Micron/Micron+ Kit Information Roundup (Mid 2024)

[Dave32]

So I've been thinking about building a Micron - the smaller PrintersForAnts re-imagination of the Voron V2.4 that uses 1515 extrusions. Specifically, the 180mm Micron+.

If you read any of the (unfortunately few) Micron build threads here or on other forums, or watch any of the YouTube reviews, a few things stick out:

1. Everyone has used different kits
2. Kits vary wildly in terms of what is included
3. Kits (like the Micron itself) are evolving over time
4. No vendor or manufacturer stands out (yet) for having the best kits, nor is there a dominant consensus in key areas about certain parts.

So with that in mind, "doing research" before making a purchase is difficult. Since I had already put in the leg work, I decided to capture what I've found in a spreadsheet, in case it helps others.
If you have any other insight, questions, comments, etc, about Micron (or Micron+) kits, please feel free to join in here!

(Spreadsheet will be in the second post)

Photo of a Micron (presumably the 120mm size variant) next to a V2.4 350, via hartk on X

https://twitter.com/x/status/1498801120067522562

... and the same comparison with a Micron+, sporting the Prusa Mini bed structure

https://twitter.com/x/status/1541318729702617089

//edit: As a v2.4 owner, I also have to link this hilarious Micron serial request.

https://www.reddit.com/r/voroncorexy/comments/uy7ida/serial_request_v2_micron_nuttyopossum3941

 

[Dave32]

The spreadsheet, current as of April 2024:

Vendor	Size	Price	Shipping (to USA)	Frame	Motors	Heated Bed	Hotend	Controller	Raspberry Pi	Display	Panels	Motion	Power	SSR	Wiring	Printed Parts	Comments	URL
Blurolls (Standard)	180	$579.00	$138.74	HFS3 (Misumi?)	Generic?	"Mic 6, 175x175mm 120V"	Dragon HF	BTT Octopus	BTT Pi	** Not Included **	Included (PMMA)	"Gates, generic rails?"	Meanwell UHP 200 24V	Omron (10A)	Included but not crimped	** Not Included **	"Blurolls offers CNC parts – to my knowledge, they are the first and only option for those."	579.0US $ |Blurolls Voron Micron 180 Micron+ 3d Printer Parts Full Kit 110/220v Heatbed Without Printed Parts And Raspberry Pi - 3d Printer Parts & Accessories - AliExpress Smarter Shopping, Better Living! Aliexpress.com www.aliexpress.com
Blurolls (Premium)	180	$699.00	$138.74	HFS3 (Misumi?)	LDO	"Mic 6, 175x175mm 120V"	Dragon HF	BTT Octopus	BTT Pi	** Not Included **	Included (PMMA)	"Gates, Hiwin rails"	Meanwell UHP 200 24V	Omron (10A)	Included but not crimped	** Not Included **	"Blurolls offers CNC parts – to my knowledge, they are the first and only option for those."	579.0US $ |Blurolls Voron Micron 180 Micron+ 3d Printer Parts Full Kit 110/220v Heatbed Without Printed Parts And Raspberry Pi - 3d Printer Parts & Accessories - AliExpress Smarter Shopping, Better Living! Aliexpress.com www.aliexpress.com
Fabreeko	180	$629.99	Unknown cost	LDO	LDO	LDO (or Honey Badger?) Mic 6	** Not Included **	** Not Included **	** Not Included **	** Not Included **	LDO	Gates / Igus	Meanwell UHP 200 24V	Omron	** Not Included **	** Not Included **	Only a partial kit. Has more LDO-sourced components than other kits.	Micron Plus (180) Starter Kit By HoneyBadger & LDO What is it The Micron Plus kit: small size, big performance. This tiny Voron v2.4 packs a punch with high-quality components, precision motion, and compatibility with a variety of filaments. Don't let its size fool you – the Micron Plus is a 3D printing powerhouse. Whats included: LDO Micron... www.fabreeko.com
Formbot (via formbot3d.com)	180	$529.00	Unknown cost	HFS3 (Misumi?)	Generic?	"Cast plate, 150x150mm 120V 180W silicone"	Ceramic v6-style	M8P	CB1	3.5” SPI touch screen	Included	"Gates, metal pulleys"	Meanwell UHP 200 24V	Omron (10A)	Pre-crimped harness	** Not Included **	"Formbot and Vivdeno/Formbot kits appear to be identical, but the listings differ in what is configurable."	Voron Micron+ 180mm High Quality CoreXY 3D Printer Kit Voron Micron+ 180mm High Quality CoreXY 3D Printer Kit www.formbot3d.com
Funssor	120	$579.89	Free Shipping	HFS3 (Misumi?)	"Generic, possibly Moons?"	"Mic6 Voron 0, 110v 100x100 silicone heater"	Unknown? (likely not included)	Octopus/Spider	** Not Included **	** Not Included **	Included	Generic	Meanwell LRS-150-24	Omron	Included but not crimped	** Not Included **	Seems to be the only “Micron” (120mm) kit on the market?	https://www.aliexpress.us/item/3256804443932986.html
Funssor	180	$745.99	Free Shipping	HFS3 (Misumi?)	"Oukeda, Moons (extra $$), or LDO (extra $$)"	"Mic6, unknown heater specs."	** Not Included **	Octopus	** Not Included **	** Not Included **	Included	Generic	Meanwell UHP 200 24V	"Omron (10A), Crydom (10A or 25A), Panasonic (15A)"	Included but not crimped	** Not Included **	Kit is marked as “No Longer Available”.	https://www.aliexpress.us/item/3256804927636438.html
LDO Mechanical Kit (via Sparta3D)	180	$512.47	Unknown cost	LDO	LDO	LDO Mic 6 & 180W heater	** Not Included **	** Not Included **	** Not Included **	** Not Included **	LDO	LDO	** Not Included **	** Not Included **	** Not Included **	** Not Included **	Only a partial kit – a bundle of exclusively LDO components.	LDO Micron Plus Mechanical Only Kit Micron 180 Mechanical Only Kit https://github.com/PrintersForAnts/Micron What's included: LDO Micron Plus Frame LDO Micron Plus Motor kit LDO Micron Plus Rail Kit LDO Micron Plus motion kit LDO Micron Plus (180) Mic 6 bed with heater (heater is not pre-applied) BlackRock Black Textured PEI &... sparta3d.ca
Vivedino (Formbot)	180	$599.00	Free Shipping	HFS3 (Misumi?)	MOONS	"Cast plate, 150x150mm 120V 180W silicone"	Ceramic V6. (Dragon or Dragon HF for extra $$)	M8P	CB1	3.5” SPI touch screen	Included	"Gates, metal pulleys"	Meanwell UHP 200 24V	Omron (10A)	Pre-crimped harness	Optional ($60)	"Formbot and Vivdeno/Formbot kits appear to be identical, but the listings differ in what is configurable."	Voron Micron+ CoreXY 3D Printer Kit Vivedino (formbot) Voron micron+ features open source CoreXY design, high quality magnetic double sided flexible PEI sheets, 3.5 inches touch, dragon hotend available as an optional upgrade, premium silicone heating pad with glass fiber, etc. www.3dprintersonlinestore.com
West3D	180	$799.00	Yes?	DLLPDF	LDO	"Mic6 or MagBed options, 120V 300W or 325W edge-to-edge heaters"	(large variety of options)	"Octopus, Leviathan, Kraken"	Raspberry Pi	PiTFT 43	Acrylic	“Standard” or Gates	Meanwell UHP 200 24V	"Omron (10A), Crydom (10A or 25A), Panasonic (15A)"	Pre-crimped harness	Optional ($150)	Configurator – LOTS of options to select from. (Still in pre-sale status?)	Micron Plus 180 Self-Source Configurator by West3D (Printers for Ants) Build a Voron that's uniquely yours without the hassle of self-sourcing parts. Our configurator offers quality components and unparalleled US based support west3d.com

 

[Dave32]

Now, for a few examples of what makes things tricky:

First off, the heated bed. LDO is normally toward the top of the market for the products they produce - such as the edge-to-edge silicone heaters for the V2.4 series, or the fast-heating edge-to-edge Polyamide heaters for the V0 series. But for the Micron, they have... this? An undersized heater that doesn't go anywhere close to the edges.


source: https://www.teamfdm.com/forums/topic/2121-micron-180-ldo-kit-build/


Likewise, we have a plethora of bed shapes. One of the neatest aspects of the 180mm Micron+ is its ability to use the ubiquitous (and high quality) Prusa Mini build plates. hartk provisioned for this years ago, giving two bed shapes, one a simple square, and one which has the Prusa-style peg mounts:

source:

Micron/DXFs/180/Micron-PrusaMini-Mic6-Bed.pdf at main · PrintersForAnts/Micron

Contribute to PrintersForAnts/Micron development by creating an account on GitHub.

github.com

However, not all manufacturers have used this build plate shape. LDO did, for example (as seen in the photo above), as did Mandala Rose Works below:

source: https://mandalaroseworks.com/products/micron-185-magbed


Blurolls seems to have adopted the bed profile (good)... but for the kits, at least as far as the assembled printer photos show, they matched the sheet shape to it (bad). So this is either installed with the sheet tab holes over the pegs (which would make insertion/removal difficult), or it gets installed backwards and loses the alignment benefit. They seem to have adopted the full Prusa shape for their plates in the separate bed/heater/sheet bundle though, so hopefully this course correction sticks. (Also note the edge-to-edge heater Blurolls uses, in contrast to LDO's offering above.)

Kit Version:

source: https://www.aliexpress.us/item/3256805848256803.html

Separate Version:

source: https://www.aliexpress.us/item/3256804897162357.html


Fabreeko matched the bed profile (good), but only copied half of Prusa's sheet shape (omitting the front grabbing tabs), then mounted the sheet 180-degrees rotated so it loses the self-aligning aspects of the rear posts. Which is particularly frustrating, as the Micron promo render, with the correct plate shape, is also right there next to it on their product page.

source: https://www.fabreeko.com/collection...kit-by-honeybadger-ldo?variant=43837183590655



West3D with their "Exclusive West3D Design" did something completely different from either of hartk's drawings:

source: https://west3d.com/products/printer...lus-180-salad-fork-180?variant=44350541201620



DLLPDF seems to be one of the few offering a *160mm* build plate which matches neither of hartk's drawings. (Mandala Rose Works also offers this size.) Of the Micron kits, it seems as though 98% of them are the 180mm Micron+... with very little buzz about the Micron 120 (the original/official size) or the 160 (which might only exist in comments because of Salad Fork parts?).

source: https://dllpdf.com/micron-build-plate-160mm



Which leads us to the last contender.
Formbot seems to be the only one who understood the end goal here and got *both* parts right:

source: https://www.formbot3d.com/products/...uality-corexy-3d-printer-kit?VariantsId=11069


Thankfully, while many have missed the mark on the build plates, and some on the heaters, most seem to have adopted the Prusa-style build plate shape... so the rest can be corrected by swapping plates. Notably, the vast majority of the "aliexpress" offerings are of the Prusa-style shape, as are the known players like LDO, Mandala, etc, so that option seems to have the clear majority momentum (a good thing IMHO). It really seems like West3D is the outlier, which is an interesting "miss" for them.


//Edit: It looks like Funssor also is close. They have a bed with embedded magnets (very much like the Mandala Rose Works offering), in the Prusa Mini shape, with a Prusa Mini-shaped build plate. But somehow they assembled the two backwards for their listing photos.

source: https://www.aliexpress.us/item/3256805129957552.html

 

[NoGuru]

Impressive amount of information Dave!

 

[Dave32]

Impressive amount of information Dave!

Thanks! Trust me when I say, that I really hadn't intended (or expected) to do that much work.

Selecting a V2.4 kit at this point in time is relatively painless - the are all fairly mature, and pretty much on par in terms of completeness - you are just making secondary decisions on component quality, hotend choices, etc. So I was a bit surprised at how fragmented things were for the Micron. Obviously the Micron is newer, more of a niche/specialty machine, etc, and that was clear and understood from the start. But a lot of big players are involved, and I think I had believed that that (and their prior experience with V2.4 kits) would have brought them all up to a different starting level.

As it stands, Vivedino/Formbot has the only real "complete" standardized Micron+ kit, and West3D, close behind them, is basically custom kitting bespoke machines from scratch - I can't imagine the complexity on their end for building harnesses with so many customer-selected variations. LDO seems like they are inching towards a kit, having already knocked out some of the more custom parts (heated bed, panels, motor kits, etc). Maybe something is in development, or maybe not... but they don't have an offering at this time, it is only others who have grouped their parts together. Fabreeko is just missing half of the machine... And Blurolls curiously has quite complete kits but doesn't offer them with their own CNC parts - something that so far is unique to them. (Edit - see below, I had missed the Funssor kits.)

It's all just... interesting. Maybe I caught them at the wrong time, and things will be different in a few months?

 

[Dave32]

So then the other thing I was going to status - CNC parts. Because anyone can print parts, but you know something has a market when a vendor commits it to metal.

Blurolls has a fairly complete offering here. Their kit ($145 with free shipping) includes:
a_drive_frame_lower
a_drive_frame_upper_cable_PG7
b_drive_frame_lower
b_drive_frame_upper
[a]_tensioner_a
[a]_tensioner_b
front_idler_a_lower
front_idler_a_upper
front_idler_b_lower
front_idler_b_upper
xy_joint_left_lower
xy_joint_left_upper
xy_joint_right_lower
xy_joint_right_upper
[a]_z_joint_KGLM_x4
[a]belt_clamp_x8

These parts have a bit of a "hefty" look to them - as if they took the printed part models and simply machined them as-is, rather than optimizing for the material change.



source: https://www.aliexpress.us/item/3256805750087232.html

They also have a Mini Stealthburner carriage for $19.90 with free shipping.

source: https://www.aliexpress.us/item/3256805802225723.html



Fabreeko / HoneyBadger makes a flashy looking CNC toolhead carriage for $34.99 (plus shipping?)

source: https://www.fabreeko.com/products/metal-toolhead-carriage-for-micron-by-honeybadger



Funssor has a CNC X-beam for $29.99 free shipping:

source: https://www.aliexpress.us/item/3256806024902191.html

... and a redesigned (plate-style) rear-tensioned motor mount / X-Y set for $99.99 free shipping.
(So clearly some thought and effort has been put into these.)

source: https://www.aliexpress.us/item/3256806226108207.html

... and adjustable Z idlers for $42.85 free shipping

source: https://www.aliexpress.us/item/3256806120760780.html

... and Z joints for $29.90 free shipping

source: https://www.aliexpress.us/item/3256805970182333.html

... and X carriages for Mini Afterburner or LGX Lite ($31.50/each with free shipping)

source: https://www.aliexpress.us/item/3256804514487463.html


So that's actually quite a showing for CNC aluminum parts! No CNC Boop yet that I'm aware of... which is interesting, as I feel like TAP is one of the more popular CNC parts for other Voron models.

 

[Dave32]

Two other things I can mention:
1) AliExpress seems to handle "Micron" and "Micron+" differently in search results. The majority of kits and parts are marketed for the Micron+, and some vendors just flood their listings with words (having both Micron and Micron+ in the listing), so generally either works. But if looking for parts, try searching both ways.
2) I missed the Funssor kit in the spreadsheet, so I will add that in a little bit. (Edit: Done.)

 

[claudermilk]

You're making me want to build a Micron now. I have lots of Prusa Mini plates, for my mostly-idle Mini.

 

[Pariscope]

Currently weighing all these options for a build later this summer. @Dave32 which did you end up going with?

 

[Dave32]

Currently weighing all these options for a build later this summer. @Dave32 which did you end up going with?

Nothing yet!

For a good while, I was debating whether to build a Micron+, or to cut down a 2020-based v2.4 instead. I briefly thought about cannibalizing my Prusa Mini+ to build the Micron+, but quickly realized that so little of it would transfer over, that there was no sense wrecking an otherwise fully functional printer to do so.

Then with the Galileo 2 extruder and Galileo 2 Z-drive in public testing, and the LDO Leviathan control board, the USB-based LDO Nitehawk SB toolhead, and Beacon Contact all "coming soon", I knew it was a poor time to build another v2.4r2 kit. (The short supply of LDO "Rev C" kits was another clue that the "Rev D" was imminent.) So I decided to wait and see what changes materialized from that, in case it would sway the decision.

In the meantime however, there has been a good amount of activity in the R1_Beta folder in the PrintersForAnts Micron GitHub repository... which makes me hesitant to build any of the kits right now, as the "release" R1 will likely be a better printer. But this is obviously a moving target. For example, the Beacon probe mount was only added four days ago. And I have no idea if the final R1 release will happen next week or next year.

So... keep waiting I guess?

 

[Pariscope]

So... keep waiting I guess?

I hadn't noticed the R1 beta. I'll be waiting to see how that goes and waiting as well