2.4 Vs trident oh the eternal debate

[Maurici]

So. Reddit, facebook, general forums...

People says 2.4 has the gimmick of the flying gantry, but not much else than this. a gimmick.

People says that Trident is penalised because leadscrews and higher centre of gravity

Why I´m wondering, you say? some bonus is about to hit my bank account and I´m not planning on letting it get cosy...

 

Size planned:

300mm. I already have a capable 400x400 for whenever I need supersized, but not very often.

Is a printer I definitely don´t need, but I want to build. However, once is build has to be reliable

More than likely will exclusively print technical materials... so hot to the top to keep uniform layer temperatures triggers towards trident.

The flying gantry may just be a gimmick, but... what a gimmick. Pays out? I understand it will be much more complex to build than the trident, likely more satisfactory?

Once dialed in... how hard will it be to keep dialed?

My head says trident, If I let go towards emotions... I want the gimmick despite as engineer I truly believe that simplicity, if it works, is twice as good.

My arguments towards the Trident Are:

-Constant layer temperature.

-Easier to (simpler at least) to maintain

-Easier to build.

-good speeds.

-3 points flying leveling on the bed.

-currently kits are more expensive.

 

My arguments towards the 2.4:

-Potentially more satisfying build.

-More visually pleasing and a tad smaller footprint.

-Lower centre of gravity,

Against the 2.4, definitely all the "trident" pros.

 

What are the real life differences? are my arguments dismissible? The materials I aim to print will limit my speeds, so, ultimate Benchy speeds are IRRELEVANT.

I don´t expect this to be a long impossible topic for people to justify their build, but rather real life experiences.

I´m asking here to avoid precisely the heated hated arguments that can be seen in other more mainstream sites.

 

Go on guys.

If it was a workhorse... what would you build?

Regrets?

 

Looking forward to decide and start. After the switch(ish)ware, and the V0.1 I really want to keep building.

Is like adult mecanos/Legos. 

 

Edited January 26, 2023 by Maurici

[smirk]

I think they are both brilliant machines and I genuinely don't think there is a definitive objective answer to which one is "better" - I think the answer is "neither". If you love tridents you'll say "trident!" if you love 2.4s....well you get the idea.

I think dependent on a variety of factors (often beyond our control) either  printer has the potential to be an absolute pig  or an absolute joy - you'll have perused the many forum posts and seen the horror that has befallen some and the elation of others at some gorgeous looking print.

I think one answer, to paraphrase James May is.....which one gives you the fizz?

Although the true answer is, buy and build both, you know it's inevitable.

[mvdveer]

Having build both, I would make a few observations. The Trident was the easier build of the two. (But then - it was the 6th Voron I built). The Trident and V2.4 share a lot of printed parts and mods. 

Once I got the 2.4 dialed in, I am getting consistent first layers, and prints with excellent tolerances. Was not difficult to tune in, just took time and patience. Have not done much since I got it dialled in.

Cannot comment on how the Trident prints as I have not started dailing it in yet. But my preliminary initial checks are excellent and I do believe the print quality will be similar to the V2.4

The Flying Gantry is what it is, don't think it is a gimmick per se but a great piece of engineering. (I am not an engineer but appreciate the design of it). Allows for quad gantry levelling rather than 3 point levelling as on the Trident. Does it make it better - don't really think so.

As @smirk indicated - it boils down to personal choice. I have another 2.4r2 Formbot kit stored away to build at some stage. Does it make me want to change my mind after building a Trident?  In retrospect maybe I would have preferred another Trident. But I have a Ender 5 and Ender 5 Plus which eventually will be converted into two Tridents.

Looking forward to see which way you go and following along in a build diary

[larryb]

I built the 2.4 from the fysetc kit.  It is pretty fast, quiet and reliable.  Once I got the first layer good it is repeatable from power up, through media changes I am happy with it. Can't comment on the Trident but I will of course end up building one. I have half the parts printed already and a very old prusa that is willing to give up some parts. The engineering behind these is impressive and fun to build and tune. The other positive is the community is large and in several places and willing to assist with any issue you may have.

[Tina]

I did build a V0.1 (Fysetc Kit, now a T0, belted), a Switchwire (self sourced) and a 350 V2.4r2 (also self sourced).

I didn't go for the Trident because of the lead screws. I just hate them. But there is a belted mod for it  .

At the moment I consider to build either a 250 Tridex (belted) or a 200x200 Dueling Zero (with 2020 extrusions).

[SuperBoppy]

You honestly can't go wrong with either one. The flying gantry IHMO is no big deal - I've never had a problem with mine. The belt-driven Z axis takes any issue with Z-banding out of the equation. It also is faster than screws and makes z-hop a practical and standard option to use when printing. Also, in theory, the V2 can be made any height, whereas the Trident is limited to the maximum length of available screws. 

[Buurman]

When a device just needs a number and not a name, its obviously the best choice! hahaha! Not bias at all!

I dont own a Trident, I have build a few 2.4s and love it, so cant help you here, only by saying the gantry is I think not a gimmick, people who say that dont own a 2.4 I think, and like @mvdveer says, I think its a brilliant piece of engineering, important too, satisfying to watch.

I have never had more quiet printers, and well performing on speed/quality, but this may be true for the trident too, no experience there....

[edulpn]

Not a gimmick per se, but after setting up my Trident I can't see myself dealing with added belts on the v2 flying gantry. It's a beautiful design, top notch engineering, low center of gravity with the fixed bed. But it also takes longer to heat up (hot air on goes up towards the build area on the Trident and evades the build area on the v2), has much more stuff running in the Z cable chain... And did I mention the added belting?

Would love to have a smaller v2, though, because we are tinkerers that love suffering.

[Penatr8tor]

Every printer design has it's inherent quirks or issues that detract from its reliability and it generally revolves around bed leveling. That's why bed mesh and probing are such common topics. If you go with a Trident... the bed does the aligning with the stationary XY gantry, with a 2.4 the gantry does the aligning with a stationary bed. Bed slingers like the Switchwire have their own set of issues.

I went with a 2.4 300^3 for the following reasons...

Low center of gravity. Having the bulk of the mass at the bottom makes for the most stable printing platform IMO.

Fixed build plate. You can probe the actual build surface. Granted the same is true for the Trident but not for bed slingers. 2.4 is Voron TAP ready and TAP is going to be the game changer when it comes to reliability.

I went for the 300^3 design because 250^3 is too small and enough people have complained about bed warping issues with the 350^3 design that I decided the extra print volume wasn't worth the hassles.

Lastly, I thought the 2.4 was just a really sexy looking machine. I mean who buys a Lamborghini just for the performance right?

Anyways, Good luck with your decision making and ultimately your build. We all look forward to seeing your progress in the build diaries section.  

Edited January 27, 2023 by Penatr8tor
Misspelled some stuff

[Jeffware]

I have been transitioning from bed slingers to V2.4 350, so I am a bit of a v2.4 bigot . My first V2.4 has been a workhorse of the printer after dialing it in, it has been consistent and very reliable. (knock on wood) have had zero print failures. I used my first v2.4 for make a comprehensive list of mods used in the rest of my builds. I did not choose to go the kit route. Instead I went with best in class for critical parts and also sprung for the Mandala Rose Ultraflat bed with embedded magnets (clearly the most expensive part in the build. A decision I have not regretted. no bed leveling and auto Z offset has not failed me yet. I have not gone to the TAP due to the fact that I like to run consecutive print runs eliminating warm up times and speeds production. I have run over 20 spools of ABS on my first build and it has been great! Maintenance has been really minimal for a printer this complex and filament changes are simple a fast. have had no problems with nozzle clogging, I use a HF Dragon for my print head and again has been a great choice. be happy to shoot you a list of the mods selected. Good luck with your build which ever way you go, don't think you can go wrong with either. 

[Todd]

Built a 2.4 last year and haven’t looked back. Tried a couple of mods that didn’t go as expected, but I’m up and running with regular high quality prints at speeds my Prusa Mini+ can’t match. True, the Mini is simply a set it and forget it piece of art, but the small bed size is a limiting factor.

 

All-in-all, can’t beat the satisfaction of the 2.4 build coupled with superb quality.

Edited January 28, 2023 by Todd

[claudermilk]

I built my Trident about a year ago and it's been a workhorse. A couple issues here and there, but approaching 1400 hours of print time, you would expect that. It's almost completely idled my Mini+ mainly because of speed and size. Also because of ABS & Nylon capability.

Since the Trident & V2 are so similar you really just have to decide moving bed or moving gantry. That's the big difference. I'm happy with my moving bed. It's a Voron, so there's really no wrong choice, but we're biased around here. 

[Maurici]

Thanks guys!

It appears she will indeed be a trident!

I can´t quite get passed the chamber temperature.

Doing some measurements in one of my enclosed printers this weekend convinced me.

The thermocouple that was at the top was at a constant temperature after 15 minutes for the whole print.

Instead the one at the bottom creeped pretty much during the whole print... that while may be "just fine" for ABS, will give me more problems for polycarbonate.

If the point is make it an improvement over the bed slingers, I think constant printing layer position is the feature I most value!

 

Thanks so much!

[kledbetter]

I have over 1000 on a 2.4 350 and a trident 300.  Both are excellent machines.  You can't go wrong.

If I had to choose I would go trident for 2 reasons.  

1)  It is much easier to maintain good chamber temps with everything near the top.  Even with Bed fans etc my 2.4 is consitently 10ish degrees cooler than my trident

2) I think the moving bed and fixed gantry is just easier to dial in and work on