Bambu Lab A1 Mini
Compact 180 mm bed-slinger FDM printer with the 4-slot AMS lite for multi-color prints. My first 3D printer
| Maker | Bambu Lab |
|---|---|
| Model | A1 mini + AMS lite |
| Type | FDM 3D printer (180 x 180 x 180 mm, 4-slot multi-material) |
Store
| Store | Price | Checked |
|---|---|---|
| Bambu Lab EU | €299 | 2026-09-21 |
Specs
| Spec | Value |
|---|---|
| Build volume | 180 x 180 x 180 mm |
| Motion system | Cartesian bed-slinger (moving Y bed) |
| Bed temperature | Max 80 C |
| Filament | 1.75 mm; PLA, PETG, TPU, PVA supported (no ABS/ASA enclosure) |
Description
I got this around June 2026, and I think as of now this is my best purchase. I didn't know I was going to like it so much. This was my entry point to 3D printing and I really, really enjoyed it, it opened my mind to a bunch of stuff. It's small enough to live on the desk next to the Gaming PC, and mine runs in LAN mode through Bambuddy on my homelab.
Impressions
It was a quite interesting project to set it up, because it comes with the Bambu app, which I don't use, but I wanted something like a queue, so this is why I'm using Bambuddy. It is working quite well. I even printed out a few things for it, like some external pieces, a toolbox, a bunch of things that you do with 3D printers.
After a while I actually got an AMS lite, and I'm not surprised, it was going to be better. I just wish I had bought it together, because then it would have had a 50% discount, but I didn't, because I didn't know if I was going to like it or not.
The impressions for the printer itself are pretty nice. It requires some configuration and some reading to understand how it works and to actually tune your quality up a bit. It is quite reliable, I have been printing over 500 hours, so this printer has been running on and on for months non-stop.
It is quite small, so it fits almost everywhere. The only thing is that it's also very small, so you cannot print super big things on it, I wish I had got a bigger one. And because it's a bed slinger, it's a problem when you have to print some tall pieces, because the bed keeps going front to back and it usually removes the adhesion of the piece to the bed, so it just flies away. You have to reduce the speed as it grows taller.
The bed adhesion for this depends a lot on your plate, but it's quite bad, even for the textured PEI plate, I have to use a stick glue on it. I also had to put some thought into the AMS part, because it is not as smart as I was thinking, unless you use just Bambu stuff, which is very expensive. So I had to come up with self-hosted solutions, Bambuddy is one, and I was using Spoolman for the other one. I now have a pretty cool setup.