LDO vs. Formbot Price Question

[HaraldLenski]

 

Hi,

I have the option of the LDO 2.4 Kit for 1549 bucks or the Formbot Voron 2.4 R2 Pro+ for 733 Bucks.

Both without printed parts (those I will grab from PIF, I have Elegoo Centauri Carbon but printing ABS is a PIA).

I would normally take the Formbot kit because its half the price also including everything, but I am worried about the quality of the parts.

Yes for that price you can throw away something and replace it with something better, anyone has an idea what would be good to replace?

I wanted to self source everything but that would be a shit ton of money including all shipping, tools for building etc.
So I thought buying the the Formbot Kit and switch some parts for example grab the misumi frame for like 160 bucks or a better cast plate etc.

All in All it would be still under the LDO Price.
Also I heared the LDO boards are not as good as the BTT ones since you cant switch drivers and its proprietary.

Also a little question is can I switch boards on a kit, like using Octopus Max instead of Manta M8P?

 

[PFarm]

Welcome to the forum! We would love to follow your build. Please post it in the Build Diaries section

I've built two Formbot kits a V2.4 350 and a Trident 300, both had excellent parts.  Linear trails were nice and smooth with no issues. BTT motherboards just work! I suggest upgrading the belts, and the Dragon hot end can be upgraded to a higher flow one. The extruder is another upgradable part. I prefer the Moon steppers over the LDO ones. Clicky clank door for me is a must upgrade.

[HaraldLenski]

Thanks man, they look great!
The hotend is something I will definitely change, I dont want to use the one that comes with the Formbot Kit, but I am still not sure which one to pick. 

Also is there an upgrade for the probe? I thought about using TAP or so, can it be implemented easy in the Formbot Kit?

AFAIK the wires in the formbot Kit are pre-made, is that true? Like Plug and play?
And did you use the formbot docs or the OG Voron ones for building it?

[PFarm]

1 minute ago, HaraldLenski said:

Thanks man, they look great!
The hotend is something I will definitely change, I dont want to use the one that comes with the Formbot Kit, but I am still not sure which one to pick. 

Also is there an upgrade for the probe? I thought about using TAP or so, can it be implemented easy in the Formbot Kit?

AFAIK the wires in the formbot Kit are pre-made, is that true? Like Plug and play?
And did you use the formbot docs or the OG Voron ones for building it?

Upgrade for the probe, I'd suggest the Beacon probe it costs more money than the Cartographer probe, but it seems to have better support, and it just works! Yes, wires are pre-made, and yes, plug and play. I also use sensorless homing on both machines; once properly set up works flawlessly. Used the Voron docs for both build. 

[Savate]

7 minutes ago, PFarm said:

I'd suggest the Beacon

but with BTT usb it can burn (don't know if the problem have been solved).

[PFarm]

The V2 has a Manta with a powered USB, and the Trident has an Octopus with a powered USB; both have the Beacon running with no issues. 

[Zimbo]

I built both of them. Of course, the LDO kit is great. But I have to say, in all honesty, that the Formbot kit is absolutely superb in terms of quality. I would buy it again in a heartbeat and have already recommended it to many people. I think the components included in the kit are absolutely 

[thedoginthewok]

I've built an LDO V2 Kit and it was excellent. 

I've also built a Formbot V0 and it was almost as good. 

Formbot parts are probably slightly worse quality (this is just a guess, because I can't really tell a difference) and a little worse documented, but with the knowledge I have today, I would say the price of LDO is not worth it. (LDO docs > Formbot docs)

I don't regret getting the LDO kit, though. I was a noob, when building the V2 and I think the additional docs from LDO where helpful.

edit:
fixed mistake in 3rd paragraph.

Edited September 1, 2025 by thedoginthewok

[Steve__Alfa]

I built a Formbot Trident about 8 months ago.  The only issue I had was with the Manta board and CB1 - i got a lot of timing too close errors so I swapped in an octopus.  Other than that it worked fine.  Mine came with Voron Tap.  I've never built a Voron LDO kit, but I have got their kits for Clicky Clack and Box Turtle and the sure are nice kits.

Edited September 1, 2025 by Steve__Alfa
typo

[Penatr8tor]

A lot of really good replies in this thread...

I built two Formbot kits, A 300x300 2.4 and a Switchwire. Both were good kits and both printers are still running and printing. I've had a good experience with the Formbot kits. The only issue I had was the thermistor going bad of my 2.4 build plate. It was a bit of a pain to remove but not a big deal.

I will second the purchase of a Beacon probe and I see that you've already discovered that it costs about twice as much as the others. Well, I can tell you that I paid $80 USD five times for the 5 Beacons that I have. I can also tell you that every one of them worked 1st time and that they're still working without issue. And I can tell you that I also hang out on reddit and help others and you know what... I see a lot of posts with a title like... "BTT Eddy not working" or "Cartographer won't flash" and I could go on. And lastly there's one thing I never see on reddit... Any problems with the Beacon. So, there ya have it. My observation and my experience has been good. Whether you get a Beacon or not we will support you and a build diary is a great place to show off your creation as well as resolve issues you're having with the build.

Good luck and happy building. 

[polyneutron]

I sourced all my parts for voron 2.4 r2. 350x350x500mm. Chaticlear carbon fiber gantry with all aluminum machined parts. I printed the rest on a ender 5 plus. Whooping clicky clack full door. Orbiter 3 revo with btt36 toolhed and carto probe that zeros and does quad and bed mesh fast. It is imperative to ground the ebb36 to a ground pin from the screw mount. This will prolong the life of your temp pobe.

Edited September 3, 2025 by polyneutron
Important to know.

[mvdveer]

I built 3 x Formbot kits (2 x Trident, V2.4)  and a LDO kit (Micron180). Honestly, I cannot find fault with the Formbot kits.

[Penatr8tor]

5 hours ago, mvdveer said:

Honestly, I cannot find fault with the Formbot kits.

Agree and the moons motors are solid performers. I've read that some people prefer the moons over the LDOs, specifically I think it was for the pancake extruder motors. As for the other hardware, I like that it came with stainless fasteners and the linear rails were also good and have been solidly performing without issue. Even the wires running in the cable chains were good quality, clearly labeled, on mine with no breakage issues.

[HaraldLenski]

Hooray, I managed to print ABS with the Elegoo in reasonable quality, even its a hassle to achive lol.

Just a quick question about the printed parts,

Are that all the parts I have to print for the 2.4?

https://github.com/VoronDesign/Voron-2/tree/Voron2.4/STLs

Regarding the Toolhead, I would like to use the Phaetus Rapido v2, so I have to print

https://github.com/VoronDesign/Voron-Stealthburner/tree/main/STLs/Stealthburner

Those STLs, the Clockwork 2 STLs and the Rapido v2 STLs?

Did I get that right?

[thedoginthewok]

There is a printed parts reference document. It's linked in the docs on the website, in the "Sourcing Information" section.

 

[Penatr8tor]

3 hours ago, HaraldLenski said:

Are that all the parts I have to print for the 2.4?

That's all you need for the printer except for the toolhead. Things like skirts and panel mounts, filters, etc aren't essential and can be printed anytime.

 

3 hours ago, HaraldLenski said:

Regarding the Toolhead, I would like to use the Phaetus Rapido v2, so I have to print

 Yes, if you're going to use the clockwork 2 extruder and a Rapido V2 HF (not the UHF) then you're good to go. There's nothing wrong with starting out with a CW2 as the kit comes with a motor for it and the hardware. It's basically free.

So, go ahead and print parts if you want to. Your printer will evolve like all of ours and your dialed in Voron will then print the parts for your new toolhead or some other mod you want to add or change.

This is the pathway of the self-replicating machine god.

[ChicagoKeri]

My Voron 2.4 is from a Formbot kit, from some time ago.  

For the most part, the kit parts are good. Perhaps the 20x20 extrusions are slightly out of spec, with the channels being slightly narrow causing some kinds of fasteners to be. bit sticky.  Probably newer kits have better extrusions as I haven't heard anyone else mentioning this.

So far as TAP, that is how I built mine, and it worked well.  I have since switched to an E3D Revo PZ probe, which replaces the TAP with no configuration changes and only one wiring change.  Print quality improved quite a bit.  

One unexpected bonus with TAP is that if a print distorts, TAP allows the extruder to move up, thus negating all but the worst head strikes.  Since removing TAP, I have destroyed a couple of Revo nozzles due to this, one failing spectacularly shattering into 3 pieces.

If I were to do it again, I would go with either Klicky or the PZ probe.... TAP is just a bit heavy and maybe not so rigid.  After years with PRUSA, I can't stand the thought of any inductive probe as I frequently use different build sheets.

Other must haves for me:

a CANBUS toolhead board and a corresponding U2C.  I like the MellowFly one better than my previous BTT one.   Perhaps the newer BTT ones are better.  Configuration is a chore, but once done it works great since initial construction with Zero CANBUS issues.  The BTT one had thermistor issues for me,  I have a thread on that topic.

a Klicky Klacky door.  A must have.

a Nevermore carbon filter

a CNC mechanical parts kit. - mine is one of the first gen ones and it was well worth it. A moderate increase in mass to the moving parts and a large increase of mass to stationary parts which is irrelevant, leads to much better rigidity and serviceability.

As I experienced repetitive thermistor failures initially, I set about grounding / earthing the motion system and toolhead, an idea I borrowed from Duet 3D land. The CNC kit helps in this regard.  More stable temperature readings noted on large prints of over 5 hours.

[HaraldLenski]

Thank you all for your replies!

 

3 hours ago, ChicagoKeri said:

a CNC mechanical parts kit

I thought about that, but itsn't it a lot of more weight to the toolhead and the printer in general?

The printer in general might be fine, but like with the CNC TAP for example it has more weight to the toolhead if I am not wrong and I thought you want the toolhead as light as possible in a 3D Printer.

[ChicagoKeri]

5 hours ago, HaraldLenski said:

Thank you all for your replies!

I thought about that, but itsn't it a lot of more weight to the toolhead and the printer in general?

The printer in general might be fine, but like with the CNC TAP for example it has more weight to the toolhead if I am not wrong and I thought you want the toolhead as light as possible in a 3D Printer.

Yes, low mass is desirable but so is rigidity.  My first gen CNC kit is quite a bit heavier than subsequent models but it improved print quality quite a bit. My resonance charts before and after are posted on another thread.
 

While first gen CNC kits mostly just duplicated the original plastic parts in aluminum, the newer ones have a lot of lightening holes and specialized design that take advantage of aluminum’s greater strength and rigidity.  
 

There are two more advantages to a CNC motion kit:

1- much higher temperature resistance, which I enjoy while printing with PPS-CF, PC and even just ABS. I  recently had my sole remaining internal ABS part, the Stealthburner front cover fall apart from heat “…The Front fell off!…”, so this is important for my use case.
 

2- the metal parts electrically bond the Gantry extrusions together, making grounding/earthing easier and more effective, if you think this might be important.  The Voron team does not appear to consider this aspect important. I personally do, which of course means little to nothing.

[Savate]

1 hour ago, ChicagoKeri said:

the metal parts electrically bond the Gantry extrusions together, making grounding/earthing easier and more effective

with anodized parts, grounding won't be really easier  

[ChicagoKeri]

2 hours ago, Savate said:

with anodized parts, grounding won't be really easier  

Bolt heads seem to cut through ok and make contact… or a little light sanding of contact area at most. High resistance is ok for static dissipation, so it doesn’t need to be perfect.

all a bunch easier than my previous jumper wires running about.

Edited September 3, 2025 by ChicagoKeri
Typo oops

[HaraldLenski]

Guys, as I didn't manage to print ABS with the Elegoo CC, I again tried a Kobra S1, which has worked great since it has a jailbreak firmware etc.

My question is, I was printing voron parts fine with it, but sometimes I notice some parts have a minimal warping, like 0.015 - 0.03 inches, is that already bad or can I use this parts anyway?

[claudermilk]

I think it depends on the part and the face. I'd check fit & see if it matters.

When I printed my Trident on my Mini+ I had trouble with warping of some larger parts (mainly the feet corners). I put a big brim on those which along with the glue stick kept them from warping & those are still on the printer.