HaraldLenski
New member
Hi there,
I am kind of new in 3D Printing, I think my first step into the hobby was like in early 2025, when I bought an Anycubic Kobra S1 for like 350 bucks, which I returned to Anycubic since I wasn't satisfied with the printing quality and maintenance, which could have been my lack of knowledge of the hobby, but anyway.
A few months later, I got a Flasforge Adventurer 5M Pro for like 394 bucks, which came with some problems like whistling Fans, but I received new GDSTime Fans and a new Extruder Board from Flashforge which solved the problem.
I kept the AD5M Pro a few months and got a lotta knowledge about print settings, slicer settings, tweaks n tricks about 3D printing etc.
I love to tinker and re-test things so I scored an Anycubic Kobra S1 again for 284 bucks and hat it running next to my AD5M Pro to clarify if it was missing knowledge or it's just flawed.
Turned out that it is indeed flawed and had some things I don't really like. If you want to use it from your Computer you have to bind it to an Anycubic Account, it constantly logs what you print, how long, etc. and save it to your account. If you are writing the Anycubic Support, they gonna read through it. I doesn't have a rubber brush, it cleans the nozzle somehow with a hook on the poop exit which doesnt always work flawlessly. But the most annoying point is that it can't print certain items due to its, imo, wrongly planned airflow. I was printing a 21700 Battery Case with some overhang lips design and it always failed on the Kobra S1, no matter what, while all other printers got it even in double speed. But this aint a review, its an introduction!
So I returned the Kobra S1 anyway and due to some personal issues I had with the AD5M Pro I sold it. Also I love to try different printers, so I don't hesitate to buy and sell them.
I then got an Elegoo Centauri Carbon since I was deeper in the hobby and hyped for the Specs of the printer, I still have it and most of the time it prints fine. Except for ABS. I never got it to print ABS. Only one time of all tries it printed an ABS Benchy which was so weak it broke in half lol. The other Models (I planned to print my voron parts with the CC) became Spaghetti after like 1 min or so. No matter what Temperature, I tested up to 260°C Nozzle / 110°C Bed, let it heat soaking etc. But I gave up on ABS in the Centauri Carbon, which is why I will buy the parts from the PIF Program.
I mainly printed PETG with the Centauri Carbon which it does fine, but since its a new product, I found a lot of flaws and will probably sell it. Yesterday I noticed for example the nozzle is bent, god knows why, and I don't like the toolhead design, its not good. But then, you get what you pay for. Cheap Chinese Printers = Cheap Experience, nearly no Support and no Moddability. The CC is actually criticized for its Network Traffic Leak (Reddit), bent nozzles, firmware security issues and lying about Klipper based things.
Don't get me wrong, they do what they are designed for, if they work. You unpack it and they print. It gets hairy if you run into problems.
I am not satisfied with chinese printers because of firmware dependencies. You rely completely on the manufacturer when it comes to safety and firmware upgrades or spare parts. There is like no warranty or help if you buy overseas. They send you spare parts, you can repair it yourself. Thats it. Returning processes are annoying, they never heared of the "14 days return warranty" and if, they try to prolong it until it reaches the 14th day and say F*** you.
In the meantime I pushed the hobby forward and started to learn how to CAD to create my own things. Which is incredibly comfortable, I actually use Fusion 360.
I wanted to buy a Sovol SV08 because its "open source" but with the enclosure it costs me close to 500 or 600 bucks, depending on the sale, and for roughly 100 bucks more I can get the voron kit, so there is no question what to buy. Because it remains a chinese printer with its own flaws.
So why am I here?
I was thinking about either building a Voron or a RatRig, but heared RatRig has some availabilty problems due to the fire in their warehouse and that their part quality can be hit or miss, especially the rails and its hella expensive, so I decided to get a Voron, also because the community is bigger.
I would say I have the knowledge to build one, since I am working as a car mechanic, so may the journey begin.
The reason I want to build a voron is everything you can't achive with Chinese Printers:
Freedom, Moddability, Open Source, Quality. You can fix everything yourself, you don't rely on shady closed firmware, printers that track your habits, spare parts that aren't available and you can always mod it.
This is why I decided to buy the Formbot Kit either this or next month, spending 700 bucks and put the difference of the LDO Price in Mods.
Thank you for reading until this point, have a nice day and keep the open source spirit alive!
Harald
I am kind of new in 3D Printing, I think my first step into the hobby was like in early 2025, when I bought an Anycubic Kobra S1 for like 350 bucks, which I returned to Anycubic since I wasn't satisfied with the printing quality and maintenance, which could have been my lack of knowledge of the hobby, but anyway.
A few months later, I got a Flasforge Adventurer 5M Pro for like 394 bucks, which came with some problems like whistling Fans, but I received new GDSTime Fans and a new Extruder Board from Flashforge which solved the problem.
I kept the AD5M Pro a few months and got a lotta knowledge about print settings, slicer settings, tweaks n tricks about 3D printing etc.
I love to tinker and re-test things so I scored an Anycubic Kobra S1 again for 284 bucks and hat it running next to my AD5M Pro to clarify if it was missing knowledge or it's just flawed.
Turned out that it is indeed flawed and had some things I don't really like. If you want to use it from your Computer you have to bind it to an Anycubic Account, it constantly logs what you print, how long, etc. and save it to your account. If you are writing the Anycubic Support, they gonna read through it. I doesn't have a rubber brush, it cleans the nozzle somehow with a hook on the poop exit which doesnt always work flawlessly. But the most annoying point is that it can't print certain items due to its, imo, wrongly planned airflow. I was printing a 21700 Battery Case with some overhang lips design and it always failed on the Kobra S1, no matter what, while all other printers got it even in double speed. But this aint a review, its an introduction!
So I returned the Kobra S1 anyway and due to some personal issues I had with the AD5M Pro I sold it. Also I love to try different printers, so I don't hesitate to buy and sell them.
I then got an Elegoo Centauri Carbon since I was deeper in the hobby and hyped for the Specs of the printer, I still have it and most of the time it prints fine. Except for ABS. I never got it to print ABS. Only one time of all tries it printed an ABS Benchy which was so weak it broke in half lol. The other Models (I planned to print my voron parts with the CC) became Spaghetti after like 1 min or so. No matter what Temperature, I tested up to 260°C Nozzle / 110°C Bed, let it heat soaking etc. But I gave up on ABS in the Centauri Carbon, which is why I will buy the parts from the PIF Program.
I mainly printed PETG with the Centauri Carbon which it does fine, but since its a new product, I found a lot of flaws and will probably sell it. Yesterday I noticed for example the nozzle is bent, god knows why, and I don't like the toolhead design, its not good. But then, you get what you pay for. Cheap Chinese Printers = Cheap Experience, nearly no Support and no Moddability. The CC is actually criticized for its Network Traffic Leak (Reddit), bent nozzles, firmware security issues and lying about Klipper based things.
Don't get me wrong, they do what they are designed for, if they work. You unpack it and they print. It gets hairy if you run into problems.
I am not satisfied with chinese printers because of firmware dependencies. You rely completely on the manufacturer when it comes to safety and firmware upgrades or spare parts. There is like no warranty or help if you buy overseas. They send you spare parts, you can repair it yourself. Thats it. Returning processes are annoying, they never heared of the "14 days return warranty" and if, they try to prolong it until it reaches the 14th day and say F*** you.
In the meantime I pushed the hobby forward and started to learn how to CAD to create my own things. Which is incredibly comfortable, I actually use Fusion 360.
I wanted to buy a Sovol SV08 because its "open source" but with the enclosure it costs me close to 500 or 600 bucks, depending on the sale, and for roughly 100 bucks more I can get the voron kit, so there is no question what to buy. Because it remains a chinese printer with its own flaws.
So why am I here?
I was thinking about either building a Voron or a RatRig, but heared RatRig has some availabilty problems due to the fire in their warehouse and that their part quality can be hit or miss, especially the rails and its hella expensive, so I decided to get a Voron, also because the community is bigger.
I would say I have the knowledge to build one, since I am working as a car mechanic, so may the journey begin.
The reason I want to build a voron is everything you can't achive with Chinese Printers:
Freedom, Moddability, Open Source, Quality. You can fix everything yourself, you don't rely on shady closed firmware, printers that track your habits, spare parts that aren't available and you can always mod it.
This is why I decided to buy the Formbot Kit either this or next month, spending 700 bucks and put the difference of the LDO Price in Mods.
Thank you for reading until this point, have a nice day and keep the open source spirit alive!
Harald
