Sovol SV06 3D Printer With All-Metal Hotend

This is a brief initial review of the Sovol SV06 Plus.

Experience: I’ve owned two 3D printers over 5 or so years. Last printer was the Sovol SV03.

Assembly:
The printer parts are well packed in the box and are insulated on all sides with dense foam. The assembly instructions in the user manual are very straightforward and well laid out, and the bolts and fittings are separated by assembly step in little bags which makes putting the machine together very easy. The gantry slides onto the base without resistance and I had no issues with fit or hole alignment. I would recommend you plug the screen in prior to putting it in the holder, as the cable is a little short and it can be tough trying to find the right angle.

Printing: After assembly, the manual walks you through the initial bed mesh and Z-offset calibration step by step. A benchy and lighthouse STL, as well as the Sovol version of Cura with a settings preset for this printer, are included on the 8gb SD card that comes with the printer. Ignoring the pre-sliced Gcode files on the card, I went ahead and sliced my own local benchy model using the bundled Sovol Cura and hit print. The layout of the touch screen menu, and the limited slicing options in the Sovol Cura (I could not get all settings to show) may feel a little basic for advanced users, but work really well if this is your first printer and you’re trying to get printing right away. I was very pleased with the Benchy model quality when it finished printing (attached photos). I’m tired of finding little tugboats all over my house, so I printed a more complicated beefy charmander model using supports, which also printed very nicely, with clean support removal, some underextrusion on the thinner supports, and clean overhangs. Printing quality is really solid out of the box with these most basic settings, and I only expect it to improve with further tuning and calibration.

Impressions and features:
-The default settings for movement feel a little quick and jerky leading to some very slight ghosting on parts using the default slicer profile
-Some of the rod bearings sound a little crunchy and noisy out of the box. A tube of metal grease is included (remember to lube up your leadscrews and rods!) but a proper lubing would require machine disassembly, so it would be nice if these could come better lubricated and quieter in the box.
-the instructions are well done and even include a printing suggestions page and a reference page for all the cable connections so you can make sure everything that needs to be plugged in is plugged in
-the pivoting filament sensor is very cool and a big improvement from the stiff, fixed sensor that was on the SV03
-from what I’ve heard the built in inductive probe is more accurate by design than BL/CR touch style probes
-the build plate looks really cool and feels really high quality. The flexible plate allows for a bigger plate while saving the weight that a big pane of tempered glass would have added (another SV03 issue) I look forward to seeing big prints pop off the plate instead of having to fight them with a spatula
-the fixed bed /probe combo makes this a great printer for beginners since it’s one less finicky thing they’d have to worry about prior to printing
-the Sovol Cura is great for printing right away after assembly to make sure everything is working. Beginners will appreciate not having to worry about their slicer settings right at the beginning. I hope that a machine preset for the plus will be added to mainline Cura soon.

Muy fácil de armar, muy fácil de configurar y de realizar el ajuste automático del extrusor.

Impresión de gran precisión y con velocidad bastante decente. Estoy muy satisfecho con este producto.

Actualización.-

Este producto es basura, no lo compren por nada del mundo. Ya llevo 2 motores y planetarios cambiados por completo porque esta porque hace bolas con el filamento y se dañan totalmente.

No duran ni 4 impresiones antes de dañarse.

Basura de producto.

I’ve been 3D printing since early 2021 and looked at many different 3D Printers and narrowed down it down to the Sovol SV01 (Classsic) to be my 1st printer because I liked the features offered for a good price and their customer service. During my 2 years of printing, I learned a lot and had been enjoying printing since. But……I quickly realized that a 2nd printer would greatly help when printing large multi-object prints and multiple colors. I looked at many printers and kept going back to Sovol’s website and was eyeing the SV06. I saw Sovol’s announcement of the SV06 late 2022 and really liked the features it offered but kept contemplating on making a purchase for a 2nd printer. 7 months later, I decided I was ready for a 2nd printer and purchased the Sovol SV06. I’m glad I purchased it.
Upon opening the packaging, I noticed it was packaged extremely well! Each component was packed into its own compartment and all the screws/bolts bags are labeled making it easier to assemble. If your new to the 3D printing world, then this is an excellent printer with very little effort in assembling. The entire process of assembling took me just under 30mins from unboxing to turning it on (I took my time reading through the guide and tightening all the screws/bolts). There is also a guide that was included with the packaging with pictures and there are videos online on how to assemble it. The guide is very detailed.
Once I got it all assembled and also got the auto z aligned & bed leveled, I started by printing the benchy included on the sd card but got half way through it and realized the nozzle/hot end was angled severely which may not be a problem for small prints but a huge problem for large prints. I took the extruder off the mount (so much easier to remove than my older SV01) and looked over it. I contact Sovol’s support and they were extremely helpful. They provided a replacement and links to videos and information & once I received the replacement parts it was easy to fix the issue.

Pros:
• The biggest pro that I like about this printer is the Bed Leveling feature. Unlike my SV01, I would have to level it every few prints even after adding the silicon pieces instead of springs. With the SV06, the bed does not have any springs or silicon pieces. It slides on rods and includes an inductive sensor. I included the G29 command in my startup gcode and it checks the bed before printing.
• I like the size of this printer. It is smaller than my Sovol SV01. Its not to small but not to big. Its a good size that will allow for printing almost anything. If your into printing cosplay helmets they you may have to cut up parts and print multiple parts. For me I’ll probably print helmets on my SV01 and print all the small misc. pieces on my SV06 so I can complete them much quicker.
• The extruder is extremely easy to work with. With my previous SV01 I would have to move the gantry to the very top to give me room to work on the extruder and sometimes maneuvering to get a good angle to work on it. With the SV06 there’s 3 screws to undo and remove the wiring clip and its free to work on. Wish this was feature was around on my SV01.
• Prints PLA, PLA+, PETG, TPU, ABS, ASA, Nylon & etc… I mostly print with PLA, PLA+, PETG & TPU. I haven’t tried TPU on the SV06 but PLA, PLA+ and PETG print extremely well.
• Filament change from the printer is very easy compared to my SV01. Its easier to navigate through the menu to find the filament change.

Cons:
• Loading filament was a little tricky the 1st few times but after several attempts its become much easier than my SV01. There are videos on how to properly load filament that should help.
• The size of the bed. Even though for me its not a con since I have another printer that I can use but if this is your 1st printer that may be an issue. Its build plate says 235mm x 235mm but the actual build plate size is 220mm x 220mm. Wish Sovol would had adjusted the wording on that since it can cause some confusion. If this is to small you could always go with a SV06 Plus that has a bigger bed.
• I’ve read online that others experience the bearings being very loud. I experienced the same issue but used some specialized grease and fixed the loud sound. This can be an issue if you don’t have specialized grease to fix it. It should be something Sovol should have fixed before sending them but not a big deal. Just something to think about when purchasing.
• Still uses a micro sd card and a micro usb. Wish this used a USB-A or USB-C connection but not an issue for me since I had an extra Raspberry PI running Octoprint connected to my SV06 using a micro usb cable. Also something to think about when purchasing.
• No Run out Sensor offered. I never used my run out sensor on my SV01 since I problems getting filament to load into it so for me its not an issue. I just keep an eye out on how much filament I have loaded and guestimate on when I need to change it.
• No color display like the SV06 Plus but for me its not to much of a problem since I’m use to it on my SV01.

I’ve only printed a few test pieces but so far the SV06 has been a great printer for the price. If this is your 1st printer then I think it will be a 1st good printer or 2nd/3rd/etc… printer. Its very easy to use and is loaded with a lot of features that I can’t wait to start using it more! I like it so much that I may have to get another SV06 so I can print more!

Short(ish) version: I’m a medium-level 3D printing enthusiast, 3 years of mixed experience/results with an Ender 3 since 2020. I picked up the SV01 Pro in October 23 and it was so easy to build and use, but I wanted more build area, plus a second printer so I could run concurrent print jobs. I did a fair bit of research and determined the SV06 PLUS to be a solid value. Purchased this guy November of 23, and holy cow was that it a good decision. I mean, here are some of the important boxes this printer checks for me: 1) More build volume 2) Higher print speed capable 3) Self-leveling (not perfect but shockingly good!) 4) Pause/Resume when it runs out of filament (more details below how this saved my six-day print) and 5) In general terms, for my uses, this was a wonderful next step in my 3D printing hobby. Honestly, I can say my new printers have made printing FUN again, and I get to spend time printing again instead of constantly calibrating in between prints.

More details: I’m not here to trash Enders, especially since my Ender got me into the hobby (January 2020). I did however eventually get tired of the bed leveling, failed prints, and constant babysitting. To tell the truth, I was hardly printing any more come 2023. My coworker was talking about this SV01 Pro he got cheap and how reliable it was. I said why not, got myself an SV01 and was just instantly having a GREAT time! My only problem – I had the desire to print larger stuff. I joined the Sovol groups on Reddit and FB, and did a lot of reading. The clear consensus was that the SV06+ is one of the best bang for the buck printers available in general. I chose the standard (read: non Klipper) model. Klipper is a whole other (and interesting) topic but I’m not looking to address that in this context, I may tinker with it on my Raspberry Pi later, but I’m just running things stock. So the SV06 arrives, and within about 30 minutes I had assembled it and started the leveling process. As soon as that was done I connected my Raspberry Pi with OctoPi and set up a printer profile so I could print from my PC instead of using the SD slot. I’ll go ahead and mention the con I have with this printer because this is where you’ll notice it too: The power supply has a significantly loud fan. It’s not a deal breaker for my situation because my printers are in the basement, but trust me about the noise of the power supply in case that would be a problem for you.
Anyway, It’s been about 4-5 weeks of non stop printing for me. I’ve shared several photos, and one video for this review. I printed a cool marble track model but should have scaled it up in size because it would only fit smaller ball bearings. Turns out the SV06 was big enough to increase the model to a size where I could use regular marbles! The model took up most of the build volume on the SV06 and would provide a great stress test. This beast was a 6-day print and on day 4 when the spool of filament ran out, the filament sensor on the printer paused it automatically, moving the hot end to the side so I could mount a new spool and load the filament. Then I hit resume (holding my breath because I hadn’t actually tried this before) and it just picked up where it left off. If you check my video, you can see the finished product which is pretty cool – it has an Archimedes screw that lifts the marbles back up where they randomly fall out to the 4 different tracks and down again.
Summary – I hope this helps someone that’s on the fence! Potential buyers should be aware of the loud fan on the power supply, but I can sincerely recommend my SV06 plus based on my experience. It’s fast, it has been reliable, it successfully printed a monster print for me (hopefully the first of many), and it’s been easy and fun to use. I still don’t know if I’d call it a “beginner” printer, but I’ve been teaching my son and he picked it up right away. We’re having a blast printing organizers and accessories for a bunch of our favorite tabletop games. Two thumbs up!