Alright, as a model, this thing is a work of art and I'll cherish it for a long time. As a kit, this thing is a disaster. First of all, the PDF instructions are garbage. Second, the video has typos and mistakes which makes it difficult to trust in places. I had to second guess the screw length in multiple places because the measurements it said didn't make any sense for the application or the screw used in the video. Most importantly, the model kit did not come with the right screws. Almost all of the longer screws are missing so I had to purchase extra. The L2 components are prone to breaking while printing, particularly L2A. I had to increase the walls to 4 and slow printing speed down to 50% to avoid arms snapping off during the last third of the print. Some of the holes for the pins had to be manually enlarged. Some of the components are printed in multiple sizes though only one of them are used and this isn't clear until you're starting assembly. If you're not paying careful attention, it makes it look like you've missed incorporating pieces. I love it. But I sincerely doubt the vast majority of people that get this kit with their printer will ever finish it. It's a shame. With more attention to detail and quality control of the kit components, this could be something really special. As it stands, this is incredibly frustrating borderline garbage that might, if you're extremely patient and careful, be something lovely.

I just completed this assembly. It is running and very much fun to watch. Thank you McMaven for your work. Printer: X1C as delvered. Filament: Bambu Silk My experience: Not an easy build. Part breakage and under sized holes are a pain. Several parts were reprinted. Pushing bearings into bores can cause layer seperation. Printed bearing shafts can break easily in bending or tension. Small parts seperate. All mating components seem to line up with no clearance or interference issues. Nice job there. There is a utube and a pdf to study. Yes there is some ambiguity in the information but enough information to complete the build. Patience. As for my #107 Bambu kit it came missing 6 screws. No spares. Motor was wired correctly. Improvement: Documentation. Part design for strength. And Bambu could supply a complete set of parts! A difficulty rating would help some builders. This assembly is a great effort by McMaven. Not an easy build, but a fun model to conquer and watch. Thanks again, Mike@dadstrainshop

McMaven! You've done amazing work here. I'm a mechanical engineer so this is a very fun - and challenging - build and I've learned a lot. This was the gateway drug for me to start looking into mechanical watch movements. I'm using the Bambu motor/hardware kit and didn't find it to be as bad as so many others. A few spare screws would be great though. BTW, part fit was excellent in most instances... very little work to be done in terms of massaging things for fitup using your designs w/ a Bambu X1C. A few lessons learned I'd like to pass along to everyone else: - All actual handmade mechanical watch mechanisms require tuning by the maker, so there is no way that McMaven or Bambu can make this plastic one perfect, especially since no two printers/filament combinations are exactly alike. Get ready to tune... that is part of the process and journey in this build. Don't give Bambu or McMaven a bad review because you couldn't get it to run. There are many variables in this mechanism, any one of could prevent it from running. The good news is that with patience and diagnostics, it will go. Getting it to run indefinitely is probably not an option for me... If I can hit 5 or 10 minutes, I'll be happy. - The escapement has to have absolutely zero resistance. If you're having issues, start here. Thankfully, it's only a 7 screw operation to get the L1 assembly out. The escapement should be hand-tuned, refined, then refined some more. Then it should be tested at all stages of assembly to ensure that the freedom of balance wheel rotation is maintained. It should oscillate a lot once the balance spring is installed prior to being mounted in the greater assembly. - Isolate variables when tuning. Don't change more than one parameter at a time. - Don't use PETG for the L1 timing spring. This threw everything off for the timing. I have since changed back to PLA with much better results. - Mark the gears in each set so they can be identified because when it comes time to tune, there can be some mix/match in the gearing ratios as long as they aren't too tight and there is adequate engagement. For instance 10-57 is a bit too slow (.175 ratio) but 11-56 is too fast (.196 ratio). A better ratio for my model is at 10-56 (.179 ratio). - Add timing marks to your L2 torque spring. I've had decent results fine tuning for longer run durations by tightening or loosening this spring. There are two ways to tighten the spring: by removing it from the hex shaft and winding before placing it back on. This allows for 60 deg winding increments. Or, by unscrewing the loading plate pin and tightening to the next slot. This allows for 45 deg tightening increments. Some permutation of these could help you fine tune the torque spring as required, though the torque spring doesn't have near the effect of tuning other variables like gear ratios. - One thing I didn't expect and only discovered today was was that during installation of the L1 module, the L1 balance spacer was getting pushed down along the balance shaft by the frame base... this would cause it to just touch the balance shaft bearing and take away the slightest amount of the balance wheel's ability to freewheel. This caused very rough ticking which translated back to having to compensate for it with faster gears to try and keep it running. But the balance wheel would lose energy and the mechanism would stop (and I'd have to quickly unplug). However, once I discovered that issue, I filed down the L1 balance spacer to provide a gap between it and the frame base. I guess I could have alternately drilled out the ID of the L1 balance spacer to make it have a looser fit (it's currently a tight fit) on the balance shaft, but it works doing what I did. - L3 bearing race inner must be printed in two pieces - no supports - and glued together with superglue and screws as alignment pins if you want it to run smoothly. Be cautious not to overtighten the bearing race per the PDF. It's helpful to run the turret/base assembly before mounting in the ball to ensure it is smooth and doesn't have any points that load up the motor.

I have tried printing this 4 times. Each time is breaks in the same place. I have tried adjusting print settings, slowing it down, everything. Pretty bummed because this is the kit that came with my A1, but I can get past a couple of the parts. UPDATE: I have given up on this project. I have wasted so much filament trying to print an item that Bambu is providing files for. The true bummer is that I paid for this kit and now I am not only out the filament money, but money for the kit as well.

I have big problems printing the bigger Sphere on the A1. It fails every time, because one of the arches breaks. I have tried a lot of things, but nothing seems to help....

well got it to work just after many hours, yes it only works anticlockwise, so motor is wired wrong, need to swap the wires, still cant get the balance wheel working even tough it assembled correctly, yes i took it apart and reassembled it a few times. overall very disappointed , the instructions need to be better, and the video needs more detail as the video is what peaple will use to assemble it nice try Bambu but for the users your aiming at no good, try again, a lot of users that buy this kit or got it for free will be disappointed

Oh my friend, how complicated it was! Your explanations, photos and videos weren't bad, but it lacked a bit of clarity. I still managed to do it, thanks for the experience.

It ran the first time I plugged it in, though not smoothly because I didn’t secure a rod properly and it became disconnected from another part. This is an advanced print and I think many of the complaints are from people who do not have the skills or experience or patience required. One must be able to print dimensionally accurate parts and be able to troubleshoot assembly issues. I found the video to be adequate for assembly though it could definitely be better. Time to fix the loose rod!

Awesome model and design. Not really sure what everyone was complaining about, although there were a few missing steps in the documentation but not hard to figure out. I felt like everything was adequately explained in the pdf and notes. People just don't read I guess...Also I do wish there was less use of supports, but I understand with the complex design it's unavoidable. I'll be making another one with different colors

Very cool model, bambu labs assembly video is good for just putting the thing together but I don't think they spend enough time emphasizing how to get it to run properly. I made this video to hopefully help someone else who may be struggling with getting it to tick properly: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_LVcZMeljq4