Is a Lightweight X axis worth it for a 300mm V2.4

[ndisa44]

Printer Model

V2.4 300

Extruder Type

Clockwork 2

Cooling Type

Stealthburner

I purchased a Fystec lightweight X beam for my 300mm Voron 2.4, and as I am building the printer I am learning that these beams are not as good as they sound. Certainly they are lighter, but I have heard that some people find that they do not work as well on larger printers as they do on the much smaller V0 printers. Does anyone have experience with using a lightweight X beam on a 300mm V2.4? Did it improve performance or did it have stiffness issues that led to problems with input shaping?

Any input is appreciated.

 

[Sandman50]

At least from the limited time I've had a 2.4 350 up and running, I think the limiter to speed is how the filament behaves when it's extruded, not how fast you can move the head.

I did the Ellis speed / acceleration tests and then tried a print with the head at about 1/2 the speed limits I found. I got stepper skipping at around 800 mm/s and 1,000 mm/s2. But even at 400mm/s speed the head would basically throw extruded filament around. The print "worked" but it was ugly as hell.

Basically I don't think a super light X beam will help much as the limiter isn't head or beam mass, but filament behavior.

Around 150 mm/s was a nice speed though. Good enough quality and 1/3 the print time from a consumer bed slinger printer.

 

[tillin9]

While I don't have a V2 300 - I have a 250 and 350. My experiences are here. TLDR - I didn't see much improvement, maybe a little/ placebo improvement in print quality. I did not see any real downside though for the skeletonized extrusion for my V2s. They didn't change my input shaping - my 350 was good and stayed good, but my 250 has some weirdness in X and that stayed after swapping out to lighter weight components (I also initially did a CF tube and was not happy). Absolute acceleration numbers for IS increased slightly and I'm sure if I ran a max speed test it would have grown marginally as well.

However, I am a stickler for print quality and wasn't trying to make my printers go as fast as possible. A lighter X will allow for more speed before the motors give out but as you already noticed, you have already outrun your hotend/ cooling. I use a Revo so anything that takes me over ~15mm^3/s volumetric flow is too fast. For context at a 0.4mm nozzle, 0.2mm layer that's printing at ~200mm/s. https://www.modernmakes.ca/3d-printing/flow-rate-calculator

 

[ndisa44]

While I don't have a V2 300 - I have a 250 and 350. My experiences are here. TLDR - I didn't see much improvement, maybe a little/ placebo improvement in print quality. I did not see any real downside though for the skeletonized extrusion for my V2s. They didn't change my input shaping - my 350 was good and stayed good, but my 250 has some weirdness in X and that stayed after swapping out to lighter weight components (I also initially did a CF tube and was not happy). Absolute acceleration numbers for IS increased slightly and I'm sure if I ran a max speed test it would have grown marginally as well.

However, I am a stickler for print quality and wasn't trying to make my printers go as fast as possible. A lighter X will allow for more speed before the motors give out but as you already noticed, you have already outrun your hotend/ cooling. I use a Revo so anything that takes me over ~15mm^3/s volumetric flow is too fast. For context at a 0.4mm nozzle, 0.2mm layer that's printing at ~200mm/s. https://www.modernmakes.ca/3d-printing/flow-rate-calculator

I am running a Rapido HF hotend with a CHT nozzle, so I hopefully will be able to hit some higher max speeds. I also don't plan to go for the absolute max speeds possible, but a little extra speed is always welcome. I'd be happy with around 300mm/s and decent print quality where I can slow it down to 250mm/s and get good quality.