The P1P from Bambu Lab is the second printer released by Bambu Lab. The first was the X1 Carbon and it impacted the 3D printing community like no other 3D printer in the past 10 years. So let’s see if the P1P from Bambu labs can do the same.
Pros and Cons of the P1P:
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Very fast printing speed | Spare parts can only be bought from Bambu Lab directly |
| Incredibly reliable | Quite loud while printing fast |
| Easy to use | Has high power consumption compared to other 3D printers |
| No assembly required | Has no enclosure |
| Very beginner friendly | Some custom shells don´t work well |
| Great auto bed leveling | |
| Abundant slicer presets |
As a whole, I highly recommend the P1P to everybody who is searching for a fast and reliable printer. It doesn´t matter if you are a beginner or a professional the P1P will be a perfect addition to your workshop or hobby room.
Bambu Lab has recently reduced the price of the P1P. You can visit their online store right here and check for yourself.
In the following, I will go over every detail of the P1P including the power consumption of the printer and the custom shells that Bambu Lab offer as free downloads.
Features of the P1P
The P1P has several features that set it apart from the competition.
Features:
- Fast setup time. Bambu Lab advertises a 15-minute setup time and while that isn´t true (see the Video above) you will still be able to get the printer up and running in about 25 to 30 minutes.
- Fast printing. The P1P is very fast with 250 mm/s and an acceleration of 10 000 mm/s on default parameters. Speeds of up to 500 mm/s and 20 000 mm/s acceleration are possible.
- Vibration compensation. The P1P will run an automatic calibration that helps compensate for the vibrations of the machine. This will result in great-quality prints even at very high speeds
- Direct Extruder. The P1P has a direct extruder that allows you to print flexible filament easily for example.
- Bambu Handy and Bambu Studio. Bambu lab has their own slicer called “Bambu Studio” which is built on Cura and allows you to send prints directly to your P1P. Bambu Handy is their mobile app that lets you control your print job from afar and sends you a message once the print is done or if anything has gone wrong.
- Filament run-out sensor. The filament run-out sensor is located inside the print head and will pause the print if the filament has run out.
Packaging and Setup
Bambu Lab promises that you can get the P1P print ready in 15 minutes. I put that to the test (check the video above) and it took me 18 minutes to power the printer on and then I still had to connect the printer to my wifi, install the app, update the printer firmware, and calibrate the printer.
Most of this works automatically and some steps, like connecting the P1P to your wifi and downloading the app, are optional but even if you skip these steps it will still take you much longer than 15 minutes to get the printer operational.
I think it will take you on average between 25 and 30 minutes before you can start your first print job.
The packaging was really good. Everything was secured properly and effectively and there are stickers on the printer that tell you exactly which screws to remove and where to mount the filament spool holder.
The Bambu Lab P1P comes with:
- A 1kg spool of white matte PLA filament
- A manual
- A spare PTFE tube
- Some lubricant grease
- Some thermal grease
- A spare 0.4 mm nozzle
- Some screws for assembly and for the custom shell
- Two hex keys for the assembly
- A spare razor blade for the filament cutter
- Two spare nozzle wipers
Setting the printer up was very easy. The manual will tell you exactly what to do and it has some useful information that will help you to start your first print even if you are a complete beginner.
Print Quality
The print quality of the P1P is simply great.
The first layer is always perfect, there is minimal to no stringing, and the layer lines are only noticeable when viewing the model from close up.
I had some very minor issues with layer shifting where one layer was very slightly shifted but it was barely noticeable in most of my prints.
All of the prints I did were done on the default settings on Bambu Studio and the models were printed with PLA.
Power Consumption
The power consumption of the P1P is quite high compared to other 3D printers.
When the P1P is printing it will use between 160 watts and 260 watts on average but it can occasionally go up to 300 watts.
Compare this to a fairly standard printer like the Neptune 3 which only uses 130 watts on average while printing and you will see that the P1P is quite power-hungry.
But the P1P is also more than 4 times as fast as the Neptune 3 so it will use less power for the same print in the end.
Here is a detailed table that shows you the power usage of the P1P:
| Stage | Power Consumption in Watts |
|---|---|
| Idle | 10 Watts |
| Steppers Moving | 39 Watts |
| Nozzle Heating | 102 Watts |
| Nozzle at Temperature | 52 Watts |
| Bed Heating | 158 Watts |
| Bed at Temp | 142 Watts |
| Printing Slowly (60 mm/s) | 160 – 180 Watts |
| Printing Fast (250 mm/s) | 240 – 260 Watts |
Print Speed
The print speed of the P1P is insane.
The P1P prints at 250 mm/s on average and can print with up to 500 mm/s. And it is able to produce high-quality prints even at these high speeds.
The P1P also has an acceleration of 10 000 mm/s on average and can go all the way up to 20 000 mm/s.
To put this into perspective, the Neptune 2 has a max speed of 60 mm/s and an acceleration of 3000 mm/s.
The P1P is able to print a 3D Benchy in about 21 minutes without any tuning or changes in the standard slicer settings.
How Reliable is the P1P?
The P1P is incredibly reliable. It fully automatically levels its print bed, does vibration tests, and more to ensure that every print is perfect. It also ejects access filament to ensure that the first layer is even. No manual leveling or intervention is needed.
The P1P is one of the few printers I have where I simply start the print job and then I leave. I don´t have to wait for the first layer or clean the nozzle right before it starts to print.
I just leave and let the P1P do its job until I get a message on my phone that is telling me that the print was a success.
And then I return to a perfectly finished print.
The P1P is also very accurate.
I printed a calibration cube with the P1P and measured each side. The P1P ended up being almost perfectly accurate on every axis.
Custom Shells
Bambu lab gives you the option to print your own shell for the P1P. You have the choice between the Pixel Modplate, the Pegboard, the Armor Modplate, and the Artistry Modplate.
I went with the Pixel Modplate and this is sadly where things went wrong.
The assembly of the Pixel Modplate was a little tedious because the plates would not fit together.
I ended up using a hammer and a metal center punch, that I held sideways, to hammer the panels together.
The rest of the assembly went smoothly but once I tried to create my first art piece I encountered another issue.
The pixels simply would not hold to the mod plate. No matter how hard I pressed them down they kept falling off and in the end, I simply gave up and left my P1P as it was.
Can you Print ABS with the Bambu Lab P1P?
The Bambu Lab P1P can print ABS and ASA but it is generally not recommended to print ABS or ASA without an enclosure. There are some custom enclosures that can be built for the P1P that will allow it to print ABS.
I made a custom enclosure for my P1P to enable it to print ABS and it works great.
You can see my full process in this Video right here.
Hi, I am a passionate maker and professional prop maker for the entertainment industry. I use my woodworking, programming, electronics, and illustration know-how to create interactive props and puzzles for Escape Games and marketing agencies. And I share my knowledge and my experience on this blog with you so that you can become a maker yourself.