Building my first Voron printer

Table of contents

1. Sourcing Parts
   1. Fasteners
   2. Vibration Management
   3. Frame
   4. Motion
   5. Print Bed
   6. Wires
   7. Electronics
   8. Panels
   9. Misc
2. Assembling The Frame
   1. Parts Used
3. Printing Parts
   1. Tools
   2. Gantry
   3. Z Axis
   4. X Axis
   5. Afterburner
   6. Endstops
   7. Wire Path
   8. Bottom Compartment
   9. Electronics Compartment
   10. Rear Panel and Exhaust
   11. Heated Bed
   12. Panel Mounting

Sourcing Parts

I had originally chosen parts for the Hypercube that will lead up to re-building it into a Voron 1.8. However, I have chosen to build a new printer rather than upgrade my existing one in case I need to reprint more parts. I have already sourced many of the parts on the BOM from the configurator and I will replace some with alternatives that I already have (see the notes columns for details).

The quantities here are from the 1.8 BOM, however I am planning on swapping out a few parts for the updated versions from the Trident. Therefore these quantities may not be accurate and I will also need to source more items for some Mods and future upgrades that I would like to implement.

Fasteners

Vibration Management

Frame

Image © 2020 Voron Design

I have looked into a few different options for a new frame for my 3D Printer and eventually settled on an LDO frame kit for a Voron 1.8. All these parts (Except for the DIN rails) come from this kit.

Motion

Image © 2020 Voron Design

Print Bed

Image © 2020 Voron Design

Wires

Electronics

Panels

Image © 2020 Voron Design

Misc

Assembling The Frame

Parts Used

Printing Parts

All printed parts will be printed in eSun ABS+. The Voron team recommends an infill type of 40% of either Grid, Gyroid, Honeycomb, Triangle or Cubic. A layer height of 0.2mm and extrusion width of 0.4mm, with a wall count of 4 and top/bottom layers of 5.

Tools

Gantry

Image © 2020 Voron Design

Some of the gantry parts (specifically the AB Drive Units and Front Idlers) will be replaced with the upgraded versions from the Trident as they should fit the 1.8.

✅ AB Drive Units

Image © 2020 Voron Design

The lower A drive was the first time I have tried to print with ABS. The upper was printed after a few tweaks to my slicer settings and updates to my Marlin firmware configuration. I am now quite happy with the results and will carry on printing the rest of the parts.

Assembly

Parts Used

✅ Front Idlers

Image © 2020 Voron Design

Assembly

The screws on the front of the idlers move the tensioners forwards and backwards, this allows for easy adjustment of the belt tension.

Parts Used

✅ Rear Crossbar

Both fully assembled AB Drive Units are required to install the rear crossbar.

Assembly

Parts Used

✅ Linear Rails

The linear rails come delivered with a coating of oil to prevent rust during storage and shipping. This coating is not a lubricant and needs to be removed before applying a coating of grease to the bearing surfaces.

I carefully removed the carriages from the rails and soaked them in Isopropyl alcohol for a few hours, then let them air dry before applying Mobil EP2 grease with a syringe directly to the ball bearings. I then reassembled the rails and applied more grease through one of the mounting holes behind the carriage.

Assembly

Parts Used

Z Axis

Image © 2020 Voron Design

✅ Bed Frame

Image © 2020 Voron Design

Assembly

The bed frame will not only hold the bed, but will also be a base for the Z endstop, some Wago mounts to connect the low voltage connections to the endstop and thermistor and the mains connections to the bed, and also Bed Fans to circulate hot air around to heat up the enclosure.

Parts Used

✅ Z Axis Rods

Assembly

Parts Used

X Axis

The X Axis was flipped on the Trident (linear rails are on the bottom of the extrusion like the V2, this will not work on the 1.8 as the guide rails are mounted to the bottom of the extrusion too). I had originally wanted to use the Trident toolhead carriage with a single MGN12 linear rail, however due to the changes on the X axis the endstops were moved to the XY Joints not the toolhead. Because of this I wouldn't have anywhere to mount my endstop so I am not using an MGN12 rail here and instead using the dual MGN9s of the original design.

Image © 2020 Voron Design

✅ XY Joints

Assembly

The bolts on the linear rails and the X axis extrusion are left loose at this stage as they will need to be aligned when the X carriage is installed. I have left the little white plastic clips on the rails here so that the blocks do not fall off the ends of the linear rails.

Parts Used

✅ X Carriage

Assembly

The stock design uses an inductive probe in the toolhead, either a PL-08N or an Omron TL-Q5MC2. I do have a XY-08N which is similar to the PL-08N, however, due to the close proximity to the hotend the inductive probe has a tendency to melt. Therefore I have chosen instead to use Klicky Probe.

Parts Used

✅ Belts

Assembly

The belts are routed in a layout that is known as CoreXY. When one motor rotates the toolhead will move diagonally, when both motors rotate in the same direction the toolhead will move in the X axis and when both motors rotate in opposite directions the toolhead will move in the Y axis.

Parts Used

Afterburner

Image © 2020 Voron Design

I built the Afterburner toolhead but will eventually add the StealthBurner Main Body. However, I will keep the original Afterburner extruder, the Clockwork 1 rather than upgrade to Clockwork 2, There are a number of reasons for deciding this:

1. I was planning on adding the AB-BN By Badnoob for a larger cooling fan, this was integrated into the design of the StealthBurner.
2. I want to add the filament sensor for the Enraged Rabbit Carrot Feeder which is not currently compatible with Clockwork 2.
3. I want to add the ERCF Afterburner Toolhead PCB which is also not currently compatible with Clockwork 2.
4. The StealthBurner has an integrated mount for an ADXL345 for Klipper Input Shaper.
5. The StealthBurner also integrates some cool RGB LEDs (and who doesn't like a bit of RGB?).

Assembly of the parts can be found on its own separate page.

Endstops

✅ Y Endstop

Assembly

As I am using the Trident A/B Drive Units, I have had to move the Y Endstop to the opposite side of the machine to allow space for the toolhead wires to pass through the wire cover. The side panels will have 1mm foam tape on them and therefore, should allow enough clearance for the endstop wires to tuck between the panel and the outside of the extrusion. The wire will then be bundled with the B Motor wires down into the electronics compartment.

Parts Used

❎ Z Endstop

NOTE: I am not going to print the stock Z endstop, I will replace it with Sexbolt Z Endstop.

Wire Path

✅ Cable Chains

Assembly

I have applied some Super Lube PTFE grease to the silicone cables inside the cable chains and anchored the cables at each end with cable ties using the chain wire anchors from the Trident r1 update. As I am using multi coloured cables I have also added a bit of cable sleeving over the bare wires between the chains and into the rear electronics compartment these are also held in place with the cable ties at the end of the cable chains, and do not run through the chain.

X Axis Chain

Y Axis Chain

Main Toolhead connector

ERCF Connector

Neopixel Cable

✅ Wire Management

It appears that these parts are not specified in the manual, I will use them for the A/B Motor wires and to bring the toolhead wires down to the rear electronics compartment.

Assembly

Parts Used

Bottom Compartment

Image © 2020 Voron Design

The bottom compartment is designed to hold the high voltage components such as the main power supply, the power supply for the Raspberry Pi and Neopixel light strips, and Solid State Relay (SSR) for the heated bed. I will also be placing a BigTreeTech 24V UPS module to add capacators across the 24V supply to smooth out the power supplying the MCUs.

✅ Skirts

Assembly

Before attaching the power skirt to the printer the power socket and Keystone inserts are installed into the part.

Parts Used

❎ Display Module

NOTE: I will replace the stock display arms with Display Mount.

✅ Bottom Electronics Mounting

Assembly

Parts Used

✅ Bottom Electronics Brackets

Assembly

Parts Used

Electronics Compartment

Image © 2020 Voron Design

The rear electronics compartment is designed to house the low voltage components for the printer. The compartment was removed from the 1.8's successor the Trident, however I wanted to have the separation between the low and high voltage components and also wanted space to expand and add additional compenents without being restricted to the space beneath the printer.

✅ Rear Electronics Enclosure

Assembly

The manual says to install the DIN Rails after fitting the enclosure. I found it easier to add the DIN rails to the enclosure and afterwards install the assembly to the frame.

I have also purchased an additional DIN rail than what was specified on the BOM as the manual displays 2 installed and it will give the flexability to place additional components in the rear of the printer.

Parts Used

🔧 Rear Electronics Brackets

Image © 2020 Voron Design

I managed purchase a SKR 1.4 (the non Turbo verion) cheaply to replace the SKR 1.4 Turbo I have in my Anet A8 and planed to install the SKR 1.4 Turbo here. I chose this to enable me to swap the boards with minimal re-wiring, and without the need to re-print a new case for my Anet A8. I have also purchased the BTT EXP-MOT motor expansion module to allow me to install additional stepper motor drivers to run the Enraged Rabbit Carrot Feeder and potentially add a 3rd Z Stepper Motor.

Assembly

Parts Used

✅ Electronics Panel

Assembly

The Electronics Compartment has a couple of parts to rest the elecronics panel on called panel_holders I have replaced these with the front handles from the 2.2 to enable me to move the printer about a little easier and to also keep a little bit of space behind the printer to allow the electronics compartment fan to breathe.

I also plan on installing the Klipper Expander in the space at the bottom of the electronics compartment just above the handle shown.

The V1.8 has 3D printed locks to hold on the back panel; This makes accessing the electronics easy as installing and removing it is completely tool free.

Parts Used

Rear Panel and Exhaust

Image © 2020 Voron Design

❎ Exhaust Filter

Assembly

I originally printed this in PETG that would be fitted to my HyperCube upgrade. I will replace with the Exhaust Mount Side Entry mod to allow me to pass 2 bowden tubes through to experiment with a dual bowden setup using 2 M4 extruders.

Heated Bed

✅ Print Surface

Assembly

I cleaned the Aluminium Tooling plate on both sides, thouroughly with Isopropyl alcohol and ensured it was completely dry before peeling a small portion of the adhesive backing from the magnet for the spring steel sheet.

I then carefully lined up the magnet to the center of the top of the tooling plate, and pressed it down making sure to press from the center outwards to remove any air bubbles, pulled back some more of the backing and repeated until the magnet has been applied.

Once the magnet was applied I used a 3mm drill bit from the undersde of the tool plate to make holes for the mounting screws and then used a craft knife to make space for the screw heads and tidied up using a de-burring tool to remove any sharp edges.

Parts Used

✅ Heater Mat

Assembly

I flipped over the tooling plate and applied the Kenovo heater mat to the center of the bottom of the tooling plate in the same way as the magnet above, ensuring the wires come out of the rear of the bed.

I then added some thick cardboard around the thermistor and wires of the mat and added some weights (I used 6 rolls of filament) on top of the plate to ensure the adhesive cures and sticks well.

After 24 hours I removed the weights and applied some masking tape 1cm from the heater mat, and appled a bead of red RTV silicone sealant around the plate and the mat. I then removed the masking tape while the RTV was still wet and then waited for it to dry.

Parts Used

✅ Bed Mounting

Assembly

When mounting the bed, I noticed the mounting holes in the aluminum plate I purchased are a little different to the mounting holes in the Drawings, my rear bed mounting holes are about 265mm from the front rather than 262mm. I have redesigned the front bed mount move the front mounting hole forward a few millimeters to compensate

Parts Used

🔧 Wiring

Assembly

Parts Used

Panel Mounting

Image © 2020 Voron Design

🔧 Panel Mounts

NOTE: I have not been able to succesfully print the bottom panel hinges, they always seem to fuse up and the small pin just snaps when trying to free the hinge. I will print extra panel clips instead.

Assembly

Parts Used

❎ Front Doors

Assembly

Parts Used

🔧 Spool Management

Assembly

Parts Used