PRUSA mk III, thoughts?

WhoMe

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Now the prices are in the reasonable realm I'm thinking about getting something. The MkIII supposed to be out this March looks interesting. The website makes the upgrades sound worth the extra cost over the older version. Wondering what people think of this? The temp calibration sounds important (my room temp varies quite a bit and can go below 60F at times). I was thinking one of these would be nice to combine with the Model RR I've always dreamed of building--I'm sure I'd find other uses though. Building one sounds easy enough (I've been "building" PC's since the mid 80's ;) ).
 
MK3 has been out since December. It's pretty awesome but there is still a lot going on with it. Josef Prusa posted a few days ago about the launch and what went wrong and right. Biggest thing seems to be the drivers are still in development to make all of the advertised features work correctly for everyone.

I LOVE my MK2S, best purchase I made last year for sure.
 
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Love my Prusa Mk2S as well. Fantastic 3D printer on all fronts that does pretty much everything. Was waffling for a while now as to whether or not to buy the upgrade kit from the Mk2S to the Mk3. In the end, decided to just go ahead and buy the entire Mk3 kit. Figured spending the extra $250 to have a complete 2nd printer to leverage was better than just upgrading my original Mk2S.

Simply can’t go wrong with either the Mk2S or the Mk3.
 
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MK3 has been out since December. It's pretty awesome but there is still a lot going on with it. Josef Prusa posted a few days ago about the launch and what went wrong and right. Biggest thing seems to be the drivers are still in development to make all of the advertised features work correctly for everyone.

I LOVE my MK2S, best purchase I made last year for sure.
I read one review that said it seemed to produce items a little rougher than MkIIs but that was on a prototype.
And I see a new benefit to my preferred MRR scale (N) this can print over 100' long objects ;). Finally a period pike without having to scratch build most everything.
 
I read one review that said it seemed to produce items a little rougher than MkIIs but that was on a prototype.
And I see a new benefit to my preferred MRR scale (N) this can print over 100' long objects ;). Finally a period pike without having to scratch build most everything.
The two printers are both largely the same and hugely different. I wouldn't expect any better quality from one or the other simply people are already much better at tuning the MK2S versus the MK3. There is no printer you can buy and simply print out files with no tinkering outside of stock files supplied with the printer and it being setup properly from the start. Any printer you buy, Prusa or otherwise, will take a good deal of learning and iterating to get things as perfect as they can be and in the end you'll likely be doing finishing on the parts anyway depending on their intended use.
 
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I have an MK3 that arrived a couple weeks back. I'm still in the honeymoon phase, but this thing prints like a dream. The magnetic parts removal system is crazy good, though I ended up with the steel sheet PEI instead of the powder coated PEI sheet. Other than that, this thing is damn near quiet in normal mode, prints part dimensionally accurate parts (including threads!), and Prusa's latest version of Slic3r is great to work with. I'm thrilled with it so far. I think I need a few more weeks of printing on it to find out its weakness. :)
 
My next printer will likely be a Prusa. It seems that he's (or them) the only ones really pushing the innovation in the consumer space for simplicity at the value price point (others want to charge thousands). Everyone else is just copying or fine with the status quo. For this stuff to grow in the market, it needs to become stupid simple.

I currently have a QidiTechII, it's a Chinese knockoff of something else (Early MakerBot?) and it functions. But the build volume is tiny and it does take some tinkering. There was a lot of small design flaws I had to fix along the way that led to lots of failed or flawed prints. Things like reel location, too much friction in the guide tubes, clogged nozzles, and heat spreading (it's a dual nozzle).

I also have a Delta that I built but need to finish. I might try and get that honed in so I can sell both off locally and just get a MK3.
 
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Figured I'd bump this because I had the chance to check out a mk3 at our local hackerspace. The dude who owned it was just like "watch this" and pulled the filament out, shoved the carriage around, killed the power, etc while it was printing and the thing didn't care. It recognized there was a problem, paused, reset itself, and kept going like nothing happened. I think I"m going to get one with the 5 filament expansion. It's awesome.
 
Love my MK3. Just got the textured/powder coated PEI print sheet from Prusa in the mail a few days ago. (Wasn’t available yet when I ordered my MK3 kit which they sent me with a smooth PEI steel sheet instead - they express mailed the textured sheet to me free of charge.). Everything about the MK3 rocks. The magnetic mount removable print bed solves all the hassle of removing completed prints - they simply pop right off. It is so worth the extra coin for zero hassles and all the great features the MK3 sports.

I’m not sold on the 5 multi-filament expansion kit though... while cool, I just don’t see the need for my printing purposes.... plus it adds a lot of complexity and points for where things could go wrong during a print. If I really need multiple colors, I’ll just resort to painting my completed prints...
 
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Love my MK3. Just got the textured/powder coated PEI print sheet from Prusa in the mail a few days ago. (Wasn’t available yet when I ordered my MK3 kit which they sent me with a smooth PEI steel sheet instead - they express mailed the textured sheet to me free of charge.). Everything about the MK3 rocks. The magnetic mount removable print bed solves all the hassle of removing completed prints - they simply pop right off. It is so worth the extra coin for zero hassles and all the great features the MK3 sports.
Jealous about the powder coated PEI sheet. I have mine marked on Prusa's wishlist when they are available. The steel sheet PEI bed works well though so not too many complaints from me.

Just FYI, I have about 3 kilometers /48 days of total print time on my MK3, and the parts cooling fan developed a crappy short in it due to the way it is held on the strain relief via zip ties. Wiggle the strain relief and the fan comes back on. Seems to be a common problem as the printers start to age as it just eventually wears. Anyone that owns this printer should order direct from Prusa as it is a 5v 3pin fan that I tried and couldn't source in the USA The MK2 and MK2.5 use 12v which I can find everywhere. Ended up ordering 3 since they were $6.50 each and shipping was $19.
 
Jealous about the powder coated PEI sheet. I have mine marked on Prusa's wishlist when they are available. The steel sheet PEI bed works well though so not too many complaints from me.

Just FYI, I have about 3 kilometers /48 days of total print time on my MK3, and the parts cooling fan developed a crappy short in it due to the way it is held on the strain relief via zip ties. Wiggle the strain relief and the fan comes back on. Seems to be a common problem as the printers start to age as it just eventually wears. Anyone that owns this printer should order direct from Prusa as it is a 5v 3pin fan that I tried and couldn't source in the USA The MK2 and MK2.5 use 12v which I can find everywhere. Ended up ordering 3 since they were $6.50 each and shipping was $19.

You've got me beat in that I only have about a week's worth of print time logged on my MK3 so far. Yup, the smooth steel sheet PEI works great - zero complaints here. So much nicer than prying parts off of the print bed. The textured/powder coated PEI sheet is just an added bonus.

Thanks for the back-up insurance/maintenance parts tip for when cable fatigue eventually sets in. That small fan also probably isn't all that robust to begin with and would probably give up the ghost anyway after a year or two of use. I could at least put my $20 Prusa printer survey coupon to good use!

On my MK2S, I had one of the wires in the cable to my PINDA probe develop an intermittent break/short in the main cable bundle after about a month in... It was a pretty easy fix, I just cut out the bad section of wire and spliced in some quality braided silicone insulated stuff. I wish all the wires used were higher-end braided/stranded conductors and silicone insulated like you find in hobby RC applications. Much tougher stuff with better heat/wear resistance.
 
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