The Tools We Keep Next to Our Bambu Printers

Flush cutters are the first add-on most owners name; RandomKhaos uses his for "cleaning up the print, removing supports, cutting filament" (Bambu forum). Note that the "Filament Cutter" in the P2S toolbox is a spare blade for the extruder's built-in cutter, not a hand tool (P2S packing list). Olias warns of "many awful knockoffs" (Bambu forum); the pair we link is an inexpensive mshandto two-pack, not a name brand.

PTFE tube: Bambu lists scissors, nippers or a knife and asks for a perpendicular cut whose cross-section is a perfect circle (Bambu wiki), and MZip avoids "cutters that squeeze the teflon and force it out of round" (Bambu forum). If your cutters leave the tube end oval, switch to a blade.

Before any blade, try the flex: lkraus says flexing the cooled plate "will usually make the parts pop off" (Bambu forum). Bambu's steel blade splits owners. On textured PEI, s.3 warns "That blade will gouge the pei" (Bambu forum), and more generally lkraus finds it "just too easy to scratch a plate with metal blades" (Bambu forum). Locoman, by contrast, has scraped his PEI plate with Bambu's blade for half a year without changing its texture (Bambu forum). In a Cool Plate thread, an X1C owner took a chunk out of his sheet (Bambu forum), while Luukmaster has no trouble at "a very shallow angle to the bed" with very little pressure (Bambu forum). Plastic razor blades get the most praise: Olias says his "glides over the build-plate with no marks or scratches", and Ks_kennedy has used them for over two years and says they "never damage the bed" (Bambu forum).

The INTARSIO kit we link has both, per the listing: a 0.2 mm plastic razor scraper and three steel scrapers. On textured PEI, use the plastic blade first and steel only when it is not enough. Rules for the other plates are under Fit and settings.

Bambu's wiki asks for tweezers again and again, from hotend blobs to PTFE connectors (see Fit and settings). JonRaymond keeps "a set of fine tweezers next to the printer" to grab ooze (Bambu forum). Bullocks uses thin stamped tweezers only for "holding/locating something"; for toolhead connectors he and Olias use sturdier repair-kit tweezers or needle-nose pliers (Bambu forum). In the iFixit set we link (iFixit), the blunt pair is the closest match to Bambu's flat tweezers.

Several owners report the stock keys failing. lkraus calls the included 1.5 and 2 mm wrenches "made of dried out cheese" that wear out after one or two uses and then damage screws; jonesq "almost ruined" his printer with the 1.5 (Bambu forum). Josh-3D notes that stripped screws "seem to happen a lot with the filament cutter arm" (Bambu forum).

The set we link is Wera's 950/9 Hex-Plus: nine chrome-plated L-keys from 1.5 to 10 mm, including the H2.5 that Bambu adds to the H2S Laser Full Combo (H2S packing list). Wera says the Hex-Plus profile reduces rounding out and allows up to 20 percent more torque (Wera). On hotend screws, "ALWAYS go with too little torque" (just4memike, Bambu forum).

Bambu's wiki asks for a caliper on AMS feeding errors such as "filament too thin": its HMSHealth Management System: the error codes a Bambu printer shows, each with a wiki page that explains the fix. page gives the normal diameter as 1.75 mm +/- 0.03 mm (A1 HMS page). It also asks for one for elephant footA first layer squashed wider than the rest of the part, which leaves a lip along the bottom edge. compensation, which wants at least 0.01 mm resolution and warns that pressing the jaws too hard on the soft first layer gives too small a reading (Bambu wiki). RandomKhaos uses his "all the time, especially when I'm designing parts" (Bambu forum). Whether cheap calipers are accurate enough is debated (Bambu forum); Kynup gives 0.01 mm resolution and 0.02 mm accuracy for the model we link (Kynup). The Amazon title also says IP54, but Kynup's own page for this 6-inch model only says "Screen Splash Proof".

No Bambu wiki procedure we found uses a brass brush on the nozzle. Bambu's X1 guide cleans the hot nozzle with "tissue, cloth, or tweezers" (Bambu wiki), the P2S blob guide uses tweezers and paper towels (Bambu wiki), and a separate wiki page calls Bambu's Hotend Cleaning Sponge, used wet, "compatible with nozzles on all printer models" (Bambu wiki); the H2C ships with one (H2C packing list). Plenty of owners brush anyway. Bullocks uses a brass brush on the hot nozzle "every now and then" (Bambu forum), and MalcTheOracle's rules are "Take the sock off first", "Warm, not hot" and "Think toothbrush rather than saw" (Bambu forum).

The risks are real. An H2D owner brushing nozzles with the printer on saw a spark and a restart; the first reply suspects a short across the bare heater wires (Bambu forum). A P2S owner knocked off a small rubber piece while wire brushing; another owner explains that it keeps the wires safe from the heating assembly (Bambu forum). Never use a brush harder than the nozzle (How-To Geek). The YiwerDer set we link has copper-brass heads but is sold for rust and welding slag, not for 3D printers.

The forum's standard answer to brim edges: "For the brim, get a deburring tool" (SimEyeSee, Bambu forum). Bullocks recommends one because it is "really hard to cut yourself" (Bambu forum), and 3DPrintBeginner also uses one on holes and elephant foot (3DPrintBeginner). The swivel blade has quirks: SimEyeSee notes that "one side of the blade will cut too much, while the other side cuts it just right" (same post), and Wsquared58 has gouged edges because the blade rotated in the handle (Bambu forum), so try both directions on a scrap edge first. Bambu's own finishing guide does not mention deburring tools. AFA sells the tool with 11 high-speed steel blades in total (AFA Tooling).

Files have the thinnest forum record of the nine; lkraus lists "small files" for support removal (Bambu forum). Bambu's guide to splitting large models says to "lightly sand the pegs or holes using a file or sandpaper (start with 220 grit)" when the connectors do not fit (Bambu wiki). Sandpaper covers much of the same ground, so files are a nice-to-have unless you assemble printed parts often.

Bambu's wiki says "For PLA, super glue is an ideal choice. For PETG or ABS, use a two-part epoxy" (Bambu wiki). Its finishing guide allows ordinary super glue on PLA and PETG when the joint does not need much strength, but warns that it "will crack and lose bond strength in cold environments or after long-term use" (Bambu wiki). Where CACyanoacrylate, the chemical name for super glue. fails on PLA, Eponymous explains that it "is cured by moisture and PLA is very dry", so use accelerator or a mist of water (Bambu forum). Bambu's A1 maintenance guide even uses instant glue to reattach a loose footpad (Bambu wiki). Starbond's Super Fast Thin, with a viscosity of 2 to 5 cPs, wicks into tight seams but is wrong for gaps; Starbond lists PLA, ABS, PETG and polycarbonate prints as compatible, and its 30-month shelf-life warranty applies to glue stored below 40 °F, which in practice means the fridge (Starbond). For PETG and ABS parts under load, Bambu's epoxy advice is the safer bet.