Artillery Sidewinder X1

Figured I'd post up a tiny review/my adventures so far kinda post. I decided it was time to upgrade from my 4 year old Wanhao I3 Plus / Monoprice Maker Select duo and get a larger format printer. I really wanted a CoreXY system with linear rails and all the gadgetry, but it wasn't in the budget right now. A deal was made (with myself basically) to get a pretty nice traditional Cartesian (i3 style kinematic) printer for now and build the ferrari printer later and I started doing my research. I wanted at least a 300x300 bed because I've started experimenting with 3d printing hulls (as shown in my Mogador thread) and I wanted to make sure I had the capability to print any hull, so that meant a build plate at least 11" wide (Yamato beam 10.87") despite the fact that I have no desire to build a Yammer.




I decided upon the X1 after watching plenty of reviews, comparing it to the CR-10, Anycubic Chiron, and others. Here is the new guy on the desk next to my I3+ Pretty huge size difference.



The X1 uses a direct titan clone extruder, a V6 clone throat and Volcano clone hotend which I liked because I want to print big things on a big printer and with the volcano you can push some nice volume. It has very quiet stepper drivers and uses a 110v AC heat bed that's insulated from below to keep the heat where it should be. It also uses a cloned Ultrabase style bed, meaning with no additional help PLA sticks very well and as the bed cools most parts pop free, even PETG or ABS held on with gluestick. Linear motion is wheels on V slots like most comparable printers.

So far I've had a pretty good experience, other than the first printer I got from Amazon was DOA. #2 has been running almost non-stop for a month now with no complaints I immediately modified the machine with BLTouch automatic bed leveling, which required a firmware update to Marlin 2.0.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/GifGW7ZA7TSffe9E9

I also added a new double 5015 radial blower fan cooler setup which incorporates the BLTouch mount. Since I wanted to transition over to larger spools and I also wanted to print ABS, I needed an enclosure and needed to relocate the spool from the top of the machine. I designed a small cabinet to fit a spot in my garage that could hold 2 of this printer, or this printer and another large printer (like a 300x300x400 corexy with linear rails )



Well, lets just say I'm not a carpenter. The cabinet came out OK but it's not a work of art and it's not something you want in your living room. 2x4's make up the frame+legs, 1x3s for the door frames, 1" pink foam board for the walls/sides and it has 18x12 acrylic viewing windows up front. 3/4 melamine for the top/shelf. Slapped some white paint on it and called it good.



The first few test prints in the cabinet showed that while the printer's 110vac heat bed could easily raise the temperature by 20 degrees F, if it's only 50 in the garage that's only 70 in the enclosure and the ABS prints were still warping. As a temporary fix I added a piece of 1" foam board to divide the cabinet in half, and the printer seems happier. Mounted in the cabinet is a Wyze Cam to keep an eye on the printer since I don't have any fancy Octoprint or anything set up yet. Just the Wyzecam and a smart outlet I got for free from my electric company, if I start to notice things getting weird I can turn the power off.



I want the cabinet open on the inside for future printers, so out came Fusion360 again and I designed a thermostat controlled heating system using an STC-1000, an IEC320 power input connector, and a traditional power outlet. The STC1k can switch one side of the outlet for heat and the other side for cool. I picked up a little 200w Lasko space heater for $14 used Amazon warehouse, and this little heater doesn't have tipover protection so I can mount it to the top of the enclosure with a bracket to aim it where I want it. In the summer, to prevent from overheating, I will use a 120mm computer fan and a wall pass-through for a dryer to exhaust heat if necessary.



I have other things I still need to do, including a better solution to the filament feed (going with a reverse-bowden setup through the roof of the enclosure), install some LED lighting so it's easier to see in there, and I have a set of carbon fiber Z-braces coming to help make the printer more rigid for those tall hull prints.

 

@Kotori87

In here you can find what I was talking about with the thermostat controlled heater for the printer. It's been up and running now for about a week this way.

still need to mount the control box and work up a quick mount for the actual heater.

 

Saw that same heater on clearance at Walmart yesterday lol. Almost bought one. I want to wait and see if I need it first.

 

That specific heater I think was $13 on Amazon warehouse used special. It's nice because it doesn't have tip over protection, so you can mount it horizontally if you wanted.

 

I just wanted to update this.

I've been running 2 artillery X1's this way for now 2 years. I've had some clogs here and there, but the Artillery's whole print carriage is available for $45 as a replacement part so I have a whole spare X carriage for each printer and if we have an issue I just hot swap and we are running again.

I have printed, no lies, 100~kg of filament this way. These printers aren't groundbreaking machines in any way, no fancy linear rails or 32 bit main boards, but they just work. For $400~ + $40 for BLTouch this is probably the best large format printer on the market right now.

If you want a printer that just works, if you don't want to constantly tinker and just want to produce parts, this is the way to go.

Oh, and the heated cabinet/etc has been working flawlessly for 2 years. The original $13 amazon space heater died so I got a nicer $19 Amazon branded heater https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B074MX8VN5/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&th=1 and that one has been doing fine since.