When My Bambu Lab P2S Quit Mid-Orders, a Best Buy A1 Saved the Week

Last week was the kind of week every small maker dreads. Multiple orders rolled in for the Actor Helper Controller and Prop Activator Controller — exactly the rhythm I want heading into Halloween season — and right in the middle of routine assembly, my Bambu Lab P2S decided it was done. Feeding issues turned into clogs, clogs turned into failed prints, and suddenly every Halloween prop controller order with custom engraving was on hold. This post is the honest behind-the-scenes of how it played out, what broke, and the decision I made at Best Buy that kept customers from waiting.

The Halloween Prop Controller Order Rush

Each Halloween prop controller I ship — whether it's an Actor Helper or a Prop Activator — includes a custom 3D-printed enclosure with the customer's name or prop theme engraved on the lid. That engraving step is non-negotiable. It's part of what makes a DmitriyCreations controller feel like yours, not a generic black box pulled off a shelf. So when several orders came in back-to-back, the printer was already running double shifts to keep up.

I had a stack of Halloween prop controller enclosures queued, build plates lined up, and a workflow that normally hums along. Then the P2S started skipping. First a small feeding inconsistency. Then a partial clog. Then a full clog that locked the extruder mid-print. Three failed prints in a row. Filament jammed in the hotend. The kind of mess that turns a 45-minute job into a 4-hour repair session.

Trying to Save the P2S

For most of the day I was head-down trying to revive the Bambu Lab P2S. Cold pulls, hot pulls, swapping nozzles, checking the extruder gears, inspecting the PTFE tube. Anything to get the printer back online before customers started asking where their Halloween prop controller orders were. Meanwhile, the order list wasn't getting any shorter.

Every hour I spent troubleshooting was an hour those engraved enclosures weren't getting made.

At some point I had to make a call. Continue chasing the clog and risk delaying every Halloween prop controller order on my desk, or bite the bullet and bring in backup.

The Best Buy Rescue Mission

I drove to Best Buy and walked out with a Bambu Lab A1. Not the plan I had that morning, but the right call for that moment. The A1 is the little sibling to the P2S — simpler, single-extruder, no AMS — but for printing Halloween prop controller enclosures it's more than enough. By the time I got it home, set it up, and loaded filament, I was back in business. Same evening, the A1 was printing its first DmitriyCreations enclosure, and the order queue started moving again.

The new addition to the workshop family didn't just bail me out for one day — it changed how I think about my whole production setup. Running a one-printer shop means a single point of failure can stop the entire business. Two printers means redundancy, parallel print jobs, and shorter lead times on every Halloween prop controller I ship.

P2S Back Online, Customers Made Whole

The good news: after a deeper teardown and a fresh hotend, the Bambu Lab P2S is back to normal. Both printers are now running side-by-side, splitting the workload between Actor Helper enclosures, Prop Activator housings, and custom Digital Eyes Kit accessories. Every order from last week has been built, engraved, packed, and is either out the door or finishing final assembly.

If you ordered a Halloween prop controller from me last week and noticed things moving a little slower than usual, this is why — and thank you for your patience. Every controller is getting the same hand-built, engraved-with-your-name treatment it would have if the P2S never hiccupped.

What I Learned

Three takeaways from a rough week running a Halloween prop controller workshop:

• Redundancy isn't optional for a one-person operation. A second printer pays for itself the first time the primary one quits.
• Stop and reset the plan when a tool fights you for more than an hour. I lost half a day trying to revive the P2S before swallowing my pride and getting backup. Should have made that call sooner.
• Communicate early. Customers are reasonable when they know what's going on. Silence is what kills small-business trust.

The A1 is officially part of the family now. The P2S is healthy. Orders are flowing. And every Actor Helper Controller and Prop Activator Controller heading out this week is built with the same attention to detail that started this whole thing.

If you've got a haunt project in mind and need a Halloween prop controller built and engraved for your setup, you can browse the full lineup on the products page. As always, every Halloween prop controller is hand-assembled and tested in Southern California before it ships.