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20 January 2026

Big Iron

by C. Casquatch

Voron 2.4 R2 Build Guide: A First-Timer’s Journey with a Formbot Kit

This is my documentation of building a Voron 2.4 R2 from a Formbot kit as a complete Voron Virgin. I’ve compiled my notes, mistakes, solutions, and resources to help others navigate their own build. Your build time will also vary depending on your circumstances - I was expecting it to take 2 weeks and I ended up taking a month and a half (this includes eating, breathing, working, pooping, etc).

Kit Used: Voron 2.4 R2 Pro+ CoreXY 3D Printer Kit with M8P+CB1 Board and Canbus Wiring System (w/ Dragon SF and 350 build plate)
Printed Parts: I printed all parts myself in fluorescent green and black eSun ABS. (Note: You don’t have to print parts yourself - Formbot offers a printed parts package, or you can use Voron’s Print It Forward program)
Control Board: BTT Manta M8P v2.0 with CB1
Toolhead Board: BTT EBB SB2209 CAN (RP2040)
Probe System: Voron TAP

Before You Start

IMPORTANT: Before you start building, I highly recommend reading through Zev-se’s Formbot Voron 2.4 build guide. It walks through all the Official Voron and Formbot instructions with very helpful tips and tricks specific to the Formbot kit. I found it halfway through my build and wished I’d seen it sooner.

Essential Documentation

You’ll be working with multiple manuals simultaneously - this is normal for a Voron build. Here are the documents I used:

  1. Formbot Assembly Manual - Start here and use it alongside the official Voron manual
  2. Voron 2.4 Build Manual - The official reference
  3. Voron TAP Manual - Critical for the probe system
  4. TAP R8 Errata - Contains important corrections including belt clip installation
  5. Stealthburner Manual - For the toolhead
  6. EBB SB2209 Build Guide - For the CAN toolhead board

Join the Community

Join the Voron Discord It’s full of helpful people who can answer questions and provide help troubleshooting. You’ll need it but make sure you research your problem first because 99.9% of the time someone has already had your problem and found a solution. You can search in different channels/chats.

Video Resources

I relied heavily on video guides to supplement the written documentation:

Primary Build Series:

Specific Component Videos:

TAP Installation:

EBB CAN Module:

Mechanical Build

Early Mistakes and Lessons Learned

Setback #1: I cut the A/B gantry belts too short. Fortunately, the amount needed for the TAP installation was just enough with a little extra remaining on the belts. Still, take your time measuring and cutting belts.

Setback #2: Cut wires when installing the PT1000 and heat cartridge because I was confused about where they connected on the board. I thought I needed to use different connectors - I did not. Reference pages 13-14 of the EBB manual carefully, double-check your board pinout to understand which wires go where, and always leave extra wire length. My main issue was that the PT1000 wire conduit was a type of fabric and i could not crimp properly, leading me to buy another PT1000.

Missing and Additional Printed Parts

Caveat: I got my original STL files from the Voron Website and Voron Github. Even with a complete kit and printing all the standard Voron parts yourself, some designs have been updated or improved since the kit was released. Here’s what I needed to print additionally during the build:

For BTT EBB Board:

Improved Umbilical System:

Other Useful Parts:

Enclosure Accessories:

Nevermore Filter (V5 Duo) (as of December 2025, not sure what the kit will come with in the future)

The Formbot kit includes the hardware for the Nevermore V5 Duo filter for active carbon filtration, but does not include the printed parts.

Important: Use the Formbot-specific STLs from their repository: Formbot Nevermore STLs

I initially printed from the wrong repository and had to reprint. (I didn’t know that formbot had their own STL’s for it) Make sure to check the Formbot GitHub for the correct files before printing.

Additional references:

Print the regular housing (not XL) for this kit.

Hardware Notes and Substitutions

Y-Endstop:

Wire Identification: The X-limit switch and X-axis switch are the same thing. In the Formbot package, look for the short wire labeled “to canbus” - NOT the Y-stop wires which are much longer.

Linear Rail Preparation

Watch this excellent linear rail prep video before installing your rails. Proper rail preparation is critical for smooth movement.

Gantry Assembly and Squaring

Follow this de-racking/gantry build video for proper gantry alignment. A square gantry is essential for print quality.

Electronics and Firmware

This part was frustrating because I was a dumbass. Make absolutely sure your CB1 is properly mounted and seated on the Manta board before doing anything else. I spent two days troubleshooting firmware issues only to discover my CB1 wasn’t installed properly onto my Manta board, so they weren’t recognising each other or responding to certain commands. Once I properly seated the CB1, all the issues I was having disappeared. Nothing makes you feel like a 5 year old in a grown-up body than realising you have to plug that one important thing into the other important thing for them to work properly.

Board Setup - Manta M8P v2.0

Important: Use the Manta M8P configuration diagram to set jumpers correctly. Note that you don’t need the CB1 jumper if you’re flashing with the SD card - which we are, since the Formbot kit includes a 128GB microSD card for flashing.

Physical Connection: Make sure the CB1 is properly seated on the Manta M8P board via the pin headers (see the bolded note at the beginning of this section about my oversight).

Flashing SD Cards on Mac

If you’re using a Mac with Balena Etcher, you must give it full disk permissions in Security & Privacy settings before attempting to flash anything. I didn’t use my Mac to flash the SDcard, I think I was too frustrated to keep troublshooting more things so I ended up using my Windows machine with Etcher to successfully flash the bootloader onto the SD card.

Firmware Flashing Journey

Once I seated the CB1 correctly, I really only needed the Esoterical guide to get everything working see Esoterical’s comprehensive CAN guide.

That said, here are all the resources I consulted during my troubleshooting - I’m leaving them in because they may help if you encounter other flashing issues:

Essential Resources:

Helpful Videos (mostly unnecessary if CB1 is seated correctly):

DFU Mode Check: Use this command to verify DFU mode:

dmesg -HW

My Final Flash Commands:

Flashing Klipper to Manta via Katapult:

python3 ~/katapult/scripts/flashtool.py -f ~/klipper/out/klipper.bin -d /dev/serial/by-id/usb-katapult_stm32h723xx_330016001551313433343333-if00

Flashing EBB via CAN:

python3 ~/katapult/scripts/flashtool.py -i can0 -f ~/klipper/out/klipper.bin -u e06577a64bda

My Final UUIDs:

Toolhead in DFU Mode:

Bus 002 Device 005: ID 2e8a:0003 Raspberry Pi RP2 Boot

Final Configuration in printer.cfg:

[mcu]  
canbus_uuid: 53f6a79a8f76
canbus_interface: can0

[mcu EBBCan]  
canbus_uuid: e06577a64bda 
canbus_interface: can0

Printer Configuration

Baseline Config File: Use this Voron M8P v2.0 config as your starting point.

Startup Guide: Follow the official Voron startup documentation to verify all pins match your hardware.

Look here: Every printer config file is different and needs to be created for your individual printer. This is why you won’t find many people sharing their complete config files - everyone’s setup is unique. Start with the baseline config and build yours from there. It’s frustrating when you’ve never built one before, but it’s necessary to avoid technical issues or other difficulties later on. This is also where following the Voron startup documentation comes in, and where the Discord community is good for troubleshooting.

Initial Configuration Issues

Motor Mapping Problems I Encountered:

Work through the startup guide to identify and fix pin assignments.

Initial Calibration and Tuning

Movement Verification

Test basic movement with these commands:

G91              ; Relative positioning
G0 X10 F3000     ; Should move RIGHT
G0 Y10 F3000     ; Should move BACK

Probe Accuracy (TAP)

For better TAP probe accuracy:

  1. Switch from textured to smooth PEI sheet during calibration
  2. Remove the protective translucent film from the smooth side (yes, yes I am that stupid)

Quad Gantry Leveling (QGL)

I implemented a two-stage QGL macro:

[gcode_macro QUAD_GANTRY_LEVEL]
rename_existing: BASE_QUAD_GANTRY_LEVEL
gcode:
    # Pass 1: Initial Coarse Leveling
    BASE_QUAD_GANTRY_LEVEL HORIZONTAL_MOVE_Z=10 RETRY_TOLERANCE=1
    # Pass 2: Fine Leveling and Accuracy
    BASE_QUAD_GANTRY_LEVEL HORIZONTAL_MOVE_Z=2

This performs a quick rough level first, then fine-tunes for accuracy.

Extrusion Troubleshooting

Issue: Extruder wouldn’t work initially. As-in I could push the filament through the extruder while hot, no problems BUT it would not extrude by itself when given a command to do so.

Solutions:

  1. Check that extrude and retract aren’t reversed in config (mine were)
  2. Ensure the M3×16mm screw isn’t blocking the filament latch - I forgot to remove it
  3. Set the spring/lock tension so the gear can properly catch filament

First Layer Issues

I struggled with first layer consistency. Different prints would have varying squish quality even with the same Z-offset.

My Solution: Adjusting the idler screw tension (the screw that controls filament grip in the toolhead). Adjusting how tight it was (in my case, making it tighter) significantly improved consistency.

Additional Findings:

These guides were for dialing in print quality:

Quality of Life Improvements

Filament Management Macros

I created custom load/unload macros in a separate filament.cfg

These macros handle heating, loading/unloading, and proper tip forming automatically.This will change, as I would like to improve the way my printer behaves with different macros.

Better Print Start Macro

Consider implementing jontek2’s better print_start macro for improved print initiation routines.

Slicer Setup (SuperSlicer on Mac)

If using SuperSlicer on Mac, you may encounter a null error on first download. This GitHub issue has the solution.

Additional Resources

Complete Build Guides

General Tips Videos

Final Thoughts

Building a Voron 2.4 R2 as a first-time builder is mind-bending but achievable if you remember to:

  1. Take your time - especially when cutting belts and wires..ask yourself first ‘…do I really need to cut this?’
  2. Join the Discord community - practice searching for your question first
  3. Budget extra time for firmware - this only applies to me because I was stupid
  4. Buy extra ABS filament - designs improve, and not everything in the kit may be current
  5. Document everything - you’ll reference your own notes and it’s cathartic to CAPSLOCK TYPE YOUR PROBLEMS
  6. Don’t skip calibration steps - they exist for good reasons, I may not know the reasons though
  7. Be patient with first layer tuning - it’s a combination of factors, not just Z-offset

Congratulations, you’ve built yourself a sturdy box that can print plastic objects and also set your house on fire. How about that for multi-tasking.

This guide represents my personal build experience and solutions. Your mileage may vary. Always reference official Voron documentation for authoritative guidance.

tags: voron - 3d printing