Glenno's Formbot 2.4 R2 350mm Build (AU)

[Glenno]

Im sure there will be a million 2.4 builds on this forum, but figured I would add my experience as well, I have zero higher education, I am not and mechanical or electrical engineer. And I thought showing that almost anyone can build a voron might motivate some more people to join and contribute to this amazing project and community.

Back Story:

After working with my poor Wanhao i3 clone (A Balco from a local Aldi store) over the years, and learnining a lot because of my inherint nature to want to modifiy everything. (I even got it to play "Darth Vader" when its ready to print, ahaha)

The printer spent long periods gathering dust as I would get fustrated with it, then regain passion and have a another go at getting it working well.

In its current revision it generally prints PLA very reliably. Other filaments work, but can be a real struggle. (Im sure like everyone, I have roughly a million Benchy's!)




In its current state its got most of the common mods, Z braces etc, and runs off a Duet 2 Wifi controller.

 

[Glenno]

Now, while I share a special love / hate relationship with this little printer, I wanted to expand my horizons. I have some cool ideas I want to bring to life within my other area of interest (4x4 / Camping / Touring) And for that, I need stronger / UV stable filaments.

I had consideried a second hand Prusa i3 for a long time, and was getting very close to purchasing one. (I had put offers on a few) And then when watching a few Youtube's, I learnt about Voron. It instantly got my attention, and I know at that point, this was the printer for me.

I started saving for a bit, and then my darling wife decided to give me an early Xmas present! My very own Formbot 2.4 R2 kit!

 

[Glenno]

The following day, after a fair bit of reading, and then too much excitment, I spent WAAAY to much on Aliexpress ordering parts and upgrades.

Mods I had read about, and thought were cool to experiment with / needed.

Gantry Backers
Rama Idlers
Pin mod
Sex Bolt
Klicky (I had not known until this morning about TAP)
Nevermore Filter
Purge Bucket and Nozzle Brush
Ge5c Z Joints (Perhaps better to go with a kinematic bed mount instead ??)

I ordered.

6 x 8mm and 6 x 3mm magnets
Omron D2F-5 switch for Klicky
A heap of M5, M4 and M3 (Even some titanium stuff for anything moving around )
Ground Pins
Titanium Backers
F695 Bearings
T Slots bolts
Heat Inset Kit with what I hope will have the right inserts for the mods.
Copper Brush

 

[Glenno]

The Build - Part 1:

Once I got the excellent build manual up on my Lappy, unpacked the extrusions for the frame. I found some blue loctite and started building, only to then understand how my mostly automotive biased toolset was somewhat inadequate for this job.



So I did my best with what I had. Using Tile levers to assist with getting the extrustions aligned properly and averaging multiple measurements with a tap measure.



The next day, I had a chat to a few people about how I might level / square up my frame.

One of whom dropped around this beast!

A 1000mm Digital caliper!



Thats my 150mm Caliper and tape measure for reference!

That made its really easy to go over my diagonal measurements and fine tune the Frame. I have also ordered a machinists square to double to help with the job too.

So far with the caliper I was able to get diagonal measurements down to a deviation of .49mm, once I can confirm the frame is sqaure, Ill be very happy with that!

Ill post again one the new tools arrive and I can continue with the frame.

 

[msaeger]

Nice case for the prusa clone. Is that repurposed from something?

 

[Glenno]

Nice case for the prusa clone. Is that repurposed from something?

Thanks! , its an old half height server rack. Can be had cheap off market place.

 

[LoadMaster7]

Hi Glenno! I read through all of your build log. Thanks for posting this. I have a Formbot Kit ordered. I started a log thread as well. I will be following your with the hope of learning any issue or changes.

Best of luck on your build.

 

[Glenno]

The Build - Part 2:




To get the centre extrusions aligned properly, I used these easily printed tools. While It wouldnt have been hard to just used a tape measure, I aways like to use guides like these when doing things, and feel they did help.

And then, the printed parts arrived!!! (thanks to "Galvanic" from Discord and maybe this forum)

I must say, what a cool unboxing experience, and if the quality of those prints are anything to do by, I cant wait to get this Voron up and running!




and then inside the box.



Im very keen to become part of the PIF initiative, so hope my printer is up to scratch.


I also went out and got myself a few tools to help with the build, the main one being an engineers square, I was wondering why my frame was not quite right, and now I know!




That little bump at the bottom of the cheaper square was giving me issues!

 

[Glenno]

The Build - Part 3:

After being amazing at the quality of the printed parts a bit more, I then decided to prepare the linear rails.


After watching a couple of videos on it, I seperated the best ones out for the gantry, then cleaned and greased all of them with some EP2 grease I had on hand, I was advised to get another brand of EP2, but no one near me had it in stock, so just used what I had that seem to meet requirements. There seems to be so many opinions on what grease, oil or other lubriant to use with everyone having pretty good success, so im confident what I have done will be ok. Worst case, I dont have "high quality" rails anyway, so will give me a excuse to upgrade

 

[Glenno]

The Build - Part 4:

I tell you, the first time you melt those inserts into printed parts it can be a little worrying! For myself, I didnt like the idea of using the iron to melt them in until they looked flush, seemed like to much chance of human related stuff ups to me

So I would push them in until they were about 1mm proud or so, and then use a small metal rule to push them in until flush. With the iron set to 230c, they stayed plenty hot enough to gently push in with the rule, It worked out really well.




The next step was the start setting up the drive shafts for the Z drive.

I broke our the calipers and it all went together nicely.




I really enjoyed this process, I cant speak enough of how clever the people are that A) came up with this design, and B) Came up with the manual. Its like adult lego!

 

[Glenno]

The Build - Part 5:

Putting the magnetic sheet and heater on the bed wasnt anywhere near as much of a hassle as I thought it was going to be, just watched a couple of videos, got myself some gloves, found an old roller I had used to install car insulation, and got to it

I gave the bed a very good clean with Isopropyl first, and then with gloves on tried not to touch the bed at all.

I did use some more printed guides for the bed heater, to make sure it was dead in the middle. Made life that bit easier.

 

[Glenno]

The Build - Part 6:

Building the gantry was fun! It was great to learn more about the belt paths, and how the printer works mechanically.

More hot inserts , and assembly.





I used yet more printed tools / assistance to mount the gantry in the frame., these little twist in hangers held the gantry at a good height and made life so easy.

 

[Glenno]

The Build - Part 7:

I ordered the Dragon hotend as the option for the printer, and it took me a little while to figure out how to mount it!

For those doing this build, it may help. Take the top off it! ahaha, sounds simple right, but it wasnt immediatley obvious to me

Once that was sorted, the mounts made total sense





It got exciting after that, because I got to assemble the iconic toolhead(I will do a SB toolhead later)

 

[Glenno]

The Build - Part 8:

Im not sure how many times I changed the layout of the electronics, wanting to have it use the whole space giving me heaps of room for wiring etc....but it just didnt work out that way!

While the pre made wiring with the FB kit is really nice, and did save a HEAP of time, I do beleive I will end up re doing it at some stage, the lengths do certainly work, but I really struggled to find ways to route the wiring that didnt end up looking horrible.

In the end, I decided to mount things to make them work, do the wiring as best I can without using the supplied stick on zip tie clamps etc, and then redo it later once I have a better understanding of how other people have done a tidy wiring job.


Setting up the Octopus board was interesting, I learnt a fair bit from that, by just understanding some of the jumper settings and how I might be able to change them in the future if needed.




Even with drivers and fancy heatsinks!



I settled on the stock layout eventually, but it ended up waay to close together, and still really messy. So I just used zip ties for now, and will redo once I know everything else works fine.




With my new little JST kit and crimper, I did make a little patch lead for the resistor that supposed to to be put inline for the inductive probe. I did this because im not sure how long ill be using it, and might be able to reuse the wire for something else. This way is completly reversable.



I did try and print some little clips to hold the the wires for the A and B motors, because I didnt like the idea of zip ties in that area. But my PLA versions failed totally, ahaha Cant wait to be able to print ABS!

 

[LoadMaster7]

The Build - Part 8:

Im not sure how many times I changed the layout of the electronics, wanting to have it use the whole space giving me heaps of room for wiring etc....but it just didnt work out that way!

While the pre made wiring with the FB kit is really nice, and did save a HEAP of time, I do beleive I will end up re doing it at some stage, the lengths do certainly work, but I really struggled to find ways to route the wiring that didnt end up looking horrible.

In the end, I decided to mount things to make them work, do the wiring as best I can without using the supplied stick on zip tie clamps etc, and then redo it later once I have a better understanding of how other people have done a tidy wiring job.


Setting up the Octopus board was interesting, I learnt a fair bit from that, by just understanding some of the jumper settings and how I might be able to change them in the future if needed.


View attachment 621View attachment 622

Even with drivers and fancy heatsinks!
View attachment 623


I settled on the stock layout eventually, but it ended up waay to close together, and still really messy. So I just used zip ties for now, and will redo once I know everything else works fine.


View attachment 624View attachment 626

With my new little JST kit and crimper, I did make a little patch lead for the resistor that supposed to to be put inline for the inductive probe. I did this because im not sure how long ill be using it, and might be able to reuse the wire for something else. This way is completly reversable.

View attachment 627View attachment 628View attachment 629

I did try and print some little clips to hold the the wires for the A and B motors, because I didnt like the idea of zip ties in that area. But my PLA versions failed totally, ahaha Cant wait to be able to print ABS!

View attachment 630

I am enjoying seeing your progress. As far as wiring, I don't see an issue with what you have in your photo. Granted, I can understand wanting to make it look better, but for me, function is most important. If a wire looks a little messy I personally don't worry about it. Once the skirting is installed only you will know. Heck, that is the reason for skirting!
Thanks for sharing photos of your build.

 

[Glenno]

I am enjoying seeing your progress. As far as wiring, I don't see an issue with what you have in your photo. Granted, I can understand wanting to make it look better, but for me, function is most important. If a wire looks a little messy I personally don't worry about it. Once the skirting is installed only you will know. Heck, that is the reason for skirting!
Thanks for sharing photos of your build.

Thanks mate, you are 100% right, I shouldnt worry out it.

Can you beleive its doing its first print!

 

[LoadMaster7]

Thanks mate, you are 100% right, I shouldnt worry out it.

Can you beleive its doing its first print!

That is great news!! I hope it comes out perfect. I'm never that lucky. I always have to adjust, tune and rework most of my 3D printers.

 

[Glenno]

The Build - Part 9:

Its finished! Well.....the basic functionality anyway, it still needs a LOT of work!




And after a bit a fluffy around with initial setup, a even a first print!



And then...gave the bed a bit of a scrub as ive been told thats the thing to do




At this point.....I decided to throw my perfectly functioning printer into disarray and start a few mods, ahaha

Klicky!



Back to pieces!



After ignoring all the warnings, setting up Klicky and then almost immediatley setting up Auto Z, after a few days, ive almost got back to the print quality I had right at the start, ahahaha

 

[Glenno]

Tuning - Part 10

Tuning the gantry belts with the Spectrum analyser was cool!



I started the run through Mr Ellis' print tuning guide, and wow....its at this point I really understood how different Klipper is to the Duet system.

Pressure advance, and "Squish" meant nothing to me. (Until I read thats its just Z offset)



Oh man....what a mess I made of my printer that actually worked fine



Yuk....theres so much stringing, that im not sure this PA test is even worth reading...

Slowly slowly getting there! But still horrible.



I have found the Duet to be a bit more idiot proof at this point, but enjoying learning about Klipper and it does seem to be a far more advanced system.


After that....because I had been lazy and NOT ground a flat into the Z stop pin, the next time I homed it after a print....the left over PLA stuck to the head managed to pull the pin out and throw it away from the printer.....the next z home after it had completed a QGL was a MESS! Oh well, best to get the first crash out of the way I guess!

The lesson here, dont be lazy! Grind that pin and make sure a grub screw holds it in place! Dont be like Glen!

After that, it was off to the workshop, quickly stuck the pin in the lathe and turned a small step into it.




Put it back in the printer, used the supplied grub screw with a liberal amount of locktite to make sure its not going to happen again!


Oh....guess what arrived today!

 

[Glenno]

Tuning - Part 11

For some reason, I cant seem to get rid of the stringing with PLA, maybe its just this filament etc, but even with a retract of 3mm, it wouldnt go away.


So...I thought, "bugger it", time to try ABS, first I had to build a temp enclosure...



Yes , I know its dodgey, and I know its pretty much a fire hazard at the moment...but its not forever, promise!

wow...what a difference that made! right off the bat, with no tuning for that filament, the stringing was gone and my prints started to look like they should!



Its at this point, I noticed the hotend would hit the Z endstop pin when starting a print...it wasnt 'bad', but still, not something you want.



It was a bit over 3mm above the bed....I figured I could cut a good 2mm off that pin and still not have issues....so....back to the old lathe!

I can attest to the fact that these pins on the formbot kit are hardended! I had to resort to a dremel with a cutting wheel, the carbide just required to much pressure to bite, and I was worried about snapping / bending the pin.



Now it sits 1mm above the bed, and no longer hits! sweet!