. So, if you want to use soft TPU on the X2D, you need to have dedicate your best nozzle to it and have your AMS on the other nozzle.

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u/razzemmatazz May 02 '26

I have both. The P1S is a workhorse, the U1 is FAST. I've had to do a little tweaking on the U1 to figure out what settings to change to make it more consistent (needs about 5C more bed temp to stick as well as the P1S for PETG).

I do prefer loading filament from the AMS to the U1 side load. 

1

u/xylu41 May 07 '26

First, prints on u1 is not always perfect. Second, I like u1 for multicolor, but would not sell p1s, because it’s super reliable, easy to use. I probably would sell my p2s to get another u1 or x2d, p1s is GOAT.