Prusa MK3s I3 3d printer (and 3d printers in general)

Anyone play around with Prusa printers? I just got a Mark 3 last week and assembled it over a number of hours on the weekend. For anyone not familiar, Prusa sells their printers as kits that you basically have to assemble yourself from a giant box full of parts. The English version of the assembly manual is about 140 pages long and it took most of my Sunday to assemble. It was a pretty long and in parts tedious process but at the end of it you get a pretty reliable 3D printer that you can fix and maintain because you basically built it from scratch.

In my cases this is replacing a Solidoodle Press, which is infamously one of the worst 3D printers ever made and it literally drove the company out of business.

Anyone here do a lot with 3D printing?

I wish I had the money, the time, and the understanding, and even the passion of the inner works of a 3D printer.

But I’ll be following this interesting thread.

@Byshop: watched the assembly video, says it took the guy about 8 hours....and this was an official video, so the guy probably knew what he was doing.

As for 3D printing, no, I've never tried it. Never even seen one in person, though I am fascinated by it. Seems like very futuristic tech we are just dipping our toes into now, with a lot of potential in the future.

I heard NASA was considering taking them up into space for tools. Because weight is such an issue, but you need all the tools you can because you never know what's going on, what they would do is just send the metal parts up to save on space and weight, and if you needed that tool you 3D print the handle and so forth sort of on an as-needed basis.

If they ever come down in price and are quality I would totally buy one on a whim, just to check it out (I'd get some good use out of it, I don't doubt it), but as of right now that's a little pricey for something I am just curious about.

I've done a lot with it as I got one pretty early on, but I wanted to see what others had to say and what their experiences were.

Yeah, this kit in particular is a little bit nuts but if you're really into it then it's probably one of the best ones out there. Price on them has come down a lot since they first were released. You can get into a decent 3D printer for about $200 these days, but if you don't want troubleshooting it to be a significant portion of your time I'd recommend a few starting in the 350-400 range instead.

Printing tools and items for utility is actually pretty handy. My 3d modelling skills aren't particularly advanced yet. I can do geometric shapes and push/pull shapes to get what I need. I've done a few clips for shelves, we had a shelf in the fridge that started breaking so I measured it with a caliper and designed a bracket to hold it in place rather than replace it. Other than that I've relied on other people's models from websites where you can share models with other users.

Here's a Scorpion mask from Mortal Kombat that I'm printing right now:

@Byshop: do some prints really take upwards of 12 hours? Some of those videos had a print time listed and it was pretty huge.

Glad to hear they've come down in price, do you have any recommendations in the <$500 range?

I can see people getting all excited over these things in like 50 years when they've reached "antique" status, like some neat old typewriter that is still functional.

Yes, easily. It's based on the size of the object, the complexity of the design, whether you have to build "supports" to go along with it, etc. The printer builds the model one layer at a time, and a "layer" can be anywhere from .3mm to .1mm. Prints that are done in .1mm may take 3 times longer. The mask I'm printing right now will have taken just under 18 hours when it finishes, but I also printed it at a detail level of .15mm which was excessively small. Most of the masks I printed in the OT hobby thread took under 8 hours. Smaller parts may take less than an hour. I can whip up things like replacement backpack clips or ear savers for facemasks in less than half an hour.

There's a "mini" version of my printer that's supposed to be of comparable quality. The Prusa Mini is only about $350 for the unassembled kit, and the biggest practical difference is the build area is smaller by 2" in each dimension (7" cubed instead of 9") and it doesn't support some of the option upgrades mine does. I'd highly recommend that one for the price range, but there are other good printers as well. One of the most important features to look for is an auto-leveling feature. Since the layers are measured in tenths of a millimeter, the bed and head need to be well aligned. Printers that require manual leveling need frequent adjustments and test prints. Don't give yourself that headache.

The Ender Pro 3 is a cheaper printer, but I've heard mixed results from my friends who have had it. There's an optional upgrade to give it an auto-leveling feature that would be a must-have.