I have been looking for a printer upgrade for a while now for one of my trusty (actually, not sarcastically) quite modified Ender 3 and CR20 printers.
The things I have on my wish list for a suitable replacement are:
Multi material - IDEX would be very preferred over an AMS type changer
Faster - so preferably not a bed slinger, but this is a low bar since i care more about quality than speed and almost anything newer will be faster than my Enders
Enclosed - this is a must
High temp for nylon and PC which is pushing it on my enders currently
All metal hotend, goes along with high temp.
Larger build volume, but not huge. 300 to 350mm square would be fine since sometimes the 220 of the ender is a bit limiting but I donât think I have ever designed anything that needed to be much more than about 250-300mm
I was originally looking at the Snapmaker J1 or J1S. Right now the J1 and the upgrade kit to turn it into a J1S is actually quite affordable. The thing that makes me cautious about that printer is that it is quite proprietary and there are all sorts of posts about the hotends having jamming issues. The build size is also not that big since it is a rectangle.
The method it uses for print head alignment is pretty cool though.
Of course I also considered a Bambu X1C with AMS but I just donât like the idea of how long filament changes take and how much material gets wasted with purging.
Prusa XL with two tool heads would be an option if it wasnât so expensive and seems to have not particularly glowing reviews. If it had universally fantastic reviews I could justify the price.
So that took me to the Vivedino Marathon which according to my trawling of Google seems to be fairly unknown at this point
There is a pretty good interview with the guy who designed it on Youtube but not a whole lot of info from users yet
Things that seem pretty compelling about it to me include:
IDEX
Fairly open source, and running Klipper
Mostly off the shelf parts including a BTT main board and what looks like a V6 style hotend and orbiter extruders
bed is auto levelled with a 3 point ball screw system similar to Ratrig
big enough build volume with a thick cast aluminum bed that should be very flat
price seems very reasonable.
I know that our gracious hosts here were stocking the Troodon for a while. Iâm not sure why they donât seem to be carrying Vivedino printers any longer. Is that an indication of issues with the company? When you look at the price of their Voron kits they are a fair bit cheaper than from their competition so I donât know if that should be a big red flag for quality.
This Marathon seems like it is fairly intelligently thought out but I kind of expect it to require some amount of tinkering which is why Klipper and generic hardware are appealing for longevity of the product.
So the question is does anybody see any reasons why this would be a bad move?
I have a Bambu itâs ok. It prints well but the fit and finish sucks. Much like enders only is is a lot more $$. The AMS is ok, I have been back and forth with Bambu support to have them send me a new insert. Mine is broken and I really disagree with them suggesting I print a design a very smart person made and shared openly with the community for non commercial use. They should be fixing it not suggesting a third party solution that is grey in terms of the designers IP.
I also own an XL. It is leaps and bounds over the Bambu. Easily better in every way. I hear all the issues, I have not had any other than the side sensor went awry on me and 20 mins after speaking to support they sent a new one. It is hard to compare Prusa support to any support in any company I have ever dealt with they are easily the best or close.
I looked at a Trodden and a friend steered me away. In his words, âit is not well assembledâ his was effectively rebuild and in the end the impression he gave me was a kit would have been easier.
I looked very hard at the Rat Rig myself. I ended up with the Prusa instead I just donât have time these days.
I donât have direct experience with Vivedino so it is just what I heard.
I have had a few vivedino/formbot machines, they are decent, but early edition machines are usually problematic. Watching some of it unfold on Formbots discord channel it appears the Marathon is no exception.
Nothing insurmountable, but expect to tinker and not just file â print.
Formbots support is decent, but all replacements I have had are shipped from china, so expect some delays if you need something replaced under warranty.
Here is the formbot discord invite link:
Even the guy who made the marathon âDanâ is on there and replies regularly.
Though core xy and klipper are both new territory for me Iâm sure I can handle some trouble shooting if I were to get the Marathon. Both of my creality printers were pretty crap out of the box and were fully rebuilt and upgraded including my own compilation of Marlin. It was a learning curve but after the initial significant tinkering both printers work pretty reliable and produce good prints without much attention.
I donât doubt that the Marathon would require similar attention out of the box to get past the initial teething problems.
Thanks for the discord link. I took a read through and there is some good info for sure.
Regarding the other printers mentioned, Bambu is just too proprietary and the AMS isnât the same as Idex so itâs a no for how much it costs.
Prusa is appealing for build quality and support but itâs hard to justify a tool changing printer when I only need two materials at a time. I also often do multiples of a part so mirror mode with idex is appealing. The Prusa also isnât enclosed which is a negative for me.
IDEX has its place thats for sure. And Klipper and CoreXY are the future. When you can produce such high quality parts at such a speed, it really shows you how far 3D Printers have come.
Once you get your feet wet with Klipper, you will want to klipperize any other printers in your fleet. The level of visibility and control is amazing, and the rapid development and things they keep adding are also great.
I also agree, the Marathon is not a complete turd, just a V1 machine that will have some V1 machine issues. But as you can see on the discord, no major issues that need reengineering, so far just a few small tweaks.
I have ever needed an idea I have no comment. The XL needs an enclosure. I have added sides to mine and am still prototyping a top. I just have not come up with anything I like really. I hate the modding new things.
