Snapmaker's 3D printers don't always follow trends. The original Snapmaker was a small three-in-one machine that could be a 3D printer, laser cutter or CNC, depending on the type of tool head you use. For years, the company has iterated on that idea, culminating in the much larger Artisan model. After that, Snapmaker tried a dual-nozzle 3D printer called the J1. In my review of the J1, I liked that the nozzles could print two models at the same time, reducing the time it takes to print batches, but I felt the cost was prohibitive.
With the advent of multicolor systems, Snapmaker could have gone the way of Bambu Lab, Anycubic and other companies and made an AMS system to filter four colors into one nozzle, but -- true to form -- it went in another direction. The U1 is a four-tool head 3D printer that uses independent tool heads to print four different colors or even four different materials. It's a system that can work well or fail utterly. Now, Snapmaker has made a tool changer that not only works well but works out of the box with little to no setup time. I've been having fun with it for a few weeks now.
This tool is a smart way to do multimaterial printing that reduces almost all of the waste that most color systems produce. It's a joy to use and I can see it becoming a staple in many workshops this year.
James Bricknell/CNET
What's the difference between a tool changer and an AMS?
Tool changers and AMS are both mechanisms to allow a 3D printer to use different materials -- often different colors of the same material, or a material used to support a different material -- without the need to swap the filament manually.
The AMS does this by automatically loading and unloading the filament from the hot end each time a color change is needed. The advantage of the AMS is that it only requires one fairly standard hot end with a splitter on the 3D printer itself. The AMS unit, which can be bought separately, does most of the heavy lifting in this situation rather than the printer itself. The disadvantage is the large amount of waste the AMS produces. It has to purge a lot of filament from the nozzle each time it changes colors and materials to make sure they don't mix on the print itself.
The Snapmaker U1's waste, shown on the right, is far less than that of a normal AMS color 3D printer James Bricknell/CNET
A tool changer like the Snapmaker U1 circumvents the waste issue by having four separate hot ends and, therefore, four separate nozzles. This allows each nozzle to stay uncontaminated by any other material, thereby reducing the waste output to just the purge tower. This also speeds up the entire process, as the mechanical switching of the tool heads is much faster than the purging required by the AMS. I printed the same model on the Anycubic S1 and the Snapmaker U1, and though the colors are a little different, you can see that the S1's waste (pictured on the left) is far greater than the U1's.
The big disadvantages of a tool changer are the extra mechanisms that can malfunction and the price. Four tool heads mean four more areas for things to go wrong, like blockages, worn nozzles and, because the tool heads need to be swapped, a chance for them to be knocked over as they load and unload. The price is also a limiting factor as tool changers tend to be more expensive than their AMS cousins. The Snapmaker U1 is available on Kickstarter as of Aug. 19, 2025, with an early-bird price of $749 and a standard Kickstarter price of $799. Even the suggested retail price is competitive with other high-end 3D printers at $999, keeping it suitable for small businesses and hobbyists.
... continue reading