3D printed – Alex Yu’s mostly-printed Encore uses CoreXY kinematics and modular linear-rail design to fit a 225 mm bed, but the real story is how tuning—especially cooling with a Bowden-driven Bambu-style hotend—forced fixes before the prints looked right.
A small 3D printer doesn’t just promise easier building—it also quietly demands the part most makers dread: the tuning. Alex Yu’s Mostly-printed Encore is aimed squarely at that middle ground, where you can assemble a largely printed machine without turning it into a permanent weekend project.
The Encore runs CoreXY kinematics and uses linear rails for the X and Y axes. It skips the internal frame entirely. Instead. the linear rails bolt directly to side panels that are themselves printed. and the builder says they provide enough rigidity for the job. Everything is designed around staying compact: the printer is modular and all parts fit within a 225 mm print bed.
Under the hood, the Encore uses a 120 mm bed along with a Bowden extruder and a lightweight Bambu-style hotend. Motion is handled by NEMA 17 stepper motors, with sliding mounts built in for belt tensioning. Power is placed behind the rods supporting the Z axis. while the controller board sits in the base of the printer.
The build sounds straightforward, but tuning quickly proved otherwise. The combination of a Bambu-type hotend with a Bowden extruder introduced complications, and the hotend initially received too little cooling. That problem didn’t stay theoretical. Alex fixed it by installing a stronger fan on the hotend. redesigning the ventilation shroud. and adding two inward-blowing fans along the sides of the build volume.
After correcting issues with Z-axis stability. the Encore began producing “quite good-looking parts.” Alex Yu is still improving and documenting parts of the printer. and has uploaded his progress so far to GitHub—an important detail for anyone who’s ever been stuck with a working printer that only behaves after a lot of trial-and-error.
The Encore lands in a landscape of mostly-printed machines that already includes a high-speed printer. one that printed all structural components. and one that was entirely 3D printed. For now. though. the Encore’s appeal is its balance: a compact CoreXY design that’s largely printed. but with enough real-world fixes—especially around cooling and Z stability—that makers can learn from the hard parts instead of repeating them.
3D printing CoreXY Mostly-printed printer Bowden extruder Bambu-style hotend NEMA 17 linear rails GitHub tuning cooling
So it’s a tiny CoreXY but still needs a bunch of tuning… cool cool.
Bowden + Bambu style hotend sounds like it’s just gonna clog nonstop. Why even bother if you have to add extra fans and shrouds anyway?
I don’t get why they’re blaming cooling like that automatically fixes everything. In my head it’s mostly the bed level or the filament, but sure, add two inward fans and call it a day.
This is why I don’t mess with 3D printers, it’s like building a printer *and* doing mechanical therapy for it. The article says 225mm bed but also 120mm bed?? makes me think they’re marketing the wrong number. Also “GitHub” doesn’t help if you can’t already tune it. People act like the tuning is just a small step, but sounds like hours of trial and error.