It becomes a Class 4 machine with accessories
Fit the riser base or the auto-feed and the enclosure is no longer complete. That changes it from Class 1 to Class 4, requiring CO₂ safety eyewear rated for 10.6 µm and intended for trained users.
Launched 22 September 2026
Bambu Lab's first machine that isn't a 3D printer cuts 18 mm plywood and 20 mm acrylic in a single pass, aligns its own mirrors, and lands well under what an enclosed CO₂ cutter of this size has historically cost. Here is the full specification, the caveats the first reviewers hit, and what to sort out before one arrives.
Pre-order now, delivery estimated around 6 November 2026. That is about a month behind the October date quoted in international coverage, so plan for November if you are ordering here. Elsewhere it is US$2,499 excluding tax, €2,499 including tax, and £2,249.
Store link is a referral link. Buying through it may earn you a first-order discount and credits me a referral, at no extra cost to you. It doesn't change anything written here.
Published by the manufacturer at launch and on the Australian store listing. Performance figures are their own measurements, taken at maximum settings, and no independent long-term testing exists yet.
| Laser | 55 W CO₂, sealed glass tube |
|---|---|
| Work area | 600 × 300 mm, or stock to 3,000 mm with the conveyor |
| Cutting capacity | 18 mm black walnut plywood, 20 mm acrylic, single pass |
| Engraving speed | Up to 1,000 mm/s at 20,000 mm/s² acceleration |
| Optical alignment | Automatic. A toolhead sensor recalibrates the path in about a minute |
| Positioning | TriSense: cameras, lasers and XY encoders, accurate to 0.2 mm |
| Motion | Vibration compensation to remove residual shake after a turn |
| Cuts | Wood, clear acrylic, leather, paper, fabric |
| Engraves | Glass, stone, coated metals |
| Extraction | Crossflow — air in one side, smoke out the other |
| Safety | Class 1 enclosed. Lid-open stop, flame detection, emergency stop |
| Control | On-machine touchscreen, no computer required |
| Materials | Automatic recognition of Bambu Lab material, with settings applied |
| Sold separately | Riser base, rotary, medium and long focus lenses, conveyor, vision encoder, fire suppression |
None of these are reasons not to buy it. They are the things worth knowing before you do, drawn from the first hands-on reviews and the fine print on the listing.
Fit the riser base or the auto-feed and the enclosure is no longer complete. That changes it from Class 1 to Class 4, requiring CO₂ safety eyewear rated for 10.6 µm and intended for trained users.
On a machine that aligns its own mirrors, swapping focal lenses by hand is the ergonomic outlier. Reviewers consistently named it the main annoyance.
Hands-on reviews describe noise that wants a workshop or dedicated room. This is not a machine for the corner of a home office.
Lenses, riser, rotary, conveyor, vision encoder and the fire suppression system are separate purchases. Price the ones you would actually use before deciding.
The local estimate is around 6 November, roughly a month after the first international shipments. Pre-order dates move in both directions.
Nobody has run one through a full tube. Tube life, mirror servicing intervals and real consumable costs are all still projections.
A CO₂ machine doesn't carry a laser diode around on a gantry. It fires a fixed glass tube at the back of the case and walks the beam to the work with mirrors. Every one of those mirrors has to be aligned, and until now that has meant test shots, thermal paper and patience.
As sold and closed, the R1 is a Class 1 device with a lid-open stop, flame detection and an emergency stop. Fit the riser base or the auto-feed and the enclosure is no longer complete, which makes it Class 4 — the category that requires rated eyewear and trained operation. If you go that way, the glasses matter, and the ones from a diode laser are not the ones.
None of this depends on the machine, so it can be dealt with while you wait for the delivery estimate to firm up.
Crossflow extraction still has to exhaust somewhere. Work out the duct run, or the filter unit and its replacement cartridges, before the machine is sitting in the way.
Glass CO₂ tubes are happiest with coolant in the 18–22 °C band, and a Queensland garage in February is not that. Somewhere shaded and ventilated beats somewhere convenient.
Closed and stock it is Class 1 and you need none. Add the riser or auto-feed and you need glasses rated for 10.6 µm — not the ones that came with a blue diode.
Never cut PVC or vinyl. It releases chlorine gas that damages your lungs and corrodes the machine from the inside. Know what unlabelled offcuts actually are.
Flame detection and an emergency stop are real improvements, not a substitute for attending the machine. Keep a blanket and extinguisher in reach and clear scrap between jobs.
The tube is a wear item rated in hours, and lenses and mirrors need cleaning and eventual replacement. Price the running cost, not just the purchase.
$3,849 including GST, shipping estimated around 6 November. Price the accessories you would actually use before committing — lenses, the riser base and the conveyor are separate purchases and move the real total more than most people expect.
See current pricing and stockReferral link. May earn you a first-order discount, credits me a referral.
The interesting number isn't 55 watts, it's 55 watts at this price. An enclosed 45 W Glowforge Pro HD sits at US$7,999, and the nearest rival on specification and price is xTool's P2 line. Compare carefully, though: the Australian figure includes GST while the US one excludes tax, so headline prices across regions are not like for like.
Worth keeping straight that this is not an upgrade path from the laser modules that bolt onto the H2 printers. Those are 10 W and 40 W blue diodes at 455 nm, doing different work on different materials. Clear acrylic is the cleanest illustration — a blue beam passes straight through it, a CO₂ beam is absorbed and cuts.
The H2D ships with an optional diode laser module. Engraving and cutting bolted onto a printer, and effectively the market test for everything that followed.
A teaser page appears: a beam cutting a logo from light timber, a September window, no specifications.
A seven-second animation lights a CO₂ tube and ends on the launch date.
Launch and pre-orders. 55 W CO₂, 600 × 300 mm, self-aligning mirrors, US$2,499 and $3,849 AUD.
Current Australian delivery estimate. Local orders land about a month after the first international machines, so early reviews should arrive first.
No. This is an independent site with no affiliation to Bambu Lab. For official information, pricing and support, go to bambulab.com or the Bambu Lab store. Everything here is drawn from the launch materials, the store listing and published reviews.
The specifications are public but the machines are not in hands yet. Australian delivery is estimated around 6 November, so international reviews from real owners will land before your unit would. If you have paying work waiting, the numbers justify moving now. If you are curious rather than committed, waiting costs you a few weeks and buys you actual evidence.
Different wavelengths, different jobs. The H2 modules are 10 W and 40 W blue diodes at 455 nm. A blue beam passes straight through clear acrylic; a CO₂ beam at 10.6 µm is absorbed, so it cuts it. CO₂ also cuts thicker timber faster and with less edge charring.
Against the alternatives in this class, the hardware is priced aggressively — an enclosed 45 W Glowforge Pro HD is US$7,999. The honest caveat is that cross-region comparisons mislead, because the Australian price includes GST while the US price excludes tax, and the accessories are extra.
A store referral link. Buying through it may give you a discount on a first order and credits me a referral, at no extra cost to you. It is what pays for this page. It does not change what is written here, which is why the caveats section exists at all. The link is here if you want to use it.
$3,849 AUD, GST includedPre-order, delivery estimated around 6 November
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