Road to Voron | VORONDesign | Page 1

keen kestrel May 21, 2025, 8:10 AM

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Hi all, I currently in the early stages of building a decent printer.
I got a free printer about a month ago that i'm messing about with, tinkering away to get it to print decent ABS.

keen kestrel May 21, 2025, 12:27 PM

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My friend also gave me a rough old prusa mk I style clone. I've taken some bits from it, mainly screw and bolts but it has a better power supply and an induction probe.
Current spec:
Monoprice Maker select V2.1 (Wanhoa I3 duplicator clone)
Usual Z brace mod, with custom rear brace.
Larger bearings on y carriage. 10 euro
Solid mounted stock y carriage.
Glass 'middle bed' - 20 euro
Steel/PEI magnetic build surface. 20 Euro
All metal Hotend. 35 euro
Extruder cold end fan shroud.
MOSFET swiched heater bed - 10 euro
Mkii power supply 12v 20amp.
Chopped down Repetier firmware "1.0" on the stock Melzi. (I had Klipper on it initially but it kept loosing connection.10 -15 different solutions didn't work. Marlin scrambled the LCD)
Have an SKR E3 mini coming next week. 35 euro
Hopefully can make the induction probe work with it, and it improves my QOL 🙂

Hoping not to put any more money into it and save for the VORON from here...!!! 🙂 130 quid down as it is!
The printer came 2 very old rolls of PLA. They were enough to get the trouble shooting ball rolling.

Leveling the taco bed is the biggest issue with it. 6 hours problem solving over 2 days last week has it ok-ish.

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4mm induction probe.

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Old mk I shitter. Not worth saving 🙂

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ABS parts are coming out ok now. These Z rods braces will hopefully steady the layers and corners. Currently printing a temp tower to try and sort out bridging issues. A general temperature and flow calibration. I've been running it a touch high.

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Sunlu recommends 230-250C with a fan. I'm running no fan and an apparent 240C 🙂

cobalt cypress May 21, 2025, 9:10 PM

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Welcome and good luck on the build!

keen kestrel May 21, 2025, 10:18 PM

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Thanks @cobalt cypress I'm hoping what I've learned getting this thing to function will help me build a decent Voron.

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The prints look pretty decent now, although there always seems to be one corner that doesn't work out right.

keen kestrel May 23, 2025, 11:22 AM

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Mini E3 has finally arrived. Hopefully getting it going is straightforward.

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The are mini. Only 100x70.

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I don't think this was a truly necessary step on the road, but once you get a taste for kilpper, especially with the printer living outside in the shed, it's hard to go back to sd cards, LCD and repetier.

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Also it could be repurposed to build a V0 style printer in future, and will hopefully make better prints with this machine. Money well spent.. we will see 🙂

keen kestrel May 23, 2025, 10:43 PM

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Got this wired up this evening and running klipper. Plug and play-ish which was nice. Only needed to make up 2 connectors and switch pins for a fan. Or so I thought.

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Got as far as the extrude check here https://www.klipper3d.org/Config_checks.html without any issues.

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The extruder motor pulses the filament in and out rapidly by a mm or 2. Maybe a loose crimp on the pins ar a different order on that one. Any one seen that before!?

keen kestrel May 23, 2025, 11:24 PM

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The green connector above is for the extuder motor in the melzi board. I unscrewed them one at a time, crimped and connected them into the jst in the same order. Even if they were backwards the motor should run normally just the wrong way?

keen kestrel May 24, 2025, 11:30 AM

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Back to plug and play. Wires had broken on one of the jst crimps, where it exits the insultion. Easy fix!

keen kestrel Jun 2, 2025, 6:59 PM

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All is up and running the past week without any issues. I've just been printing some boring PETG bracket for the gutters but the loosing connection to MCU is thankfully gone with the Melzi.

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How boring? This much

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The roll of PETg (sunlu) stated to print at 230. I was getting alot of nozzle ooze and stringing so am currently printing test bridges. I'm thinking my thermistor reads about 5-10% lower than actual.

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Need to push on now and get an enclosure fitted. We've had out summer here it seems so no chnace of printing decent ABS parts in a sub 15C shed.

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Which Voron. Pretty much 99% set on a 2.4 250 now. It will fit nicely into the space the 'slinger is sitting atm and will fit into the same wip enclosure. Researching doom cubes and other 4040 style printers I was put off by the temp differential across the alu extrusions, titanium backers etc. An agricultural box I feel will be way cheaper, essentially free made from stuff I have about the place, and can be quickly removed to get better access to the printer mech. I want to build a 0.2 also, maybe a 180 version. Which order 0.2 and 2.4 will happen I'm not sure yet!

edgy axle Jun 20, 2025, 7:38 AM

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If you want to print ABS, you need to ensure the ambient temperature, that is, you need to seal the box.

severe sandal Jun 20, 2025, 8:17 AM

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Hey welcome!
Humble beginnings i see heh
There is a small slicer trick that you can add too that may help you get better abs prints.
Its called Draught Sheild , amd it creates a border around your print to help reduce... well, draughts😋
A large cardboard box works wonders too.
Good luck with your build🥰