Hey guys, here again for a review!!

Artillery saw my previous review of their Genius printer and offered to send over their other model, which is the Artillery Sidewinder X1. This printer was on my list of printers that I wanted to cover so of course I said YES and here we are.
The Sidewinder X1 is the older, bigger brother to the Genius that I previously reviewed, but it has had a few revisions with the one I got being V4. This means it has a lot of upgrades that were included in the Genius model.

You can purchase this printer from here:
Artillery official store on Aliexpress: HERE
Banggood: HERE

I mention my review of the Artillery Genius a few times, it can be found HERE

Why did you choose to review this printer?
The Artillery Genius is hands down my current favourite printer, it is easy to use, it's consistent, its quiet, it heats up fast and its just an all around polished machine. Having a bigger version of what is virtually the same machine sounds like an excellent idea to me and in this review we will find out if it still maintains the same standards as the smaller, newer variant. I would like to hear what printer you guys would like to see me review and why.

Initial packaging thoughts/ unboxing
So the box was one of the biggest i've got, almost as big as my CR10-S5, which told me from the get go that assembly would be minimal. The box arrived in perfect condition suprisingly, and shipping direct from Artillery to Australia was around the 1 week mark which suprised me especially with the current COVID-19 status. As usual I'll show step-by step photos of the unboxing and then move onto Assembly. 


I was impressed to see the cardboard angle line to help with edge rigidity in the box.







And Here is the instruction Manual


Overall it was very well packaged and nothing appeared to be damaged from transport.

Assembly overview
The assembly complexity of this printer is right at the bottom end with the Genius, just a few basic steps and you're going. It took me about 20 minutes all up, and I did it100% off of the included instruction booklet that I showed above. I will list out the steps below.
Insert the gantry in the base


Put the spring washers on the included M5 screws


Insert the M5 screws under the base to screw through into the bottom of the gantry.


Mount the filament holder on top with the 4 screws and pre-installed slot nuts, plug in the filament run-out sensor.


Plug in the Z-axis steppers, and the z and x-axis limit switches.




Untape, straighten and plug the x-axis ribbon cable into the extruder unit.



Repeat the same for the y-axis ribbbon but plug it into the base of the printer



This is the end of the assembly, but the instructions asked to check the eccentric nuts so i felt around for axis movement and loose rollers and only found one roller on the z-axis was loose so I adjusted it


here's a picture of the finished machine


So this concludes the assembly procedure, i'll move on.

What were the first print results (included test print)?
There was an included test print on the USB stick, but no filament so i put some transparent blue filament in I had out.
If you would like to see the menus, check out my review of the Artillery Genius, the software is the same.
The first layer looked quite nice, I tried to get a pic of it:


and here is the whole printer, while printing



The finished test print on the bed


and removed




How can I setup this printer in cura?
I will cover CURA setup in my next post about this printer, If I forget it please remind me.

Are there any quirks about this printer?
Not really, this is a very nice machine. The only one thing I liked about the genius that this didn't have is the PCI-express style connector for the gantry to the base but I understand that this is a slightly older design and i can't see any real issues with the way the ribbon cable attaches.

Are the special features of this printer useful?
This printer has pretty much all the features. 24V, silent steppers, AC heated bed, direct drive titan extruder, dual lead screw with a sync belt etc.

What are some good points about this printer?

• Dual lead screw with sync belt
  
• Silent steppers
  
• 24V Power Supply
  
• Excellent Cable Management
  
• Titan style direct drive extruder
  
• Touchscreen interface
  
• AC heated bed
  
• very sleek finish
  

What are some bad points about this printer?

• Cost is slightly higher than other printers I've reviewed, you get what you pay for.
  

Final thoughts - Who should purchase this printer?
This printer is very well finished and time will tell it's overall reliability (I will give updates). This printer is excellent for someone new to the hobby or experienced, it is good because you don't need to know a lot to get it functioning and it smooths out the steep learning curve of 3D Printing. i really like the build quality and product finish that artillery is able to offer and I look forward to reviewing more of their machines in the future.

I'm far from finished with this review and will cover CURA setup, print settings and tpu printing very soon. I hope to 3D print a quite complex mask with this printer from TPU soon, so you have that to look forward to .

So I've read a decent amount (if not most) of your reviews at this point and there's 1 point that I'd say is lacking.

Usually you only show 1of the prints done with the printer, personally I'd love to see some more pictures of prints, because a single print while it's better than nothing would still be useful to have multiple. It'd also be nice to have something for comparison across all reviews, maybe print something like 3D Benchy as one of the prints so there's a clear baseline if someone is using your reviews to compare different printers.

Love the reviews as always, just some constructive criticism.

Also I have to ask, you said Artillery reached out to you and sent you this printer cause they saw your original review. Was that just the review posted on intoFPV or did you do one on another site?
It's really cool of them to reach out to you like that!

(25-Mar-2020, 11:00 PM)AvCDVz75LRFwd Wrote: So I've read a decent amount (if not most) of your reviews at this point and there's 1 point that I'd say is lacking.

Usually you only show 1of the prints done with the printer, personally I'd love to see some more pictures of prints, because a single print while it's better than nothing would still be useful to have multiple. It'd also be nice to have something for comparison across all reviews, maybe print something like 3D Benchy as one of the prints so there's a clear baseline if someone is using your reviews to compare different printers.

Love the reviews as always, just some constructive criticism.

Also I have to ask, you said Artillery reached out to you and sent you this printer cause they saw your original review. Was that just the review posted on intoFPV or did you do one on another site?
It's really cool of them to reach out to you like that!

That's great feedback and it is definitely something i want to do, thank you.

The complete comparison is something I plan on doing as a part of my rundown video that goes over all the printers i've reviewed. I hope to release that within the next month.

I sent an employee of Artillery a link to my review on intoFPV and they offered to send me this printer, which is great and i appreciate the support of companies like this (I also like free range, aka they dont ask me to highlight something or give a good review. I don't want to be a sellout).

I do have some announcements coming soon about other websites I am working on. There is my blog that needs more work (i dont have time atm) which is https://davesdronedesigns.com/
I am also working on a forum dedicated to printing..... I'll keep y'all posted.

(25-Mar-2020, 11:21 PM)bffigjam Wrote: That's great feedback and it is definitely something i want to do, thank you.

The complete comparison is something I plan on doing as a part of my rundown video that goes over all the printers i've reviewed. I hope to release that within the next month.

I sent an employee of Artillery a link to my review on intoFPV and they offered to send me this printer, which is great and i appreciate the support of companies like this (I also like free range, aka they dont ask me to highlight something or give a good review. I don't want to be a sellout).

I do have some announcements coming soon about other websites I am working on. There is my blog that needs more work (i dont have time atm) which is https://davesdronedesigns.com/
I am also working on a forum dedicated to printing..... I'll keep y'all posted.

I'd be very interested in a 3D printing forum! I haven't seen many of those around, or at the very least haven't found any. Would be nice to have a whole forum dedicated to it.

(26-Mar-2020, 12:51 AM)AvCDVz75LRFwd Wrote: I'd be very interested in a 3D printing forum! I haven't seen many of those around, or at the very least haven't found any. Would be nice to have a whole forum dedicated to it.

It'll be running in the next 48hrs. It's up I just need to set it all up properly before I circulate the address

(26-Mar-2020, 12:51 AM)AvCDVz75LRFwd Wrote: I'd be very interested in a 3D printing forum! I haven't seen many of those around, or at the very least haven't found any. Would be nice to have a whole forum dedicated to it.

hey it still needs some work, but if you wanna be one of the first of us you're welcome...

https://into3dp.com/index.php

You might need a name that's memorable

Hello,

Good review dude.

Im a Artillery SW-X1 user, after some mods my printer its working like a boss.
Time to thinking about mods, first and very important mod.

Extruder Flat Cable Mod, no more troubles  

https://flyerfpv.blogspot.com/2019/09/ar...inter.html

Hello everyone, I would like to share my review of the Sidewinder X1.

All I can say is that this is a fantastic printer for beginners like myself, I've only been 3D printing for a month and have gotten fantastic results with this printer. I came across the Proto Pasta carbon filament and fell in love. The only mods I have done are Openbuild V Wheels, Metal idler arm, Microswiss Nozzle 0.4mm, upgraded thermistor, vibration dampeners, upgraded firmware and a couple printed mods.

Here's a photo of the vibration dampener installed, haven't seen anyone doing this mod on this printer. I did notice less vibration, also added one for the bed plate motor which was a pain and may void your warranty as the sticker on the bottom will need to be removed...



I'm actually in the process of building a 3D printer. Here's a few prints using Proto-Pasta carbon filament..

(28-Jun-2020, 06:21 PM)TheLoneJourney Wrote: Hello everyone, I would like to share my review of the Sidewinder X1.

All I can say is that this is a fantastic printer for beginners like myself, I've only been 3D printing for a month and have gotten fantastic results with this printer. I came across the Proto Pasta carbon filament and fell in love. The only mods I have done are Openbuild V Wheels, Metal idler arm, Microswiss Nozzle 0.4mm, upgraded thermistor, vibration dampeners, upgraded firmware and a couple printed mods.

Here's a photo of the vibration dampener installed, haven't seen anyone doing this mod on this printer. I did notice less vibration, also added one for the bed plate motor which was a pain and may void your warranty as the sticker on the bottom will need to be removed...



I'm actually in the process of building a 3D printer. Here's a few prints using Proto-Pasta carbon filament..

Looks great mate, thanks for your input

Don't know if this is the same version of this printer or not, but Thomas Sanladerer's review of the most recent iteration (V3 or V4) is here:


TL;DR : Prints "OK", but only should be used by people who know what they are doing.  Otherwise, he deems it "Unsafe".
Just wanted to share this in case people are thinking about buying one.

I am glad I only have the 110V version. Half as dangerous. Haha.

Thanks for sharing.

(21-Nov-2020, 10:43 AM)sloscotty Wrote: Don't know if this is the same version of this printer or not, but Thomas Sanladerer's review of the most recent iteration (V3 or V4) is here:

TL;DR : Prints "OK", but only should be used by people who know what they are doing.  Otherwise, he deems it "Unsafe".
Just wanted to share this in case people are thinking about buying one.

There has been a lot of discussion about this video lately within Artillery owners, and the hobby printing community in general. This guy definitely has some great points but it supposedly most of the printers he works with are several thousand dollar professional grade printers?

Regardless, it seems some of the things I would consider a great feature of this printer he considers a drawback. I can confirm that 90% of printers you can buy under $1000 are way sketchier... lol

(22-Nov-2020, 11:08 PM)bffigjam Wrote: There has been a lot of discussion about this video lately within Artillery owners, and the hobby printing community in general. This guy definitely has some great points but it supposedly most of the printers he works with are several thousand dollar professional grade printers?

Regardless, it seems some of the things I would consider a great feature of this printer he considers a drawback. I can confirm that 90% of printers you can buy under $1000 are way sketchier... lol

I have this printer, and I am not worry. I don't have some of the issues he has. You should see reviews of Chinese welder, makes this printer look like a Saint.

(22-Nov-2020, 11:25 PM)voodoo614 Wrote: I have this printer, and I am not worry. I don't have some of the issues he has. You should see reviews of Chinese welder, makes this printer look like a Saint.

I have seen some pretty bad ones lol. To be honest I think the early ender 3's with the extra cheap XT60 are much worse than this. The XT60 turns brown after some use and eventually catches fire lol. Now they have swtiched to good quality AMASS ones.