Any good reason to justify getting a VORON printer?

[TZR-Redstonemaniac]

Hello, I have recently discovered VORON printers and I really want to get one, but I have a problem. As of right now, I have a modified Ender 3 Pro that I currently use and have had for roughly a year and a half. It works fine, but I love to tinker with things, especially my printer. I wanted to know is VORON printers something I can continuously tinker with, and still have it reliably print good quality objects, and if so, is there any good reason to justify myself (and my parents) to get such a printer?

 

[vinnycordeiro]

Welcome to the forum!

First of all: Voron printers are Do-It-Yourself (DIY) printers that follows the spirit of the Reprap project, which was created back in the late 2000s. So you have to keep in mind that a Voron isn't a product, it is a project. That said, as it is true for all DIY printers, it will print as good as you build/tune it. This forum, the subreddit, and the Discord server are all official channels to ask for help if you so desire to build your own.

And because all designs made by the Voron team are released under an Open Source license, that means you have access to all necessary files to create mods if you so desire, and that's what the community have been doing over the years. There's an official repository of mods on Github, although a better way to search them would be through the mods page: https://mods.vorondesign.com/ However, there are many more on other places, like individual Github repositories, or sites like Thingiverse and Printables.

As for justification to have one, that can only be answered by you. Although these days it is much more common to buy a kit from one of the many manufacturers that makes them, if you are short on money you can always do the good-old way of building a Voron: self-source all the components. It'll take longer and will also be more expensive (shipping costs for multiple packages adds up really fast), but you'll be able to expend just a little per package and manage the financial burden over a longer period of time. And if you are in doubt, it's always a good idea to ask first before pulling the trigger for any item.

 

[NoGuru]

Mine get modified at least once a month if not more.

 

[ChrisA]

Hello, I have recently discovered VORON printers and I really want to get one, but I have a problem. As of right now, I have a modified Ender 3 Pro that I currently use and have had for roughly a year and a half. It works fine, but I love to tinker with things, especially my printer. I wanted to know is VORON printers something I can continuously tinker with, and still have it reliably print good quality objects, and if so, is there any good reason to justify myself (and my parents) to get such a printer?

Any Voron printer is about as good as it gets if you just want to tinker with printers. Every single part can be replaced with a hex screwdriver and the 3D CAD files are available so you can edit the parts in CAD and re-print them with any modifications you can think of. Or you can find mods that others have made.

But there are good reasons NOT to get a Voron printer too. You can actually buy a ready-to-go printer with similar capability for less money than you would spend on the parts to build a Voron. You would also get some kind of warranty and maybe decent technical support. With Voron you built it, you support it. You can ask for help here but in the end, you are your own tech support. And you had to pay extra for this.

One way to justify a Voron printer is if you intend to modify it into something you cannot buy off the shelf. Or perhaps you want to get involved with 3D printer development and invent new stuff. Voron are great testbeds.

 

[ChrisA]

. It'll take longer and will also be more expensive (shipping costs for multiple packages adds up really fast), but you'll be able to expend just a little per package and manage the financial burden over a longer period of time.

Is this still true? I've been buying parts in Aliexpress and so many of the sellers offer "free" shipping if you spend over $10.

But of late there is something very different. Some Chinese companies are selling fully assembled Voron near-clones for less than the price of the kits.

 

[vinnycordeiro]

I've been buying parts in Aliexpress and so many of the sellers offer "free" shipping if you spend over $10.

Yeah, those "free" shipping offers usually add that cost on the product price.

But of late there is something very different. Some Chinese companies are selling fully assembled Voron near-clones for less than the price of the kits.

I wouldn't be surprised if that's an effect of subsidies by the Chinese government: vendors sell things at a loss and their government covers the rest. That's something that has been done before and I believe is still active.

 

[claudermilk]

I self-sourced my Trident back when the BOM-in-a-box kits were just beginning to come out (and were of questionable quality). I went that route partly because of that, and partly to spread out the costs. What I did do though was to pay attention to the vendors' free shipping level and try to group my purchases to take advantage of those. So most of my orders ended up without any shipping expense. So there's ways to minimize that aspect, it just takes some planning. Self sourcing these days is a lot of work when there's several well-regarded kits available.

 

[ac7ss]

Having a second printer is marvelous. I also had my first printer (Sovol SV06, I do recommend as a possible first printer.) for about a year before getting my V0.2R1. Having a second printer not only makes for less time waiting for a print to finish to start another one, but I can tear down one while the other is still working. For example, right now I have my V0.2 torn apart fixing a bad clog in the heat break, and I am still printing with my SV06.

Adding a Voron opens up possibilities for printing more exotic materials, ASA, ABS, PC, Nylon... that are more difficult to do on an Ender.

It only took me about 2 weekends to go from box to print on my 0.2, but I understand much more about printers now. (I didn't do much during the week, I have a "Real Job (tm)".)

I am looking into converting my SV06 to CoreXY. That may be a summer project. It's already Klipperized.

 

[arhodiewithsoul]

My first Voron build was a v1.8 and apart from the off-size build volume (200x200), it's stayed pretty much vanilla. My later build was a v1.6 which has been heavily modified and developed away from the v1.6, but still uses the rods and not rails. One is the workhorse, the other is the tinkering project (that never quite seems to be get finished ... )

To the OP:

My comments could be summarized as: if you like to tinker, you'll find a reason to tinker. If you take your time to build a really good, reliable 3d printer from the get go, the only reason to tinker with it is for tinkerings sake.

The Voron build journey is great experience for any aspiring tinkerer - with many skills learnt along the way and support readily available to assist you need it.

Good luck!

 

[3dCase]

Yeah, those "free" shipping offers usually add that cost on the product price.


I wouldn't be surprised if that's an effect of subsidies by the Chinese government: vendors sell things at a loss and their government covers the rest. That's something that has been done before and I believe is still active.

We have a saying here, might be everywhere as well by now, if the product is too cheap, "YOU" are the product! I once had to research the Chinese machine market for my work and the works mail suffered a huge amount of spam, so bad they had to close it down and give me a new email address. These state sponsored companies will sell their registrations left right and center and do not take cyber crime as a very serious problem.
For what it is worth, I am done with the low quality, bad fit and sometimes even totally not fit for purpose. I bought some lin rails and ball-screws on Amazon and they sounded like they had been dug up from an open mine instead of manufactured in a factory.
Also the hardware and alu extrusions you get from "undisclosed origin" are of much lower standards. Bolts are softer and the heads will round off much faster due to bad fitting keys. I have had 2 printers from Creality (read Cruelity) and I am now looking the other way. Yes you pay more but the products are more reliable in every way.
And this is what is attractive about building your own machine also. you get to choose with what you build or mod your printer.
So my good reason for justifying getting your Voron is because you want one and you decide what gets used.

 

[L3DVP]

Voron is open source with plenty of sources on internet. It's a project indeed which you can improve yourself and if you are good, your machine will rock.