I’ve finally reached the stage in life where my games room is becoming worryingly close to a real-life version of my favorite game – Satisfactory.

There are 3D printers. There is a UV printer. There are electronics, bits of wood, acrylic sheets, soldering irons and enough half-finished projects lying around that, should civilization collapse tomorrow – which is certainly not beyond the realms of possibility, I would probably be able to manufacture replacement arcade cabinet parts but still somehow be unable to find a decent screwdriver.

The arrival of the biggest box I have ever received from Bambu Lab, containing the new R1 has not helped.

You will find plenty of videos already on the Tube about setup and what getting it running entails, so I won’t bore you with that, rather this will take a look at what you can (and can’t) do with such a new piece of technology

This is Bambu Lab’s first standalone laser cutter and engraver and, rather than cautiously dipping a toe into the market with a little diode laser for putting your name on a wooden drinks coaster, it has gone straight for a 55W CO2 machine. More of this later, but this has been a bit of a holy grail for me.

The R1 is capable of properly cutting wood and acrylic rather than merely engraving surfaces, and clear acrylic isn’t a problem in the way it is for typical blue diode lasers. Bambu rates it for cutting up to 20mm acrylic, while wood cutting reaches 15mm black walnut plywood with the supplied short-focus lens and up to 18mm using the optional medium or long-focus lenses. In reality, you will probably be cutting much thinner, and probably should, as these measurements will push the machine and its capabilities to its extremes, but that’s what BL says it’s capable of.

Yes, I have been making cool stuff for the games room with it. Of course I have. But the project that has really convinced me of what the R1 can do is considerably more ambitious: I am building a flight-sim cockpit – something I have been working on in the background for a while, but the R1 finally allows me to complete the final pieces of my nerd jigsaw.

Suddenly, this isn’t a machine for making decorations. It’s a machine for making parts that let me pretend I am in a plane, playing something like DCS World.

Bambu Lab R1 specifications

At the heart of the R1 is a 55W CO2 laser operating across a 600 x 300mm workspace. Maximum movement speed is 1,000mm/s, acceleration tops out at 20,000mm/s² and the standard short-focus lens produces a quoted 0.11mm spot size. The machine itself measures 940 x 560 x 200mm and weighs 33.5kg, so this is desktop hardware only in the sense that you need a bloody substantial desktop.

The headline specs are:

  • 55W CO2 laser
  • 600 x 300mm standard working area
  • Up to 600 x 3,000mm using the optional Conveyor
  • Maximum movement speed of 1,000mm/s
  • 20,000mm/s² maximum acceleration
  • 0.11mm spot with the supplied short-focus lens
  • Up to 15mm black walnut plywood with the standard lens
  • Up to 18mm black walnut plywood with optional lenses
  • Up to 20mm acrylic
  • Automatic focusing
  • Automatic laser alignment
  • Dual-camera positioning
  • Wi-Fi and USB connectivity
  • Bambu Suite software
  • Class 1 laser operation in its standard enclosed configuration
How much does the Bambu Lab R1 cost?

The R1 costs £2,249 in the UK, with the standard machine including the short-focus lens. The Riser Base, Conveyor, Rotary Attachment, Vision Encoder, alternative lenses, E1 Pro Air Purifier and automatic fire-extinguishing system are all optional.

That last bit is worth keeping in mind because you can quite quickly turn a £2,249 machine into something significantly more expensive. Bambu was kind enough to supply all these bits, including the fire suppression system – presumably my reputation for nearly burning down my house a few times already had gone before me.

This feels like a Bambu Lab machine

If you have used one of Bambu Lab’s 3D printers, the philosophy behind the R1 will make immediate sense to you. That’s probably why you are here: you want a machine that just works, rather than pissing about tweaking. Tweaking is fun, but so its making things.

Bambu’s real trick with 3D printing wasn’t inventing 3D printing. It was taking away a remarkable amount of the crap that people previously accepted as part of 3D printing.

Bed levelling, calibration and endless tinkering gradually became things the machine largely dealt with itself.

The R1 attempts exactly the same thing with CO2 lasers.

Traditional CO2 machines rely on mirrors to bounce the laser beam from the stationary tube to the moving cutting head. Keeping that optical path properly aligned is rather important, and historically it has also been one of those wonderfully irritating jobs that separates owning a machine from actually using it.

The R1 has an automatic laser-alignment system that measures the beam, detects misalignment and corrects the optical path automatically. Bambu says the process takes around a minute, which we found to be generally accurate. Try doing it yourself on another machine, and it won’t take a minute to complete the job.

It is precisely the kind of feature I appreciate because I am primarily interested in what comes out of the machine, rather than deriving spiritual fulfilment from spending Saturday afternoon aligning mirrors. Now, believe me when I say I like fiddling with alignment as much as the next dork, but sometimes you just want to work on a project.

There’s automatic focusing too, while Bambu’s TriSense system combines cameras, laser measurement and encoders to understand the material’s position, surface height and the movement of the cutting head.

Put a piece of material on the bed, capture it with the camera and you can position your artwork over the actual object rather than working entirely from measurements and crossed fingers.

It sounds like a small thing until you start making parts where holes, cut-outs and engravings have to go exactly where you intended.

Like, say, cockpit panels.

This isn’t new tech so much, but elsewhere in the universe, it certainly hasn’t worked as well as it does here. I’m not surprised at this; this is a Bambu Lab product after all.

Building a flight simulator with a laser cannon

Now back to the project that my wife hates me for the most – My flight-sim cockpit project is exactly the sort of job that makes the R1 make sense if you like creating things from literal scratch.

A cockpit control panel sounds simple until you actually attempt to make one. You need the external shape. Then you need perfectly positioned holes for switches. Cut-outs for displays. Mounting points. Labels. Perhaps recessed layers. Maybe transparent or translucent acrylic underneath for backlighting.

You can make all of this manually, obviously. A drill, jigsaw, files, templates and an abundance of patience will eventually get you there.

Alternatively, you can draw the panel on a computer and have the R1 manufacture it and that’s the considerable difference right here.

Acrylic is particularly interesting for this. Because this is a CO2 laser, clear acrylic can be cut properly, opening up loads of possibilities for instrument panels, bezels, illuminated labels and layered assemblies that simply aren’t practical with many diode machines.

The first time I got sent a laser cutter, I didn’t know this. I was expecting to be cutting white and clear acrylic to my heart’s content, and I ended up engraving a few slate coasters and selling it instead.

For cockpit construction, I’ve found myself looking at objects around the house differently.

A sheet of material is no longer just a sheet of material. It is 15 switch panels, four brackets and two MFD surrounds. Even the kitchen baking trays aren’t as safe as they once were.

And because the laser is effectively doing the manufacturing from a digital design, revisions become far less painful.

Hole 2mm too far to the left? Change the drawing. Want another panel? Run it again. Decide six months from now that the landing-gear panel needs rebuilding? The file is still sitting on the PC.

All of this is less sexy than watching a CO2 laser vaporise its way through acrylic, but for serious projects that take months to build out, it’s super important.

Add a 3D printer alongside it – like the brand new one from Bambu Lab I have spent unboxing today, and things become even more intriguing. Print the structural pieces, knobs, enclosures and brackets; laser-cut the flat panels, windows and faces; then combine everything together. And if you have access to a Eufymake E1, you can literally do pretty much everything.

This is where the idea of a little personal fabrication workshop stops sounding quite so stupid and rapidly moves into divorce territory.

Then there is all the completely unnecessary stuff

Naturally, I haven’t restricted myself to serious aerospace engineering while waiting for the all from Boeing.

The games room has become something of a playground for the R1. This is an absurdly good machine for signs, arcade decorations, logos, display stands, wall art, coasters, labels and all the other stuff that nobody actually needs but that makes a room feel like yours.

Wood engraving is wonderfully satisfying, but acrylic is where I think things get particularly interesting. Layer different sheets together and suddenly you’re making proper dimensional signage rather than simply engraving something onto a flat surface.

Combine that with lighting and you are halfway toward making the sort of gaming-room signs that cost silly money online.

The 600 x 300mm bed gives you enough space to think beyond tiny craft projects, too. You can fit sensible-sized components in there rather than spending your life dividing designs into small sections.

And if 300mm in the feed direction isn’t enough, things get slightly bonkers if you have the space – I do not.

Bambu’s optional Conveyor expands the potential processing area to 600 x 3,000mm. That’s three metres. You could conceivably start producing pieces of furniture, enormous signs or full-length structural panels.

It requires the optional Riser Base and a substantial amount of aforementioned free space in front of and behind the machine, but it demonstrates that the R1 isn’t really aimed at the same market as inexpensive desktop engravers.

This is a fabrication tool. If you have an Etsy business or want to start one, well, here you go.

Engraving is only half the story

There is an important distinction between a laser engraver and a laser cutter, even though the terms are frequently bundled together.

If your main goal is putting logos onto things, the R1 is almost certainly overkill.

There are drastically cheaper machines that can engrave wood, card and various coated surfaces perfectly well. The reason for buying something like the R1 is its ability to process material.

Bambu lists wood, acrylic, leather, fabric, paper, EVA foam and shell among the materials that can be cut and engraved. Glass, ceramic and coated metal can also be engraved. Bare metal is not the R1’s territory; if that is what you primarily want to work with, you are looking at different laser technology.

Having 55W available means you can get through useful thicknesses without performing endless passes, which becomes increasingly important once you’re making components rather than decorative engravings.

The supplied short-focus lens prioritises fine detail with its 0.11mm spot. Bambu also offers 0.17mm medium-focus and 0.19mm long-focus lenses, with the latter options more suited to deeper cutting.

Changing them isn’t something you’ll necessarily want to do continually, though. Unlike the almost comically streamlined experience elsewhere on the R1, physically swapping lenses involves removing multiple screws from the toolhead with your trusty Allen keys. It feels strangely old-fashioned on a machine otherwise obsessed with automating inconvenience.

Bambu Suite still has room to improve

Hardware has traditionally been only half the battle with maker equipment. There is little point having an incredible machine if the software driving it makes you contemplate throwing your PC into a canal.

Bambu Suite is recognisably part of the same ecosystem as Bambu’s 3D-printing software, and that familiarity helps tremendously.

Material placement, camera views, job preparation and machine controls are all brought into one environment, and official Bambu materials can even be recognised automatically so appropriate parameters can be applied.

There is nevertheless the feeling that the software side isn’t quite as mature as Bambu’s 3D-printing ecosystem yet.

Material presets aren’t as comprehensive as I would like, and some workflows take more clicks than they really should. That’s perhaps unsurprising for version one of a completely new Bambu product family, but it is noticeable precisely because the physical machine feels so polished.

None of it has prevented me from working.

I just expect the software experience six months from now to be better than it is today. I’ve also seen people on Reddit say that if it’s not compatible with Lightburn, they won’t be buying it. That’s not a thing so you won’t be. Bambu has been criticised extensively for its closed ecosystem, and that doesn’t change here. For me, I am fine with that. I have used Lightburn as a hobbyist and didn’t like it, nor have a need for its infinite features. I want something that just works, so hello Bambu Lab once again.

I especially don’t want to be purchasing extra software or paying for annual licences. I have enough subscriptions in my life.

You still have a powerful laser in your house

Bambu, as you would expect has put considerable effort into safety. Many Chinese companies before them have been content to ship you boxes of potential death, but the R1 goes above and beyond, although it will cost you more to get the safest set-up.

The standard enclosed R1 is rated as a Class 1 laser product and includes lid-open protection, flame detection and an emergency stop. There is also an optional automatic fire-extinguishing system.

That’s reassuring, but it shouldn’t result in complacency. You are intentionally using a 55W laser to heat materials sufficiently to burn or vaporise them. If you were in a movie, you would be a Bond villain for less.

Also, the smoke and other particles need to go somewhere. The machine includes extraction hardware for venting outside, while Bambu sells its E1 Pro Air Purifier for installations where external ventilation isn’t convenient. Some materials should never be laser-processed at all because of the gases they can release. Don’t cut vinyl for example.

And a laser cutter should not be treated like a printer where you press Start and disappear to the pub. The machine has flame detection for a reason, and while this has a couple of sensitivity settings, I don’t know why you would ever want to turn that to low just to avoid the occasional annoying beep.

Safety-wise, there is another important wrinkle if you’re eyeing the Conveyor or Riser Base. Once configured in ways that open the enclosure, the R1 no longer maintains its standard Class 1 configuration and is treated as Class 4, requiring appropriate CO2-laser eye protection and significantly greater precautions. The R1 is safest in its default setting – you do not want the laser escaping the box unless you really know what you are doing.

That’s worth understanding before going mad buying every accessory. Fortunately, for all but the keenest of makers, it probably won’t be a consideration.

The expensive part is wanting everything

The £2,249 starting price initially looks pretty competitive for what the R1 is.

The danger comes from accessories. Here is how my brain works:

  • I can absolutely see myself wanting the Riser Base.
  • Then obviously the Conveyor would be useful.
  • The Rotary Attachment would be great.
  • The Vision Encoder sounds sensible.
  • And perhaps the air purifier.
  • And if we’re spending this much money, the automatic fire extinguisher seems like something worth having.

You see where this is going.

The Vision Encoder is an especially interesting upgrade for precision work. Bambu quotes positioning accuracy of under 0.2mm with the standard positioning system, while the optional Vision Encoder allows absolute motion accuracy of under 0.1mm across 600mm.

For a decorative wooden sign, I couldn’t care less. For a complicated cockpit panel whose holes need to line up with components mounted behind it, even if it’s just for me?

Now I care.

That is the R1 all over. You can start with the basic machine, but it is easy to discover an accessory that suddenly makes perfect sense for the particular rabbit hole you’ve fallen into.

So who is the Bambu Lab R1 actually for?

Not everybody.

If you occasionally want to engrave a name onto a chopping board on your anniversary, don’t spend more than two grand on a 55W CO2 laser.

But makers are increasingly assembling workshops containing tools that would have been completely unrealistic for a home user a decade ago.

That’s where the R1 fits.

I already have 3D printing for producing physical objects and a UV printer for putting artwork directly onto surfaces. Adding a CO2 laser fills a huge gap between them because I can now accurately manufacture parts from flat materials.

I can now manufacture, in my house, pretty much everything I want.

The flight-sim cockpit is the perfect example. It is no longer a case of thinking about a panel and wondering whether I possess enough woodworking ability to craft it accurately and the machine handles the tedious part.

And once you’ve made the serious component you needed, you can spend the rest of the evening engraving penises onto a piece of walnut.

Balance, friends, balance.

Bambu Lab R1 verdict

The Bambu Lab R1 feels like Bambu applying the same thinking that made its 3D printers successful to another part of the maker world.

The 55W CO2 laser is powerful enough to turn this into a genuine fabrication machine rather than a novelty engraver. The 600 x 300mm working area is useful, acrylic support dramatically widens what you can make, and the automatic focusing, camera positioning and laser alignment strip away much of the setup traditionally associated with CO2 lasers.

Bambu Suite needs to mature, the accessories can substantially increase the final price, and anyone buying one needs to understand that laser cutting involves fumes and fire rather than treating the R1 like a particularly aggressive inkjet printer.

But I have quickly found myself designing things specifically because I now know I can make them.

That, for me, is the killer feature.

My games room was already dangerously close to becoming a workshop. Between the 3D printers, UV printing and now the R1, I think we can offic