The Bambu Lab R1 is a dedicated laser, but it borrows a lot of ideas from Bambu’s 3D printers, and that’s what makes it interesting to me. I start with the bed size and where it sits at launch, then get into the automatic mirror alignment and the calibration behavior I ran into during setup.
From there, I use the camera to lay out jobs and run cuts and engravings on three projects: an engraved clock, a clear acrylic tracing board, and a six-layer mountain sign.
I also talk about how the R1 sits next to the 80W laser I already have, plus the conveyor, riser, rotary support, filtration, and exhaust.
The biggest limitation for me is Bambu Suite. The hardware takes a lot of the manual setup off your plate, but the software can feel restrictive if you’ve been running lasers for a while, so I talk through what I’d like to see change.