Yes, actually I built a v1.1 in May of 2022 and had a great (challenging) time getting it working well. When the v2 came out, I printed and built it right away. Moggie & team integrated some really awesome changes that makes it MUCH more consistent and MUCH less error prone. It was released at the end of the year 2023, I had it built and running on my printer in late Feb 2024. Because I had already tip-tuned the ERCF v1.1, I just carried that setup forward onto the v2 and didn’t bother with Filametrix (the filament cutter).
I remember going to CES in Las Vegas in 2014 and they had a huge showing of 3d printers that year. So much growth in the industry, I knew it was going to be a rabbit hole I wanted to jump down but I wanted to make sure I didn’t jump in too soon… after nearly a decade I decided it was time. I did some research and found Voron Design and built a Voron 2.4 in 2022 I didn’t have a 3d printer nor experience with one before 2022, it was really my first experience.
I’m a nerdy engineer-type so I’m really into building stuff diy… this is like legos for engineers. Probably the coolest thing was ordering a bunch of random hardware from China, having it arrive in like 30 different boxes over a month, then assembling the whole thing over the course of a few weeks. I prefer the self-sourcing over buying a kit because it seems so crazy to just take parts and put them together into something. There are a bunch of kits available and I think it’s probably cheaper to just buy a kit but I didn’t do that with any of my builds.
Anyway, after I had the printer working, I had the building bug and I needed to build something else – something harder. Everyone who I talk to about 3D printing and Vorons in particular, I say that the ERCF build is like Voron “hard-mode”. I think that’s definitely true for the v1.1 ERCF but the v2 takes much of the pain out if you build it with Filametrix. IMO, the most difficult part of the ERCF was tip-tuning because if you get it wrong, you’ll have a jam and there are so many variables to setting it correctly that it becomes almost trial and error to figure out the right combination! It literally took me like 3 months to get it working consistently on the v1.1 after working out a lot of the hardware problems.
I’d say: if you’re the kind of guy who does NOT want to spend a lot of time tweaking and tuning and playing with settings – you may not want to attempt the ERCF build. If a challenge appeals to you, go for it. Honestly, the cost of entry isn’t too bad – I think you can build a complete ERCF for a few hundred dollars in hardware, which is pretty amazing functionality for the price when you get it working well. I went nuts with my setup and took over a good portion of my guest room with the printing contraption.
Here’s a photo of what it looks like:
Sorry for the response bomb. asking me about my printer experience is dangerous. haha
EDIT –
I’ll add one more thing here since this thread is really about spoolman. Happy Hare which is the software that moggieuk wrote to handle the ERCF works AMAZINGLY with Spoolman. If you do build an ERCF you’ll be blown away at how well the system works with Spoolman behind the scenes. Now that I have Home Assistant access to my filament list, I can easily tell what is currently loaded in the buffers! If you want to chat more about it, hit me up with DM.