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Speed vs. Size: 300 or 350?


3DCoded

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I'm looking into getting an LDO Voron 2.4, but I'm stuck between 300mm and 350mm. On the one hand, 350mm lets me print larger things and I'll have more space in the electronics compartment, by the bed for a Blobifier, and on the panels for a Nevermore. On the other, 300mm is faster, more compact, and cheaper. 

 

I would really appreciate it if someone with both the 300mm and 350mm models could share their experiences.

Edited by 3DCoded
Clarify another reason for 300mm
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I have a 350 v2.4 and a pair of 300 tridents and a v0.1 and a Bambu. They all get used, occasionally at the same time. 

NEVER TOO MANY PRINTERS.

 

Hi, my name is Rick, and i have a printer and filament problem…

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Here's my two cents on this - I went through the same decision process a few years ago when I built my 2.4 Voron.

I have a 300mm and am very happy with it. It's not very common for me to print large models, but it's nice when I need to and have the space. I've even printed longer than 300mm models, I just turn it 45 degrees and if it still fits you can print longer things.

The main reason I went with the 300 is some other discussion that made really good sense - the 350 is a lot more volume to heat up when you need to pre-heat the chamber for ABS or ASA, or other filament that needs a heated chamber.

Also, the electricity for a 350mm bed will definitely use more electricity than the 300. When mine is heating up the printer draws close to 350 watts, whereas my Voron 0.2 draws like 30 or 40 watts total (120mm bed size).

So I think the main question is if you need to print ABS often, and if you need to heat up the chamber. If you find yourself printing smaller things, well under 350, then all that wasted heat on the bed also burns excess electricity.

That's one reason I built the 0.2 - for smaller things that fit on the bed, it's much better from an electricity standpoint.

Anyway, thanks for reading if you've made it this far, and there's my two cents on it.

Dennis

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My first Voron is a 2.4 300 mm  (which just upgraded to SB, CAN, and TAP). Then a year later I built a 350 mm; wich is still with an AB which will be getting upgraded soon  too. As mentioned by other users, the two printers running the same. A 350 mm will cost more due to larger extruders, bed, bed heater etc. The 350 x 350 bed can fit a lot more parts in one print. It will consume more electrical power, but then if you're printing more parts at the same time..... I have not done any cost analysis, but I am glad I have both 300 and 350 mm Voron 2.4r2.

One thing I realized after I finished is that it takes a lot more real estate on your workbench and weight. The 350 is BIG and for me a lot heavier than my 300 mm. I know, it sounds crazy; how 50 x 50 x 50 mm will be that much bigger and heavier?

Also, because a 350 has longer extruders, belts, linear rails, travel etc. any misalignments, belt tensioning etc. will magnify the issue and it will affect operation and performance.

Anyway, whichever you buy, just have fun and built it slowly and carefully. Measure twice and you will have an amazing printer.

 

Cheers!

Nikos

 

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I believe that a Trident makes more sense at larger print volumes due to the pre-heat/soak times. As heat rises in a 2.4 the bed has to heat the entire volume and I have measured a 10°C difference between the top and bottom of an insulation enclosed Prusa. I am even toying with an insulated baffle design that would attach to the Trident bed and trap more of the heat above the print bed through the duration of the print.

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The question you need to be asking is how big are the pieces you intend to print? I built a 250 Trident and have not run into anything I wanted/needed to print that wouldn't fit. The 300 and especially 350 are big with the drawback mentioned upthread.

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A 300 is great for the vast majority of prints.  As a sidenote, the DIY flavor of the Voron means that you're actually confident, at max, in a 280 x 280 mm print size.  Sure the print head can reach 300 x 300, but you're not completely sure that the cable chain length and the bed positioning are properly set up to eke out the absolute limits.

The only time I actually needed a 350 was when I tried to print a nevermore XL.  That's when the 280x280 limitation that I stated above made things very difficult.  The printer happily took it, but I got Z positioning errors when the anchor chain yanked the print head upwards at its limits and the bed was like 5mm too far forward.

 

 

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Thank you all for sharing your experiences. Now I think I'm leaning toward a 300mm size since I don't really need to print large parts. Almost everything I've printed in the past two years has fit fine on my Prusa MK3. 

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I'm going to chime in and put a vote in for a Trident 300.

While I don't own one, nor have I built one... I have built a RatRig V-Core 300 and a VzBoT 330 AWD and both follow the same design philosophy, Fixed XY gantry on top with bed moving down as it prints. This is also the same configuration that Bambulabs uses and also what Prusa, Creality and the rest of the printer manufacturers are going with while they scramble to catch up to Bambu. Call me crazy but, am I beginning to see a pattern here? 😆

So, yeah, for all the already mentioned reasons... If I were to put together another Voron... it would be a Trident.

Jus' sayin'

Whatever you choose, it will be fun and it will print nicely. All of the Vorons are great printers.

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Heck, if everything you've printed fits a Prusa Mk3 then a 250 would suffice. 😉

Bambu basically took the Trident design and tweaked it for cheaper components. So, by extension the rest as well (probably not as much with RatRig & VzBot). It's a good design, so I see why.

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I hadn't thought of a Trident, but I think I'll stick to a 2.4 because I want the nozzle cleaner and a Blobifier (also the slow motion of Z-axis leadscrews makes my Klipperized Prusa feel slow). It looks like my primary option would be a 2.4 300 unless LDO adds a 250mm model to their 2.4 line (maybe Rev.E 😉)

Edited by 3DCoded
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Be sure to use a bed leveling system that doesn't use magnets or electronic components at the bottom of the toolhead. I was using a Euclid system with my AB head and loved it but was worried about shorting things out with a metal brush, so I never did anything with it.

But recently I moved from that setup to the SB toolhead with the Galileo 2 extruder system which works great. Also, I added the Tap system so there's no electronics to get in the way at the bottom of the toolhead. I have a brush setup installed and just need to create the macros for cleaning after heating up the hot end.

Also, I changed the XY tensioners to the aluminum ones from ChaoticLabs and love them!

Here's that upgrade thread:

 

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Recently completed my 2.4 350 build over Christmas.

So experience is still early.

I wanted to go big or go home. I already have a prusa min (180cm3) and an ender 3 (230cm3). I've hit size limitations certainly with the Prusa min. But that's predominantly with designs from others that were build for 230cm3 printers.

I haven't been brave and put a power meter on it yet to see what it's costing per ABS print. That massive mains bed can't be cheap to run.

However I did this knowing I was likely to go for a Voron 0.2 later as well for the small fast ABS parts with far less cost per print. For one thing I've loved every minute of building this thing and want more.

I also intend on modding my 350 build to become a tool changer (Either StealthChanger or TapChanger) and that benefits from the larger chamber size for more tools.

I know Nero3D often shouts about the 300 as the best compromise. Its bigger than most printbeds so you shouldn't run into problems with premade designs. And for your own CAD or small parts you can cram a decent amount on the bed without compromising too much of costing the earth to heat.

If your going for one printer. I'd probably agree 300 is fine.

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