There is nothing i can add to this discussion that has not allready be said.
But i just want to say that it was a pleasure to read, helpful and no “my team is better than yous”.
God the forum is a pleasure to be in.
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Yeah, I was in the same boat when i got into this. Didn’t have a printer, so I purchased the printed (primo) parts from V1. I’m glad I did. It made assembly quicker and the parts were correct with no issues. Still haven’t built the printer…
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The prusa is also open source compared to the carbon. So if you need to print a part, you can find the OEM design and print it with a prusa. The X1 has some open source parts, but they are in a legal gray area.
The prusa mk3 or mk4 is several hundred dollars more than an ender. But that is the value of a good working out of the box printer. The $200-$300 ones won’t be the same until you’ve invested $500-$600 in them. I would rather work on them myself than pay the factory. But everyone is different.
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Regarding the parts, do you guys have an estimate on how much pla was used? In case I see a sale, I can buy a large enough quantity to cover the parts that are going to be printed.
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I’ve built or bought a wanhao duplicator, e3d bigbox, lulzbot taz, 3 prusa mk3s, ultimaker s5 and a form 3. And the Prusa is my goto printer.
I’ve also seen Enders and other cheaper printers working well but I echo everyone else’s sentiments - printers are like everything else in life, you get what you pay for.
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If you print the core thrice you need 4. 
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I joined that club! It was my first really tall print on my Stock Ender3. Attaching tool holders and other stuff at the top was never an issue…until it was! This was not technically a printer (Machine) issue, but a printer (Person) issue.
No regrets though - it was fun watching all three times!
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I used an Ender 3 v2. There’s a printer profile on YouTube that really speeds up the print times. I think the spindle holder which is the biggest part took about 15hrs, it was a while ago so could be out by an hour or so either way.
Good luck with your build.
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i have an ender 3v2 this is the machine I learned to print on , steep learning curve but after a few months a lot of YouTube and forums I’m reasonably competent ,i also own a bambu x1carbon love it but quite a different machine from my ender both produce great results but the only way to make a cheap machine work well is to know how it works and be able to tune it that is knowing what caused your failures and you will get them and know how to fix them you also need to know how to use your slicer this all takes time my bambu just prints but when it fails and it does not that often usually caused by operator error but not always so the knowledge I got from my ender is invaluable just an insight from my experience NB I printed my LR3 on my bambu
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I am going to donate a few commas and full stops.
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I print better than i spell
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Another question, aside from printing the parts. Buying the control board and hardware kit, is that everything you will need to complete the build? Of course I will have to get the router and tubes locally.
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All the parts you need are detailed at the start of the documentation: LowRider CNC V3 - V1 Engineering Documentation
Nuts, bots, wires, switches, steppers linear rails, it’s all listed.
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@atlas07 ,
Welcome to the party!
Nothing new to add here, but just to emphasize one comment: If you’re mechanically inclined, don’t mind a learning curve (potential frustration), and like figuring things out, then the low cost 3D printer is fun way to go. It was what I did, but I was doing 3D printing long before I thought about the CNC machine.
I’ve had very good results with both my Primo MPCNC and my Lowrider V3.
And I also really, really, enjoy this community of makers.
Mike B.
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Have you considered reaching out to the lowrider v3 community for recommendations on 3D printers suitable for printing the larger-sized parts?
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Welcome to the forum! The Ender series (and others with a 220 x 220 x 250 print volume) can print all of the parts except the YZ plates. Those are usually milled OSB, but @DougJoseph has brilliantly designed a split version that can be printed on almost all machines.
So no need (AFAIK) to buy a bigger printer to build a LR3.
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An excellent first printer is the BIQU B1, which with the current $50 coupon is only $199. It’s often compared to the Ender 3v2, but it’s a better printer in many many ways. I’ve owned an Ender 3 v2, and I currently own four (4) BIQU B1’s and one (1) BIQU B1 SE. I also own a Snapmaker A350, an Anycubic Mega resin printer, and I converted the Ender 3v2 into an “Ender Extender 400XL” using a kit, and also replaced its Creality mainboard with a BigTreeTech SKR board, and I replaced its Creality touch screen with a BigTreeTech TFT35. I’m probably going to tear it down rebuild it as a CoreXY printer — eventually. I also have purchase a kit for making a Voron 2.4, which I have yet to start on (have trouble finding time), and I bought supplies for making multiple of the V1 Engineering CoreXY design, but have yet to start (again, time is a factor).
One add on that is truly worth the price is a BLTouch sensor for auto bed mesh features of the operating system, which compensates for the aluminum bed not being perfectly flat.
Most of the affordable “good first printer” options are not CoreXY, but rather are what are known as “I3 Clones” — aka “bed slingers.” This design has a bed that slides back and forth in the Y axis direction, and two uprights made of aluminum extrusion, providing Z axis movement, and along which a gantry is lifted that provides X axis movement. If you go this route, during assembly, check carefully that the two uprights are perfectly parallel to each other. Google the “winding sticks” method.