Review of the Kywoo Tycoon 3D printer

The company Kywoo is launching a Kickstarter campaign for its first 3D printer and I have agreed to test a pre-production model of the Tycoon. My interest in the printer was sparked by the very robust-looking mechanics in combination with the direct extruder, something I really like but is rarely installed in nowadays printers. I was also assured that the source code of the printer firmware will be published - I have declared my workshop being a restricted area for closed source printers, especially those with chipped filament spools. I don’t find printer tests really interesting anymore, but being at the forefront of a Kickstarter campaign is really exciting, especially since my contact with the manufacturer suggests that a lot can be expected from both: hardware and service. The maximum print volume of the Tycoon is 24x24x24cm, which means that the device is suitable for most print jobs and does not occupy too much space on your desk.

01:07 - The Printer ships well packaged and arrives largely pre-assembled. The assembly starts by screwing the mechanics of the build plate on the top frame. The wiring is done by of plugging in the cable of the stepper motor,… … the limit switch of the Y axis,… … and of the print bed heating as well as the associated thermocouple. After installing the adjustable front stands,… … the filament holder… … and the glass plate on the print bed, it is all done. I then continued with the dismantling of the steel panels in order to be able to take a complete look at the mechanics, which is done by loosening only 8 screws per side. The frame, composed of 20x20 and 40x20mm aluminum profiles, is really extremely sturdy - there is no twisting or backlash anywhere on the whole construction. All cables are secured on the frame with zip ties - no bungling is hidden behind the panels, my good first impression of the printer is confirmed after the look underneath the cover. The Y-axis is guided by two round bars with a diameter of 8mm - the linear ball bearings show no noticeable backlash.

02:33 - If necessary, the belt can be tensioned via the elongated holes with which the stepper motor is attached on the frame - on my machine the Y belt tension was perfect out of the box. The X-axis is guided along a special rail - this part of the mechanics is also very robust and comes with almost no backlash. The timing belt of the X-axis was a little too loose on my pre- production printer. For re-tensioning, however, the short looking elongated holes of the motor mount were sufficient to get it all right. The Z-axis is driven by two stepper motors via spindles.

03:14 - As with the Y-axis, it is guided by linear ball bearings along 8mm round rods - there is no noticeable backlash here either. As already mentioned, a direct extruder is installed. The handwheel attached to the front of the extruder motor shaft makes it easier to insert filament and it is also helpful for diagnosing a possibly clogged nozzle - a very good idea. After removing the cover, you can see the two fans, which work both very quietly. The hotend is covered by a thermal insulation made of temperature- resistant silicone.

03:55 - In the foreground you can see the sensor for leveling the print bed, which also serves as limit switch for the Z axis. With this pre-production printer the sensor is made of plastics, but it will be replaced by a metal version when production starts. The handwheel hits the frame when the X-axis moves to the limit switch - this problem is solved in the series production by changing the shape of the wheel. The power supply unit has an output voltage of 24V at up to 14.6A, which corresponds to an electric output power of 350W.

04:35 - Together with the power plug, the on / off switch is located on the back of the device and is therefore difficult to reach in an emergency situation - the switch would be better placed on the front of the printer. The very compact mainboard is attached to the top of the frame. The stepper motor drivers are plugged on sockets and can therefore be replaced if necessary - that’s how I like it. Due to thermal issues of these preproduction units, the design of the stepper drivers will get an overhaul in the production version of the board. The print data is transferred to the printer via a micro SD card - the series model will also have a slot for normal sized SD cards.

05:17 - You can see a WLAN module - the printer can also be addressed through a wireless network. The 3.5 inch colored touchscreen is very responsive, the printer menu is clearly structured, so that operating the printer is very easy. Before turning the printer on, the X-axis must be adjusted to the same height over the build plate on both ends. I am using the USB card reader that ships with the printer as leveling tool. With that the manual adjustment of the printer is done.

05:52 - The print bed is leveled automatically with the help of the sensor on the print head. After all axes have been driven to the limit switches, the procedure begins. At a total of 9 points on the build plate, the Z axis moves down until the sensor is triggered. The process is completed in about two and a half minutes. The maximum temperature of the print bed that can be adjusted through the firmware is 135°C. 40°C are reached after about 2 minutes,… … 60°C after 4 minutes… … 90°C after 9 minutes… …

and 100°C after 11 minutes, which should be more or less the maximum temperature - the environmental temperature in my video studio is around 19°C. After preheating the hotend to 200°C for PLA,… … the filament can be fed in until plastic comes out of the nozzle - the printer is now ready for a first job. The first print job is the chain link for the tracks of a robotic vehicle. With that I am testing the filament sensor by cutting the plastics wire with pliers. As soon as the missing filament triggers the switch, a warning sounds and the print head moves to the limit switch of the X-axis. Now the filament can be changed, which is a bit fiddly, but can be done with the pliers that ships with the printer. As soon as new filament is fed in, the print job can be resumed. A second function that can save one or the other of your print jobs is “Resume after power loss”, which I test by simply switching off the printer. As soon as the electrical energy flows again, the printer’s firmware recognizes that the last job was interrupted and offers to resume it via the touchscreen.

08:18 - After print bed and hotend have reached the target temperature again, the X and Y axes move to the limit switches and the job is continued then. At the beginning, however, the extruder presses a bit too much plastic out of the nozzle - the firmware of this pre-production model is not yet perfect, the manufacturer is still working on the necessary fine-tuning. In principle, however, the whole thing works and in the worst-case scenario you will also get a finished print after that power interruption. In the third attempt, I let the printer do its work without any interruptions. The first layer is printed with a thickness of 0.35mm.

09:03 - As you can see, the automatic leveling of the print bed apparently works well - the plastic sticks evenly to the print bed at all points. The following layers are printed with a thickness of 0.2mm. When printing, the up and down movement of the Z-axis can be clearly seen, which compensates for the unevenness of the print bed that the printer measured during automatic leveling. Since the printer is extremely silent during operation and the spindles of the Z axis are not guided at the top, this movement of the Z-axis can be heard as a quiet creaking and rattling, a sound that is amplified by the sheet metal box of the frame. I cannot determine any negative influence of this slight rattling on the print quality and the noise is only hard to hear in practice.

09:59 - The object cooling works well - the 45-degree overhangs on the narrow walls of the chain link are printed precisely. The same goes for the knob on the left, even though it is on the leeward side, which is the side facing away from the wind - the fan is located on the back of the print head and blows to the front. The sharp edges at the round openings on the right look good, no strings are visible, “oozing” is no problem with this print head. The 2mm thick walls are printed straight with a smooth surface. The early firmware of my pre-production model does not yet allow to access the machine parameters such as acceleration or maximum speed of the axis movement, but the standard values ​​also give extremely good print results.

10:48 - The 35x35x16mm small chain link is printed after about 40 minutes. For a first print “out of the box” the result is very good - I am excited. The next print job will be the largest component of my new rover: the chassis. This has a grid of a total of 246, 3mm-diameter openings on the upper side, which represents the base plate when printed. The holes are printed as circles on the print bed, first.

11:31 - As you can see, all rings are printed evenly and stick well to the build plate - an indication that the automatic leveling works very well over the entire print bed. The base of the robot chassis is 163x207mm, so it almost completely occupies the print bed. The surface of the third printed layer shown here is nice and smooth, the hexagons of the 4th layer are printed evenly, like the rings of the 1st layer before. The fact that the print is not properly centered on the build plate is another issue or the early firmware version - correcting that should be no big deal. The 2mm thin walls also have grids of 3mm openings, with which the filament has to be retrackted multiple times during printing.

12:28 - Here, too, the printer shows no weaknesses, all holes are printed nicely, the walls are smooth and straight. The printing took about 20 hours, the result is very good, my enthusiasm for the Tycoon grows. The finished chassis shows no loosened edges on the print bed (?),… … but it can easily be removed from the glass plate after cooling down. The preproduction unit of the Kywoo Tycoon has the genes to become a really great 3D printer: All parts of the mechanics are extremely solid and largely free of backlash, the printing results stick out from the pack - in a positive way! If you are looking for a printer that requires little adjustment work and with which you can get good results quickly out of the box, you should have a look at the special offers for the Kywoo during the Kickstarter campaign.

13:31 - Aside from the firmware, my pre-production model shows no real weaknesses, but many strengths. When printing, I particularly liked the handwheel on the extruder and the precise working auto-level function. If you accept non perfect printing results, very cheap filament is easier to process with a direct extruder. The diameter of those very cheap filaments rarely meets the 1.75mm while unwound from the spool, which means that it tends to get stuck in a Bowden extruder when being too thick.

14:03 - That’s why I really like these “omnivorous” direct extruders! Considering that this is a preproduction unit, the level of frustration while recording this review was pretty low - I really like the Kywoo Tycoon! To get a better impression of the prints delivered as well as the build quality of the Tycoon, you can have a close look at all the photos that I took for this video including all of the sample prints on my project page. Thanks for watching and: “I’ll be back!” .