Bambu Lab A1 Combo

Description

The A1 is the printer most people should buy first, and the reason is unglamorous: it prints properly out of the box. No tramming the bed, no tuning a profile for three weekends before you get a clean first layer. The Combo is the same printer with the AMS lite attached, which is what lets it print in more than one colour.

• 256 x 256 x 256mm build volume: Big enough for most of what people actually print. A helmet or a full-size vase still needs splitting.
• 500 mm/s toolhead, 10,000 mm/s² acceleration: Bambu’s figures. The practical effect is that a print you’d once have left running overnight finishes while you’re still in the house.
• 300°C hot end, 100°C heatbed: Covers the materials below comfortably.
• PLA, PETG, TPU and PVA: The four Bambu group as ideal. TPU matters more than it sounds, because flexible filament is where cheaper printers usually fall over.
• Multi-colour through the AMS lite: Included in the Combo, not in the bare A1.
• 8.3kg, 465 x 410 x 430mm: It’s a bedslinger, so the bed throws back and forth as it prints. Leave room behind it, and don’t stand it on a wobbly desk.

Worth knowing before you buy: the A1 is an open frame, and Bambu list ABS, ASA, PC, nylon and fibre-reinforced filaments as not recommended on it. Those want a warm enclosed chamber. If you’re printing parts that have to sit in a hot car or live outside in the sun, this is the wrong printer and the P2S is the one to look at. If you’re printing models, toys, brackets and household bits in PLA and PETG, the A1 does that as well as anything near it.