We're a 3D printing household now, and our favorite beginner printer is $100 off for Cyber Monday

I used to gaze at 3D printing from afar [[link]] and think "that's pretty neat." Now that my partner has taken up 3D printing as a hobby, I gaze at it from much closer. Her favorite printer, the during Black Friday weekend and into Cyber Week, and it's an easy recommendation if you're 3D printing-curious.

It all started when I got my partner a different beginner-friendly 3D printer, an Ender, for Christmas a few years back. She didn't take to it immediately, partly because 3D printers are finicky machines that like to look like they're working when they really aren't, but as we'd later [[link]] find out, the machine I'd picked out was part [[link]] of the problem, too.

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This year, my partner picked up a Bambu Lab A1 Mini during a different sale, and the difference was night and day. Her prints came out looking cleaner, produced fewer errors, and she preferred the software that came with it. She went from struggling to print a single piece of her Lethal Company cosplay to spitting out nifty little chip clips, desk toys (for me), and a full-on model of Dodger Stadium with zero drama.

It's a really great machine, and this deal in particular comes with a major bonus: that AMS Lite attachment. It's a lot more than just a holder for more filament spools. The stand allows you to feed multiple filament types into the printer at once, opening the door to multi-color prints.

The A1 Mini doesn't do everything she wants, though. The printing bed itself is pretty small, so you can't tackle any project bigger than, say, a two-liter bottle of Coke. For more printing space, you have to spring for the standard (also on sale for $299) or the harder-core (on sale for $549), the latter of which has an enclosed printing area that ensures outside temperature spikes can't disrupt prints.

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