Seconding the confused Voron noises. I mean, I’d be really curious to see the 3d printer firmware market share beak down, but I feel like anybody building a custom printer is going to have a far easier time with Klipper, just because of how much easier it is to get dialed in.
True, I knew that my Voron would work out to be more expensive than the leading competitor, but I also highly value the open source ethos and saw it as an opportunity to put my money where my mouth is. No regrets and I’m happy to champion it, but I do try to present other options on the field.
My broke college student days aren’t that far behind me and I can appreciate the hell out of a value option. I’m very curious what route you have in mind.
The closest I can think of is maybe the Sovol SV-08, which gets you pretty close to a v2.4, but apparently not without it’s faults (comment). I’ll own seeing the budget and immediately thinking “you could build a Voron with that”.
Alternatively, maybe doing a variation of the Ender 3 NG conversion, but I’m not sure how much traction/ review coverage that project has just yet.
In either case, it’s hard to recommend something you’ve heard of, but haven’t personally used (experience bias and all). Happy to change my mind in the face of new evidence though!
Sure, happy to help! (Plus, I’d feel really bad recommending a Voron build and then just leaving you in the dark to figure everything out). Sorry in advance for the long post though…
Yes, Klicky Switch is the probe. Mechanically, it’s pretty similar to a BL-Touch, but is way cheaper (bonus points for also being harder to break and easier to fix) since it’s just a switch and some magnets.*
Clicky Clack is a replacement for the stock door (acrylic and some VHB tape), it makes a better seal with the printer frame. Nice to have (especially if you’re trying to keep fumes down), but by no means necessary.
Belt gauges are most handy for 2.4 builds, since they run 4 belts instead of lead screws (plus 2 for the Core XY platform) that you want to have all tensioned the same, so that every motor is moving it’s corner the same amount. Technically, you can do this by plucking the belt and using the mic on your phone to measure the frequency. (More info here). The gauge is mostly just to make it easier to compare the belts against each other rather than an empirical measurement tool. Again not a need, just a nice to have. I’ve never used the Amazon gauges since I went the kit route as it was “cheaper” (I’m also reasonably sure most of the gauges on Amazon are just modified tire depth gauges, which can be had for way cheaper and with a bit of quick modeling could be relatively easily be converted into belt gauges (or maybe someone’s already done that somewhere). There’s also printed models like this or maybe this that seve the same function. In short, haven’t tried them, but anything that can give you the same measurements repeatedly should do just fine (you can always sound tension one belt, measure it and make the others match the measurement).
Whoops typo, sorry extrusion backers. These guys: steel, titanium
Not super sure about the Tridents being self leveling, I think they are, but it would kinda depend on how they’re wired up (3 independent motors vs all 3 driven off the same control signal). The 2.4’s are absolutely self leveling though- they do a probe of each corner and adjust the gantry to be as parallel to the bed as you specify( example). From there, they’ll also probe a bed mesh, just to help deal with any deviations in the bed/ plate.
Octopus is the main control board, I think they were used for commonly for a while, but I’m not sure if they’ve been superseded by something else. Plus, I don’t have one and can’t speak to it. Mini123864 looks to be the display screen (used for Klipper Screen). You’d probably want to check the kit contents to see if a Pi is included, but based on those two alone, I’d say probably not.
(Personally, it’s a big part of why I went with the LDO kit, (this is the one I bought. More expensive, but came with high quality parts, minor upgrades, and everything short of the printed parts in the box, plus Fabreeko was running a sale when I bought mine (Voron folks like to Celebrate Clee day (was 5/25 last year) in honor of one of the outstanding community members/ Voron team members (?)/ I’m not actually entirely sure))
Uhh… Slice is not particularly well liked in Voron circles. They are very litigious with their patents, which doesn’t sit well with a crowd that is open source, well, everything (previous comment of mine with more info/ links). I think remember reading somewhere that there might be some bad blood between the Voron team and Slice, but I don’t have a link/ hard proof (beyond the fact that mounts for Slice hotends aren’t officially published with the toolhead files. If your deadset, user mods exist (and slice also sells parts)). Personally, I wasn’t all that impressed with my Mosquito Magnum, especially after I managed to irrecoverably jam the heatbreak (probably my fault. the cooling fan unplugged and heatcreap took care of the rest). Online reviews of Slice’s customer service are mixed mixed, but generally skewed negative, so I wrote the hot end off as a loss (also managed to strip one of the tiny ass m2 screws that hold the thing together trying to take it apart after the aforementioned heatcreap incident), and put Slice on my do-not-buy list. The heater and thermistor were fine- I stuffed them in a Phaetus Dragonfly though (less flow, but a solidly reliable hot end, especially on an Ender 3), and decommissioned them when I noticed that the insulation had worn though on the heater.
On the Voron, I’ve been pretty happy with the Revo High Flow that came with my Kit. Well, other than the fact that nozzle clogs are a nightmare (the HF variants are very difficult to clean/ cold pull), the cost for replacements, and general lack of availability (they exist, but my go-to vendors are almost always sold out). I haven’t decided to yet (because I don’t particularly want to recalibrate everything), but I have a Phaetus neXt G as a standby if I ever get fed up with the Revo. The Phaetus Rapido is also a popular option.
Haven’t used the Orbiter either. I don’t think I had any major issues with the stock Clockwork (it’s also been a while). I think I mostly swapped in a Galileo 2 (G2E) as a way to keep a spare extruder around in case of emergency. Overall, G2E has been pretty good- prints fine, just a bit annoying to service in the rare event of a jam (I was playing with TPU), and not known to play well with the Box Turtle MMU project that I’m working on, but that’s a problem from future me (after I get it built)…
* I can’t personally vouch for it, but in the spirit of overkill, I should probably also mention the Beacon probe, which is a stupid fast Eddy current sensor (more info here) (replaces the Klicky switch/ inductive probe).
Realistically, a good sale probably keeps you on budget (all in, after tax), but if we’re fudging that a bit in the name of upgrades, this is about the route I would go if I had to do my machine over (take this with a massive grain of salt since everyone’s goals are slightly different (and also since I bought mostly of my stuff before the tarrif nonsense started)):
Fabreeko:
Pre-tax, MSRP: $1,713.21 (ideally on sale for a lower price (the kits don’t tend to get much of a discount, but sometimes they throw in free printed parts or other discounts) and maybe the Clicky Clack door + acrylic if it’s a really good sale)
AliExpress:
total ~$20
To answer your question, Slice stuff off the bat is probably unnecessary (if you’ve got money burning a hole in your pocket, there’s better value to be had in other mods). The nice part about Vorons is that everything can be upgraded pretty easily down the road, hopefully because you’ve identified a specific need or reason to upgrade.
I believe the official Voron recommendation is to build the printer stock first and then upgrade/ mod from there. Which is solid advice, the stock machines are very competent and don’t need upgrades to print well.
The only real day-1 upgrade I’d recommend is called the Klicky switch (or the PCB variant so that you don’t have to do any soldering, just crimping). The stock BoM calls for an inductive probe, which works, but is prone to thermal drift (it gets less accurate as the printer heats up, so you have to do your bed mesh at the same temperature every time). Klicky replaces it with a limit switch- generally more reliable and accurate regardless of temperature.
I might also recommend a belt tension gauge (totally not needed, but more convenient than trying to measure the sound frequency). I use a remix of this one (assembled, kit), but realistically, anything repeatable will do the trick.
Everything beyond that is going to depend heavily on your kit, printer, and needs. For example, the LDO kits actually come with the mechanical parts for the Klicky switch among other nice to haves. Or alternatively, if you’re doing a 350 2.4 and planning on long running enclosed prints (ABS/ASA), extension extrusion backers for the flying gantry may be a good idea (the steel linear rails and aluminum have different rates of thermal expansion, which can cause them to bend as the internal volume of the printer warms up), but they’re not especially necessary if you have a smaller printer or only ever work with PLA (which you can leave the door open/ panels off for).
The official Voron discord is also a phenomenal resource. Plus most vendors run their own discord servers for help/ questions (I’m partial to Fabreeko, because their customer service is above and beyond, but West3D is also really good).
The new printer, hands down (unless your goal is to push the viper beyond its limits). That kind of budget puts you far beyond entry level machines, and usually comes with marked improvements in quality, reliability, and speed. For example, with 1.5k you could probably swing one of the big Vorons 2.4 kits on sale (+printed parts), a Trident kit at retail (also with printed parts), or go the out of the box route and comfortably pick up the Core One (or go Bambu if that’s your jam).
For context, I can run prints on my 2.4 what would take something in the neighborhood of 4 times as long on my old ender 3.
Also a 2.4 owner, I bought the 350 LDO kit from Fabreeko and it was delivered back in August. Getting it assembled and dialed in was certainly a process, but aside from that it’s been an absolute workhorse (I think I’ve got something like 200+ hours of print time in; completely blows my Thessian Ender out of the water in terms of both speed and reliability). You certainly can tinker with it and make it a project printer, but they print really well stock. The only mod I’d say is anywhere near required is swapping out the magnetic bed meshing sensor, only because the sensor readings tend to drift as the sensor gets hot. You can totally work around it, by waiting for the printer to warm all the way up or cool down to ambient before printing, but I’m impatient plus the mouse switch mod (Klicky) tends to be more reliable and accurate (plus it’s temperature agnostic).
Don’t get me wrong I’ve totally modded mine: swapped out some of the plastic parts for metal ones, added a brush to clean the nozzle before my print (makes for more consistent Z heights), replaced the panel clips with snap latches, but none of it was required to make the printer print better (mostly just to make maintenance easier and partly because it looks cool).
The new hotness in the open source MMU space is ArmoredTurtle’s BoxTurtle project, which seeks to be an open source equivalent of the Bambu AMS. I’m still working on the parts for mine, but from everything I’ve seen the build is way less fiddly (and as a result more reliable) than the ERCF.
I just realized that there are some important questions that none of us are asking (it sounded like you’ve already done some research, and have an idea of what you want (or at least what you think you need), but just so that everyone’s all on that same page):
Depending on how much you value open source vs domestic production, part of me thinks that you may want to consider the Sovol SV08. Sovol is based out of China, but that printer is basically a Voron 2.4 modified for mass production (ie much of the printer comes preassembled), and because of it the printer is very open source, as in here’s the GitHub repo. My only major concern would be that the machine ships with a non-standard hot end, however I recently learned (Here) that the community already has a mod to fix that. You also gain a much bigger build volume, for a fraction of the upfront investment. (Edit: That said, it may not be the most beginner friendly machine in existence (see replies))
I’m also somewhat hesitant to recommend a machine that isn’t out and doesn’t really have any reviews yet. With any new product launch like this, I’d almost guarantee that there will be a teething period as the bugs, glitches, and hiccups all get worked out (as goes the early adopter tax). Which means that you may face a slightly steeper leaning curve as someone new to the hobby (Prusa has been around for a hot minute, so I don’t expect it to be too bad, but it’s still worth mentioning). That said, if none of that scares you and if you’re already prepared for the pricetag, Prusa’s are known to be absolute workhorses, there’s no reason they can’t be entry level machines.
I’m not sure if it counts as underground (it’s been around for ages), but if you’ve never thought about how your shoelaces contribute to the overall fit and comfort of your shoe, I’d recommend giving Ian’s shoelace site a visit.
Damn, that is massively impressive!
I’ve made a couple of stamps (my maker’s mark and an icosahedron (d20), mostly for accents on a project I was working on at the time), but nothing this ambitious. I can’t get over how nice the texturing came out; well done!
Very nice!
I was wondering if that’d be possible but was never brave enough to attempt it. I do have another fun intersectional application though: custom stamps. Not nearly as long lived as brass/ metal, but way cheaper especially for low volume, plus you can embed magnets so they stick to an arbor press. (Just remember to hit the top with a quick sanding to knock off any extension artifacts)
You raise a very excellent point, for what I’ve spent toying and tinkering with my OG ender 3 pro, I very easily could have bought a nice Prusa/ Bamboo/ Voron printer.
That said, I can’t say I regret the thessian ender route either. I’ve learned so much about not just the printer itself and how it works on a fundamental level, but also how to model and design for the materials I’m working with and the capabilities of my machine I’m way more comfortable working with small electronics (wiring/ crimping/ soldering and am even flirting with PCB design) compared to when I first got into the hobby. I tend to be more of a hands on learner, so I enjoy the project printer (to an extent) and the learning experience that comes with it.
It very much depends on what OP is looking to get out of/ do with the printer, I 100% agree if it’s more of a "I just want it to work ", a Prusa or other mid-range printer* is probably the better play than something in the budget range.
* Depending on how OP feels about Bamboo, the A1 may be a good option on that front as well (once the teething problems get worked out)
It’s primarily written for klipper, but I’ve been been getting pretty good results dialing in my was-an-ender with Ellis’ tuning guide (all but eliminated my problems with elephants foot). It goes over exactly what a good first layer should look and feel like, plus extra related settings.
The Voron team would like to know your location…
That or a
wall wipe distancemaybe? It’s been ages since I’ve used cura though…