I don’t know anything about 3D printing, but I make stuff all the time. (
As background, I have done casual woodworking for ~20 years, lots of DIY, lots of tinkering with small swappable parts for making home items, I recently started using epoxies and resins to a solid effect. I’m excellent as t learning software, which is really my primary skill everything cognitive relies upon.
Would this be a good entry level device? If no, what do you recommend?
Kind of impossible to say right now, it’s not released yet. On paper it seems like a good deal, almost too good at that price point. I wouldn’t buy one until I’ve seen some reviews.
I don’t think I would recommend a printer like this as an entry point.
Go with a Prusa (any of them are good, choose the right size for you). Or if you don’t care that much about open source, check out the bambulab P1P or the other ones from them. They are very good at multi color printing.
Too soon. It needs reviews. If you’re looking to just get started, find a smaller, cheaper printer that’s a at least 6 months old and has good reviews. Most printer companies send out review units to a bunch of youtubers, so reviews should be easy for a reputable company. Don’t get a great value special from alibaba.
It’s a different skillset than woodworking. It’s very close to manufacturing/process-engineering. (Which I am IRL.) A smaller printer has fewer quirks and any mistakes are going to waste less material. It’s also cheaper, so you don’t spend a lot of money on something if you decide you don’t like it.
Most printer companies send out review units to a bunch of youtubers
Unfortunately this also means that it’s not easy to know which reviews you can trust. Even if some youtuber isn’t paid in cash for a positive review, it’s still in their interest to make the manufacturer happy so they keep getting free stuff in the future. Neither does it help that most reviews have affiliate links, so they have an additional financial incentive to convince you to buy the product.
Yep. I also like the 3D Printing Discord server, since many there have first hand experience with multiple printers. It’s of course also interesting to hear about the experience those who only own a single printer have had, but occasionally someone claims the printer they own is a great choice for beginners despite having spent hundreds, and countless hours, on fixes and upgrade to get it in a usable state :D
Looks like they’re quoting a one hour build. Having built a 2.4, let me assure you a Voron build is way over one hour. I haven’t dug through the BOM, but this seems like a pretty solid price point. It also gets some things right that the bamboo didn’t implement (like quad z motors should the need for them arise).
It’s “mostly assembled” in a flatpack. Gantry is one piece, verticals are one piece, base is assembled w/wiring complete, top is assembled. No enclosure panels yet, says they’re supposed to be available “soon after launch”. Just a ton of screws to put in. The frame is custom, purpose built, not the normal 2020 extrusions used in a “real” Voron build.
I only got about 40-ish minutes into Nero3D’s “livestream” (it’s 3 hours long), but so far one of his complaints is that it’s a proprietary “Bambu type” quick change hotend, and not something that takes existing nozzles
Are you in it to tinker with the printer and go through the build or are you in it to print things? For the former, go Voron. For the later, this seems like a good option. My 2.4 build was easily 40+ hours including figuring out what to print, assembly, wiring, etc. That said, if you want to fiddle Voron is great. There are tons and tons of user mods, an active community (discord and Voron design forums), etc. You’ll learn a ton building a printer from a ton of loose parts.
Amazing how that Saturday I set aside to build a Voron2 turned into a weeklong adventure. Then the mods, troubleshooting of mods, ERCF, and building of a Trident consumed so much more time. I guess that is just Voron Life.
Tempted to do both. As much as I hated tinkering/fixing/breaking my E3V2 and the absolute bliss of my Bambu, the larger form factor, and having two of them is… going to kill my wallet.
I haven’t needed to tinker with my Voron much, but I am a fiddler. Having a very capable baseline motivated me to put in the effort to go from a 90% printer to a 95% printer. Even without fiddling, it’s been a ton better than my old i3 clone ever was in terms of quality, speed, and reliability.
I’ve only had one thing I had to fix in over 1,000 print hours and that was a wire break due to me running some ABS insulated wire in the cable chains.
I’m watching Nero3d’s unboxing stream, he’s saying that Sovol offered donations but the Voron team declined it. Says he’s on the Voron team, but idk if that’s true or not
They did not outright declined it. They policy is not to engage wt commercial entities. Therefore, there is no contract or agreement of any kind. Nevertheless, Solvo may just voluntary donate to the project, for the PR.
Yeah the further I got into his video, he seemed to relent a little, saying he didn’t know what they (Sovol) were doing, but they (Voron team) refuse to work with / endorse anyone in a commercial kind of way. His initial statement early in that video was that they outright declined it though. Guess that’s the problem with unedited livestreams
Neat! I’ve been looking for an CoreXY for sub 1k. Also open source and fast - very exciting! I’ll wait for the reviews to see if it holds up to the promises.
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