The Best DIY 3D Printers (FFF) of 2020

The Voron 2.2 is the evil genius of 3D Printers. It would be a sin to not carry over the red and black color scheme when printing out the parts to this printer. At a first glance this 3D printer looks difficult to build and to be honest, it is one of the more challenging printers to put together on this list. However, there are a lot of systems in place to help you succeed, including a thorough manual, a discord community, and many forum posts about this build. The time and energy the Voron team put into this design and supporting material deserves a standing ovation and a donation if you feel so inclined.

Let’s run through the features of this menacing printer. Linear rails dominate all the axes, which suggest that this printer, once configured, will be able to print day in and day out. The linear motion mechanics for Voron (and many other printers on this list) follow a CoreXY design, where some trickery with the belting allow for both the X and Y motors to be mounted on the frame. I recommend reading this article if you want to learn more about CoreXY, but to skip over the details, this configuration allows for the extruder carriage to be super light and consequently, able to change directions quickly. There are other benefits to a CoreXY design such as a stationary build platform and the ease at which these printers can be enclosed. With all these advantages it’s no wonder that most new DIY designs are CoreXY.

Timing belt is also found on the Z-axis of Voron. A unique but complex feature of this build is the use of a separate z axis motor for each of the 4 corners of the print bed. You heard me right. This printer uses as many motors for its z-axis as a normal 3D printer uses for all of its axes plus extruder. The purpose of these motors is to not only lift and lower the print head gantry but also to physically level the gantry over the fixed build plate. This feature puts all the companies to shame that claim their printers have auto bed leveling, when really they are using a software trick to move the extruder up and down when encountering high and low spots on the build platform, respectively.

Perhaps the most controversial part of this printer is how much it costs to buy all the parts. I have seen some users claiming that it only cost them $800 while other say they spent $1500 to source everything. I estimated the cost of this printer to fall in the middle of these two extremes (about $1200). The seven linear rails required for the build make up a large portion of the build. People always try and save money by purchasing low quality, import, linear rails, which will negate any benefits of using a rail over a rod or aluminum extrusion and wheels. Hiwin rails have sufficient quality for 3D printing while not breaking the bank.

My one issue with many CoreXY printers is their use of a Bowden extrusion drive. In a Bowden setup, the stepper motor and gears that grip and force the filament down the hot end is attached to the frame and not the print head. The relocation of the extrusion drive to the frame means that the print head is very light and can make rapid movements. For this reason, CoreXY and Bowden extrusion drives go hand in hand because these printers usually have large build volumes and consequently, speed is of utmost priority. However, I still prefer a direct drive extrusion setup (i.e. the extrusion drive sit on top of the cold end of the extruder). With direct drive extrusion you do have to slow down how quickly the print head changes directions but the prints are of higher quality and printing with flexible filaments is possible. The first iteration of Voron had “third-party” designs that allowed you to switch the Bowden to a direct drive, but at the time of writing I have not seen such an option for the Voron 2. The beauty of the open source nature of Voron is that you can modify the files to make a direct drive system, and when you do please post it to the forum!

Keep It Simple, Stupid (KISS Principle). If you are new to building 3D printers then its best to build a simple, bare-bones printer, like the HyperCube. Not only is the HyperCube easier to build than other printers on this list it is also more affordable. Depending on your retailer and whether you choose to buy the components that are not critical for 3D printing, such as the LCD and inductive sensor, you could pay less than $200 for everything. Building with cheap parts is a double edged sword. On one edge, if you fry your motherboard by mixing up the positive and negative power terminals then you can purchase another board without having to check your bank account balance. On the other edge, cheap components usually do not go through rigorous quality control, so it may be difficult for you to determine if you are making a mistake or if the component is flawed. However, these cheap components are slowly improving over time, which is why a low priced printer like the commercially available Ender 3 is able to churn out high quality prints.

There are a couple of different versions or remixes of the HyperCube available. The original was created by Thingiverse user Tech2C and is still the most popular build. But the HyperCube Evolution by Thingiverse user Scott 3D is gaining more traction due to slight design modifications that made the frame and build platform more stiff. The original and all HyperCube spinoffs use an aluminum extrusion cube as a frame, rods for linear motion, and a single E3D V6 extruder.

In the DIY community there has been a rush to throw away linear rods in favor of rails. On paper rails are superior to rods. Rails have a larger load capacity, higher accuracy, and faster maximum speeds than comparably sized rods. However, if we look at the demands of 3D printing, where the loads that need to be moved are relatively light, the accuracy is limited by the irregularities of plastic extrusion, and the print speeds don’t get anywhere close to the maximum speeds linear rods are capable of, it becomes hard to justify the premium price of rails. The HyperCube's costsavings comes from the use of rods for all three axes. It’s best not to let the presence of absence of linear rails decide which printer you are going to build

There are a couple of weaknesses of the original HyperCube design that you should keep in mind. This printer is a CoreXY design, but unlike the Voron the bed is not stationary but instead moves up and down. That in and of itself is not a flaw, but it is very important that the bed is rigidly connected to the linear rod to prevent the bed from sagging or vibrating during printing. The HyperCube supports the bed only from one end and the connection is a 3D printed part. This will be fine for the relatively small 200 x 200 x 150mm build volume of the original, but design modification will need to be made if you plan to scale up the hypercube. Other flaws of the printer such as the inexistence of a part cooling fan and lack of an enclosure can be added by the user.

The HyperCube is an affordable and friendly choice for your first DIY build.

A voxel is a 3 dimensional (volume) pixel, which is a fitting name for a 3D printer. Voxel OX is a little known printer that was first posted to the OpenBuilds forum. Its design is reminiscent of the Prusia but a special type of aluminum extrusion known as V-Rail is used instead of linear rods. V-rail carriages use wheels to traverse across the rails, which differs from the ball bearing carriages that ride on rods and linear rails. I am personally a huge fan of the V-rail system. It is a little pricey, but it makes total sense to have the frame function as the rails. The Voxel looks like a minimalistic design because it doesn’t have rails or rods sticking out from the aluminum extrusion.

Typically, the frames of most DIY 3D printers are made out of 2020 aluminum extrusion. 2020 refers to cross sectional area of the extrusion (20mm x 20mm). The larger the cross sectional area the stiffer the frame will be. The Voxel uses 2080 (20mm x 80mm) extrusion for all three of its axes, which means that this is a stiff little printer. So stiff that the print head can be switched out for a router and some light CNC cutting of woods, plastics, or foams can be accomplished. If you are limited on space then a printer/router combo like the Voxel would make a lot of sense.

Having to source 3D printer components from many vendors is a headache. All the parts arrive at different times, and you can’t be 100% sure that everything will fit together. Nearly all the parts for the Voxel can be purchased from the OpenBuilds store. This is going to sound like a sponsorship, but I promise I am in no way affiliated with OpenBuilds. This online store is a DIYer’s dream. It is well organized and has rails and CNC components of all different sizes. I have used these components in my DIY IDX 3D printer build as well as some prototype CNC projects that I am working on. The downside of Openbuilds is that everything is pretty expensive for the hobbyst market. But hey, you get what you pay for.

To get back on topic, the Voxel is a no-frills, down to business 3D printer. It would have been nice if this printer “lived a little” by splurging on a couple of components. For example, an Arduino Mega + RAMPS 1.4 is the brains behind the operation, which works but is a dated setup. I recommend upgrading either the stepper drivers to smooth and silent Trinamic drivers or purchasing a 32-bit motherboard, like the Duet Wifi . While you at it, it would be a good idea to replace the 3D printed extrusion drive with a BMG or E3D Hemera extrusion drive to increase print quality.

The Voxel is a great printer to build. If you ever want to expand the build envelope, then you only need to buy longer V-rails, which is cheaper than buying both the aluminum extrusion and linear rail that is required to expand a printer like Voron.

Crane style 3D printers, like the Indie i2, are identified by their one Z tower and cantilevered linear rail that juts out from this tower. As their name suggests, these printers look like cranes. However, in this case you would have a print head on the “jib” instead of a “trolley.” Not going to lie, I had to look up that crane terminology, and I still might not have used it correctly. These are truly minimalistic 3D printers, with only one rail per dimension. With this design, crane printers are small and lightweight. The Indie i2 goes a step further in portability by being easily flat packed after disconnecting the three axes. If you travel a lot then the i2 could help you get your fix of 3D printing while on the road.

Similar to the Voxel OX, the Indie i2 relies on OpenBuild’s V-rails, but there are other crane printers that use linear rails and rods (see here). The use of only three pieces of aluminum extrusion for the frame can save you a good chunk of money, but there are also drawbacks to this minimalistic approach. Most crane printers have a small build area, which is typically less than 200 x 200mm. The larger the build area the more the cantilevered gantry has to be extended. At some length it will be impossible to prevent that unsupported rail from sagging. 3D printers are very temperamental when it comes to squareness (when two members or rails are square they are at a right angle to each other). If the Z rail and the cantilevered rail are not eactly perpendicular to each other then you will have issues with first layer adhesion and the dimensional accuracy of your printed part. As an aside, the most difficult part to building a 3D printer, in my opinion, is making sure that the frame is square. This could take a couple hours to do or even longer if you don’t have the correct tools. The appropriately named “square” is a great tool to have when building a printer.

The Indie i2 is the first printer on this list to natively support dual extrusion through incorporating an E3D Chimera, which is a fixed dual extruder. Keep in mind that a Chimera extruder could be incorporated into any of the above designs, but modifications would be required. The Indie i2 is already fitted for dual extrusion.

If you are in the market for a small and/or portable printer, then the Indie i2 or any of its closely related crane-style siblings would be a great 3D printer to have.