Sovol SV06 Plus ACE review: Super size your prints

Sovol is back with a bigger version of the SV06 ACE — the SV06 Plus ACE. This plus-sized 3D printer has all the good stuff we liked from the SV06 ACE but with a helmet-sized 300x300 build plate. It runs vanilla Klipper, which we love, and is open source. It has the same high flow hotend, fast speeds, and solid one-touch bed leveling.

Its best feature might be how easy it is on your wallet. The Sovol SV06 Plus ACE retails for $349 and has launched at a sale price of $299. Core XY machines maybe this year’s fad, but they are costly when they reach the size of the SVO6 Plus ACE (if you can find them at all.)

Sovol made excellent use of Klipper’s vibration calibrations and pressure advance to let you print big with speed and quality. This version has travel moves of up to 500mm/s and an average print speed of around 250mm/s. Its 300x300mm build plate makes it our favorite recommendation for cosplayers and one of the best 3D printers we tested at this price.

The only downside of this machine is the noisy case fan and a faulty cable we received to connect the screen. The cables can develop a fault where they are bent sharply at the factory. The replacement cable worked fine as long as it was not flexed in the trouble spot. Hopefully, this will be addressed for the production units.

Specifications: Sovol SV06 Plus ACE

Sovol SV06 Plus ACE: Included in the Box

The Sovol SV06 Plus ACE comes with everything you need to get your printer set up. You get tools to build and maintain the printer, side cutters, a small spatula, a spare nozzle, and a USB drive with a PDF copy of the manual and a copy of OrcaSlicer. There’s also a small sample of white PLA to print your first model.

Design of the Sovol SV06 Plus ACE

The Sovol SV06 Plus ACE is the follow-up to the SV06 ACE, and is inspired by Prusa’s i3 line of open source printers. The SV06 Plus ACE is nearly identical to the SVO6 ACE, with the difference mainly being the increased size.

Sovol sticks to the classic i3 form while using injection molded parts in Sovol turquoise blue. It’s got a square large format bed (300 x 300mm) and a 4.3-inch touch screen with an easy-to-use interface. The powerful planetary drive extruder and an all-metal 300-degree hotend now get a boost from a high-flow nozzle we’ve seen on the previous Sovol SV07. The spinning Sovol extruder wheel is a fun (and practical) touch.

The X and Y axis has twin metal bearings riding on metal rails for smooth movement without the wear and tear of plastic POM wheels. The belt tensioners have easy-to-use knobs that also add a little flare to the printer’s design. The Z axis is reinforced with diagonal rods to prevent wobble at high speed.

For bed leveling, the SV06 Plus ACE uses a pressure sensor built right into the hotend – it taps the bed to build a mesh for automatic leveling. It also has accelerometers in the tool head and the bed for Klipper’s vibration compensation, which reduces unsightly ringing artifacts caused by vibration.

A built-in camera allows you to monitor your prints from Klipper’s Mainsail screen. Klipper also makes sending files extremely easy over WiFi without needing to talk to a Cloud server, plus there’s a port for a USB drive. The machine can also be used with the Obico App for remote monitoring and spaghetti detection.

My only design complaint would be the rather noisy case fan that never shuts off. Perhaps that’s a good reminder to turn off your printer when it’s not running. The other fans do their job as expected, with a large, 12000 rpm blower fan at the bottom of the tool head and a 40 mm blower fan for heat sink cooling.

Assembling the Sovol SV06 Plus ACE

The Sovol SV06 Plus ACE requires some assembly, but you can put it together in under 20 minutes. You’ll need to attach the gantry to the base with bolts, then screw the power supply to the gantry and screw the extruder to its pre-mounted plate.

The gantry supports are screwed to the inside at the top of the gantry, and the support rods attach to them and the base with screws. The control box and touch screen can be mounted without tools. The wires are labeled well and pre-routed. The printed instructions are enough to direct you.

Once assembled, take a moment to check the belts and eccentric nuts for tightness. The belts have adjustment knobs to make this step very simple.

Leveling the Sovol SV06 Plus ACE

The Sovol SV06 Plus ACE has hands-free auto leveling. It will level the bed during the initial calibration and then double-check the level before each print. There’s no need to set the Z height, though if you do have issues it can be easily tweaked through the tuning menu process.

Loading Filament on the Sovol SV06 Plus ACE

Loading filament is very simple. Place the spool in the top mounted holder and feed the plastic into the hotend. The extruder has a large wheel that can be turned to engage the filament into the gears. From the filament menu, hit the load button. The nozzle will heat up and then draw filament into the hotend. Confirm the filament exiting the nozzle is the correct color. If not, hit the retry button, and it will purge more filament. Once it is correct, hit confirm. The unload function is simple as well. Hit the unload button, and the nozzle will heat up and then retract the filament out of the extruder.

Reverse the process to change colors or remove the filament.

Preparing Files / Software for Sovol SV06 Plus ACE

Sovol included a copy of OrcaSlicer, a free 3rd party slicer based on open-source PrusaSlicer and BambuStudio. The software includes a good profile for the SV06 Plus ACE for PLA but nothing for other filaments.

Printing on the Sovol SV06 Plus ACE

The Sovol SV06 Plus ACE comes with a sample coil of white PLA, which I didn’t bother using. If you want more colors and materials like silks and multicolor filaments, you should check out our guide to the best filaments for 3D printing for suggestions.

Speed Benchy’s are tricky, as you’re often judging someone’s slicer skills rather than the printer. The SV06 Plus ACE came with a presliced 14-minute and 25-second Benchy that printed perfectly.

When I tried replicating it, I got a rather sloppy 20-minute boat with a mishappen smoke stack. Looking at the gcode, both used Speed Boat Rules (2 walls, 3 top and bottom layers, 10% infill, a .25 layer height and .5 layer width). Sovol’s boat was printed in Anycubic purple PLA, while mine was printed in Polymaker grey. Both show well-placed layers with no ringing and just a wisp of stray filament.

I printed a lot of articulated toys with the Sovol SV06 Plus ACE, as they are the best test prints that I can reuse as giveaways for kids when I travel to festivals. These cute Octopi did double duty testing the bed adhesion of Sovol’s PEI plate – which needed gluestick to hold down to all the tiny leg pieces. It took 6 hours and 10 minutes to print four at a time, using a .2 mm layer height and PLA default speed settings, with 200 mm/s on the outer wall and 270 mm/s on the inner. These are printed in Polymaker’s Starlight Comet PLA.

To test out the printer’s maximum build size, I printed this dragon shelf at 150%. Its nearly a foot tall when hanging on the wall, with a Z height of 182mm, and 297 x 199 mm on the X and Y axis. It took 23 hours and 10 minutes to print, using a .2mm layer height, 3 walls and 20% infill. It printed without supports and has great details with smooth clean lines. I started the print using Canadian Granite filament, then switched to Prusament Marble when I ran out. Later, I touched it up with a little paint to blend the two colors better.

For PETG I printed a gear fidget cube with Prusament Orange PETG. This was printed in pieces and then assembled like a puzzle. The parts have very nice layers and fit together exceptionally well. I used default settings with a .2 layer height, but slowed the speed to 100mm/s to compensate for the PETG. It took 3 hours and 13 minutes to print.

The SV06 Plus ACE did a good job with flexible filament. I gave it a 'vase mode' print that did start to wiggle a bit at the top, where the print was less stable. This printed in one hour and 53 minutes, using a .2 layer height and OrcaSlicer’s default settings. I dialed the speed back to 70mm/s to compensate for the TPU. The material is Bambu Lab’s white TPU.

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Bottom Line

The Sovol SV06 Plus ACE is an affordable, large-scale 3D printer with all the great features of the smaller SV06 ACE. Its size makes it a tiny bit slower, but it can still run at an average of 250mm/s, which is fast enough. It has everything we like to see in a modern 3D printer: automatic bed leveling, a built-in camera, dual Z-axis motors, vibration reduction, and a direct-drive extruder capable of printing at temperatures up to 300 degrees Celsius.

I’m a big fan of companies that leave Klipper alone and provide a profile to use with regular OrcaSlicer. These tools are more than complete on their own – and it hopefully saved Sovol money in not having to develop their own code and software. These are savings that a company can pass on to the customer who doesn’t care whose logo is on the slicer.

Currently on sale for $299, the SV06 Plus Ace is a very affordable 3D printer. If you don’t need all that print volume, you can also check out the regular-sized Sovol SV06 ACE, which is on sale for $279.

If you want an affordable average-sized 3D printer with a tiny footprint, check out the Elegoo Centauri Carbon. It’s a Core XY box also debuting with a price tag of $299. Beginners looking for bargain-priced color printers should check out the Bambu Lab A1 Mini, our favorite pick for beginners who want a little color in their life. It’s $369 with a four-color AMS unit.

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