Sovol, a filament and accessory manufacturer based in China’s tech megalopolis, Shenzhen, is branching out into printers.
Its first machine, the SV01, is its attempt to elbow it’s way into the already crowded mosh-pit that is the budget 3D printer market. With a few solid features that should give it an edge against the competition and a price of $349, how does it stack up?
Read on as we go hands-on with the SV01.
Hands On
DIVINE DESIGN
Divine may be overstating it a little bit (we’ll get to that in a bit), but for a printer that has a lot in common with Creality’s Ender 3, the SV01 shows it a thing or two. Take, for example, the printer’s direct-drive extrusion system, which stands in contrast to the Bowden drive system of most other budget-friendly printers.
Helping to drive the weigh of the extruder is a dual stepper motor-driven Z-axis. This, combined with the rigid metal frame, translates to a machine that betrays no sign of Z-wobble, with prints popping off the plate with a smooth surface finish.
Though out of the box you have to manually level the SV01, there’s room to upgrade it and add on such as a BLTouch probe. We found that manually leveling the bed wasn’t an issue though. Plus, we liked the tempered glass print bed itself, which prints stuck to well without the aid of glue or hairspray.
On the downside, out of the box the filament sensor is in an awkward location that prevents you from using the full build height of the SV01. This is easily fixable though – just move it to a new spot.
The printer could also benefit from improved cable management. It’s not a bird’s nest by any means, but it could be much cleaner and streamlined.
PRETTY GOOD PRINTING
To get a good first impression for our Sovol SV01 review, we printed the two torture tests on a new, freshly unboxed and unaltered machine, using white eSun PLA+ filament and averaged slicer settings for the ranges specified for the material.
Out of the box with no tweaks to the settings, the printer provided excellent accuracy and handled details well. However, we did have some issues with retraction and extrusion. These can be fixed by, you guessed it, tweaking the settings.
Prints adhere to the provided glass print bed well, eliminating first layer anxiety and allowing us to go about our day without having to helicopter-parent the printer.
The Autodesk Kickstarter test model looks at an FDM printer’s precision. With a score of 23.5 of 30 points, the Sovol SV01 did well.
Overall, the printer was easy to use and straightforward. With some more time spent on perfecting the settings, we think some of the issues we ran into can be solved.
Verdict
With the SV01, Sovol took aim at the budget 3D printing market and hit its mark. Despite being the company’s first attempt at a 3D printer, it manages to pack in the essentials and some nice-to-haves for a relatively affordable price.
The Sovol SV01 works well enough out of the box for even a beginner to ease themselves into 3D printing, but, as with all 3D printers, to achieve absolute perfection you may need to fiddle a bit with the slicer settings. Though the machine isn’t a perfect first try (looking at you, cable management), it’s a suitable printer for beginners who don’t want their growth to be stifled by their printer’s limitations, or the maker looking for a robust machine that’s not from Creality.
Features
With an aluminum frame, a decent built size, and a heated bed, the SV01 has a few cards up its sleeve – despite its relatively affordable price tag.
Plus, since the SV01 comes partially pre-assembled, it makes it easier for 3D printing beginners to get acquainted with it. But, can the SV01 really compete with the already established brands in the same price range? Let’s find out what this machine brings to the table.
Sturdy Dual Z-Axis Design
A recurring issue with fused deposition modeling (FDM) 3D printers is inconsistency in the print’s surface. The Sovol SV01 is equipped with two Z-axis stepper motor drivers, with dual lead screws. This is becoming a more common sight on printers in this price range, but is a welcome sight nonetheless. In combination with the printer’s sturdy aluminum frame, this feature can reduce vibrations, and therefore reduce Z-wobble giving a smoother finish of prints.
Room for upgrades
Sovol deliberately left room for some DIY improvements. In the printer’s vanilla state, the bed leveling has to be done manually by turning the knobs under the build plate. However, there’s a spot on the tool head to add a BL-Touch bed-leveling sensor – allowing the user to easily upgrade the printer if wanted.
Mean Well Power Supply
The Sovol SV01 is equipped with a Mean Well 24V power supply, which gives the juice to heat the bed up quickly and consistently maintain the temperature (this is key for successfully printing temperature-sensitive materials like ABS).
Direct Drive Extruder
The Sovol SV01 is capable of handling a variety of materials. Aiding this is a direct drive extruder, an arrangement that typically provides a more accurate extrusion and allows for faster retractions. This particular extruder appears to be a clone of the popular Titan extruder by E3D.
Tempered Glass Build Plate
Another (somewhat standard but useful) feature is a print bed with strong adhesion. The SV01 is equipped with an Ultrabase-like carbon crystal silicon glass platform. According to the manufacturer, this ensures a flat build surface and solid bed adhesion, so you don’t need glue or hairspray like on a regular glass print bed. We found the built plate does an excellent job keeping the prints in place.
Additional Features
Additional features of the Sovol SV01 include:
- Filament runout detector: We noted that due to awkward placement, the full build height of the SV01 is not usable without moving the filament sensor to an alternate location
- Resume print function
- Thermal runaway protection
- Creality 2.2 mainboard
Tech Specs
GENERAL SPECIFICATIONS
- Technology: FDM
- Year: 2019
- Assembly: Pre-assembled
- Mechanical arrangement: Cartesian, XZ-head
- Manufacturer: Sovol
3D PRINTING PROPERTIES
- Build volume: 280 x 240 x 300 mm
- Feeder system: Direct drive
- Nozzle size: 0.4 mm
- Max. extruder temperature: 250 °C
- Max. heated bed temperature: 110 °C
- Frame: Aluminum
- Bed leveling: Manual
- Connectivity: SD card
MATERIALS:
- Filament diameter: 1.75 mm
- Third-party filament: Yes
- Filament materials: PLA, ABS, PETG, TPU
SOFTWARE REQUIREMENTS:
- Recommended Slicer: Cura, Simplify3D
- Operating system: Windows, Mac OSX, Linux
- File types: STL, OBJ, AMF
DIMENSIONS AND WEIGHT:
- Frame dimensions: 500 x 550 x 540 mm
- Weight: 9.8 kg
Similar Printers
Here’s a handful of printers that closely match the Sovol SV01. Our current favorite budget printers are explored over in our Best Budget 3D Printers Guide.
Creality Ender 3 V2
The Ender 3 V2 is one of Creality’s iterations of the popular Ender 3. It comes with a tempered glass build plate, X- and Y-axis tensioners, and a Mean Well power supply.
Artillery Genius
The Artillery Genius comes with a direct drive extruder, fast-heating AC powered print bed, and a tempered glass build plate for good bed adhesion.
Tronxy XY-2 Pro
XY-2 Pro has a decent build volume of 255 x 255 x 260 mm, plus automatic bed leveling among a medley of other features – all while settling in at the $250 mark.
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