The FLSUN SR "Super Racer" had been on the market for three years when I tested it, but at half its original price it had become a real bargain. It was also my very first delta printer, and I loved it.
Why review a three-year-old printer?
Because in mid-2024 it was selling for about 250 euros, half its original price, which is what you'd pay for a regular budget printer. Unboxing and assembly took no more than 15 minutes, and I was impressed by the number of spare parts in the box, more than I can remember any other brand including. It's very tall and feels really sturdy.
Levelling, screen and speed
Auto levelling is one of my favourite things about it. You attach a probe underneath with a magnet and run the command. I did it once, and in a month of printing I never had to do it again, even after moving the printer around the studio for shots. One warning: remove the probe afterwards. The software doesn't detect it, so if you start printing with it on, you'll scratch the plate. I nearly did.
It's fairly quiet; the extruder is the loudest part and could be upgraded. The removable touchscreen is the best I've seen on a budget printer, and for the first time I saw real-time print speed on the display. FLSUN claims 150 mm/s out of the box, with a Volcano-style hotend and a strong cooling system. The only thing I had to fix during setup was the flimsy spool holder. An hour-and-a-half printed replacement from online solved it.
Prints
The pre-sliced Benchy from the SD card printed in about half to two-thirds of the usual time with a little stringing, probably because the temperature was raised for the speed. A detailed dice-tower model I bought on Cults, printed in two pieces, came out great. The only flaw was near the end, where I raised the temperature mid-print because the rainbow PLA wasn't made for high speed. That was my mistake.
The real surprise was PETG. Normally you print it slowly, but here it went maybe faster than PLA with Cura's default speeds. I raised the temperature from Cura's 220 °C to 235 °C, within the filament's 220–240 °C range, and a stringing test at around 100–110 mm/s showed no stringing whatsoever at 0.2 mm. Snowboard wall hangers looked great, and a hex spatula took about 35 minutes, compared with over an hour and a half on a regular printer.
The downsides
The build volume, 260 mm diameter by 330 mm tall, is less than half the printer's height. That's normal for a delta, since the arms need space, but the machine won't fit under my print-farm shelf. And TPU is a no-go unless you start a tweaking adventure with a new extruder, hotend mods or a stiffer Capricorn tube. I wouldn't bother.