I use my printer to make prototypes for my business. There is no way in hell I'm sending them into the internet for some random to examine.
I think my next printer will be mostly 3D printed, with a few generic parts like motor controllers, the odd bit of metal tubing, off the shelf bed levelling system, open source software etc.
I only need single colour prints for work, and AFAIK the fastest printer on the planet is mostly 3D printed, I'd start with that one as a base and adapt it for my needs. I considered Bambu until they started down the road that ends with me not having control of the product I own. Any company on that path does not get my money.
You certainly can design or build it yourself, but you don't have to.
There's an absolute fuckton of new, offline 3D printers for sale in the world. If disconnected operation is the goal, then finding a disconnected printer to buy is a simple affair. Lots of them just take regular gcode (as produced by Orca Slicer or similar) from an SD card or over USB, and don't have built-in networking as a feature at all.
If having it run open-source firmware is also a goal, then that's fine too: Research it first to ensure that its stock controller board can be flashed with custom-built Marlin (for complete airgap) and/or Klipper (which tends to imply LAN-only connectivity).
Being able to run open firmware is more common than it is unusual.
It's a pretty basic research task to drill down and then pick one with the price/performance/community/support characteristics that you want. After that, just assemble the machine when it shows up, and then build Marlin or Klipper for it.
And people in the 3D printing community will help with all aspects of this process, regardless of how you set your own goals. :)
> There is no way in hell I'm sending them into the internet for some random to examine.
I think it’s funny how much this battle has been contorted since it started.
This fight started because someone added Bambu Cloud support back into OrcaSlicer because it’s what users wanted.
These are the first 3 lines of Louis Rossman’s fork’s README:
> This version of OrcaSlicer restores full BambuNetwork support for Bambu Lab printers.
> You are not limited to LAN only.
> It works over the internet just like before, through BambuNetwork, with full functionality for normal use and printing.
Yet reading all of the comments on HN you would be left with the impression that Bambu was fighting to force everyone to use their cloud service.
They are, but only on their own terms.
> I think my next printer will be mostly 3D printed
What you're looking for then is a Voron. They're the printers that Bambu was "inspired" by and are made with all off-the-shelf parts.
I really enjoyed building my Voron 2.4. I bought a kit that included all the wires pre-harnessed which made it much simpler to do.
There are options, albeit chinese, that don’t phone home. I have a qidi q2 that’s an awesome printer, and runs open firmware (klipper+fluid) and is pretty much a voron with closed-source hardware, or an x1c with open software. I’m told flashforge printers, the current new hotness because of its multi-nozzle printing, are pretty much open as well.
Going from Bambu to a self printed 3d printer I don't even think counts as the same category of devices. Bambu is concentrated on making a plug and play device that just works.
I had been considering getting a Bambu printer precisely for this reason. I had gotten into 3d printing in the reprap era, before selling it off due to lack of space. I don’t really want to get back into that constant calibration and test prints every time the ambient temp or humidity changes a few percentage points. Not to mention the painstaking initial setup. I just want to design and print, not become a 3d printer technician again.
a voron thats whats you want. massive community, build kits out there, fully open source
Seems like an overreaction. Licensing aside it is trivial to use a Bambu completely air gapped. If someone uses AI at all but cares about this I hope the irony is not lost on them.
Or a Prusa. They even sell a variant with no network hardware at all, for the terminally paranoid.
Or, just maybe, buy a printer that does not actively disrespect their users?
I guess it depends on what you value more highly, a machine from a company that respects intellectual property, or a machine that reliably prints parts without intervention.
Prusa work well. They're just expensive.
Plenty of printers that do both.
This was true a couple years ago, but the other vendors have caught up. Today you have options that reliably print without intervention and aren’t bambus
Prusas are plenty reliable without intervention