Mini+

3 Printers

Highly Recommended

These are my workhorses, my favorites, my high-quality machines. These three have been working hard for me for years. I started with two, and then, when I needed more capacity, I bought another.

Should I have gone for a MK3S+ instead of three smaller printers? Probably.

Can a MK3S+ print 3 parts simultaneously? No.

Most of my parts are small or simple, and these printers pump them out, no problem. I can rely on the filament run-out sensor, the filament feeding, the extruder, the nozzle, and the design in general. They just work.

With a 180mm on XYZ, it’s not a big print volume, but the new input shaper makes it fast. Even with PETG, these machines can pump out parts.

SV06

1 Printer

Highly Recommended

I’ll be honest, I was not expecting to like this printer, but it’s actually great for such a low price.

The SV06 is direct-drive, all-metal, and had a removable PEI bed. It’s basically a MK3 with no extra features. And I do mean no extra features. This thing is about as simple as it gets and that’s why I like it.

I don’t have to fight with a dodgy touchscreen or a filament run-out sensor that doesn’t connect to the board. The design is small and simple and it makes some of my larger printers look really bad in comparison.

For a $200 printer, easy win.

At 220mm x 220mm x 250mm, it’s also not a massive build volume, but it’s just big enough for some of the parts that don’t fit on the Prusas.

Kobra Max

1 Printer

Only Recommended if you need the size.

The Kobra Max is a printer that I want to love, but constantly have small, annoying issues with. None of the issues are earth shattering or breaking anything, but there are a lot of them.

The squeaking, the lights, the screen, the calibration, the filament loading, the screen, the runout sensor, the extruder, the screen, all of them have little issues that could have been resolved with just a little better planning.

In case it wasn’t clear, the screen is the worst part. I would love this printer if it wasn’t for the terrible screen. It’s not the interface that’s the problem, it’s the presence of the screen at all. Unlike the Prusas, the filament runout sensor doesn’t go to the mainboard, but to the screen. The screen then tries to pause the print. This makes Octoprint unable to detect the filament runout sensor, which defeats the point of the sensor.

The biggest problem though is how the sensor is mounted. Screwed directly to the frame, it doesn’t move at all. This wouldn’t be a problem if it had a PTFE tube in and out, but there isn’t. It’s just there. This creates a pressure point on the filament that can snap it. The worst part is that just after the sensor is a short PTFE tube, but it was so bent from the factory that it was more likely to snap where that bent tube was putting pressure on, defeating the runout sensor completely.

The fix was stupid. I just unmounted the sensor from the frame. That was all it needed.

The other major issue with this printer is the fact that it comes with a glass bed. While on the surface this doesn’t seem like a bad thing, the problem comes when you run a massive print, and find out that the tension from the cooling filament had shattered your bed.

Yeah. That happened.

Thankfully PEI sheets exist. I just bought a smooth piece of PEI and used it as a print surface until I could find a flex steel bed.

The only reason I still like this printer and grudgingly pass it is the fact that it’s freaking huge. At 400mm x 400mm x 450mm, I can print pretty much anything I want without worrying if it will fit. If it doesn’t fit, it was not designed to be printed as one object.

Sidewinder X2

1 Printer

Not Recommended

This might be my biggest disappointment of the batch. I really want to love this printer, but there are times I really just want to launch it out a window. The thing works right up until it doesn’t. The glass bed isn’t removable, and I know from past experience that some of the filament I like will just destroy a glass bed.

To compound the issue, I got a full-metal hotend for this printer, but then realized that putting a spring steel sheet on the printer wouldn’t work, because the way the bed heats up makes it very likely that only the center will be warm. If I want to print abrasives I basically have to stick to PLA, because PETG will just destroy the bed.

Another issue is the same as the Kobra Max; the runout sensor doesn’t go to the mainboard, but to the screen. Again, this causes Octoprint issues.

The last issue is a complaint about the spool holder. I knocked a spool off and it cracked, which means it can;t roll correctly, which makes it useless in this printer. Bit letdown.

At 300mm x 300mm x 400mm, it’s big enough. The Kobra Max isn’t faster than the X2, but it’s certainly less awkward.

Sidewinder X1

1 Printer

Very Not Recommended

Take everything I said about the X2 and then remember the X1 doesn’t have auto bed leveling. I couldn’t even give this away when I wanted to.

V-Minion Full Kit

1 Printer

Very Very Very Not Recommended

Never have I enjoyed a mistake as much as this.

The V-Minion is a great mechanical design. It’s excellent. I really really like it. ABL, PEI sheet, linear rails, all-metal hotend, the works. Mechanically, it’s great.

Electrically, that argument does a base jump without a parachute.

I have never seen a set of instructions go from so intricately detailed as to show how each screw is oriented, to simply not existing. I understand that the wiring is sort of a ‘figure it out yourself’ kind of thing, but what the V-Minion does is ridiculous. The electronics step is a wiring diagram. Or, more accurately, four wiring diagrams, because the kit can ship with one of four mainboards. It’s up to you to get those wires to where they need to go.

Mine is sitting with the side off the electronics enclosure because there is physically not enough room for all the wires. I had to repin some of the headers because they were backwards from what the diagram wanted. I had to re-terminate several headers because they used the wrong connector. The bed thermistor is connected using wires twisted together covered in heat shrink. Some of the wires I had to supply myself because they simply did not come in the kit.

Needless to say, this is not a kit I would ever recommend to anyone. at 180mm on XYZ, I could have just bought two more Prusa Mini+, or gone with something… less fiddly.

Prints fine though.

RepRap Mini

1 Printer

Don’t try this at home

When I first got this printer, neither it nor I had any idea what was about to happen.

I wanted to start collecting parts for a Voron 0 build I was planning. I didn’t want to just put them in a box, so I used this printer to put the parts in. E3D V6 was replaced with a Phaetus Dragonfly. Extruder was replaced with a BMG. Fans were swapped for Noctuas. The mainboard was swapped for a RepRap 3 Mini 5+ WiFi. Then custom side and bottom panels. Then a new custom CNC aluminum bed. Then an ABL sensor.

Yeah, to say this is an exercise in excess might be an understatement.

This printer is terrible. Without replacing the motors, lead screw, and gantry, it’s slow and plodding. The X gantry in particular is pretty terrible. I’m sure at some point I’m going to mod those too, but this is a printer that never needed the mods.

Why mod it? To that I say, ‘why not mod it?’. The pre-modded printer could barely be called functional. It was even slower, even louder, and even less reliable.

I love this thing even with how bad it is. It’s not meant to be good, it’s meant to be fun. And it is fun. It’s dumb fun.

At 130mm x 130mm x 120mm, this is barely big enough for practical parts, but I wouldn’t even try practical parts on this.

Mini Delta V2

Returned

Just Don’t

Oh boy.

This printer was one of the worst I have ever bought, and might be the only one I returned because of how terrible it was. I put a lot of effort into trying to get it to work, but it was just so not worth it.

To show how much effort I put in, I spent hours ripping out and recreating the Cura profile from the version of Cura pre-packaged with the printer. It worked, but it was not worth it.

In the end I sent it back.

CR-10

Technically 1

The OG

Technically I still own this printer. I just don’t own it as a printer. Instead I own it as a box of parts, a pile of aluminum extrusion, and a heated bed sitting off to one side.

But in reality the CR-10’s days were numbered once ABL became a thing and I bought my Prusa. I bought this on launch, and it served me well for years. Once I got my Prusas, and especially my Sidewinder X1, it no longer served a purpose, and it was much easier to transport as a box and a pile of aluminum than a printer.

QQ-S Pro

Given Away

Kinda Miss It

I gave my QQ-S Pro to a friend, since it was the only one of my printers I could get in my car for the trip. I was never thrilled with it, but it never really failed me either. It just… existed.

The main issue with it was the bowden tube. I measured the filament path and it was 800mm long! I mean that’s utterly massive, and pushing almost a meter of filament does crazy things to stringing. I was starting a quest to mod this printer when I decided to give it away.

And I kinda regret it. It was a decent printer, with reliable ABL in the form of a magnetic clicky thing. It never failed, never suffered a major breakdown, and there was no filament runout sensor for me to get mad about being connected to the same terrible screen as the X1.

I’m sure I’ll get another Delta, probably the V400, but with CoreXY dominating right now, I would need a very good reason.