I got a P1S as a Christmas present for me and my wife. For now, my plan is to block its internet connection and stop using the Bambu app altogether. When/if it his stops working for me, what does the community recommend as a replacement for newbies like me, or future newbs who haven’t made this mistake?
Unfortunately an heir apparent isn’t readily… Apparent in my eyes. All have tradeoffs. To be fair, Bambu did too but hid it better from most consumers.
Qidi isn’t terrible, and they have a decent track record. Their use of klipper is a big plus as well. But multi material is still a promise with no release or reviews, and they have had some duds in their history.
Prusa is an obvious option, and previously wore the crown. They’re a good bit more expensive, but perhaps that’s the cost of a highly ethical company that is deeply invested in the community. MMU is well understood and works great, but isn’t integrated in their latest printers yet.
Voron is amazing but absolutely still not for beginners. Besides that they lack for absolutely nothing. Some kits are approaching the user friendliness of pre built, but care and feeding is generally a more technical endeavor.
Creality is a good place to start generally, but lacks for features.
Long story short, if a friend approached me and demanded a recommendation, I’d push a casual user to Qidi, a demanding user to a Prusa, and a tinkerer to a Creality with the understanding I’ll be printing voron parts in a year or two
I’ve been wanting to build a Voron for ages, I’ve modified an i3 clone from anycubic to such an extent it’s not reflective of it’s original quality at all. But I find the cost and technical challenge a little too high. Recently Sovol brought out an inspired by and using open source basis copy of the Voron 2.4. Sovol SV08. It’s looks quite reasonably priced, but it’s still a big chunk of what I would have spent on the Voron budget, and only needs reassembly out of the box not a full build. I’m just not hearing enough of how they run to be inspired yet. SV08
I’m about to start building the CNC version of the 0.2. All my parts are in, and it will be my first build.
Was going to do the 350mm 2.4, but when I realized how fast the 0.2 heats up and prints, and that most of the things I make fit on it, I decided to start there first.
On that basis I have been squinting at the LDO micron. Similar prices for kits as the 0.2 but with a 180x180 print bed. Micron ‘mini 2.4’
Having gone through the Voron build, I would call it long vs hard. I am mechanically inclined and have crimped wiring before though.
Mechanically, if you’re not intimidated by IKEA furniture you’ll be fine. You do need a largeish flat surface to get the 2020 rails to all be flat when you snug them up, but a kitchen counter will do if you don’t have anything else.
Wiring wise, if you’re willing to spring for a ratcheting crimper with the correct die size for your terminal and wire gauge it becomes foolproof. If you use a non-ratcheting type grab some extra wire and terminals to practice on. Too lose = poor connection. Too tight = you’ll break the wires.
The Voron docs are pretty easy to follow and their forums are pretty solid for help. They also have a discord, but I’m old and prefer BBS style posts.
I’ve built my first Voron self-sourced, then got a good deal on an unused V0.2 kit, I’ve got to say that the LDO kit was like child’s play, so I have to recommend them.
BOM in a box is absolutely they way to go IMO. I ordered a customizable kit from West 3D and it contained everything I needed and more.
Yeah but LDO had the wires pre-made and everything, custom PCBs etc
Mine also came with premade harnesses and all the necessary PCBs. Granted, I chose to cut the harnesses down in length so everything under the bed was a bit cleaner.
Yeah but many kits aren’t like that, so the less… electrically inclined should be wary
It may have just been a one-off, but I hated my SV07 so much that I’ve sworn off Sovol for good (the SV07’s constant issues are what pushed me to get a P1S, actually).