I have used 3d printed yz and xz plates and they are more than enough for my needs. I even had a 1.5" surfacing bit do a full sheet of MDF to flatten a table.
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OMG, I totally forgot about the printed plates. I worked very hard on those, more so than teh core itself.
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Happy to take some of the thinking off of you. You got quite a bit on your plate. 
You even included those little air pockets for extra shells on the inside. 
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Currently planning for a new printer, and want to make sure it’s going to be big enough for the beefy 4 parts - any rough ideas on print area requirements yet?
Ryan always tries to make everything fit on a 200mm x 200mm print bed. So as long as you are an ender 3 or bigger you should be fine. Some of the parts are pretty big but so far nothing that wont fit on that size
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Will fit a Prusa 200 x 250 too! 
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Just wanted to make sure, cuz that definitely wasn’t the case for the YZ and XZ plates on the LR3, and the pics I’ve seen of the 4 make those sides look pretty darned big - and none of it I’ve seen is milled…
YZ plates were the only thing for an LR3 that wouldn’t fit on a 200x200 printer. But those were never meant to be printed either. Everything for the LR4 except the XZ plates is meant to be printed. And as of what I have seen it all fits.
I will say this though, if you are about to build a new printer, I highly suggest 300 x 300 size. My 2 most used printers are that size and it works out great for 99.5% of things
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oh heck no - I’m not gonna build a printer. I can barely find time to play with the CNC - I need my printer to ‘just work’ as much as possible…
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LOL I went back and I read it wrong. Still plenty out there in the 275mm-300mm range that should be good. Even the bambu 256mm should be no problem at all
I am really enjoying my two super fast, and super affordable Flashforge Adventurer 5M’s. With CoreXY, Klipper firmware, fast acceleration, nice quality prints, and less than $300 per printer, they are nice. I have printed both the LR4 beta, LR4 RC1, and LR4 RC2 parts on them. I never got the RC1 built before it was eclipsed by the RC2, but I had already printed the biggest parts (core and both YZ plates). These AD5M printers have 220x220x220 printable area.
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It’s odd but here in NZ those are NZ$1150 while a Creality K1C is NZ$1025 and a K1 Max is NZ$1350…
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Thanks for the feedback Doug! I’m eyeing a Bambu , as they seem to strike a good balance between speed, features, and being an appliance rather than a science project.
I’ve been mostly happy with my ender 5 pro, but I’m over printing new parts to make itself better, replacing parts that seem like they should last more than 2 spools worth of prints, and the general chasing of weird quirks…
I’m kinda ready to make the transition I made from building all my own computers to buying my first mac 
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I have one of those. And its been a beast since I did the Mercury One.1 conversion. But that’s no small upgrade at all. Basically only the frame is stock lol
I’d really consider a Prusa MK4S. The S upgrade makes it a lot better than any other printer, it also has a way faster MMU than Bambu.
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Well, for ~$550 more than a P1S, I’d hope it does something better!
I’m a fan of Prusa, and what he/they’ve done for the field and community, but their pricing doesn’t make sense anymore. For $200 less than a bare MK4S, you can get a P1S (that’s generally on par speed/quality-wise), with an enclosure, an AMS, a camera, and other quality of life improvements that don’t require any DIY.
I also don’t want to spend $1500 on a 3d printer in 2024 - I don’t use it enough to get that much value out of it before it’s completely obsolete.
Heck, I’d probably be happy with a $500 Babmu A1 - it’s almost as fast as the Mk4S and has an AMS too…
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I had this exact thought coming from an OG Ender 3. I was sick of always having to fix something on it or tune it to be able to print something. I tend to use my printer infrequently and the hassle of fiddling with it made me use it even less. So I bought the P1S with the AMS and it has been great.
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I literally did the exact same thing. Down to the printer I came from to where I went to. It went from tinkering to just printing. And I am very pleased with that.
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I started with a CR10 back in January of 2018 as my first printer and learned the hard way how to print and troubleshoot things. I do feel that some of that learning experience is lost with these new plug and play printers, but entry to printing is so much easier now, which I think is a good thing.
I still have the CR10 and actually printed my YZ plates on it until I could use the Lowrider to cut my own plates. At this point I may just keep the 3D printed ones and use it as is until the LR4 releases.
Hahahaha I started with the Chinese version of that. The good ole Tevo Tornado. Actually before that was the Monoprice something or other. But we got maybe one print off that thing. The tevo was a nightmare but I actually got prints off it.