Getting Started

You have a printer. Do these things first.

Essentials

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• Read your printer’s documentation
• Keep your build plate clean.
• Dry your filament
• Print these things first.
• Don’t use Grid infill as your default¹. Gyroid is a better default.

Printer Calibration

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Run all of your printer’s calibration procedures.

After calibration, print a Benchy. The one that’s onboard your printer is tuned for speed, not quality. Don’t judge your printer by it.

Don’t get a benchy from Makerworld if you can avoid it. You want to test your printer, not some random person’s profile.

Instead open your slicer. For OrcaSlicer and BambuStudio, right click the build plate, [Add Primitive|Add Handy Models] -> 3DBenchy. Slice and print that.

If you’re only able to print from Bambu Handy, this Benchy is a good option.

Useful First Prints

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• You want a plastic bed scraper. This is a good one.
• You want a poop chute or bin. Find a popular one for your printer.
• If you have an AMS or AMS 2 Pro, you want to print desiccant containers. I like AeonJoey’s.
  • AMS 2 Pro
  • Original AMS
• Spool-center Desiccant Holder : Useful for keeping desiccant with your filament as it moves between storage and your AMS. Especially useful if you use cereal boxes for storage.

Things you might want to buy

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Stuff I’ve bought that I like.

• Slice Engineering Plastic Repellant Paint ↗ : I’ve been putting this on my nozzles since right after my first blob of death. 1700h+ of printing later, I’ve not had a blob stick to the nozzle. This is a very good bit of investment in future hassle avoidance.
• Lubricants for your lead screws and rods. These need periodic (somewhat often) lubrication.
  • Superlube 21030 Grease ↗ - For Lead screws. What I use. PTFE free.
  • Superlube 92003 Grease ↗ - For Lead screws. Bambu recommended². PTFE sometimes leaves a coating on the lead screws.
  • Light Machine Oil ↗ - For rails, rods, and pulleys. Lots of options for this, but the extending tip and ability to squeeze while upright make this a good choice.
• 90%+ Isopropyl Alcohol ↗ - You will want this to clean your printer and intermittently wipe your build plate. Keep a lid on this - it’ll turn into 60-70% IPA pretty quickly. Buy whatever’s cheapest.
  • Lab wash bottle ↗ - makes it easier to use your IPA. Not needed, but a little usability improvement if you commonly IPA wipe your build plate.
• Moto Floss ↗ - This is 100% the best way to clean your lead screws. No other tool or printed helper even gets close. Dip it in IPA and remove the excess, then floss the screws.
  • Print these floss tweezers to help get the floss behind the lead screws in the back.
• Dry & Dry Mixed Orange Silica ↗ ³ for keeping your AMS and filament dry.
• 4L Cereal Containers ↗ : A common option for storing filament and keeping it dry. These Praki containers are common and you can find lots of mods to make them print-from-drybox ready. I use boxes because they seem more reliable than the vacuum seal bags. Takes a lot more space, though.
• Calipers : you’ll be measuring all sorts of things soon. Doing it accurately is important. Recommendations below are based on Project Farm’s Calipers Video. These are the best price/performance ones from their testing.
  • NEIKO 150mm Caliper ↗
  • Werka 150mm Caliper ↗
• Thin, Flat-nosed Pliers ↗ - sometimes you’ll have supports in really small spots that are difficult to get to. These have a flat, serrated tip that fits into tight spaces and grab well. I have the ESD-safe version of these and love them.
• Vevor Lab Scale ↗ - if you want to really accurately weigh your filament, this is a good option. comes with a calibration weight too!

What Filament Brands are Good?

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This is probably the #1 question I see on Discord by new printer owners.

Don’t overthink it, though. PLA is a commodity material. There’s not much variation in PLA between brands.

There’s a giant web of manufacturers and vendors out there. Bambu Lab does not make their own filament. They source it from other manufacturers. Sometimes you can find the same filament sold by a different brand at a different price. Batch numbers are a good way to tell if you’re getting the same filament. Sometimes you can tell just by the texture and color for some unique filaments.

The Recommendations

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With all of that said, these are the brands that are commonly recommended for new owners, ranked in rough order of preference I see in the Bambu Official Discord, mixed with my own preferences ;)

Where filaments are available on Amazon, I’ve linked there because of the convenience and (normally) good shipping times.

• BambuLab - Most convenient because of the RFID tags. May still need calibration! Buy in bulk for the best discounts normally.
• Sunlu ↗ - Inexpensive, good quality. New spools are compatible with Bambu refills! Often sold in packs for cheap. Their product naming is confusing.
• Polymaker ↗ - Expensive, but has colors and finishes ↗ that you often can’t find elsewhere. PLA Pro ↗ is well-regarded.
• Overture ↗ - Especially their matte PLA is great. Their PETG is not universally loved.
• Jayo ↗ - A sub-brand of Sunlu, often a little cheaper. Normally comes in 1.1kg spools, which is a nice little bonus.
• Elegoo ↗ / eSun ↗ / 3dHojor ↗ / Geetech ↗ - reliable filament brands that aren’t too expensive.
• Kingroon ↗ - PLA and PETG, cheap and sufficient. Often much cheaper to source from AliExpress.
• Amolen ↗ - Great for silks and gradients.

These are not the only good brands, just the ones I see recommended most often.

Note: BambuLab Filament

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You bought a BambuLab Printer. You paired it with BambuLab filament. You expect it to print well out of the box.

It might, and it might not. The Bambu filament profiles are a good starting point, but there’s no manufacturing process in the world that will make every spool of filament work perfectly out of the box.

Sadly, that means you may need to calibrate your filament.