Looking to get my first hobby printer. I have used printers for a number for years for work but they were mainly powder bed nylon and stainless steel sls printers.
Im not looking for a tinkering machine as I have enough of those already so I am leaning towards the prusa printers. I do see a build envelop of 250 x 200 which seems to be just big enough to handle the new lowrider v3 core.
There are two things I’m interested in
Are they actually as good as I’ve been reading
Am I going to be shooting myself in the foot by not going with a bigger build envelope that other less expensive printers might have?
I thought the core would fit in a 200x200mm bed. That is what Ryan has on all his printers, AFAIK.
I haven’t owned an original prusa. But I do think they have much higher quality than creality. I know people who are great engineers, but have struggled to get an ender printing reliably, and I know people who are not that strong at problem solving getting great prints from the mk3. You can actually reliably print on the whole surface too, which makes it feel like a bigger printer than it is.
Looking back, my mk2s just had it’s 5th birthday a week ago. Since upgraded to a mk2.5s. No regrets.
I too know of people trying to start with an ender and giving up. If you have a mentor looking over your shoulder to help you get a cheap printer going, that’s one thing. Otherwise I recommend a prusa.
I have some upgradeitis, looking at a voron, but I wouldn’t want to start with a voron.
FWIW, I started with a cheap Chinese import (a wanhao duplicator i3) and I got my fitting eventually. But it took a long time to get over a 60% success rate. I also enjoy the process of upgrading it part by part.
Thanks for all the feedback, I definitely would prefer the tinker approach and upgrading but with a second kid on the way my available time to get things done is limited. What sort of success rate could I expect with a prusa? Like 80%?
I would think higher than that, after a few prints to get your feet wet on it I bet you get 99%. The only issues you should have would be changing filament types or suppliers.
The printer is only half of the equation. Some models are very difficult to print on any machine. If you are printing Ryan’s parts on a prusa, 99%. Clockspring3d, same thing. But random models on thingiverse and that will go down. But you probably already know that from your other 3D printing experience.
Yeah I think I have the modelling figured out and will be doing more unique stuff for me rather than printables prints. I remember working with a pretty crappy hobby printer about 8 years ago and levelling out the bed was just awful.
The auto bed levelling on the prusa really has my attention
YES.
My first printer was (and still is) an Prusa Mk3s and shortly after was given a CR10s (which was the other on my short list because of the bigger build volume. This might already be starting to sound familiar!
I would unreservedly recommend the Prusa, and strongly suggest you ignore the internet suggestions for modifications of any kind - they are not necessary.
I built the Prusa as a kit - I’m not new at assembling stuff nor unused to building things but took my time making sure I understood what each part did, and I reckon it took close to 8 hours of assembly time. Yes it can be done in half that time, but 3,000 print hours later I have not had a single issue arising from the assembly. Being able to live adjust “Z” when you need to make it a seriously simple printer to use - it is almost set and forget, and customer support is astonishingly good - via chat 24hrs a day if you wish.
My grandson is the custodian of the CR10 and it works well enough but is always in need of some adjustment or other (that’s great for those with the temperament to do that) - It’s not fair to expect it to produce the same consistent quality print from components that are of significantly lower cost, without a lot of effort. It’s not impossible, just needs more attention to detail.
If you want a printer not a tinkering hobby - for the dollars Prusa will give you as close as you can get to that IMHO.
NO.
You won’t be shooting yourself in the foot, but get used to always wanting more anyway. It’s not difficult to slice larger projects and reglue if you have to.
I was a bit shocked by this question. I hadn’t thought of “success rate” before and naively I guess, didn’t know it was a “thing”. I expect 100% and get something way better than 99.9%
Don’t misread this as me saying the thing is perfect - clearly it’s not, BUT I have had two “proper” failed prints in over 3000 hrs of printing. They were both caused through heat creep, printing PLA on days when the the ambient temperature was over 30°c and I know now not to print PLA in the enclosure if I can’t moderate the temperature.
I have had the occasional frustration with first layer sticking issues, one just last night where I was printing a small disc with a different filament to the one I had been using. If you keep an eye on the first couple of layers all seems to go well after that.
FWIW even those issues are easy enough to overcome - I have a one layer “Z adjust” model that is about a 4" x1" strip. Using live adjust Z I simply change the Z height every half inch or so along the model as it’s printing and then it’s pretty easy to see what height it should be.
Clean the bed scrupulously with detergent and water, then it’s good to go until the next filament change. Mostly
Yep, I sound like a zealot (sorry about that) but my all round experience with both machine and company are so good that I even spend a small fortune on their filament occasionally, and don’t get me started on how good that is!
I run a Eryone er-20 have had no issues with it. Printed the mpcnc first try no fails at all. I think the modeling is the key here, starting out there’s a few you could go with, Ive never owned a prusa printer, anything under $2k you may have to tinker. Would consider tinker machines. Most printers have profiles ready these days so ahead of the game. I’d check out the Er-20.
I have loved my JGAroura A5S (~$400) and have have had very minimal issues with it I just recently had to replace the extruder assembly the plastic gave out but that was the only part I have replaced in 2 years of running the machine. There isn’t a ton of modifications you can do to the machine which is nice unless you did want to tinker. I would say that my success rate is above 90%. But I am also just some guy on the internet putting my two cents in…
I have worked on other peoples machine’s, Some TAz version, an Airwolf’s, and Just recently got to fix an ultimaker. They really are not all that different as they would have you believe. The ultimaker had special filament spools to lock you into their filament which might make it seem like it is a better machine but if you chose one filament manufacturer you would probably really get the settings dialed in quickly.
I think the real distinction is get above the lowest tier and to a more trusted manufacturer and you will be far safer. It seems Prusa’s team is holding the edge in quality control and part precision (like e3d does with their parts) which to me means longevity, not to mention they are pushing the boundaries and actively trying to improve the user experience.
Well could see the pre built and tested versions of their printers being near fail proof. I’ve seen tons of issues with the diy kits from various posts. Always going to be some issue with any printer from anyone though.
There’s a “race” mentality with assembly that’s stupid - Prusa say allow 8-10 hours and have a brilliantly documented manual with even more info if you click on the links (admittedly this is difficult to do with the print version and yes, I’ve seen that complaint too!), but when the question is asked online the most common answer is four or even two and a half hours! I have no doubt that next time I’d be a lot quicker - but I don’t understand why there’s great pride in completing the build in some sort of record time then spending the next year whinging about problems with it!
A few minutes ago I saw a comprehensive vomit on prusa’s after-sales team from a guy who was trying to assemble his bed sideways.
I like to think that with 300 printers working 24/7 they are a bit familiar with the quirks of the product, so I they say do it in a particular way, I prefer to do that, even if some guy on Facebook says it’s wrong.
and I got a reason to buy a new one
