Well, I made a commitment today. After a couple of years on an Ender 3 Pro which is totally a ship of Theseus now, I’m building a #Voron 2.4 r2. Wish me luck! It was either that or a Switch and some games.
This is the next (big) step into getting a little more serious about project work with my kids. I hope it pays off for us 😅
Not so much a move as an addition. And there are a few reasons.
One, I like projects where the outcome is a useful tool, but the project aspect itself is a significant part of my motivation.
The reason for the Voron being that project is that it will be a WAY faster and more competent tool than my ender, which was a prohibitive limitation especially for larger prints. A failure at hour 23 of a 24 hour print sucks, but the same print failing at hour 3:45 of 4 hours is way easier to accept. At that point the loss of filament matters more than the lost time in my eyes.
Also Voron2 has a much better design than ender 3 pro for exotic filaments, making ABS / ASA / nylon more approachable. Better tuning options, compensation (lower / less moving mass), bigger plate, taller build volume.
The bigger plate is significant for things like ergo mechanical keyboard chassis. I’m a Dactyl Manuform user and builder, and the ender 3 pro can only print one half at a time and takes more than a full day each half. Voron should be able to knock out two halves at once inside of a work day, and do so with better quality to boot.
The ender still has a place, particularly with the mods I have on it. Specifically, TPU can’t benefit from the speed of Voron, so there’s no reason not to print it on ender. Also it never hurts to have a tuned, working machine if you have to take one offline for maintenance.
Thank you, that’s a great explanation. I don’t have time for a new machine right now (I’m only printing minis) but that’s on my radar if I do.
I’d like to hear how you do minis on fdm. I’m planning pressing resin into service for that and a couple other things, but if you have a good workflow for minis on fdm, I have friends who want them and fdm can do it way way faster than resin at the trade off resolution.
I’m just doing them on an Ender3 with PLA, as long as the filament is dry and the heat is tuned I can batch them for monster of the week or what have you. Using a paint to fill gaps and strengthen the form helps.