Welcome to RaveRobot’s Voron 2.4 3D Printer build diary. This post is meant to serve as a hub to the various articles in this series.
What is a Voron Printer?
A Voron 3D printer is a self-built 3D printer. The designs for these printers are provided open source by the Voron Design team; a group of engineers and 3D printer enthusiasts. There are multiple models of Voron printer ranging from the tiny V0, to the bed-flinger Switchwire, up to the large V2.
Building a V2.4
For my build I selected a V2.4 model which is a Core XY printer with four Z motors. V2.4 allows for leveling the floating printer gantry to the bed. It is a very impressive piece of engineering but that also makes it one of the more complicated printers.
Voron Build Diary: Selecting the right model
The CoreXY system and the Voron’s reliance on using Klipper for it’s firmware means that these printers are designed for speed. The V1 and V2 printers can have very large build volumes but the larger you build in X and Y the longer your belts will be which can lead to some difficulties later. Everyone wants to build big the first time but that is not necessarily your best plan.
Think about what you want to print and size your printer accordingly. Having the ability to print 350 x 350mm build areas is great but if you only ever use that much space once every 2 years then you are taking extra complications and issues on for little to no benefit. Larger printers take more energy to heat, longer warm up times, and may need to move a bit slower. The larger build area parts are often much more expensive and harder to source.
Not for Beginners, and yet…
Voron printers are not really meant as your first printer. It would be highly advisable to enter the 3D printing hobby with a cheap Ender 3 (or other similar cheap printer) to learn the basics and feel out if you enjoy the hobby. A voron is a complicated and expensive machine to make rookie mistakes on. If you are determined to start your journey with a Voron then the simplest design would likely be the Switchwire. It is very similar to the i3 design printers (Prusa, Ender 3, etc) that many are familiar with. Switchwire does use a Core XZ belt system instead of the standard lead screws, a significant difference.
Join Voron Discord
If you are embarking on building a Voron printer then the Voron Discord is a very good resource, you will want to join it before you start. The build manual provided by the Voron Design team makes assumptions that you already know some basics and have assembled a printer before. It is also not a complete guide without access to some Computer Aided Design (CAD) software such as Fusion 360 (which is free for hobbyists). I’m going to try and fill some of those gaps with this voron build diary but everyone builds a slightly different machine (one of the perks to doing this) so there are still going to be some places you need to think for yourself.
Voron Build Diary Guide
- 1 – Sourcing Your Parts
- 2 – Building the Frame
- 3 – Assembling the Z-Motion System
- 4 – Assembly and Installation of the X/Y Gantry
- 5 – The Afterburner Direct Drive Extruder
- 6 – Wiring and Electronics
- 7 – Klipper Firmware Installation and Test Flight
- 8 – Printer Tuning and Finishing Touches (Coming Soon)
