As of writing, my 3D printer is a Sovol SV08 with a bunch of mods applied. Here’s what my setup currently looks like:
The SV08 is a big unit, so I needed a new place to situate the printer. I bought a cheap square dining table from Argos for this purpose. To hold my filament reels, I used some cheap round metal tube, and printed some custom brackets in PETG which mount on the table legs, resulting in shelves along the sides of the table:
I also printed some custom TPU feet for the table for a little extra dampening.
At the end of last year I started looking at the idea of upgrading my modified Spark3D, which is an off-brand Voxelab Aquila X2, which itself is an Ender knock-off, which is a Prusa knock-off. I wanted something enclosed so I could potentially vent it, and so that I had something safe from curious cats. Noise is a large concern for me, as I print from my office where I am much of the day. Some nice-to-haves were speed, a larger size and a chamber suited for higher-temp printing. On my old printer I had modified it to run Klipper and Mainsail, which I really liked, and being able to run via a moddable open-source system is something I really valued.
Prusa, with the core one, was in mind a lot, but the price was high. I wouldn’t mind that, and respect the value of European build & support, but if I was paying upwards of 1k, I couldn’t really justify compromises. The somewhat small build size, VFA issues, along with the odd & janky camera solution were off-putting. Plus the seemingly lacking ability to run something like as powerful as my existing Klipper/Mainsail solution was a let down. Lastly, while I really want to like Prusa, I can’t help feel they’re on the wrong direction of balancing business with open source, with them attempting to justify the move away from open licenses (which they later revealed via their OpenCommunityLicence [context]).
Some other brands looked potentially okay, with Creality and Qidi appearing to be based on the kinds of open source software which I liked. But ultimately, the SV08 looked like the best fit for me, thanks to it’s large size, Klipper/Mainsail based software, active mod community, and since they appeared to respect open source, with designs and firmware clearly published while also donating to the Voron project from which they based their designs on. I knew it wouldn’t be perfect out-of-the-box though, especially when it comes to noise. Many reviews complained about the loud fans, which they are correct about. But I thought the “bones” of the printer were good enough to build upon.
Ultimately, it came down to price though, and I was temped by others, including ultra cheap black friday deals for printers like the ELEGOO Centauri Carbon. Eventually though, I came across the SV08 on Aliexpress for £300 delivered which I thought might have to be a mistake. Pricing is usually around £400 on sale, so that seemed odd, but I jumped on it and hoped for the best. To my surprise, it turned up and didn’t seem to be a defect/refurbished model or anything. I then also ordered the open enclosure kit for another £120, resulting in a total of £420 for the base printer and enclosure.
According to Mainsail stats of the printer, I’ve racked up at least 280 hours of print time so far (not sure if that would include print time before re-flashing the machine). I’ve got the printer to a really good place now in a way which meets my requirements, without costing an extreme amount. The noise is now very reasonable thanks to the mods applied, to a point it’s not painful to be in the same room, with noise-cancelling headphones making it possible to use my PC in the same room for hours.
I really appreciate now having a fully vented system, removing any worries about toxic fumes. The increased size of 330mm cubed has been really useful, opening up new possibilities for functional parts.
A common reported problem with the SV08 is the “Taco bed”, where the bed is curved toward the edges. This, along with the default z-offset system, makes levelling a bit questionable. My bed was somewhat “Taco”, and I did have to quite frequently adjust my z-offset, but since switching to the eddy-NG system I’ve had no concerns with this at all. I can always just let prints go without worrying about the first layer level.
Multi-color printing is something I lack. It’s possible thanks to many open-source-based solutions out there, but I’m not desperate to use them right now. I’m waiting to see upcoming, more efficient, solutions enter the market. There’s rumors that the Bondtech multi-nozzle system may come to the SV08, so that’ll be worth watching.
Overall I’m really quite happy with the printer now. I wouldn’t recommend it to everyone but it is a moddable, open-source-friendly, great-value, fast & functional printer that can be amazing for those that don’t mind some tinkering.
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