Greetings all! I thought of making this thread when I originally got my printer as I saw several others starting to pick them up as well, but here we are. This will be the official repository for knowledge on the Artillery Sidewinder X1 on this forum. I purchased my Sidewinder on Amazon because I didn’t trust the reviews from Banggood (slightly cheaper) where they said that they had issues with it ever arriving. I trust Amazon’s coverage and Prime delivery much more than Banggood.
This was inspired by Creality Ender 3, setup, mods/improvements and how-tos [serious] and requested by @Geo_Engineering_FTW
I’ll start it off with a bit that I did when I first received mine. I first watched videos from a bunch of different Youtubers on the printer and its setup. Notably, Maker’s Muse, 3D Printing Nerd, Thomas Sanlanderer, Myers Woodshop, Just Vlad, Fugatech 3D Printing, and Teaching Tech.
I also followed many of the instructions on the following site when I opened the box, and the tuning of the v-slot wheels really helped me get it running smoothly.
While I have found this to be a great printer so far, I will always recommend doing some due diligence and research before purchasing. Here’s my printer!
I have to say, personally, I am impressed with the build quality of the printer and I think it is very well built. I did not have any issues assembling it right out of the box and I think I had the test print going within an hour or so of opening it. One thing to note is that this printer does take up a tremendous amount of space, with the benefit being that you really can print some huge objects!
If there was anything to gripe about I would say that the Z axis belt at the top was (is) pretty loose, and while this is supposed to keep the left and right steppers bound together, it definitely isn’t doing a ton. I don’t really see this being an issue and in fact, a lot of people discussed online that they just take the belt off. I think it would pose a problem if you were to do a mesh bed leveling or BL touch. The BL touch module is compatible with this printer and there is a kit that you can get online. I haven’t gotten around to that yet.
The bed leveling is accomplished by a four-point leveling system on the bed. These points have nice large thumbwheels that make small adjustments pretty easy. I’ve found that the leveling program on the printer has worked fine for me so far. Here’s some close up pictures of a benchy-groot-yoda print that I did to help me tune my Simplify3D settings.
I already knew pretty decent settings to put into simplify and I think I followed someone’s video on suggestions for settings, but I don’t recall where I found it. The print came out really great, probably one of the better benchy’s I’ve seen, along with the detail and the rest of the print being great as well.
I may post some more pics of prints later but I wanted to get this started to let people start discussing and sharing information. I’ve currently printed PLA+ and TPU on this printer. Since this printer has an Ultrabase coating on it, I used blue painters tape to print the TPU as I didn’t want any chances of ruining my brand new print surface or getting TPU permanently stuck in it.
PLA+ prints stick super well, I print first layer at 80C (Ultrabase coating advice) and then at the 3rd layer, I let the bed cool to 60C. After the print is done and the bed has cooled down, the prints just magically pop off. TPU takes a lot of effort to even get off of blue tape though so I am glad I was using it. The TPU settings took a bit of tuning on my side but it seems to print it with no problem.
Not necessary but another option for maybe a next step,no?
Merry Christmas to you all 
