Choosing Filament

There are lots of different plastics that you can print. For the most part, unless you’re doing something special (you know who you are!), you can use PLA. It prints quickly and relatively easily. The rest of this guide will assume you’re using PLA.

Automatic Filament Changer (AMS)

Our printer is equipped with a Bambu Lab AMS, which can automatically load and unload filament from the printer. To see the filament colors that are currently loaded, open Bambu Studio on the laptop and choose “Sync Info”:

Next choose “Continue to sync filaments”:

Now the filaments labeled 1-4 should reflect the actual colors of the filament in the AMS. Ignore the filament labeled 5; this only applies when printing from an external spool that is not loaded into the AMS.

If one of these colors is correct for what you want, then continue on to Slicing Your Model. Otherwise, read on for how to change filament!

Changing Filament

On the printer’s screen, select the third icon on the left, select the filament that you want to unload based on its location inside the AMS, and tap “Unload”.

Rotate the two latches on the AMS and swing open the lid:

Locate the filament that you selected on the screen earlier. Gently push on the gray tab to release the spool and turn the spool backwards to pull the filament out of the system.

Lift the spool out of the AMS and place in the new one, with the filament coming over the top.

Important: after removing the old spool, thread the filament through the two holes on the side of the spool to prevent it from becoming tangled. Then place it in the dry box. Do not skip this step!!! Tangled filament can cause print failures.

Configuring Filament

Some filaments will be automatically detected in the printer. If the screen shows a color and type for the filament you inserted, you’re all set! Otherwise, if it shows a question mark, tap on the filament, click “Edit”, and enter the brand,type, and color of the filament. If you’re not sure of the brand, you can just choose “Generic”.

Sync Bambu Studio

Go through the steps at the beginning of this guide again to sync the filaments from the printer into Bambu Studio.