I am in a lot of Discord groups and most of my friends already have 3D printers. Watching them print cool stuff and fail in entertaining ways made me want my own tool. I did not like always asking friends to print things for me. It feels like borrowing someone else’s hobby and I wanted something that is actually mine. I also wanted a push to get better at 3D modeling, and having a printer in my room felt like a reliable reminder to practice.

Money played a part too. I did not want to buy something expensive and then forget it like an unused GoPro. So I decided to start small, buy used when possible, and keep the risk low. If I needed more later, I would upgrade.

The decision mess, or picking between brand love and features

At first I looked at the obvious names. I considered a Prusa MK3S because Bruce from my friend group swears by his. I also looked at Bambu Lab models, like the P1P or P1S. On the used market they appear at similar prices. For a while I was leaning Prusa because I liked the company. Prusa feels community driven, open source, and consumer friendly. That matters to me.

Then I compared features and price performance. The MK4 family has great calibration and modern convenience features. But a used MK4 still cost noticeably more than a used Bambu that had similar real world performance and modern conveniences like faster printing and built in features. So even though I like Prusa as a company, the Bambu made more sense for my use case and budget.

Friends told me to start small first. That advice stuck. If I found I wanted a bigger machine, I could always add a second printer later, maybe even one from another brand. That is one advantage of starting with a mini printer. It is cheap, quiet, and in practice you rarely need the extra 10 centimeters of build volume for day to day stuff. Mini printers are also great as second printers for multi material or experimental work.

Why I chose the A1 Mini

I compared the Prusa mini style models to the Bambu Lab A1 Mini. The A1 Mini was modern, offered more built in features for the same price, and printed faster. On the used market the print quality looked essentially identical between the two, but the Bambu often had more convenience features that matter to me, like more automated calibration routines, faster printing and app support. I found a used A1 Mini nearby and decided to grab it.

Bringing it home and the first setup

The seller was super friendly and offered to explain anything I needed, which is something I appreciated even though I had already read a lot beforehand. Setup at home was straightforward. The printer even gives maintenance reminders, which I liked.

A few days after I set it up, the printer itself popped up a message telling me that the bed axis needed lubrication. The previous owner had maintained the printer before selling it, but the machine giving a direct reminder was useful. I lubed the bed axis like it asked, and it took a minute. I plan to follow the printer’s reminders from now on because it is convenient and helps avoid small problems. I will keep the article updated as I learn more, rather than writing separate posts about the same project.

The filament saga, a tangled mess and rewinding therapy

The seller had included a half used roll of cheap filament from a brand called Sunluder. I loaded it and started printing right away, because I was eager to see something come out of the nozzle.

This is where beginner pain rides in. The roll was tangled and the printer often detected that and paused only after already printing a few layers. When you resume after untangling, those skipped layers leave gaps and the print is ruined. After a few ruined prints I rewound the entire roll by hand, which was tedious but fixed the immediate issue. Moral of the story, do not trust used rolls to be tangle free.

Soon my own filament order arrived. I had ordered Purple Gold Silk PLA from FilamentWorld and switched my slicer settings accordingly. The silk PLA prints looked great visually and the prints went much smoother. I still had one print that went wrong because I had the wrong profile selected on the printer itself, but that was only a minor cosmetic issue near the end, not a total loss.

What worked and what failed

I printed lots of small things and learned the limits quickly. I printed a desk clamp and a small pill box. The clamp did not hold up under real stress, and the pill box is not food safe because the silk PLA I used is not certified for food contact. So I learned that PLA is fine for prototypes and cool looking objects, but if you need durability or food safety you have to step up your material game.

I also found small practical mods that made a big difference. One of the first useful prints I made was a filament guide that prevents the spool from unwinding when the print head moves. Without it the spool can loosen, and that makes the filament bend in front of the feeder and cause extrusion issues. With the printed guide, the filament stays tight and the printer can pull cleanly. This is one of the most useful beginner prints I have seen, and I think every new owner should print it right away.

Another simple improvement was a stopper so that bits of filament that get cut off during purging fall down cleanly instead of making a mess. Small things like that really improve daily reliability.

A quick filament primer I wish someone gave me sooner

PLA
Easy to print, low warping, looks good, but not very tough and not automatically food safe.

Silk PLA
Beautiful surface finish and shine, but usually weaker than standard PLA and not food safe.

PETG
A great upgrade after PLA. More temperature resistant, stronger, often food safe if you buy the right brand, but trickier to print. PETG likes good bed adhesion methods and sometimes a glue stick or special surface because it can bond strongly to the plate. It can also be a little smelly compared to PLA and often needs more drying time after being stored.

Other materials exist that are stronger or specially engineered, but they are more expensive and harder to print. For my next steps I plan to try PETG for practical objects and then look into coating for food safe finishes.

I also ordered one of those surprise packs of slightly imperfect filament from FilamentWorld just to experiment. I will write about the results once they arrive.

Why I am avoiding AMS style filament changers right now

Someone told me that AMS multi spool systems waste a lot of filament during changes. For now I agree with that advice. If I get to the point where I need multi color or multi material in a robust way, I would rather look into a multi nozzle printer than an AMS that throws away filament each change. For most of the stuff I print every day, multiple small prints or manual swaps are fine.

Noise, speed and day to day life with the A1 Mini

The A1 Mini is noticeably faster than older entry models, which I like. I run the fan at full speed most of the time, but it also means the machine is not something I want right next to my pillow when I try to sleep. At lower fan speeds and with tuning, the noise becomes perfectly manageable. In daily life the printer does not bother me, and I would say overall it is quiet enough for a small apartment as long as you are not trying to sleep in the same room during long prints.

Small wins that feel huge

Printing the filament guide fixed persistent tangles. Rewinding that tangled roll by hand made me less scared of buying used filament in the future. Switching to the FilamentWorld silk PLA improved my print quality dramatically. These small steps change a beginner’s experience from constant frustration to mostly fun.

I also made a few failed prints into fidget toys. When a print has cosmetic damage but is still functional, I do not throw it away. I smash it, press it and use it, which is a fun way to get value out of fails.

Real life challenges after a few weeks

After printing for a while, I ran into new problems that I did not think about at the beginning. These are things that only show up once you use the printer regularly and try to fit it into your daily life.

Placement and vibration

I originally placed the printer on top of a tall cabinet. That turned out to be a bad idea. High speed printing creates a lot of vibration because there is more mass moving at higher frequencies. Tall furniture tends to wobble more, and that wobble travels into the printer. The result was more noise and sometimes visible artifacts in the prints.

I moved the printer into the lowest shelf of a different cabinet. The position is not perfect. One leg of the printer does not sit fully flat because of how the shelf is shaped. But even with that compromise, the vibration is noticeably lower than before. The cabinet also sits on carpet, so I added something underneath to keep things stable. It is not an ideal solution, but it works better than what I had before.

Fumes, ventilation and winter compromises

I do think about fumes when printing PLA. Whether the concern is justified or exaggerated, I prefer being careful. The problem is that ventilating properly in winter is hard. If the room gets too cold, prints fail because of temperature changes. If there is a draft, some prints warp or lift off the bed.

My current compromise is to open the window as much as possible during printing, but I close it partially when I notice the temperature dropping too much. Sometimes I just leave it tilted. If the print starts failing, I close the window completely and leave the room instead. I try to stay out of the room while printing, but that is not always possible because it is also the room where I spend most of my time. After a print finishes, I leave the window open as long as I can stand the cold.

I thought about buying an air quality meter just to have actual data instead of guessing. I am not panicking, but I would feel better knowing when the air is actually fine again. For now that is something I might add later when I have more budget for extras.

Enclosure update: I got one, and it was a learning experience

Update January 2026: Good news, I am still alive! I have not died from toxic fumes, which I realize now was probably never a serious risk in the first place. After doing more research, I found out that the fumes from PLA are not nearly as dangerous as I thought, especially since I exclusively print with PLA.

I did end up getting an enclosure for the printer. It is a pretty cheap one made from transparent, flexible plastic. I got it mainly so I do not have to deal with the fumes constantly during printing and do not have to keep the window open all the time. Now I only need to ventilate when I open the enclosure.

Here is where things got interesting, and not in a good way. The enclosure itself off-gassed heavily at first. The plastic material released fumes that were much more noticeable than anything the printer ever produced. I had to air out the room extensively in the beginning, which was actually one of the main criticism points in product reviews that I should have paid more attention to. After letting it off-gas for a while, it eventually stopped releasing fumes.

I did some research on the plastic material. I cannot remember the exact name, but it is that kind of transparent, flexible plastic. The fumes from this particular plastic are actually quite toxic, so proper ventilation during the initial off-gassing period is important. Once it has aired out completely, it is fine to use.

Would I buy this enclosure again? Definitely not. While it serves its purpose now, the initial off-gassing experience was unpleasant enough that I would look for a better quality option if I had to do it over.

Taking the printer to a Christmas market

I actually took my setup to a Christmas market and sold some of my 3D printed items. It went surprisingly well! The flex dragons and other printed objects were popular, especially with children. Seeing kids get excited about the prints was definitely a highlight.

I had hoped to run the printer on-site to attract more attention, and I was right about that being a draw. The printing process itself attracted a lot of people to my stand when I tested it briefly. Unfortunately, the cold weather made it impossible to actually use the printer during the market, even inside the enclosure. The temperature just dropped too low for reliable printing.

I am thinking about trying this again at a summer market or similar event. Being able to print on-site could be a real attraction, and the weather would not be an issue. The whole experience showed me that there is definitely interest in watching things being made in real time.

Build volume limits and the real challenge: detailed figures

Sometimes I see a model on maker sites that I would love to print, usually something that helps organize a room or hold tools. And then I check the dimensions and realize it does not fit on my printer. That is a limitation I knew about when I chose the A1 Mini, but it still stings when it happens.

That said, the build volume issue is not really a problem anymore. Bambu Lab Studio has a built-in feature that lets you split large prints into multiple parts that you can assemble like Lego pieces. This has solved most of the size constraints I initially worried about.

The actual limitation I have run into is printing detailed figures. I have been modeling and printing my own figures, but they are very detail-rich and require a lot of supports. Removing those supports from PLA prints is really difficult without damaging the details. With help from other people I have learned to add supports properly and the models turned out okay, but it is still challenging.

Now I definitely understand why many people use resin printers for figures. The level of detail and the lack of visible layer lines make a huge difference. However, I will not be switching to resin anytime soon. The post-processing work after the actual print takes too long, and I am a fan of printing without supports, taking the model out, and having a finished piece right away.

Instead, I am focusing more on learning how to make models that do not need supports at all. That approach fits better with my workflow and the strengths of FDM printing.

Slicer surprises and app limitations

One mistake I kept making was printing directly from the phone app. It is fast and convenient, but the app does not warn you when a model needs supports. If there are overhangs that would fail without supports, the desktop slicer shows a warning and suggests adding them. The app just slices and sends it to the printer.

Because of that, I printed several models with overhangs that failed completely. I did not understand why at first. Only when I opened the same model in the desktop slicer did I see the warning and realize the problem had happened during slicing, not during printing. Now I check every model on the desktop first, even if I end up starting the print from the app.

What is next

Short term I will experiment with PETG and test food safe coatings. I will print more useful everyday objects and see which things survive real life use. Long term, if I need larger build volume or multi nozzle capability, I will consider a second printer rather than immediately switching away from the A1 Mini. I also plan to keep using the used market because price performance there has been good for what I need.

I might eventually get an air quality meter just to have actual numbers instead of guessing, and I am definitely considering bringing the printer to summer markets where the weather will not be an issue.

This post is not a final statement. It will grow as I learn, and I will update it with new experiments, better photos and more practical tips.

Final thoughts and quick advice for beginners

Start small, and consider buying used. Print a filament guide right away. Learn the limits of PLA and then try PETG when you need stronger or food safe parts. Do not be too hung up on which brand is the morally correct choice. Choose a machine that gives you the features and value you want for how you plan to use it.

I do not regret getting the A1 Mini. I am having fun, making things, and learning. That is what matters.