Bambu tc

[3D Printing Tips and Tricks]

So they announced the new TC with a mountain of hype which is so high I can’t find the dang price. Anybody find it yet?

[Ray Price]

Looks like $3100, but not releasing in the US for "not invented here" reasons at the moment

On Tue, Nov 18, 2025, 8:42 AM 3D Printing Tips and Tricks <3d-printing-...@googlegroups.com> wrote:

So they announced the new TC with a mountain of hype which is so high I can’t find the dang price. Anybody find it yet?

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[Ray Price]

Source: lukeinthegarage 

https://www.facebook.com/share/v/1FER3sdN59/

[Bryan Eckert]

Price is $2399 U.S. 

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/3d-printing-tips--tricks/CAGbEhsDh9UpEm8Y_iszVC3fCZgacN_uaN9vZbf6GqiYC7f2zFg%40mail.gmail.com.

[Bryan Eckert]

I should say - $2399 for the AMS version. The Laser adds a lot more, $3500 for the 40w.

[3D Printing Tips and Tricks]

Is that an opinion or from their website?

Is that with the Vortek toolchanger?

 And... it’s not sold as of yet in the US?

[Bryan Eckert]

It's from the various reveal/review videos that were released today:

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/3d-printing-tips--tricks/0f6af1fe-424e-4499-832d-b8d62bfbe81bn%40googlegroups.com.

[Bryan Eckert]

Also it's not sold in the US yet as US labs are swamped, since they can no longer do that in China.

[Bryan Eckert]

Sales are now live in the United States.

AMS Combo $2399

Ultimate combo - comes with the single station, high temp AMS and extra nozzles $2899

[Ed Street]

Look at CNC kitchen video on this. He is saying it takes 40 seconds to change heads on this new printer. That is NOT a game changer at that rate. That’s what the ams times are at best.  50-100% slower than a real toolchanger. 

https://youtu.be/MOW6p-oSJxQ?si=MOTjmdQM6CD3Y9Ff

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[Bryan Eckert]

Ed, an AMS 2 color change takes upwards of two minutes, and is dependent on amount of purge. My original AMS unit with my X1C can take 3-5 minutes. The H2C is significantly faster.

TechRadar just had an article comparing the times of the H2D (dual nozzle), H2S (single nozzle) and H2C:
"To give you an example, when printing out a four-colour model that would take 1 day, 5 hours, and 6 minutes on the H2D, on the H2S it would take 1 day, 16 hours, and 51 minutes. On Bambu Lab's H2C? That same model would take just 16 hours and 42 minutes. So, quite a significant difference with this new model."

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[3D Printing Tips and Tricks]

Thanks for posting that... Good vid...

Our comparison of the Vortek and INDX won't come out for awhile, but a lot of what Stefan found we had expected. it is NOT nearly as effective a system as the Prusa XL in my opinion. A material or tool change on the XL is 3-5 SECONDS.
The INDX is WAY more optimal. Regardless, if you really need to have one of these your best bet is to give it time to shake out the development and production mistakes that they have no doubt made due to the calendar enforced compressed schedule. Give at least 6 months before buying one.

[Bryan Eckert]

I agree if you're simply going flat speed for changing the tool then sure. But that's never all there is, is there? While I personally don't do tons of multi color prints on my X1C (aside from Hueforge which are just layer swaps), working on my machines without an AMS unit is, quite honestly just flat annoying at this point. The automation of loading filament with it, and the automation of using every last bit of filament, and having it continue printing mid print without me ever knowing it ran out is worth every penny. 

To me the biggest QOL change the vortek will offer me personally is simply loading it up with several different nozzle sizes. A couple of .2, a couple of .4, .6... and then never having to ever change a nozzle. You have a print with .2 nozzle? It changes it for you. Back to a .4, or maybe a .6? It changes it for you. Want to print in all .4 nozzles in a bunch of colors? Just open the door and put the new nozzles on the rack, it does the rest for you.  This is what I find most annoying with my X1C. While it's not really difficult to make the change, it's time consuming to the point I don't want to do it.

And finally, you have to admit Bambu has really wiped the floor with everyone else as far as software goes. While I personally run Orca as my X1C is running X1Plus Firmware, and my V400 Klipper, The latest slicer we use on our H2D's is impressive in terms of maximizing efficiency with the AMS units. Like you said on the show, the XL owners were beta testers in both hardware and software. Even with the suggestions us kickstarter backers gave them before public release, the Bambu software was pretty solid. And now the things they have online like the lightbox maker, etc... nobody else has anything like it.

So personally I probably will spring for an H2C, as my X1C is now over 3 years old and it can be a hand me down to some relative's kids and they can run it for years to come.

And then since I love tinkering - I REALLY want to get that INDX kit and a Sovol SV08 and have a go at it.

[Ed Street]

Yes, we have had this convo before, and it was listed that the XL tool change time and the Voron stealthchanger tool change time were fairly equal-ish in seconds, up to 10 seconds per change.  

I would expect that smart users would be asking that key critical question before dumping a few thousand into a printer.  Knowing that AMS takes 120 seconds and the Voron can take under 5 seconds,  doing the math on a print job that takes 2,000 changes 

AMS @ 120s / swap: 480,000 seconds -OR- 8,000 minutes -OR-  133 HOURS
BAMBU TC @ 45s / swap: 90,000 seconds -OR- 1,500 minutes -OR- 25 HOURS

Voron @ 5s / swap: 10,000 seconds -OR- 166 minutes -OR- 2.7 HOURS.

[Bryan Eckert]

5 seconds for a swap on a voron is a bit disingenuous. That's not something that you get immediately. That's after spending countless hours (and who knows how much material) tuning it and tuning it more. Typical speed is 10-15 seconds like the XL. And the faster you tune that voron the less accurate it will be because of the flying gantry. 

Not to mention the 40+ hours of work - just to build the machine. 

Meanwhile the H2C you cut open the box and are printing 20 minutes later.

40 seconds on the Vortek is only if swapping the right nozzle and purging the filament out of it (to another color) Not every swap will be this swap. Most will be either sawpping between hotends (10 seconds) or swapping nozzles back to the same color, which takes about 20 seconds as no purge is needed, just the prime tower. 

So 2000 swaps does not necessarily equal 2000 full AMS retraction and purge swaps. With the majority of multicolor models I've seen the majority of swaps will simply be between the left and right nozzles. In which case there is little speed difference. 

As you say, you have to look at the overall picture. Which, one thing the Vortek can do the Voron or XL can't is you can simply plug in another AMS and get 4 more colors to print with, up to 24 total. That's a bit ridiculous, but at work we have 4 AMS units hooked up to each H2D, each loaded with specific filaments (i.e. nylon variants in one, ABS in another). 

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/3d-printing-tips--tricks/e07eba09-877e-4e9a-a3e3-30140739778en%40googlegroups.com.

[Ed Street]

"disingenuous"?  Really?  I guess the project has it wrong then ;)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cmI7sjCFIOk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S-om0MPE5qI

[Bryan Eckert]

Again Ed, how much time (and $$$$) has that person spent? Because I have a video of a stealthchanger at printopia someone built doing the same silly head swap dance and it takes 10-11 seconds each swap. Meanwhile neither of these is printing the prime tower. Which is great if you want a crap looking print.

They told me they can't run it any faster, because it's not reliable if they do. Unless they sink more money into for things like a 48V steppers and power supply.

https://share.icloud.com/photos/03aCxmbDiR-sbkNoA3uiMzc7A

The problem with Vorons is they aren't mass produced machines. So, every single one will be different. And every single one will take you a week plus to put together, and to tune and get printing correctly. Which is great if all you want to do is tinker and spend money.

So yes, it's disengenuous to toss in a machine someone has spent countless hours and dollars on and say that every Voron will be the same, because they won't be.

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/3d-printing-tips--tricks/5eed3a0b-af1c-43d8-b70d-a68314fb77e2n%40googlegroups.com.

[Ed Street]

I get what you are saying, and yes, 10-11s may be more 'normal', but you can do 5s, and yes, the vids I posted were using 48v.  On the disengenuous comment, one could easily say But you will never be able to use those Bambu for DOD work, I would reply that neither remark would be relevant here, as the subject would be tool changers.

Also, for the time part, I have some significant issues with that remark.  It does seem, uh, rather mean that it is ok for Bambu to sink a million labor hours into a project to bring it to market, so that you can be lazy and uneducated, and it's NOT ok to bring up projects where you do the work and learn the material yourself.  Perhaps I am reading too much into the reply; if so, I would like to apologize for my error.

[3D Printing Tips and Tricks]

I fully agree that Bambu has provided 3d printer users with the best in both hw and sw. No argument there. However, I think they totally missed it on this machine. It’s not just about waste or the about the convenience of the shorter time.

With 3d printing the longer it takes to print the more expensive and damaging to a process a fail is. It’s not a linear thing, it’s exponential. A fail after 8 hours is annoying after 24 hours of printing it  hurts,  a fail after 48 hours can break a project schedule. Been there, done that!. Now for a hobbiest this may not be  as big a deal, but to a biz it’s far from trivial and in my opinion the price difference easily is amortized out in time when it’s for a business rather for your hobby… although in my opinion the price for the TC is not really that big and there’s way pricier hobbies.

I note that Bambu completely refrains from referring to the Vortek as a Toolchanger. That’s good cause it’s not. If you’ve never operated a Toolchanger then you’re not going to see what I’m saying. I have the X1C right next to my XL and across from my E3d… I only go to the X1C for the simplest of prints. Using the AMS with multimaterials is a joke compared to doing it with the Toolchangers.

[Ed Street]

Well said, that is a perfect overall synopsis, and sums it up very well.  Just like most things Bambu, they missed the boat in many areas, but it is a step in the right direction.

[3D Printing Tips and Tricks]

Consider this… and I admit this is a bit far fetched… one way of looking at what Bambu has done is that they have ignored the requirements of those who are their customers. A Toolchanger meets these requirements optimally for FDM. E3D saw this years ago, Prusa saw it, Bondtech saw it. I have no doubt that Bambu has the capability to do an optimal Toolchanger. They didn’t. Instead what they produced was what they want their customers to buy. They put what looks like a significant amount of unnecessary system complexity into this design yet they’re selling it for a ridiculously low price! Their idea of what everyone needs. What does that sound like? A bit dictatorial maybe? We don’t care what you want. You’ll buy what we make for you. 

In Western societies, tech development usually follows an understanding of the constraints and the users requirements. I really don’t recall ever seeing a tech product that was fully designed in China that following that path. Their design process is very different as are what motivates them,

I will not be buying this machine.

[Bryan Eckert]

I will say what impresses me the most about them is they didn't just make a printer. They've made an ecosystem. 

I've thought and still believe that they will be partnering with manufacturers for on demand things like spare parts, or customization - want a different handle on that fridge? It's in the handy app! Need a spare part for your appliance? Here buy the print file for a fraction of the cost.

It caught everyone with their pants down, which honestly is a good thing. Prusa is actually trying to innovate again instead of resting on their laurels.

On Thu, Nov 20, 2025 at 4:25 PM Ed Street <edst...@street-tek.com> wrote:

Absolutely, I agree with most of what you have said, and yes, there are
places for those, and even the new ones.  When I looked at what it does
and the cost, I was not seeing that in my future.  First, it does not
fit my needs, nor does it seem practical.

My first Bambu was the X1C and I had significant issues with it and
ended up super frustrated with it.  None of the auto-calibrations work
with ABS/ASA, which is what I primarily wanted to use it for.

I did some digging and found that Bambu on their development.

Bambu Lab X1C Development (2020–2022)
- Founding team: Started with 5 ex-DJI engineers in 2020.
- Growth: Expanded to 150 staff, with 120 dedicated to R&D by 2022.
- Timeline: ~2 years of development before the Kickstarter launch in
2022.
- Features requiring intensive R&D: Lidar-assisted calibration, CoreXY
motion, AMS multi-material system, advanced firmware/software.
- Estimated labor hours:
- 120 engineers × 40 hrs/week × 100 weeks ≈ 480,000 hours (gross
estimate).
- This aligns with the complexity of hardware, firmware, and ecosystem
integration.


Bambu Lab H2D Series (2023–2025)
- Introduction: The H2D officially launched March 25, 2025, positioned
as a flagship multifunctional platform.
- Capabilities: Dual-nozzle, heated chamber, larger build volume,
optional laser/cutting modules, AMS HT/AMS 2 Pro compatibility.
- Development arc: Likely began around 2023 after the X1C’s success,
with iterative prototyping through 2024.
- Team continuity: Same Shenzhen/Shanghai/Austin engineering base,
leveraging lessons from X1C.
- Estimated labor hours:
- Assuming ~150 engineers over ~2 years → ~500,000 hours.
- Higher than X1C due to multifunctional design (printing, laser
cutting, engraving, plotting).


Typically, development is 30-50 engineers and 2 years, which nets 100k -
150k labor hours.  The guestimate for H2D is 150 engineers over 2 years,
or 1/2 million labor hours.

So overall they have put it really far out there for expenses and trying
to reap as many markets as they can to bring income in to recover from
the R&D

Also the new Bondtech setup is going to make major ripples in the
toolchanger world.  Toolchangers are expensive, cludgy, bulky, over
priced and over hardwared

---
__________________
Ed Street
Street-Tek, INC

Cell: (706) 718-3883
e...@street-tek.com

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Re: Bambu tc
Date: 2025-11-20 12:17
 From: Bryan Eckert <bigyel...@gmail.com>
To: Ed Street <black...@gmail.com>

Ed I've been building printers since the rep-rap days. I've built
delta printers from scratch. Been there, done that. Big deal. Then 3+
years ago I happened to by chance back a kickstarter that looked
interesting. Months before it went on sale to the general public I had
an X1C sitting on my workbench. It's serial number is below 100.

Frankly, that machine completely killed my interest in tinkering
because it gave me the time I used to spend fixing, building and
tuning printers and gave me far more time designing and modeling (and
rapid prototyping). I fully expected the AMS unit to fail, yet here
mine is 3 years later still working like the day it arrived. So
forgive me if the "complexity" argument is falling on deaf ears as
I've heard that before. From myself. Meanwhile countless thousands of
hours later, still humming.

And while I realize I'm sounding here like a full on fanboi, I
actually do give plenty of criticism to Bambu. So much so I've been
called a hater on places like Reddit. THOSE are fanbois. Hell, my X1C
doesn't even run Bambu firmware anymore because they pissed me off
with the whole fiasco in sending files through Orca so I wiped it and
put on X1Plus and added the expander board for ethernet. But just as
I'll criticize Bambu, I'll defend their products when I see criticism
that maybe isn't fully justified.

And honestly - I think it's you guys that seem to be missing the point
of the machine. For someone like me, who regularly changes out hotends
to smaller and larger sizes - Vortek is perfect. Yeah - I wanted
something that swapped hotends. I was in the mindset "toolchanger or
nothing". Then once I saw it operating I realized I was wrong. Because
now I won't need to concern myself with swapping those nozzles, or
spending the time to swap those nozzles which will free me up for even
more of my extremely limited time modeling and prototyping. That's not
laziness Ed, it's efficiency.

And as for our work machines, we've already ordered a few to
complement our H2D's. Our H2D's have already completely replaced the
machines that cost 2X as much (Method carbons). All of them have
multiple AMS units, and each AMS unit is loaded with different
materials we use. We don't have to keep track of material running out,
we just send print jobs. We don't have to unload and load a new
filament, it's already in the AMS. We just send the print job. If it
runs out mid print, it just keeps printing. We have went from what
started as cost savings (well near a million per year) to printing
machine parts for our sister plants, and prototyping for customers (of
which I will post a project here soon). The H2C's will allow us to do
that faster because we won't be swapping nozzles, it will simply be
automated. Again - _efficiency. _

Those are real, tangible benefits to an AMS/Vortek system that I think
you guys are simply ignoring.

BTW - fantastic conversation here. We should have the H2C here at work
in sometime early December, as it's shipping on the 25th apparently. I
will have some reviews and thoughts for you!

On Wed, Nov 19, 2025 at 9:57 PM Ed Street <black...@gmail.com>

> effective a system as the Prusa XL _in my opinion_. A material or

> [1].

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