Railcore II 300ZL Project R3D 3D Printer Kit Review 

Very thorough review! As someone who is building the printer from the BOM and self-sourcing parts, just wanted to pass along that there are many folks using different parts cooling fans, different fan nozzles, and different bed sensors (BLTouch, Precision Piezo, etc.). It is an easily modifiable printer, whether you source it all yourself, or get from Project R3D (with their awesome wiring bundles and great QC on the rails).

That benchy at 75mm/sec was insane! Geeezzzz...I love this hobby.

One problem I found on my build was that most steppers have at least 1mm of endplay, so the Z height can change as the part weight increases. I had a lot of problems with weighty prints, and I found some steppers "springier" than others, so I put in the stiffest ones I could find to help resist the affects of gravity is the part weight increased. I built a 300ZLT, but I imagine the effect will be amplified on taller machines. Imagine a .1mm change amplified as the print gets taller, the part will actually take on a lean. One taller machines I think a thrust bearing setup would eliminate the endplay problem.

The hardened nozzle needs 15-20 °C more than a regular brass nozzle. This could be the reason for the issues you had with nylon.

ALWAYS, ALWAYS, ALWAYS oversize (read: double at least) an SSR for the expected load. The heat rise at rated load requires a heatsink and fan cooling to keep the magic smoke contained.

Well then, seems my next build isn't going to include a lot of time and trouble sourcing parts and hoping everything works together after all. These folks seem to have nailed it. Core XY has been at the top of my list and quality, affordable rails was sitting right below. Adequate build volume, Duet, Bondtech...Nice work Railcore!

I think this is going to be my first printer, I'm an all in kind of person no baby steps.

Those prints, with that kind of detail, at those speeds are amazing. I want this printer!!!

I believe these style of printers are the future not just for at home printing but industry too. I think I3 style cr10s and prusas have reached their limit. Really want the tall model!

god I want one of these soooooo badly. I saw some of the 0.02mm (not a typo you read that right) layer height prints this machine can achieve and they are truly awe inspiring !! I can print benchy's like that all day long with my ender 2 army. ...... at 20mm/s max speed !!! this thing does it equal or BETTER at 75mm/s staggering. GOD I want one of these things so bad. who do I have to eat to get one......... as for bed leveling. I question if (within a reasonable price point) if its even possible to achieve the needed resolution with a mechanical bed detection solution. meaning I don't think a mech switch solution can level with enough precision to achieve the better than 0.02 resolution you NEED to get a 0.02 layer height.

Right now Filastruder has kits starting at $850. One heck of a deal for a pretty darn impressive printer!

Best printer I've used! Glad to see you review it!

That Benchy printed at 75mm/s blew my mind. I really need to build this printer. I hoped you put this printer on your table and you did. Thanks Joel!

Ok... so where can I go to pick up the entire "Ready To Go" kit that I can assemble and start printing?! This thing is a beast😍😍

For nylon I have found a temperature change of a few degrees hotter can make a major difference. Also no fan. On my lulzbot mini the nylon was breaking apart easily at 235, but once i bumped it up 15 degrees it was perfect.

That is a stunning 3d printer (kit)! Shut up and take my money! I liked the video for the true level reference.

When I've seen this machine in the Midwest RepRap festival I really thaught it could make a difference. Finally it's here and hopefully it will be soon shipped to EU. As a 3D artisti I'd love to buy this wonder-machine. Thanks so much Joel for making this review I was really looking forward to it!

I'd love to build one some day. Working on a Voron 2.1, but this one is on my list!

for the price of that printer, Id give them a $100 tip! it's cheap if you see what it does, maybe I have to save some money and buy it as my 2nd printer

Hi, Joel - Project R3D has been offering pre-assembled RailCore 2 300ZLs... They are just the kit, built by the folks who gathered the parts, but it will save you the build time.

Robert did a great job on his super-long build stream! It was fun to watch. The Etch-a-sketch gantry system isn't CoreXY though, it's a standard crossed XY gantry like an Ultimaker printer.

I know this is an older video, I would love to see this printer try a couple of things (a speed boat (benchy) and a torture toaster!) perhaps with the palette also.....

Skipped Hiwin rails because they didn't add to the build relative to the expense, but used the E3D gold edition v6. Not to knock the build, because it's just plain cool (and while it tickles me, the gold v6 is only like $40 more on the cost of the whole bot), but it makes me wonder how many corners I could cut in a scratch build without sacrificing print quality and reliability. Filed under "fun project ideas for later."

Nice job on the review Joel. Very thorough.

Thanks for this Joel, I'm going to retrofit an X5SA kit for starters as it could benefit from most of the frame/rail mods, then a new self sourced build once the BOM maths have been done by me for a 400mm Z , saved me designing one from scratch as this incorporates all my ideas apart from a mech bed sensor, not seen the 3 Z motors before so that is a winner!

wow...Wow...WOW! That benchi is sooooo KICKBUTT!

This is not a 3D printer, this is madness !

Well... I suppose I need to get myself another printer.

Your Wham Bam is warping slightly from heat....the problem with "spring steel is its BiMetal that expands "non-uniformly". Go down to your local sheetmetal shop and have them sheer you a mild steel galvanized piece...no warp...other than that this printer is SMOKIN HOT and after checking out the price, VERY REASONABLE! If I had the cash I would order one....very nice review too! Another suggestion is to tram the whambam at different temps to "catch" the warp at higher than PLA temperatures.

Oh, did you ever do a video on the different Core XY printer types and which you like best? I see there is the ones with the X axis at the top of the printer with different rail configurations and the Print bed moving up and down. I prefer a printer with 4 lead screws one at each corner of the bed. and the one like this printer and the Voron that the Z and X axis work together to print where the bed stays fixed to the bottom. I would probably use a dual gear direct drive system.

Needs a front door and a hood and it's fully enclosed. As a kit it's just beyond my disability to accomplish. It's a dream machine, as you said it's a bunch of good, even great ideas. I'd like a different leveling sensor. As previously mentioned, it could so easily be fully enclosed. As complex a build I don't see why it doesn't have dual extrusion. Love the concept, hands down it's a cherry picked pile of parts that makes me giggle like a school girl. I'll never be able to build one which in some ways sucks but knowing that the hobby is heading in this direction makes me very happy. Happy holidays everyone! Happy printing!

I'll be watching the developments on this project closely :) And will buy a kit, once it's available in Europe.

Joel, do you know why the e3d tool changer was discontinued?? It seemed like the perfect prusa xl before the prusa xl

I have video of us somewhere at mrrf 2019 we turned the rail core on its side and printed with it, I'll find it and post

LOVE the Rick & Morty reference!

The extra fan power is for bigger nozzles so it's actually a good thing. With a 1.2mm nozzle you'll have it closer to 100%

can I ask you today which printer would you recommend as corexy ? railcore 2 , troodon Vivedino, Voron 2.4, .....

Doesn't the hardened steel nozzle have a lower heat conductivity? Might be the reason why the nylon prints didn't turn out so great.

17:48 jam goes on toast not printers that's why it failed

This is basically everything I've been idly thinking about putting together 'one of these days'. Now it only needs a piezo probe instead of the IR thing and a Zesty remote direct extruder for perfection.

Wait. You’re reviewing a 3D printer kit you didn’t put together? That’s half the fun !

I think the only weakness on this machine is the IR probe. I'd NEVER had success getting one of the differential IR probes to perform consistently in my environment on any of the machines I've tested with one.

THIS is what the Raise3D should have been. I love the looks of this printer as a working machine. Brilliant review mate. Just hope that it gets to the UK . RAILCORE If you want a UK tester let me know :)

If you double the size then that's essentially the same system I've been building my printer from scratch to be. I'll get those higher end parts some day when I can afford them; starting with the linear rails and straight lead screws.

This. . . This is what I'm buying. . . This. . . This is the ultimate.

Yes.. I shall buy one.

Sure does look like a bit of a beast! Thanks for sharing!

some of that detail is CRAZY! this is interesting, don't know if I want this now or wait until there's a clone that's a little less "kit" and more assembled

That thing is pretty sweet. Nice review Joel.

This looks like the NEXT evolution of the Big Box Dual Pro.

Hope to see more printers like this with actual bed leveling (tramming) instead of compensating by adjusting the Z offset as it prints. Looking forward to more videos on this once you get things dialed in.

What's the difference between the R3D Railcore II and their D1700 printer?

This machine looks goos. But I think passive bed leveling has as good performance as active. Speed is about the extruder the hot end and the mechanics (they determine the acceleration) I print on a customized ender 3 With dual-drive direct drive. That allows it to sit comfortably at 120mm/s 0.2 for ABS That said the 5000mm/s^2 of corexy is unreachable for me.

I like this machine do to using the Core XY system and E3D gold edition hotend. I have the gold edition hotrod on my Tevo Tornado. But hearing that you could not get Nylon to print might be an issue for me. I want to print in nylon 12 some times, other material like PLA + type, PETG is my goto filament type and TPU, or Nijaflex types. I just don't know now whether this is my next printer. I am snuggling to get My Creality Ender 3 Max working I can not get layers to stick together. most of my printing does not have to be supper supper great but good enough for prototyping. With reasonable good looking parts. Speed is a plus. I am sure I would print some part at a finer detail is I had there option. I do like the idea around Core XY over a Cartesian style printer for many reasons. One being the bed does not move cutting out ringing that is caused by the Bed moving in and out.

Also, PEI is IR transparent and won't work with the IR sensor that kit gets.

Tried the duet ir sensor, couldn't get it to work reliably on different print surfaces either -- I switched to piezo on one machine and bl touch on another -- PS -- love the lead screw compensation duet -- produces absolutely crazy level bed -- I am using 4 lead screws -- and it works incredibly well -- your bed has to be dead flat though

Printing Nylon with a steel nozzle ( and esp. at high speed) will require much higher temps than usual.

If you're willing to source it yourself, the VORON V2.1 is theoretically capable of just as much and resolves some of the issues you noted (part cooling, mechanical bed leveling), and should be somewhat less expensive since it uses more commodity electronics. That said, it's not currently available in kit form - self-source only.

Is there any update on whether the kit is gonna be offered? The link is broken and their website just shows parts kits and not even everything needed. I dont mind sorcing but work wants one and they want a single purchase.

That thing is INSANE!

For the jam it might be that the e3d spacer is still in the bowden coupler this should be removed or else the bowden shifts

Great review, the kit looks amazing in so many ways. I think your points good and bad are spot on. I don't think this kit is for me until it matures and has stronger support. I'm not into the "tinker" category. I just want to design and print things, but I do desire the layer detail. I'd be totally all in for a resin printer if it weren't for the whole, toxic, smelly, messy bit. So this printer is really exciting from that perspective and I'll be keeping an eye on it. But I think this printer represents a step in the right direction to bring us greater detail and accuracy at ever faster speeds.

Good review Joel. How noisy or quiet is the printer when printing? At 75mm/s? Cause in order to get those crazy layer heights, it's gonna be printing a long time (even at 75mm/s), so unless it is quiet, it's not gonna be suitable for a home/office kind of environment.

Hi, Joel. I've cut my teeth on an E3P and been around the block several times with my MK3S. I'm eyeing up the CoreXY printers for my "endgame" printer and have it narrowed to four. I hope that somebody (preferably you) does a four-way comparison on the following: Railcore II, Hypercube Evolution, SECKit SK-Go, and Voron 2.4. I was leaning towards the SK-Go, but they are unavailable because of Covid. I started to lean towards the Voron, but your video just made me indecisive again. I'm taking my time with the decision, but all of these printers look very impressive. You provided your thoughts on the Railcore. What about the other three?

Thanks for the Review. It came at the perfect time - I was getting frustrated with my CR10s lack of precision - Its a great bang for the buck but I really need more accuracy for my prototyping. Did you notice Project R3d upgraded all the kits this week to the BLtouch probe? Probably as a result of your awesome review. After seeing that they fixed one of your few issues with the kit - I knew we had a winner- I ordered the 300ZLT with the Mosquito Magnum upgrade... go big or go home... speaking of big... you have some big gaps that you forgot to paint at the top of your wall...IF you need my paint discount at Sherwin Williams - I am happy to help you out. :)

Hi Joel! I sue nylon and Alloy 910 a lot and have an idea why you had issues. Nylon has issues when you have any wind blowing (including hotend cooling fan). Even fast head movement can cause too intense air circulation

Thanks for the review ! This printer is almost exactly what I am looking as my next printer since several months. Linear rails; bondtech & direct extruder, 32 bits electronic etc... But what about the enclosure ? Do it works as it is not closed on the top ? did you try ABS or ASA ? What about Flex print and the bondtech extruder ?

Great video! And quick thing about bed leveling probes, the bl touch as tested by thomas sandlander is by far one of the most inaccurate probes on the market

This thing is fantastic.

Hi Joel, what do you think about the BLV MGN Cube? Actually I was searching for reviews for it when I stumbled across this video. Seems like a fairly similar design to this - no compromise, optimise everything, DIY open source kit.

Either you or Sean +1 for Rick and Morty true level. I was laughing for a solid 3 min! Now I have to decide between this and a resin printer in February lol. I tried finding info on this tool changer, but as far as I can see it allows swapping of heads?

id pay for it right now just to run it at 200mm/s+, that's is one BEAST of a printer

Joel's done all kinds of printers, but could he show us a SCARA, if for nothing else why using a robotic arm for printing is impractical?

This might be a little late to comment, but Robert said if your mouse can see the build plate than the optical censer can see the build plate. But my mouse is a Logitech MX Master, and it can see glass. So what are you telling me?

retraction should stop your stringing problem.. idk why you think you only need it for the chainmail. it strings because you still have a small bit of pressure in the hot end and the plastic leaks out as it moves creating the string effect. retraction should eliminate that by retracting the filament. if your worried about it slowing down the print raise the retraction speed. this is pretty much the machine i've had in design software just never got around to building. the duet expansion board is something to look into. as i wanted a duet wifi for years now.

From the thumbnail I thought that someone had revived caselabs and they have released a new PC case.

I'm looking into getting a printer I can printer Polycarbonate with and maybe some higher temperature filaments. my question is if you were going to get a high temperature printer with an open budget what would you get?

No 3D printer will be able to compete with an injection molding machine. I ran a 30 year old injection molding machine that made a file folder box & lid in 1 minute. I also ran a injection molding machine that made 24 gears in 30 seconds. all with tolerances of +/- .002. A 3D printer will never take over injecting molding because depending on the machine & the dies, you can make more parts at a faster rate even while using regrinds which a 3D printer can not do. A 3D printer at best is used in prototyping, & at least for a hobbyist. The only 3D printers that are better than injection molding or conventional machining are metal 3D printers where the parts are too complex to injection mold or machine. Also, most injection molding machines can handle most types of plastic. The better way to make any kind of decent money is to spend $150,000 on a injection molding machine & have your customer supply the dies which you must do so you are not responsible for maintaining the dies since some dies can cost up $50,000 or more. A injection molding will pay for itself within a couple of years & outlast any 3D printer on the market. With that said, I would like a 300 X 300 X 300 3D printer to tinker around with & and maybe make a few bucks on the side. I just don't see the need for the average company or hobbyist.

Dumb question since i don't see a screen how do you load models, only via Wifi or USB? if so does the pc needs to stay on while printing?

Hey joel, if your interested in another kit (albeit fully self sourced, no store available kits) you should check out the voron v2, fixed bed, moving gantry corexy printer. vorondesign.com/voron2.1

75mm/s at what acceleration thooooo. I could set my perimeters to 75mm/s on a Prusa mk3 at 500 accel

TRIM paint that wall plz

May have that one for my first printer. Will p a llet pro work on it. Cool

Regarding the cooling - given the Duet and such, I would assume you could push this thing well above 75mm/s. I wonder if you could push this thing above 100mm/s at which point more cooling might be needed. That said, I would agree you probably never would be going to 100% fan but, I guess I would rather have something OP and pull it back than have something not up to snuff and never being able to achieve what I need. Nice review!

What were you saying at 12:03 about the bowe folding up on itself?

Joel, would you say direct is better than bowden for nylon? I've never printed in nylon, I only use it to clean my nozzle..

Odd, I got a second notification for this vid. One right after watching it. And for some reason the thumbs up I gave it is not there. I had to re thumb it..

Awesome review Joel.

What about the pre-built one? Would that be the King of the printers? Excluding the industrial printers of coarse.

I have made a hypercube and can print a twisted case at 140mmps haven't tried higher but it was fine :-)

I print at .15 at 120 mm a second on my Home made delta and thought that was pretty normal (parts don't even look printed), is my machine a unicorn or something ?

Has anyone here purchased this and can let me know when and their experience? It seems they've added the bl touch and other improvements and I'm curious

Seems like they already took this into account - the kit / preassembled now has a BLTouch sensor

i brought a cheap flsun cube printer to harvest for parts for £250 off amazon, even that had injection molded parts all ready placed brass incerts, for the price of the kits a small cnc could be easily made for moulds to do a diy solution to diy injection moulding or make the the aluminum parts kit thats $205 which could be easily done while keeping the price of the kits lower......but i think thats just coming from a tinkier who would probably make his own diy version for for cheaper btw i understand with all the parts, r&d,qc testing and sourcing of parts, from a ' buying from a company as one of the best kits' scenario goes, the price is understandable

Just checked out the website. It says comes with a BLTouch sensor. So much for the optical sensor?

Watching this 2 years after it aired!

So I guess the Tronxy is just chopped liver then?

Does look really good and well built! one little complaint though - why do all these companies always use 20x20mm aluminium Extrusion? Go 40x40 - it is so much stiffer! Combine that with all aluminum connector cubes, milled to spec and please use high-quality linear, pre tensioned rails from either Hiwin, THK or any other "big name". It really is worth the extra cost - which is not that bad btw. Regardless of the above mentioned, the electronics and rest of the design seem to be superb! Just when doing infill or other very quick moves I suspect the frame could not be stiff enough, especially at 600mm Z-eight in the "tall" version - and dounbling on the frame - extrusion size for a very very low extra cost would be a huge benefit in my opinion! if they already use 30x30 i have not said anything, buw somehow i doubt that... Edit: while thinking about what i wrote, it kinda seems absolete, because it is all reinfoced by the side-plates I guess . nontheless a 40x40 aluminum construction has more surface area where the extrusions interconnect - but after watching the whole video and not jsut the first 8 minutes, after which I wrote my first comment *cough* it seem to not have any print-quality issues whatsoever

it has been almost 2 years now. It should now come with duet3 as an option. but it doesn't

Wish Voron 2.2 full hardware kit was available