First Thoughts: VORON 0 Kit from Formbot

First impressions of the Formbot VORON 0 kit from Aliexpress: what's in the box, what the parts are like, and where the kit made the build harder than it needed.

TL;DRthe short version
  • You can source a VORON 0 cheaper yourself, but it takes time and several vendors. The Formbot kit was the only complete one I could find that looked decent.
  • $399 plus at least $50 shipping. They seem to source some parts only once you order — about a week to ship, then a few days in transit, so around 10 days to Germany.
  • Quality is good where it counts: cut, drilled and tapped extrusions, a machined aluminium bed with a powder-coated spring steel plate, a Meanwell PSU, genuine Gates belts, LDO motors and smooth (if unbranded) linear rails.
  • It does not include the printed parts, so you need another printer or the Print it Forward program.
  • Missing or wrong in mine: the SD card for the Pi, two cross-drilled holes, two grub screws in a pulley, not enough M2 nuts for every rail hole, and double-sided tape that is nowhere near VHB.
  • You'll also need to supply a WiFi dongle, Wago clamps, a ground wire, a drill and tap for the bed's thermal fuse, a JST crimping tool and a soldering iron.
  • The serious one: the SSR is active low, so with the standard Klipper config the bed starts heating the moment you power the printer, and may blow your thermal fuse. Worth swapping for an active-high part.
  • The PSU and SSR also ship without covers, which leaves exposed mains under the printer. Would I buy it again? Yes — no real show-stoppers, and worth its price.

Let me quickly tell you my thoughts on the VORON 0 Kit* I recently bought from the FORMBOT Aliexpress store*. This is not the full review, yet but since people constantly keep asking me about it, I thought it might be a good idea to summarize my experience so far. If you right away think that the 120x120x120mm build volume V0 is noting for you, you can also check out their VORON 2.4 Kit* they recently released and on which I hope I can get my hands on, soon!

If you want to buy one yourself and support my work, consider using my affiliate link: https://geni.us/VORON0*

Aliexpress listing

Aliexpress listing

Why did I buy a kit?

You might probably be able to source all of the parts on your own for a cheaper price but organizing that requires quite some time itself and you’ll also need to deal with a bunch of different vendors. I don’t have a lot of time and wanted to spare me the hassle, so I grabbed the Formbot Kit from Aliexpress because it was the only one that I basically was able to find that included everything and seemed to be of decent quality.

Price

So the kit is definitely not cheap and currently sells for $399 to which you’ll need to add at least another $50 for shipping. I paid an additional $10 for DHL shipping but they still sent it out with Fedex, so be aware.

Shipping Prices - To Germany

Shipping Prices - To Germany

Shipping

I had the impression that they only start sourcing some of the parts once you order it because it took them around a week to send it out. The package itself then arrived within a couple of days. I think it took, all in all, around 10 days from the initial order to get to where I live in Germany. I didn’t have to pay any import taxes, though I don’t know if Formbot handles that or if they just didn’t declare it properly. The package itself also stunk off burnt acrylic hence why I think they cut the acrylic parts and directly put them into the box.

Parts

The kit contains (almost) everything you need to build the VORON 0*. As they also state on their listing it does NOT contain any of the printed parts, so it’s a good idea to already own another 3D printer or find other ways to source the parts.

The lasered 2.5 mm acrylic panels, black and clear, fanned outFasteners bagged and labelled by size, down to M3 t-nuts and shim ringsThe Gates PowerGrip GT belts included in the kitLDO NEMA 14 steppers next to the Raspberry Pi boxThe full kit laid out: power supply, Pi, bed heater, hotend, fans and bagged hardwareAluminium extrusions, cut, drilled and tapped to lengthMean Well LRS-100-24 power supply, supplied without a coverThe Omron solid state relay board for the bed heaterOne of the MGN linear rails with its carriageThe Z lead screw with its brass nutAssorted JST connectors and crimp terminalsBrass heat-set inserts and the extruder drive gears

Noteworthy contents:

  • Cut, drilled and tapped extrusions

  • Lasered acrylic sheets (2.5mm)

  • Original Raspberry Pi 3 (though I wouldn’t know that there are any fakes around)

  • BMG extruder kit for the Pocketwatch extruder

  • All screws, bolts and washers

Things that were missing and Formbot screwed up:

  • SD Card for the Raspberry Pi*

  • 2 cross-drill holes on 2 extrusion

  • A couple of holes in the bottom deck acrylic sheet (though to be fair, they aren’t also present in the DXF on the Voron Github)

  • 2 grub-screws in one belt pulley

  • not enough M2 nuts for all fixture points of the linear rail (the manual states that every second hole is enough)

  • 3M VHB tape* (they provided some double-sided tape, but nothing close to VHB tape)

Things that you need to finish the build:

Quality

After building the kit I’m very happy with the quality of most of the parts.

  • Nice acrylic panels

  • Extrusions cut with descend accuracy and also prepared for assembly (holes and threads)

  • Machined aluminum bed with nice powder-coated spring-steel plate

  • Meanwell PSU

  • Genuine Gates Belts

  • Smooth linear rails (so they don’t seem to be name-brand)

  • LDO motors

  • V6 hotend with titanium heatbeak (thought at first it was from Trianglelabs but it wasn’t all the way up to their manufacturing quality)

Neutrals

  • Not many spares or even too little (M2) screws and nuts

  • Gates belts just long enough. Maybe 5cm more than required, so pay attention before you cut

  • Mesh sleeve for the wires is way too big

  • Step-down converter whines a tiny bit

Negatives

  • Heatbed wires are a bit too thick for the cable chain that then doesn’t fit the ground wire anymore

  • SSR is low-on, which means with the standard Klipper config it will turn on as soon as you power the printer and potentially burn the thermal fuse! (probably not Formbots fault, this is something you need to check) After some discussion in the community, it might be a good idea to change this part to a SSR that is high-on, to avoid any safety hazard.

  • SSR and power supply without covers so you’ll have exposed mains below the printer

Verdict

The finished VORON 0 with its spool holder alongsideLooking down into the build from above, onto the gantry and printheadThe machine from the front, with the bed at the bottom of its travelFrom the back, with the Raspberry Pi mounted inside the frameUnderneath the printer: power supply and control board with mains wiring exposedThe 220 V silicone bed heater bonded under the build plate

Would I buy the VORON 0 Kit* again? Yes, definitely. I think it’s totally worth its price, the quality of the parts seems decent and I was able to build the machine without any real show-stoppers! Just if you wonder: I didn’t use the included V6 but went for a SliceEngineering Mosquito because I need more material flow and also used a E3D Hemera instead of the Pocketwatch just because I had one lying around and haven’t seen many using it in the bodwen configuration.

Formbot also recently released a Kit for the VORON 2.4*! I haven’t tried it out myself but that might get me to the big Vorons*!

DISCLAIMER: The links provided in this article are affiliate links. If you buy any of the articles, I might get a small percentage kickback.

* Links marked with an asterisk are affiliate links — if you buy through them, I earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. Thanks for supporting my work!