Question Switchwire, V0, Trident, V2.4 what are the criteria to choose a printer to own?

[Pradit]

Hi anyone please share me how do you determine which printer to own?

What are the price range for each build?

Are there any general purpose for each printer suitable?

ie: for kid, economy, best value, education, small space apartment, school project, business, ease of maintenance, best performance, etc...

 

[msaeger]

My first one I got in 2016 was because I got interested after listening to the 3d printing today podcast and I found a cheap i3 kit. I was constantly trying different modifications on that one. The second one a, CR200B was wanting something my kid could use that I would leave stock and not tinker with. That one ended up having a electrical issue so I got a ender 3V2 for the kid to use then I replaced the board on the CR200B and put klipper on there. It now works really good for printing the voron parts. Now I am building the V2 because I like building printers and there is a good community around the voron machines.

 

[120decibell]

Hi anyone please share me how do you determine which printer to own?

What are the price range for each build?

Are there any general purpose for each printer suitable?

ie: for kid, economy, best value, education, small space apartment, school project, business, ease of maintenance, best performance, etc...

Choosing a Printer / Extruder

Voron Official and Community Documentation

docs.vorondesign.com

 

[3dRikal]

I would say (for a hobbyist like me)

1. budget
2. space
3. knowledge of the domain (3dp ain't hard but... there's a lot to learn if you are not from the modeling/machining/prototyping background)

My 1st printer was a (please, don't laugh guys) an Anycubic I3 Mega S. At the time, less than 400$. My Switchwire (after dabbling for 3 years with my Frankenstein) will cost me over 1100$ (prices are Canadian) and a not insignificant number of hours to build. I didn't even source myself and went with a LDO BOM. We each have our main interest.. for me, the building part is the most terrifying yet satisfying part. Others will fine tune their printers to print as fast or as perfectly as possible.

No matter what, I went for a Switchwire because of budget and space... building it now and when I finish... in a few weeks LOL... i'll probably start tuning so I can print upgrades in ABS with it.

 

[gimmi]

I like to tinker . I started 3D printing with an ender5 pro 4 years ago.The ender was followed by a prusa clone, then i looked for a new challenge and stumbled across the voron.To keep the costs low, I organized my first Voron V2 completely myself. That's how my trident came about and now it will be the Switchwire that I'm rebuilding. My costs for the v2 and trident are around 800 euros.As already mentioned, everything is really self-organized, nothing off the shelf.

 

[Sandman50]

A CoreXY or Core XZ printer running klipper will have better print quality than an Ender / Ender clone. Then the question is budget and size.

I started with an Anycubic Vyper with a ~250mm bed. Lots of mods later basically hit a wall on quality and was limited in volume, so I bought a 2.4 350 kit.

Now I'm converting the Vyper to a Vyper-Switchwire printer to get better print quality from that with a smaller print volume for smaller prints.

Generally there really isn't much of a cost difference between a Trident or 2.4. Personally, the 2.4 was more appealing but that's personal opinion. I don't see much of a complexity difference between a Trident and a 2.4 in the grand scheme of things. I've heard that a V0 is harder to build just because of how small they are. Personally, I wouldn't do a Switchwire as it will only be marginally better than a commercial bed-slinger.

The more important question is how big of a printer do you need? Bigger has a cost with longer warm up times if you do ABS and need a warmed up chamber to prevent warping. (chamber NEEDS to be 50-55*C for that).

I'm also an engineer who has used professional grade printers for decades, and I grew up doing RC hobbies. So this isn't new to me.