Background
As this is my first post, some basic background... I have been using 3D printers for about 3-4 years now, and tried a few different types. I started with the Micro M3D and ended up with 3 of those printers. Although the experience was positive, I was left wanting in terms of print speed, print size and quality... It was hard to tune those printers beyond printing slow, small and decorative objects. Then I started down the DIY path, with the Omerod and then the TEVO Tarantula. Neither of them worked satisfactorily.
Finally, I laid out the cash for a Prusa Mk3, and on hindsight, I should’ve just gone straight there and bypassed the Omerod and Tarantula experience. I have had the Mk3 for some time now and printing around 6km of filament and I believe that I have dialed it in very well.
Recently I undertook an upgrade to the Mk3, as the hot-end was needing a replacement... in fact the wires broke when I took the hotend off during assembly, indicating to me that there were some issues... Irrespective of that, the Mk3 was printing very well up to that point in PLA and PETG. I took the high road and ordered the Bondtech Prusa Mk3s upgrade along with the Mosquito head... Indeed a very worthy upgrade. I also did the upgrade from Mk3 to Mk3s at the same time, with a few spare parts ordered from Prusa (namely the filament sensor components).
With this setup, I am getting very good print quality on PLA at around 80 mm/sec and tried to push up to around 90/100 mm/s using 0.25mm or 0.30mm layer heights and 0.50mm extrusion width on a 0.4mm nozzle. And on PETG, I slowed it down to around 60-70 mm/sec with similar results. I feel that on less detail prints (simple objects, miniature terrain, etc.) I can probably push the flow rate up closer to 20 mm3/sec, at the moment, I am hovering around 10-13 for PLA.
However, I have noticed that at these settings, tall and skinny objects are coming off the bed... BTW, I usually use glue stick on the standard Prusa PEI bed for adhesion. Trying to work out why, I put it down to print speeds and moving bed...
My goal is to have an enclosed printer that is reliable as much as possible and easy to service in the case that requires maintenance. Whilst the Prusa is an awesome machine, I am starting to feel and see the limitation inherent in the moving bed (or bed slinger) design. As much as been written about this style of machine, the two main weaknesses appears to the moving Y bed axis and the unstable Z axis.
Moving forward, I started to research on alternative machine styles and builds... CoreXY was at the top of the list. It had a different motion system that can be designed so that the print bed does not move, thereby limited all motion to the print head... which I think allows for more consistent kinematics of the printing system. It can also be easily enclosed and offered the promise of higher print speeds...
So, in research the various ‘proven’ CoreXY builds, the usual suspects came up... Hypercube, Hypercube Evolution, HevORT, D-Bot, C-Bot, Railcore, Voron, V-King and V-Baby. In reviewing these, it appears that they all have various trade-offs and none of necessarily ‘the best’ in all areas. As such, I selected them V-Baby and the Voron V0 and V2.4.
My initial assessment was based on the build support, V-Baby has a lot of YouTube videos and the Fusion model. The Vorons has a lot of community support and some very detailed graphic instructions. I would not consider either as being comprehensively documented, but is definitely very detailed in their own way.
Also, I found the two different designs interesting and both seemed to have sound engineering considerations included in their designs. That is, they were not remixed from other designs...
So I have started to print the parts (almost completed) for the V-Baby and purchase and print the parts fo the V0. I have decided that the V0 shall be the first build, with the aim for a small and reliable printer, able to print parts for the others in ABS or Nylon or composite. BTW, the Mk3s is still working very well...
So the following posts will be to document my build journey of the printers, and along the way, will likely make changes, errors and mistakes...
Finally, I laid out the cash for a Prusa Mk3, and on hindsight, I should’ve just gone straight there and bypassed the Omerod and Tarantula experience. I have had the Mk3 for some time now and printing around 6km of filament and I believe that I have dialed it in very well.
Recently I undertook an upgrade to the Mk3, as the hot-end was needing a replacement... in fact the wires broke when I took the hotend off during assembly, indicating to me that there were some issues... Irrespective of that, the Mk3 was printing very well up to that point in PLA and PETG. I took the high road and ordered the Bondtech Prusa Mk3s upgrade along with the Mosquito head... Indeed a very worthy upgrade. I also did the upgrade from Mk3 to Mk3s at the same time, with a few spare parts ordered from Prusa (namely the filament sensor components).
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| Prusa Mk3S with Bondtech and Mosquito |
However, I have noticed that at these settings, tall and skinny objects are coming off the bed... BTW, I usually use glue stick on the standard Prusa PEI bed for adhesion. Trying to work out why, I put it down to print speeds and moving bed...
My goal is to have an enclosed printer that is reliable as much as possible and easy to service in the case that requires maintenance. Whilst the Prusa is an awesome machine, I am starting to feel and see the limitation inherent in the moving bed (or bed slinger) design. As much as been written about this style of machine, the two main weaknesses appears to the moving Y bed axis and the unstable Z axis.
Moving forward, I started to research on alternative machine styles and builds... CoreXY was at the top of the list. It had a different motion system that can be designed so that the print bed does not move, thereby limited all motion to the print head... which I think allows for more consistent kinematics of the printing system. It can also be easily enclosed and offered the promise of higher print speeds...
So, in research the various ‘proven’ CoreXY builds, the usual suspects came up... Hypercube, Hypercube Evolution, HevORT, D-Bot, C-Bot, Railcore, Voron, V-King and V-Baby. In reviewing these, it appears that they all have various trade-offs and none of necessarily ‘the best’ in all areas. As such, I selected them V-Baby and the Voron V0 and V2.4.
My initial assessment was based on the build support, V-Baby has a lot of YouTube videos and the Fusion model. The Vorons has a lot of community support and some very detailed graphic instructions. I would not consider either as being comprehensively documented, but is definitely very detailed in their own way.
Also, I found the two different designs interesting and both seemed to have sound engineering considerations included in their designs. That is, they were not remixed from other designs...
So I have started to print the parts (almost completed) for the V-Baby and purchase and print the parts fo the V0. I have decided that the V0 shall be the first build, with the aim for a small and reliable printer, able to print parts for the others in ABS or Nylon or composite. BTW, the Mk3s is still working very well...
So the following posts will be to document my build journey of the printers, and along the way, will likely make changes, errors and mistakes...
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