Sérénité’s Parts Replication System (PRS)

Part 2: The Printer

In my last PRS post I broached the idea of having an onboard 3D Printer to fabricate parts. After much consideration I decided to go with an economical, mid-range printer for the test. I needed one capable enough to make a variety of parts, with a good size build volume to handle more ambitious prints. It also had to be able to use a variety of filaments including PLA, ABS, PETG, Nylon and Carbon Fiber Polycarbonate. The other factor was cost, primarily because I wasn’t sure if there would be some unforeseen issue with it living aboard Sérénité with me, thus I didn’t want to spend a lot only to have it get trashed. My printer of choice was the AnyCubic Vyper.

“Anycubic Vyper–Equipped with a new 32-bit motherboard and a high-performance Cortex -M3 architecture main control chip, Vyper features faster computing speed and smoother system. The integration of TMC2209 silent driver makes the motherboard have both silent printing and precise voltage output control, which ensures a more accurate and silent printing” – Anycubic.com

For an inexpensive printer I have been really pleased so far. I had some initial problems with the fans on the print head and with the heated bed, but AnyCubic customer support was great and they sent me the replacement parts quickly – and under warranty. I’ve had it for over a year now and it’s still going strong. When I first purchased it I had quite the backlog of printing for it to do. It was more-or-less in continuous operation for a couple of months 😉 after that I upgraded the hot end and switched to using steel nozzles – the brass ones wear out pretty fast when you are printing with the more abrasive filaments.