First Thoughts: VORON 0 Kit from Formbot
Let me quickly tell you my thoughts on the VORON 0 Kit I recently bought from the FORMBOT Aliexpress store. This is not the full review, yet but since people constantly keep asking me about it, I thought it might be a good idea to summarize my experience so far. If you right away think that the 120x120x120mm build volume V0 is noting for you, you can also check out their VORON 2.4 Kit they recently released and on which I hope I can get my hands on, soon!
If you want to buy one yourself and support my work, consider using my affiliate link: https://geni.us/VORON0
Aliexpress listing
Why did I buy a kit?
You might probably be able to source all of the parts on your own for a cheaper price but organizing that requires quite some time itself and you’ll also need to deal with a bunch of different vendors. I don’t have a lot of time and wanted to spare me the hassle, so I grabbed the Formbot Kit from Aliexpress because it was the only one that I basically was able to find that included everything and seemed to be of decent quality.
Price
So the kit is definitely not cheap and currently sells for $399 to which you’ll need to add at least another $50 for shipping. I paid an additional $10 for DHL shipping but they still sent it out with Fedex, so be aware.
Shipping Prices - To Germany
Shipping
I had the impression that they only start sourcing some of the parts once you order it because it took them around a week to send it out. The package itself then arrived within a couple of days. I think it took, all in all, around 10 days from the initial order to get to where I live in Germany. I didn’t have to pay any import taxes, though I don’t know if Formbot handles that or if they just didn’t declare it properly. The package itself also stunk off burnt acrylic hence why I think they cut the acrylic parts and directly put them into the box.
Parts
The kit contains (almost) everything you need to build the VORON 0. As they also state on their listing it does NOT contain any of the printed parts, so it’s a good idea to already own another 3D printer or find other ways to source the parts.
Noteworthy contents:
Cut, drilled and tapped extrusions
Lasered acrylic sheets (2.5mm)
Original Raspberry Pi 3 (though I wouldn’t know that there are any fakes around)
BMG extruder kit for the Pocketwatch extruder
All screws, bolts and washers
Things that were missing and Formbot screwed up:
2 cross-drill holes on 2 extrusion
A couple of holes in the bottom deck acrylic sheet (though to be fair, they aren’t also present in the DXF on the Voron Github)
2 grub-screws in one belt pulley
not enough M2 nuts for all fixture points of the linear rail (the manual states that every second hole is enough)
3M VHB tape (they provided some double-sided tape, but nothing close to VHB tape)
Things that you need to finish the build:
Drill and tap to fix the thermal fuse to the bed
Ground wire
Soldering iron
Quality
After building the kit I’m very happy with the quality of most of the parts.
Nice acrylic panels
Extrusions cut with descend accuracy and also prepared for assembly (holes and threads)
Machined aluminum bed with nice powder-coated spring-steel plate
Meanwell PSU
Genuine Gates Belts
Smooth linear rails (so they don’t seem to be name-brand)
LDO motors
V6 hotend with titanium heatbeak (thought at first it was from Trianglelabs but it wasn’t all the way up to their manufacturing quality)
Neutrals
Not many spares or even too little (M2) screws and nuts
Gates belts just long enough. Maybe 5cm more than required, so pay attention before you cut
Mesh sleeve for the wires is way too big
Step-down converter whines a tiny bit
Negatives
Heatbed wires are a bit too thick for the cable chain that then doesn’t fit the ground wire anymore
SSR is low-on, which means with the standard Klipper config it will turn on as soon as you power the printer and potentially burn the thermal fuse! (probably not Formbots fault, this is something you need to check) After some discussion in the community, it might be a good idea to change this part to a SSR that is high-on, to avoid any safety hazard.
SSR and power supply without covers so you’ll have exposed mains below the printer
Verdict
Would I buy the VORON 0 Kit again? Yes, definitely. I think it’s totally worth its price, the quality of the parts seems decent and I was able to build the machine without any real show-stoppers! Just if you wonder: I didn’t use the included V6 but went for a SliceEngineering Mosquito because I need more material flow and also used a E3D Hemera instead of the Pocketwatch just because I had one lying around and haven’t seen many using it in the bodwen configuration.
Formbot also recently released a Kit for the VORON 2.4! I haven’t tried it out myself but that might get me to the big Vorons!
DISCLAIMER: The links provided in this article are affiliate links. If you buy any of the articles, I might get a small percentage kickback.