Why do none of the voron 2.4 kits have all the parts?

Beat_my_Laptop · July 16, 2021

I've seen the BOM kits & the 3d printed component kits but not both together unless it's from Alibaba or a Hong Kong based eBay account. Why is this?

& While you're here, would you recommend building one?

Hackentosher · July 17, 2021

On 7/16/2021 at 1:37 PM, Beat_my_Laptop said:

I've seen the BOM kits & the 3d printed component kits but not both together unless it's from Alibaba or a Hong Kong based eBay account. Why is this?

& While you're here, would you recommend building one?

I'm not certain because I am not in the business of selling 3d printers or kits, but I would imagine it is because there isn't a plentiful source of these printed parts, it's more grass roots. You can go to a ton of shops on Aliexpress and buy the linear rails, fancy steppers, hotends, etc to build a voron, but none of those shops carry the printed parts (at least right now). If the demand for the voron increases, which I think it is (hell, I really want to build a 300mm V2.4 or a V0), I think we may start seeing these parts included or even being injection molded. I know the Print It Forward program that the Voron community has sets high standards for the parts made and maybe the shops that are selling kits know they can't meet these standards, at least not at a reasonable cost.

I'm battling with this question myself, and I have a lot of thoughts surrounding the Voron project. I'll put them in a spoiler to keep from cluttering the thread.

Spoiler

For 1, I think the Voron project is awesome and a revitalization of the open source grassroots community that brought 3d printing to the masses. A Voron is a RepRap (sorta, I'd argue that a pretty small percentage of the parts in the machine can be self replicated, but it's cool otherwise) and everything I've seen surrounding the project looks amazingly high quality especially considering it's a small open source initiative. I'm also kinda looking to replace my aging Ultimaker Original, one of the main reasons for this is because it prints very slowly. A Voron could feasibly print about 10x faster than my current machine AND produce better print quality. But, it's still expensive. A v0 is a little small for my needs so I'd likely go for a 2.4, and I'd probably spend about $1000USD to get it working properly. Compared to the value of an Ender 3 or the proven and reliable, Honda Accord of 3d printers, Prusa i3 I'm just not sure if it makes sense for me and how often I would use it. I would like to build one in the future, certainly, but I think I'd want to wait until I've finished university and have a bit more disposable income before taking on something like that.

One thing to also consider is that is a DIY machine. This has pros and cons, but unless you build CNC type machines for a living, your build probably wont be perfect. It probably wont be as neat as a factory build. I've built a handful of machines (Ultimaker original, C-Beam XL, Liteplacer) and all of them have their quirks. I think a Voron would be a more challenging build than the average DIY machine, but the documentation and community seem really strong so maybe it's a better experience, I'm not sure. I've only seen a Voron on youtube so I can't form the most informed opinions ever, but boy am I excited about this project.

Beat_my_Laptop · July 18, 2021

5 hours ago, Hackentosher said:

I'm not certain because I am not in the business of selling 3d printers or kits, but I would imagine it is because there isn't a plentiful source of these printed parts, it's more grass roots. You can go to a ton of shops on Aliexpress and buy the linear rails, fancy steppers, hotends, etc to build a voron, but none of those shops carry the printed parts (at least right now). If the demand for the voron increases, which I think it is (hell, I really want to build a 300mm V2.4 or a V0), I think we may start seeing these parts included or even being injection molded. I know the Print It Forward program that the Voron community has sets high standards for the parts made and maybe the shops that are selling kits know they can't meet these standards, at least not at a reasonable cost.

I'm battling with this question myself, and I have a lot of thoughts surrounding the Voron project. I'll put them in a spoiler to keep from cluttering the thread.

Hide contents

For 1, I think the Voron project is awesome and a revitalization of the open source grassroots community that brought 3d printing to the masses. A Voron is a RepRap (sorta, I'd argue that a pretty small percentage of the parts in the machine can be self replicated, but it's cool otherwise) and everything I've seen surrounding the project looks amazingly high quality especially considering it's a small open source initiative. I'm also kinda looking to replace my aging Ultimaker Original, one of the main reasons for this is because it prints very slowly. A Voron could feasibly print about 10x faster than my current machine AND produce better print quality. But, it's still expensive. A v0 is a little small for my needs so I'd likely go for a 2.4, and I'd probably spend about $1000USD to get it working properly. Compared to the value of an Ender 3 or the proven and reliable, Honda Accord of 3d printers, Prusa i3 I'm just not sure if it makes sense for me and how often I would use it. I would like to build one in the future, certainly, but I think I'd want to wait until I've finished university and have a bit more disposable income before taking on something like that.

One thing to also consider is that is a DIY machine. This has pros and cons, but unless you build CNC type machines for a living, your build probably wont be perfect. It probably wont be as neat as a factory build. I've built a handful of machines (Ultimaker original, C-Beam XL, Liteplacer) and all of them have their quirks. I think a Voron would be a more challenging build than the average DIY machine, but the documentation and community seem really strong so maybe it's a better experience, I'm not sure. I've only seen a Voron on youtube so I can't form the most informed opinions ever, but boy am I excited about this project.

Yeah, it's kinda light on self replication & I bet your right about the price & standards. I love the results & performance because a well tuned voron is beating every comparable printer more expensive than it. My qualm besides having to order parts from Hong Kong & eBay & cross my fingers it's all legit, is that it's still 1k & like you I'm a broke ass University student (I literally just picked up a free last gen PC off craigslist to scrounge parts for my build). I can't afford a replacement part if the kit isn't legit or I make an error in assembly but I know that if I buy an ender 5 pro today, barring an insanely unexpected new comer coming to market, I'd be wanting the voron 2.4 and buy one as soon as I had the dough.

Hackentosher · July 18, 2021

11 hours ago, Beat_my_Laptop said:

Yeah, it's kinda light on self replication & I bet your right about the price & standards. I love the results & performance because a well tuned voron is beating every comparable printer more expensive than it. My qualm besides having to order parts from Hong Kong & eBay & cross my fingers it's all legit, is that it's still 1k & like you I'm a broke ass University student (I literally just picked up a free last gen PC off craigslist to scrounge parts for my build). I can't afford a replacement part if the kit isn't legit or I make an error in assembly but I know that if I buy an ender 5 pro today, barring an insanely unexpected new comer coming to market, I'd be wanting the voron 2.4 and buy one as soon as I had the dough.

I've been putting together an excel sheet based on the sourcing guide for a 350mm 2.4 and dang, even ordering parts from aliexpress is adding up. There's just over $100 in hardware. $100 in nuts and bolts!! I'm fortunate enough to be able to afford one (barely), but I don't think I print enough stuff to justify the cost. Add it to the list of things to buy when I have more disposable income, but for now: Window shopping.