Lemontron Design Nearing Completion

Lemontron is a new Free and Open Source portable printer that is making the rounds online due to its unique form factor– Fitting in a box of filament, it sports a build plate comparable to a Bambulab A1 Mini and Prusa Mini.

The secret behind this incredible ratio is in the Drive system, which shares some similarities with CoreXY which drives a ton of modern printers. However the exact drive system is known as the Positron drive, invented by YouTuber “KRALYN” who released it in May of 2022.

Shortly after, Kralyn stepped away due to a career change where non-competes prevented him from participating. But his team eventually brought the well received Positron v3.2 kit to market with LDO Motors as a manufacturer.

While heads down working on the v3.2, several forks sprung up, including the Positron JourneyMaker who beat the v3.2 to market, and the newcomer, the Lemontron. Lemontron began as a unibody chassis mod for the JourneyMaker, but quickly grew in scope to a complete redesign that cut the cost in half.

In a small printer you expect to see a small price, and the Lemontron delivers on that expectation. A fully built Lemontron consisting of only off-the-shelf parts will run you $413.

The low price is all due to Lemontron’s complete redesign, in which custom CNC parts that increase the price of Positron kits have been cleanly eliminated without compromising performance.

In contrast, the Positron v3.2 and JourneyMaker are kits that integrate expensive CNC parts. A fully built JourneyMaker with a combination of self sourced parts and custom CNC parts from Voxolite Shop will cost you around $800, while the Positron v3.2 kit from LDO motors will cost you $699.

Video updates have been coming for the entire time and the latest one shows off the printer printing impressively large structures, showing a comically large benchy followed by a particularly challenging marble run model incorporating 80 degree unsupported overhangs which the Lemontron prints with ease.

The Lemontron is currently in the final stages of development, with energetic video updates dropping frequently on the Lemontron YouTube Channel.