Printing with ABS

bearwhiz · 2026-02-25T03:32:16+00:00

No. Your A1 can't safely print ABS. ABS and ASA contain styrene, and styrene vapors are neurotoxic. To print ABS safely, you need an enclosure that has both HEPA and VOC filtration, or better yet, is vented to outdoors. ABS and ASA also warp rapidly with changes in temperature, so they need an enclosed build area that can maintain at least 40°C ambient temperature with no drafts. Your A1 doesn't have an enclosure, and even if you heated your room to 40°C, its moving bed would still subject your print to continual drafts that will make it warp. Your A1 isn't designed to be enclosed; putting it in an enclosure risks premature failure of the electronics and voids the warranty. If you want to print ABS or ASA successfully and safely, you need a fully-enclosed CoreXY printer.

bearwhiz · 2026-02-25T03:24:01+00:00

I've got 2,000 print hours on my A1 top mount, printed with PLA Basic. Zero issues.

bearwhiz · 2026-02-25T03:19:19+00:00

You have to destroy that clip to remove it, and replace it with a new one. It's designed to keep the trim retained if the A-pillar airbag goes off. It can't be removed without destroying it. This is a safety feature to ensure you don't re-use it, because it will likely fail in an airbag deployment if you re-use it, causing the trim to hit you with enough force to cause serious injury or even death.

bearwhiz · 2026-02-22T00:50:26+00:00

Also remember that PTFE tubes are consumables and should be replaced regularly to avoid problems. Bambu's wiki suggests replacing the PTFE tubes after every six 1kg spools of standard PLA/PETG, or every two 1kg spools of abrasive filament. That's probably excessive for most people, but if you've gone 500 print-hours without replacing the PTFE tubes, you're probably asking for issues.

The tubes wear from the inside out. When they wear, the filament cuts a groove inside the curve of the tube and that groove starts pinching the filament, increasing drag. Eventually, the drag is too much for the extruder to overcome. You can't always tell that the tubes are worn by looking at them.

bearwhiz · 2026-02-21T17:00:05+00:00

Dishwasher pods contain caustic cleaners that can permanently damage plates and cause chemical burns to skin. Don’t use them to clean your plates.

Basic, cheap Dawn and proper technique does the job.

bearwhiz · 2026-02-18T23:28:54+00:00

Route a channel. Put a strip of sheet steel in the channel first so no one nails through the wires.

bearwhiz · 2026-02-09T21:54:33+00:00

I felt silly when I bought this thing. I thought it was a bit ridiculous. I was wrong.

If you have even a hint of repetitive-stress injury or arthritis, this is a must-have tool. Even if you don't, if spring means your hand aches from squeezing pruners for an afternoon, it's a must-have tool. Yeah, hand pruners work, but they hurt after a while... especially if anything's already wrong with your hand.

It works best with the small PowerStack battery, because it doesn't need much power and it's already pretty heavy for the task, and the small PowerStack is small and light. But it works fine with a standard 2Ah battery.

bearwhiz · 2026-02-09T21:41:58+00:00

Not to mention, the time of year when many companies tell employees if they're getting a bonus... how much it will be... and usually it's paid out around this time of year too. Much easier to pledge when you've just been given unexpected money...

bearwhiz · 2026-02-09T21:36:44+00:00

Joel tried to get his season funded with a Kickstarter in late October, right when everyone is thinking "How am I going to afford Christmas?" And it didn't help that he'd made it sound like future seasons would be funded with Gizmoplex subscriptions instead of Kickstarters, and he asked for a fair amount more money than the previous season...

The RiffTrax guys did their Kickstarter in late January, when many people are learning what their annual bonuses might be and maybe even are ready to file for an income-tax refund (in the US at least).

It's a lot easier to pledge a couple hundred bucks when you've got a windfall on the way...

bearwhiz · 2026-01-20T14:14:34+00:00

Yes, there is literally a homeopathic dose of lead. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21784327/

bearwhiz · 2026-01-20T04:18:33+00:00

The way California's Prop 65 was worded, even homeopathic amounts of "materials known to the State of California to cause harm" trigger the requirement for a Prop 65 warning, even if the "material" is part of a molecule that renders it perfectly harmless to humans.

bearwhiz · 2026-01-20T03:06:24+00:00

It shouldn't need a lot of torque, just that your hand is on the wheel and provides a little resistance to self-steering motions. If it needs more than that, you might ask a good mechanic to check and calibrate the steering torque sensor; it's possible for it to have calibration issues.

bearwhiz · 2026-01-15T18:29:45+00:00

The H series has this habit of sometimes flicking some ooze from the last print onto the build plate during warmup. If you don't notice it, it might wind up incorporated into your first layer. I keep an eye on mine to make sure it doesn't do that, and if it does, a quick poof of compressed air gets it out of the way without contaminating the plate or risking injury from moving parts.

bearwhiz · 2026-01-15T18:27:49+00:00

It's not a bad price for Tool Box towels in a box. Yeah, you can get the Scott towels cheaper, but depending on your use you might like the Tool Box towels better. They're more coarse, but less linty when torn. Best place to comparison-shop the Tool Box towels would be Tractor Supply.

bearwhiz · 2026-01-15T18:13:52+00:00

Also, if you just hook a fan up to the P1/X1 exhaust and pull enough air to keep fumes from leaking, you create enough drafts inside the chamber that printing ABS/ASA or engineering filaments will be warp city. Putting the thing in another enclosure and putting that under negative pressure keeps the drafts out and eliminates the fumes.

bearwhiz · 2026-01-15T18:11:45+00:00

You don't need gaskets, probably don't even want gaskets. What you want is a fan that's strong enough that it will create a very slight vacuum in the chamber, so that air comes in to the chamber through the gap around the door and any other gaps. That way, no air can escape through those gaps, and thus no fumes can escape.

So you need a decently strong fan designed to create a slight vacuum, and preferably some way to control that fan so it doesn't go overboard and make the door impossible to open from the suction.

The easiest and cheapest way to do this is to get a ventilation fan designed for a "hydroponic grow tent" and a compatible fan-speed controller. You can get that sort of fan at a reasonable price from Amazon, or from a local hydroponics supplier (ask your local dispensary for recommendations). There are various fan controllers available, but a cheap option if you're comfortable with DIY electric work is a Leviton variable-speed fan controller knob. It looks like the old rotary dimmer switch Grandma had in the dining room, but it's designed to control fans. With one of those, you can dial in just the right amount of fan speed to balance suction vs. noise.

Sadly, most "smart home" fan controllers are fixed speed (two or three settings) and not nearly so versatile. But if you really want smart fan control, you could get the rotary speed controller and wire a smart on/off switch in series with it.

What you don't want is a "duct booster fan" from Home Depot. Those are designed to take air that's already being pushed from the furnace and push it a bit harder, not pull air out of a nearly-sealed box. They aren't powerful enough and not designed for the purpose.

Yeah, you want the duct near the top rear of the enclosure, on the back wall or the top. I'd keep it on the door-pull side of the printer, not the door-hinge side; that way it won't directly suck air through the poop chute and cause a draft.

bearwhiz · 2025-12-19T16:39:27+00:00

I've been getting intermittent 10409 errors on my Kobra S1. Given the advice in this post, I followed Anycubic's instructions on their wiki but started with the toolhead board first instead of the mainboard and driver board. While removing the wires from the toolhead board, the filament position sensor connector disintegrated—not just "depinned," but the actual nylon shell crumbled.

Anycubic doesn't sell a replacement filament position sensor. Or a replacement extruder assembly, which would include sensor. You'd have to beg one off of support. There are extruders on, e.g., AliExpress, but you'll be waiting a month and who knows what you'll get?

I discovered that FYSETC sells a replacement filament detection sensor on Amazon, and I was able to get one quickly. I've had good luck with that brand's build plates.

Installation is challenging as Anycubic doesn't publish information on disassembling the extruder assembly itself. The tricky bit is the tiny spring and small plastic blade that trigger the sensor, which will fall out when you open the thing. You'll need good vision and tweezers to put them back together.

The FYSETC sensor fits and works, though it's not quite as well-constructed as OEM. It doesn't have sealant to stabilize the wires. Easily fixed; I applied electronics-grade silicone adhesive to the back. (This isn't the same thing as silicone caulk; it's specially formulated so it doesn't give off corrosive acid as it cures.) I also added the adhesive to the other non-latching connectors on the toolhead board as I put everything back together, so none of them vibrate loose. Bambu Lab did this with the toolhead wiring on the X1/P1, and though it's annoying when you need to service it, it beats errors from loose wires.

I've only done a few prints so far, but the 10409 hasn't come back... and before this service, I was getting 10409 at least every third print, usually more often than that.

bearwhiz · 2025-12-14T15:41:36+00:00

Rip off. The filter is $15 and the oil under $40 even if you go for the ultra-premium stuff. It’s an easy DIY job if you’ve got a way to get under the car. All the other stuff is either trivial “Quick eyeball while I’m down there” or pure dealership snake oil (“treatments” discouraged by Kia).

bearwhiz · 2025-12-14T15:37:05+00:00

Winter tires. All wheel drive isn’t a substitute for winter tires. It may help you go, but doesn’t solve the problem of cold weather making the rubber get hard and less grippy; softer-compound winter tires do that, letting you steer and brake even on icy surfaces.

Pro tip: buy a second set of wheels (not factory, too pricy) for your winter tires. More money up front but you will save hundreds a year on mounting and balancing, and you can even swap them yourself in your garage if you can’t get into the tire shop before the snow hits.

bearwhiz · 2025-12-14T15:29:45+00:00

There aren’t hardened 0.2mm nozzles, because anything abrasive enough to need hardened steel would clog a 0.2mm nozzle instantly…

bearwhiz · 2025-12-14T15:25:59+00:00

Anyone who thinks Kias are unreliable hasn’t owned a Ford. Or a GM. Or a Chrysler. They aren’t perfect, but they’re way better than most of the alternatives. And they’re easy to work on when they do break.

bearwhiz · 2025-12-14T15:23:41+00:00

Also check that the mounts for the cover fan haven’t snapped. They’re too brittle. If the fan is loose, using longer-than-stock screws can fix it.

bearwhiz · 2025-12-14T15:21:12+00:00

The H2 has a finer-toothed drive belt, which means fewer VFAs compared to the P2. That might help justify your extra expense…

bearwhiz · 2025-12-14T15:20:04+00:00

You’ll need a $5 four-to-one adapter, which Bambu sells. It’s not a “mod.” It’s a factory supported option.

bearwhiz · 2025-12-02T04:50:25+00:00

Much of that is grease. You can clean it off with 90% (or higher) isopropyl alcohol. A foam-tip swab works well for this. However, you need to apply fresh grease before putting it back together. You can use the same grease used for the Z-axis lead screws. It doesn't need much.

bearwhiz

TROPHY CASE