300mm+ sq Donor Printers?
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Hi all,
I'm watching a few spares or repairs larger printers and noticing that a few of the larger Tron and Creality machines are available new for likely under the price I will need to pay for a mid level commercial filament printer as spares or repairs.
My gut says the Trons and Crealities are likely to be a false economy once enclosed and when pushing upto Duet3 levels. Is this about the concensus of people on here that have tried either?
My Duet2 P3Steel printers are great and suit my needs for 90% of my work, but I've increasing need for higher temp materials and needing to design parts/assemblies to fit on the smaller beds is costing me valuable tinker time! With it being a larger format machine I would be keen to push the stepper voltages up to whatever the Duet3 supports. Longer term the closed loop stuff looks very interesting but want to endure the underpinnings are reliable first.
Thanks.
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@DocTrucker I think there’s various upgrade paths for Tronxy and Creality CoreXY boxes. I was donated an old Tronxy X5S which I’m slowly updating to VzBot, but realistically all it keeps is the aluminium profile and some fasteners. So I’m not sure you save much versus buying a Voron or other similar kit, if you want a linear rail CoreXY machine.
Ian
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Evening all. Thanks for the reaponses. Some new machine names there that seem to have cropt up since I was last paying attention. I will look them up when my son is back in School - assuming it is open next week!
Looks like I maybe getting lucky on a Raise3D machine local to me. Don't think they are CoreXY but built well on a quick glance ao a decent candidate for raising the volts in the stepper. The machine is an interesting one as it already has a controller with the same processor as the Duet3, but all that is heading for ebay as I've little interest in proprietary software and little desire to learn another system.
I'd built the Core XY HBot some time ago for a previous employer but the base spend on the kit was steep, then it needed third axis, stiffening, extra. I like kit builds, but cost is key at the moment!
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Victory!
280x300x300 dual bondtech extruders.
Movement axis is like an ultimaker, but nice solid frame. I will hope to get it running as is, but with a Duet3, Raspberry Pi4, and touch screen. Stripped out the old control gear, but the rework won't be for about a month and a half. -
@DocTrucker did you ever get a duet board working with the pro2? I have a pro2 that needs a board transplant, but haven't been able to find if anyone has successfully done it yet.
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@dportero morning!
It is in my workshop and stripped of all the original control gear. I've planned what I intend to do, but not actioned it yet because I've had a few paid jobs bunch up.
The screen fits in the old holder with a few mods. I'll mount the Duet3 (doesn't have to be a 3, the motors are low current) on the removable flat panel undervthe machine. I'll likely need to print some cooling ducts to ensure the duet is happy, but other than that I think the biggest mystery will bevthe vslues if the thermistors. I have noticed that one company does upgrade hotends for the machine. That may be an expensive but reliable waybof doing it.
