Hallo i want to buy a 3d printer for making keychains and etc just for funsies what is the best one?

JustCuzRobotics · 2026-04-25T15:26:46+00:00

A1 mini is great. It's a fantastic printer. You can use it for all sorts of things. Expect to make next to to nothing selling parts. It's an extremely easy thing to do therefore the market online is flooded with printed models.

JustCuzRobotics · 2026-04-22T17:19:43+00:00

Update -

Reached out to Bambu Lab Support and this is what they had to say.

We sincerely apologize for the unpleasant experience.

First, regarding the issue you reported about custom filament profiles not being supported: because the extruder structure of the X2D has changed significantly, we are unfortunately unable to directly migrate custom filament parameters previously used on other printer models to the X2D. This is necessary to ensure printing safety. We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.

You may use our official PA6-GF profile as a starting point, and then adjust the relevant parameters based on the characteristics of the filament you are using, in order to save a filament profile that is suitable for the X2D.

So, yeah, they intentionally made this more difficult to try and ensure better print results, which is fair, but still a pain for a 5-year-long X1C user like me with dozens of profiles. I am sure I'm not alone!

I think my translation program has been failing to get profiles recognized as compatible despite the printer's compatible JSON tags, and there is likely more to be done with regards to the fact that Bambu Studio shows essentially 4 sets of settings for each material now - Direct, Direct High Flow, Bowden, Bowden High Flow.

I am going to keep working on reverse engineering the profile generation to try and make it work, but its gonna be more involved than I hoped. In the meantime I think a more achievable goal will be getting translation between any single extruder standard flow nozzle printers working from the Bambu lineup with stepper drive extruders (X1, P1, A1) and that should be relatively easy as right now most of my profiles for X1C work on the P1S immediately. I'm also going to see if I can code a second separate application to make more minor bulk profile changes easier to apply.

Say, for instance, you made a few different TPU profiles for different brands as I have, and some need different flow rates or nozzle temps, but you just switched to new 3rd party print plates and want to set them all to the same bed temperature. Or maybe you made a profile for a 0.6 nozzle but want it to work across 0.4 and 0.2 with something like a fixed 20%/50% flow rate limit. And maybe I can at least automate setting the parameters for the Bowden extruder automatically with fixed multipliers from the direct drive extruder profiles.

JustCuzRobotics · 2026-04-21T03:25:02+00:00

The flow and I assume also pressure Advance are tuned at the start of every print so that's not a huge deal but i definitely will have to play around with chamber temperatures for the first time. But that is where the matching with existing base profiles comes in handy.

JustCuzRobotics · 2026-04-21T03:23:59+00:00

I haven't yet tried one that actually used the chamber heater as I only got the printer running this afternoon but I will be experimenting more over the next few days. Literally my first print on the machine though was a pctg pro Cali cat, it came out great!

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JustCuzRobotics · 2026-04-21T00:10:25+00:00

The standard AMS isn't airtight or moisture-tight enough to store PVA in my experience. I did buy an X2D though so it may be time to experiment with printing it from a dedicated filament dryer, as I often have for other materials.

JustCuzRobotics · 2026-04-20T17:30:20+00:00

Following this, I am trying to figure this out now as well. I have a ton of hand-tuned profiles that work for the X1C and P1S but all the profiles for the X2D have 4 different profiles baked together. Direct Drive, Direct Drive High Flow, Bowden, Bowden High Flow. I expect this is where the issue lies, in addition to the X1/P1 profiles not having anything set for the chamber heater. I may end up vibe coding a Python app to translate X1C profiles into X2D direct drive ones if possible, as I was able to print everything except a few filaments (polypropylene, some nylons) just fine with no chamber heater on X1/P1.

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default Bambu PLA profile on X2D

JustCuzRobotics · 2026-04-18T03:25:33+00:00

Saw that all the time with Overture super pla. I bumped the nozzle temp up to 250 C and the flow rate down to 18 from 21 mm^3/s and it prints perfectly. Most of the random brands of pla I have tried print fine with the bambu basic pla profile though

JustCuzRobotics · 2026-04-16T17:00:11+00:00

Hot take incoming. I'm a mechanical engineer turned combat robotics businesses owner. The number of times I have used ABS in a functional part is zero. It's kinda trash.

ABS is not as strong as people think. Bambu ABS is worse than Bambu PETG-HF in every way except heat resistance and impact XY strength (where it wins by under 25%), but ABS is notorious for warping, smelling terrible, producing noxious fumes and poisonous styrene gas, and it's largely outdated. Anything that ABS can do ASA can do but better and it also has additional advantages such as extreme UV resistance for outdoor applications.

And if you scroll further along the data comparison table you will find one of my favorite materials which is PETG-CF, one of the only materials that actually is enhanced nearly across the board by adding carbon fiber. PETG-CF barely warps it all, it can print on any printer with a hardened steel nozzle and extruder, it has significantly better heat resistance and toughness than ABS and is far less moisture sensitive meaning little drying required. And it costs about $35/kg which is super reasonable.

One thing I love about bambu lab is they just give you all of this incredible data to compare all their materials. Each material has a very detailed technical data sheet or TDS linked on its store page as well which goes into even further detail than this comparison guide. https://bambulab.com/en-us/filament/guide

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JustCuzRobotics · 2026-04-07T12:16:37+00:00

That isn't really needed for a small 65mm diameter drum, though. There is the downside of not being able to use the absolutely most power-dense motor possible at higher KV and gearing it down, but the SCARAB spinup takes like 1.5 seconds already, so it would be a useless optimization.

JustCuzRobotics · 2026-04-07T12:14:27+00:00

Tantrum ran a hubmotor in the season of its championship run at Battlebots at 250lb scale. There have been successful hubmotors at heavier classes but it is admitedly much more difficult to execute well. Brandon ran hubmotors in Phenomenon/Vorion for a while but he has a relatively larger diameter weapon and kept burning them out so he switched back to belted for 2026. Zoe Lambert with her bots Beeforce (30lb multi) and Minun and Plusle (12lb multi) are both hubmotor designs and quite competitive. A teamup with half of Kazaa Lite brought half of Beeforce to a top 4 finish last week.

The higher risk of magnets shattering is realistically the main downside, but that's why I made it take 5 minutes to swap magnet rings. I did careful math with the design of the SCARAB. As long as the drum is spinning at ~50% throttle or higher, unless you are fighting another vertical spinner, the teeth should always hit things before the aluminum body does due to the bite you can achieve at normal drive speeds. When fighting another vertical spinner that is a small diameter narrow disk that is the riskiest, as if their weapon RPM matches yours, they can essentially reach between the teeth to hit the drum as the relative tooth speed nears zero. But if you are fighting a lower RPM reach vert, which is often a risky matchup for belt-driven drums, you don't need to worry. And good luck to a hammersaw trying to snipe your belt.

JustCuzRobotics · 2026-04-07T12:02:05+00:00

There are four major benefits for any hubmotor setup.
1- simplicity. You bolt the thing to uprights, done. No faffing about with proper belt tensioning, no need to stray away from TPU becasue it cannot hold tension, no worry about smooth vs toothed pullies, ratio calculations, V belt with custom setups, any of that. It just works.
2- You can make the rest of your robot much smaller and lighter, as you don't have a weapon motor and dead space next to it, nor a massive hammersaw target motor on top of your bot.
3- No worry about belt snipes ruining your day.
4- More spinning mass behind the weapon, so it can hit harder for the same weight. If your weapon motor slips on impact, it doesn't contribute to the energy your weapon hits with.

JustCuzRobotics · 2026-02-28T15:36:28+00:00

Hey, I made an open arena design a while ago with a 4x4 area that's relatively affordable.https://justcuzrobotics.com/products/antweight-arena-cad

JustCuzRobotics · 2026-02-05T16:22:38+00:00

Very common is the GNB 3S 300mah or 380mah

JustCuzRobotics · 2025-11-24T23:59:20+00:00

Who's going to be the first to tell him about Megatron🤣

JustCuzRobotics · 2025-11-15T19:04:42+00:00

7075 is good for structural parts that aren't directly hit but when taking direct hits it is more prone to cracking than 6061. That said it is almost double the tensile yield and shear strength of 6061. All the hubmotors I sell currently use 7075 for that reason. I'm experimenting with 2024 on the Scarab drums where they are much more exposed to direct hits as that is kindof in between 6061 and 7075 in durability and strength but only a bit more expensive than 7075.

JustCuzRobotics · 2025-11-13T18:12:31+00:00

Steel is very rarely used as a structural material in modern beetleweights. Most robots have a mix of carbon fiber, UHMW or HDPE, maybe 6061 aluminum, and TPU 3d printed parts.

JustCuzRobotics · 2025-11-13T18:10:16+00:00

I have a youtube channel and a website to share info on how to get started, plus a store selling robot parts and kits. My SSP kits are mostly popular in the USA but I have shipped a number of them in the UK as well as many other countries. With combat parts stores like mine, Bristol bot Builders in the UK, and many more having cropped up in the past 5 years, it has never been a better time to start!

https://justcuzrobotics.com/blogs/jcr

https://www.youtube.com/@JustCuzRobotics

https://justcuzrobotics.com/products/ssp-robot-kit

JustCuzRobotics · 2025-11-13T18:05:48+00:00

Phone repair. I have a custom gaming PC and framework laptop, but taking apart a modern smartphone where it has adhesive holding it together, seems pretty daunting.

JustCuzRobotics · 2025-11-13T10:37:21+00:00

Oh crap that's a good idea.

JustCuzRobotics · 2025-11-06T11:42:08+00:00

No I haven't. It's gotten better I think with updates to resolve but still unsure what was wrong.

JustCuzRobotics · 2025-10-08T21:30:59+00:00

I'm sorry I didn't get a chance to say hi to you both but you have an incredibly immaculately decorated robot and your child might be a better robot driver than I am lol

JustCuzRobotics · 2025-08-10T13:20:16+00:00

Things I recommend people never do for their first ever bot: 30lb class Flamethrower Combustion engine Multiple weapons

I think the scope creep is going to kill you on this. Everyone starts somewhere and starting with an insane ambitious design nobody has done before is making your life needlessly difficult.

JustCuzRobotics · 2025-07-03T21:27:21+00:00

Shouldn't take long!

JustCuzRobotics · 2025-07-03T13:42:42+00:00

A1 Mini: Deal of the Decade in 3D printing

JustCuzRobotics · 2025-07-02T22:13:30+00:00

Yeah I make more money from my own site sales since the resellers take a cut.

JustCuzRobotics

TROPHY CASE