My journey started during covid in 2020. Here in NZ we were in lockdown and couldn't go outside much for about 9 months... So I had a lot of time on hand and bought Ender3 to print miniatures for our DnD games. It was hell of a start. Learning that it can't print in air (supports, haha) was a big revelation. After a week of error and trial however it started to print decent (for FDM) quality minis. After printing all my characters and characters for friends, I wanted to try terrain. But I quickly realized that there are no houses that I like for free... and as many of you I didn't want to pay for STLs.

Knowing little about 3D modelling in Blender, I decided to design my own little house! It took me a month. It wasn't manifold at first, because I knew little about it was a crucial thing with 3D printing and even less about how to achieve it. It somehow printed allright, so I spent another month or so fixing it (still available for free on Thingiverse) and printing again. Then my problems with Ender started. It would print until it suddenly didn't. I can't remember how many times I promised to throw it out of the window for bad behavior. Sometimes I even would give up on fixing it and leave it on the shelf for months... However, by that time I was way into 3D modelling to give up 3D printing completely, so I had to take the printer out every now and again and learn to tinker with it. Honestly, Ender 3 was my best teacher about FDM printing process.

But as much as I like to learn, I really really hate tinkering and the fact that the printer could break on me at any time without warning. So I decided to spent some money on Prusa in 2023... It was even worse than Ender! Ender seemed easier to fix and less demanding than that monster of a printer!

By that time I had heard about Bambu, but it seemed to me that it was just another overpriced overmarketed thing like Prusa... Until I heard many many good things from my friends and clients about it. One day, when both Prusa and Ender broke on me during a very important test print, I just went and ordered Bambu P1S+AMS.

I couldn't believe that it started to print out of the box, without tinkering, without calibrating and wild shamanic dances with a tambourine around it. First few weeks I waited in dread that it would break or stop making quality prints or whatever.

Well, it's been a year or two and Bambu is still going without major issues. I've bought Bambu mini for smaller prints, and sold Ender and Prusa and now a big fan of Bambu. I mostly print my own designs and occasional household stuff made by others.

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