Comments on this 3D printer and supplier? (Sidewinder X1 V4)

[Adam Funk]

Hi,

My son is interested in this 3D printer as a birthday present. He's done
some research and/or googling but we wanted to know what you all think.

Artillery Sidewinder X1 V4
Large entry-level printer with a Direct Drive Extruder

currently on sale for £360 from "3D Jake" (a website I've never heard
of, but I haven't looked into 3D printers until now).

<https://www.3djake.uk/artillery/sidewinder-x1>

Any comments or suggestions would be gratefully received.

It's quite large so we're not sure where to store it. I could fit it in
the basement but it's a bit damp down there (we think it's important to
store the filament in a dry place, but we're not sure about the printer
itself).

Thanks,
Adam

[James Muirhead]

Well, firstly 3D Jake is a reliable seller, I'd not worry about that!

The Sidewinders have generally really fairly mixed reviews...

• Have decent Titan extruders (I assume are clones, rather than original E3D).
• They use dual Z so don't have the right side droop issue of the early Creality CR-10.
• They apparently come with a Big Tree Tech SKR board (although cannot confirm).
• In theory you should be able to update the firmware at some point. Although currently there is no example code for this printer on Marlin github (does have V1, I don't know how different that is). So could be very disappointing results (suggest further research).
  
• Has a fancy colour touchscreen which can make firmware upgrades slightly problematic (I personally prefer the old school Blue LCD & rotational encoder which is on most everything). And is in really bad English.
  
• Uses ribbon cable for the connecting Z & X carriage. Some of the early versions had issues where the connectors failed quickly. Supposedly they're less bad now.
• Can print from USB flash drive, which is handy (you can loose microSD cards so easily).
• Does have a 230V heater, the wiring of which can fail (blown fuse is one thing, house fire and/or electrocuted teenager is another).
  
• The larger bed printers can be more problematic with levelling as it's harder to get the surface actually flat. [I know it has a glass bed, but my CR-10S has a non-flat heatbed which bends the glass to meet it, not the other way around [I fixed it with layers of tape, which isn't great]].
• Doesn't have a bed levelling sensor as standard. And, may be a real pain in bum to install.
  
• Comes with Repetier Host. It's terrible, bin it off. Use Prusa Slicer or Cura instead.
• You wouldn't want the printer in his room as to print the full volume, you probably need about 4 days!
• The bed heat is not particularly uniform (hotter in middle, cooler at edges).
• It's seemingly not CE certified!
• For some reason it has 3D Printed parts on the Z nuts (or at least it looks like that in photos).
  

Conclusion.... It's a fairly good printer (in terms of reported print quality), but I would suggest it not being a particularly great first 3D Printer as it has a lot of issues you'd want to fix. I would suggest to not start with a large volume printer in the first place, particularly for a kid, as they're generally more problematic. Also not printing on glass from the start, buildTak is your friend here! Electrically it's bad and potentially unsafe. If there is a need for having a direct drive printer, there is probably a better (and almost certainly cheaper) alternative!

I would suggest you consider a Ender 3 for a good first printer. Mine has literally gone for a few thousand hours now and is still going strong without a lot of mods and upgrades (I replaced buildTak as it wore out, replaced board as I broke it (but have since repaired the original and is now my spare), updated firmware, added OctoPrint & added a fan duct). And it printed about 1000 pieces of PPE! They're also a lot cheaper!

If you want a large volume printer, (e.g. for cosplay or something), I'd suggest a Creality CR-10S or CR-10S Pro V2.

The issue with the above is that neither are direct drive. I've never really had a need for direct drive, it prints PLA with less retraction and is better at printing flexible filaments. But I have printed fairly stiff TPU on a Bowden extruder before now (these days I use an old Anet A8 clone (my first printer) for printing flexibles.

But yeh, seriously suggest NOT BUYING this printer!

You should really consider watching Tom's (he's a qualified engineer of some form and knows what he's on about) review of the printer, it's rather negative, but honest!...

    https://toms3d.org/2020/12/16/artillery-sidewinder-x1-review/

-OJ.

PS - Another website I've used for buying printers which is fairly good and fairly cheap is box.co.uk (I am not associated with them in any way).

[lighting keir]

I have had my ender 3 v2 since Christmas and I am loving it, i have only put about 150 _ 200 hours on it so far but I have had some very impressive results with very few failed prints (once I got the bed levelling sorted). I also have not had the issue with z axis motor spacing many have reported with this model.

(@lightingker on instagram for pics btw my favorite print so far is a bob marley lithograph) 

Though if your budget will stretch to it (£410 on 3djake who I also agree are a reputable retailer ) I would consider the ender 3 s1 as it has several upgrades that many people add to their ender 3's and V2's  like a CR touch sensor for auto bed levelling,  dual z motors and lead screws and a direct drive extruder. As well as flex printbed, filament sensor and full size sd slot.

I am pretty sure that will be my next printer if I dont go mad and get something really expensive with a tool changer that is :-) currently I can't really justify either yet 🙃 

Thats my tuppence worth anyway,

Keir 

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[James Muirhead]

I think the Ender 3 S1 is a bit overpriced personally.

I'm quite tempted by a Prusa i3 Mk3 at the minute. I'll actually have enough money soon (that is a real miracle).

What I really need is a cheap incomplete Ender 3 (missing control board) that I can gut out the electronics and PSU and put in an enclosure! Wish the price would come back down to £99.99!

-OJ.

To view this discussion on the web, visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/sheffield-hardware-hackers/CALXkYiYXck0CEaPHKFQm6r6eUg%2Baok9eAQ08tGZNP87XLWw3ng%40mail.gmail.com.

[James Muirhead]

Oh, and add a bimetal heatbreak!

-OJ.

[Adam Funk]

Hi again,

Based on the replies, we're now looking at this one:

"Original Prusa MINI+ kit" from Prusa Research

<https://www.prusa3d.com/product/original-prusa-mini-kit-2/>

Bizarrely, the lead time for a fully assembled one is shorter than for a
kit.

What do people think?

Thanks,
Adam