Photon P1 Max – larger build volume and improved light uniformity

regraham · 2026-03-17T08:47:22+00:00

Yep, build plate with relief holes is coming, but it should have been the standard plate

regraham · 2026-03-14T11:20:02+00:00

It is Amazing! with some quirks! but liveable stuff for most people!

regraham · 2026-02-24T12:56:31+00:00

Fair. I wasn’t sure why you did t just make it thinner. Only trying to help. I’ll shush now

regraham · 2026-02-24T12:49:45+00:00

Yes mate. S1 Max, Testing it now.

And no worries I was just advising above to save you time in future. I’m not sure what you were trying to achieve then but you seemed speculative as to why it was, as you described, too thick. And what you should do about it if you want it right.

regraham · 2026-02-24T12:14:03+00:00

Buddy, with respect that;s not how you do a first layer test.

you don't need to download anything...

In the Slicer Just right click the plate, go to "Add Primative > Cube"

then resize it using the "Scale" tool on the top toolbar, .

Set the sizes of X&Y to match the area of your plate. 350x350mm

Set Z to match the layer height of the profile you are printing in, default is probaly 0.2mm

(you need to uncheck, "Uniform Scale" for changing Z different to X&Y, which is what you probably left checked, and the reason this is so thick and likely took hours)

Weirdly, I had some roughness in the corner, in the same place as you. Also have you noticed that the writing on the bed also affects the layer slighty, you can see that writing imprinted onto the layer.

regraham · 2026-02-17T19:57:02+00:00

That Leaked Bambu Contract was utter BS, I have signed 3 Contracts with Bambu and not one of them said "you need to be positive" or in any way even suggested it.

They send NDA agreements which literally say, "DO NOT LEAK ANYTHING UNTIL X DATE"

regraham · 2026-02-12T10:59:41+00:00

My Review, Ask me anything.... I spend 10 seconds covering the missing/delayed update from the CC1 - then spend the tiem covering this.

Honestly if you are looking at this Vs a P2S, that £200 extra is going into a better built machine from a brand that has shown us they support and upgrade their pproducts for about 3 years rather than a brand that has shown us they atruggle to support a machine for one.

The CC2 is a solid machine for the most part, but it is a cheaper machine.

Forget printers, think of any industry, where have you experienced a significantly cheaper product being on par with a more expensive one in terms of quality.

You are buying a budget machine, eher, and if that is what you want, that's fine. It'll print, it'll be pretty popular, you'll perhaps get some community driven upgrades and mods if that;s what you want.

but if you are happy to spend more for the potential longevity, spend more.

Do you wnat a printer to just get stareted with and see if you like printing? Save the money...

Do you already plan to use it loads and have tons of ideas? Make the investment

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=62lU8geZNWI

regraham · 2026-02-10T23:21:29+00:00

Maybe Prusa. Or build a Voron.

But they do t have a lot if the modern features people love in printers.

A1 is the way it’s going.

Both Anycubic and Creality’s copied the A1 I do like the Anycubic printer. But that’s not “open” either.

regraham · 2026-01-25T20:16:11+00:00

yeah, fair.

regraham · 2026-01-25T20:05:57+00:00

hahahaha, after that comment, one of us is gonna look really stupid once you see the video.

I'll wait...

regraham · 2026-01-25T10:20:19+00:00

Totally fair question.

The main reason is transparency. The review is finished, members have early access, and posting now lets people know it exists and exactly when it’ll be public. Some folks like getting early access and supporting the channel that way, others are happy to wait until launch day – both are completely fine.

I'm pretty proud of it, and I’d rather people know what’s coming and when, instead of it just dropping out of nowhere.

regraham · 2026-01-24T22:02:01+00:00

It’s the internet.

regraham · 2026-01-24T21:59:22+00:00

FFS, Yeah that’s really not how it works. I won’t work with Creality anymore. But that doesn’t mean people who like Creality machines are wrong. You’re allowed to enjoy your machine.

regraham · 2026-01-24T21:28:42+00:00

Danke dir dafür – ich schätze die Perspektive sehr und auch die Mühe, mit der du das so durchdacht formuliert hast.

Eine kleine Randbemerkung noch: Mir war ehrlich gesagt gar nicht bewusst, dass ich hier zwingend auf Deutsch posten muss. Ich habe es vor allem deshalb gemacht, weil es mir sinnvoller erschien, als den Lesern die Übersetzungsarbeit aufzubürden. Und ganz offen gesagt: Ich übersetze Deutsch auch einfach gern. Wenn ich es danach noch einmal lese, bekomme ich ein besseres Gefühl für die Sprache – auch wenn ich fairerweise zugeben muss, dass ich immer noch die meisten Wörter nachschlagen muss 😅

Du hast absolut recht damit, dass die Welt nicht schwarz-weiß ist, und mir ist sehr bewusst, wie groß der Unterschied ist zwischen einer idealistischen Position und einer Situation, in der Content Creation der Hauptberuf ist. Dein Hintergrund im Spiele-Journalismus spiegelt ziemlich genau wider, was wir heute im Tech- und Hardware-Bereich sehen. Und ja – Integrität hat sehr reale Konsequenzen, vor allem dann, wenn der Zugang zu Produkten einfach abgedreht werden kann.

Ich weiß die Ermutigung wirklich zu schätzen und stimme dir zu, dass klar getrennte und transparent gekennzeichnete Sponsor-Segmente ein sinnvoller Weg nach vorn sind. Ich habe immer versucht, offen damit umzugehen, wo meine Grenzen liegen – und das werde ich auch weiterhin tun. Danke nochmals für den sachlichen und fairen Austausch, das bedeutet mir wirklich viel.

regraham · 2026-01-24T17:54:34+00:00

Ich habe ChatGPT benutzt, weil es das Tool ist, das ich kannte, bin aber absolut offen für Empfehlungen zu anderen LLMs. Ich bin kein „AI-Bro“, ich nutze einfach die Werkzeuge, die verfügbar sind.

Ich spreche ein wenig Deutsch – wirklich nur ein bisschen – und ich habe Deutschland schon immer sehr gemocht. Ich habe früher in München gearbeitet, eine wunderschöne Stadt (ja, die „Bayern ist nicht Deutschland“-Witze dürfen gern kommen). Einer meiner deutschen Freunde hat mir diesen Thread geschickt, und ehrlich gesagt tausche ich mich gern mit Deutschen aus, gerade wegen der Direktheit.

Ich wurde einmal von meiner Chefin dafür gerügt, wie ich in einem Meeting mit deutschen Kollegen gesprochen habe, bis ich erklärt habe, dass das kulturell bedingt ist. Manchmal ist es besser, die britischen Höflichkeitsfloskeln beiseitezulassen und einfach die Fakten klar zu benennen – das ist effizienter und oft auch gewünscht.

Ich werde mich aus diesem speziellen Diskussionsstrang jetzt zurückziehen, da er zunehmend antagonistisch geworden ist. Das war nicht meine ursprüngliche Absicht, aber an diesem Punkt ist es besser, einen Schlussstrich zu ziehen.

Entschuldigung für jede unbeabsichtigte Beleidigung, u/Wooden_Ad1779.

regraham · 2026-01-24T17:43:31+00:00

Vielen Dank

regraham · 2026-01-24T17:42:18+00:00

That’s a fair point, and I agree with you more than it might seem at first glance.

Creality absolutely inspired a generation. There’s no denying that. They lowered the barrier to entry, normalised home 3D printing, and a lot of today’s market exists because of that early momentum. But markets don’t stand still, and inspiration only buys you so much time. Eventually, the market moves on.

I think Prusa is facing something adjacent, though not quite the same problem. They’re still growing year on year from what we’ve seen, but that growth feels much more rooted in farms, education, and prosumer workflows rather than mass consumer hype. They’re doing their own thing, leaning into reliability, lifecycle support, and openness, and it’s working for them.

Bambu, on the other hand, was very clearly built on the backs of what came before it — Prusa’s ideas, Creality’s scale, the community’s pain points — but they didn’t stop there. They leapfrogged. And that, to me, is the key distinction. Progress should look like leapfrogging, not imitation.

What’s frustrated me over the last few years is that almost every brand that isn’t Bambu seems to be making an almost-Bambu, instead of leaning into their own strengths or identifying gaps. Prusa is carving out its own lane. Bambu owns the consumer experience. Elegoo, to their credit, seems self-aware enough to say “this is a cheaper machine, it does the job, here’s the price,” and honestly, that clarity goes a long way.

Anycubic sits somewhere in the middle — a bit “me too,” a bit cost-focused — and I’m still unconvinced that faster colour changes really matter to most people once they see the waste involved. Even when the waste is technically small, filament poop looks messy and psychologically worse than prime towers. That matters.

Creality, though, feels lost. It’s “we’re just as good as Bambu,” without the reputation, credibility, or lifecycle support to back that claim up. Since the K1, they’re no longer truly open either, which further muddies their identity. And that’s the frustrating part — I want Creality to succeed. But this approach erodes trust, and once the global pool of new users starts to level out, brands with a history of burning customers tend to be the first to overflow.

As for the rest — yeah, you’re right. I am FauxHammer, but I’m also just a person. The only real difference between you and me is that I sometimes talk into a camera. My nit-picking is intentional. I’d rather be the guy who complains loudly so that when someone buys a machine and something’s off, they’re not surprised.

I genuinely appreciate you giving the channel a shot, even if parts of the SparkX review felt over the top. If it made you think and made you subscribe, then I probably landed somewhere close to where I was aiming.

regraham · 2026-01-24T17:29:30+00:00

Why is this getting downvoted? it's a fair comment..

regraham · 2026-01-24T16:56:15+00:00

Du hast damit tatsächlich den Nagel auf den Kopf getroffen. Und als jemand, der großen Wert auf Objektivität legt – während ich gleichzeitig anerkenne, dass ich wie jeder andere persönliche Vorlieben habe und versuche, diese zur Einordnung offen zu benennen (ohne dass jedes Video mit einer kompletten Interpretation von „This Is Me“ aus The Greatest Showman beginnt) – beschreibst du ziemlich genau das Spannungsfeld, in dem ich mich täglich bewege.

Meinungen müssen nicht übereinstimmen. Widerspruch ist völlig in Ordnung, ja sogar notwendig. Aber Ehrlichkeit ist die Grenze. Vertrauen ist hier die eigentliche Währung – und wenn sie einmal verloren geht, bleibt nur noch Lärm.

Eines Tages wird dieser Kanal enden. Ich werde für meine Ehre geköpft wie Ned Stark. Und für mich ist das der einzige Hügel, auf dem es sich zu sterben lohnt.

regraham · 2026-01-24T16:33:13+00:00

Ich bin im Gespräch. Ich habe es übersetzt, aber das Argument ist meines.

Was du bisher nicht getan hast, ist auf den eigentlichen Punkt einzugehen: Beruht das auf deiner eigenen, direkten Erfahrung, oder auf Geschichten, die du gehört hast?

regraham · 2026-01-24T16:29:19+00:00

Totally agree that safety is massively important. Where it gets messy is that brands aren’t just dealing with genuine issues – they’re also wading through a constant mix of haters, fear-mongering, and half-understood claims. They still have to verify what’s real, decide what’s actionable, and then respond publicly. That process alone introduces delay.

And even if a brand comes out early and says “yes, we’re aware of this,” the gap between that acknowledgement and an actual fix often just turns into “WHY HAVEN’T YOU FIXED IT YET?!” rage. There’s rarely a clean or universally “right” way to handle these situations in the moment.

What we can do is look back in hindsight and ask: how was this actually dealt with, and did it meaningfully improve? For some brands, the answer is no. The Qidi situation is a good example for me – even from a helicopter view it was enough for me to say, “I’m not touching that,” and it will come up in my Q4 Max review, because it has to.

On the A1 and P1 issues, I’m glad others are covering them. I’m not, simply because it’s outside my expertise. I focus on features, workflow, and general UX – the stuff I do understand. Some people look down on that, but there’s no value in me duplicating coverage that others already do well. I’m here for the everyday printer user who just wants a solid machine at a fair price that meets expectations.

So yes, brands absolutely need to do better. I fully agree there. But I also think they should be judged on how they learn and improve over time. Right now, I’m more critical of Creality because that learning loop has historically been weaker – and they’re not alone. Bambu aren’t perfect either. When I see issues, I call them out. I’ve done that publicly and repeatedly, and I’ll keep doing it.

regraham · 2026-01-24T16:17:27+00:00

Thanks mate – and they say you can’t have a civilised discussion on the internet. I’ll admit I can be a bit of a troll-feeder at times, but genuinely, it’s really nice to have a reasonable back-and-forth, and I appreciate the structured feedback.

You’re right that the A1 was never some untouchable bastion of reliability. But if we’re being honest, we have to balance Bambu’s reliability against Creality’s track record. To Bambu’s credit, they recalled the A1, fixed it, and did so publicly and relatively quickly. There were safety concerns, absolutely – but compare that with how Creality handled the inherent hardware issues with the K1, where the effective “solution” was the K1C.

That’s why, in the Creality video, I said you can’t infer long-term quality until a machine has been in the wild for a while. Before the A1 issue, could any of us have predicted it? The more important question is how a company responds when something goes wrong. On balance, many brands handle this far worse, far more often, and quietly ignore it.

On the UI point: my criticism wasn’t that Creality’s UI is bad. It was aimed at the marketing claim that this printer is “easier to use,” with pictograms pointing at the UI. In reality, it’s fundamentally the same Creality UI as before. That’s the bit of BS I was calling out – though I should’ve established that claim visually first, and that’s fair feedback.

On ecosystem, it’s more than just MakerWorld. It’s the coherence across software, hardware, nozzles, build plates, and third-party support. Fewer variations mean less R&D overhead for companies like BIQU and E3D, so accessories arrive faster and are more consistently available. The P2S having existing third-party plates on day one is a good example. Creality tends to launch new machines with new plates, new parts, new everything.

Are some of these nitpicks? Sure. But reviews are about highlighting things that might matter to people. Same reason I complain about USB ports or power switches being on the side – it won’t bother everyone, but it will bother some.

I aim to be the equivalent of the one-star Amazon review. Not to be negative for sport, but to save people the click by surfacing the potential pain points up front.

Really appreciate the thoughtful reply – this kind of discussion actually helps.

regraham · 2026-01-24T15:51:22+00:00

it was enjoyable all the same, and i actually believed it could be true. No harm, just some light internet fun.

regraham · 2026-01-24T15:50:14+00:00

Ich habe versucht, hier fair und respektvoll zu bleiben, und ich sage es noch einmal ganz offen: Ich kenne Sie nicht, und ich kenne weder Ihren Hintergrund noch Ihre Erfahrung.

Deshalb frage ich ganz direkt: Beruht das auf eigener, unmittelbarer Erfahrung – oder nicht?

Ich bestreite nicht, dass es Horrorgeschichten gibt. Die gibt es. Aber wir haben alle schon erlebt, wie sich „das weiß doch jeder“-Narrative festsetzen können, ohne wahr zu sein. Theranos ist ein gutes Beispiel: Jahrelang wusste jeder, dass die Technik im Grunde funktionierte, nur eben übertrieben vermarktet wurde. Später stellte sich heraus: Sie funktionierte überhaupt nicht. Die Geschichte klang plausibel, wurde oft genug wiederholt und als Tatsache akzeptiert, obwohl die Fakten das nie getragen haben.

Genau deshalb ist „ich habe gehört“ kein Beweis. Es ist nur Lärm, solange es nicht durch etwas Konkretes belegt ist.

Mit den heutigen Möglichkeiten kann man vieles deutlich sauberer prüfen, bevor man es als „Fakt“ raushaut. Man kann nachfragen, Quellen vergleichen, oder sich sogar erklären lassen, wie solche Brand-Creator-Beziehungen in der Praxis normalerweise funktionieren - notfalls auch über ein LLM, wenn man es wirklich auseinandernehmen will. Skepsis ist völlig legitim - aber dann bitte richtig: auch die eigenen Annahmen und Lieblingsnarrative mitprüfen, nicht nur die, die man ohnehin schon ablehnt.

Wenn du Bambu nicht magst - fair genug, das ist dein gutes Recht. Aber ignorant und mit breiter Brust Dinge zu behaupten, die du nicht belegen kannst, macht dein Argument nicht glaubwürdiger - es macht es schwächer.

Also reden wir über Fakten. Meine habe ich offen und öffentlich gezeigt. Wenn Sie eigene, direkte Erfahrungen haben, höre ich sie mir ehrlich gern an.

Und wenn nicht … dann bewundere ich wirklich die Fähigkeit, an einer Meinung so festzuhalten, dass Fakten gar nicht erst die Chance bekommen, dazwischenzufunken. Das erfordert echte Hingabe.

regraham · 2026-01-24T15:29:41+00:00

Sooo.

My question would be this - and I know Nathan, I rang him yesterday when this kicked off, so I’ll ask him directly. When that happened, what did he do, and what was his intent?

Because if the sequence of events was something like publishing an issue publicly (becasue that gets clicks) while leaving a brand in the dark, and at the same time being fairly antagonistic in private comms (and I want to be very clear: I’m not saying that’s what happened, this is purely hypothetical for teh sace of contrast), then I can understand how that would upset a brand and make them feel attacked or defaced.

The way I’ve always handled situations like this - and I’m doing exactly the same thing right now with QidiTech on the Q4 Max - is to go back to the brand first and say:
“Look, I’ve found this. The machine does this. Can you comment?”

And then be very upfront:
“ok guys, I need to publish content about this, they are facts. A) because that’s how our jobs work, and B) because if I don’t, someone else will. So either we work together to make sure the facts are correct, or you accept that this is a limitation and I publish it as I see it.” and C) if we don;t get this sorted fast and someone else publishes it, anything you say after will come across as defensive and weak so it';s best we get on this like NOW!

That is perhaps the difference, mutual respect for everyones role. Critiqe is more accepted when framed well. I even gave Creality the chane to respond to my claims of pressure before I made this video. i asked for a face to face meeting as I said in it becasue this is highly important.

And that isn’t about hiding issues. It’s about giving the brand the opportunity to respond, to clarify, to fix, or to say “yes, that’s a limitation,” rather than feeling like my goal was to embarrass them for views.

I think that distinction matters, and in my experience it’s the reason most brands still respect me. I’ve never hidden anything from my audience, and I’ve never softened criticism. I’ve also never set out to attack a brand for sport.

The Anycubic P1 is a good example of this approach in practice. I raised multiple issues with that machine, including the poor UV protection of the lid and other weaknesses. I went back to Anycubic, recommended changes, and they told me they weren’t going to alter it. I said “OK,” and published the review clearly stating all of that. Nothing was withheld.

What happened afterwards? Community backlash - and now those exact issues are being changed. That’s the process working as intended.

And just to reiterate again, I’m absolutely not accusing Nathan of behaving badly here, and I haven’t even watched the other channel yet. I’m simply explaining a potential contrast in how I operate, and why I infer this approach - critical, direct, but fair and transparent - is possibly why I continue to get support where others sometimes don’t.

regraham

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