This exactly. I highly recommend building your first printer. If you’ve got the scratch, buy the current Prusa kit. (Don’t wait for a new version or anything back ordered. Ask me how I know…)
If you don’t got the scratch, buy a used Prusa. Plan on spending a good number of hours reading forums on how to fix little things you notice in your prints. They’ll be well documented, cause everyone and their mom used to have your model and they’ve all complained about problem XYZ, so Joseph P fixed it in the new current model.
Either way, takes about 10-15 hours to learn how to tune one, and another six months to really know what your looking at that needs that special tuning. Have fun!
This goes for chinese printers as well, you’ll sooner or later taking apart and rebuilding your printer so I recommend buying the kit. Really the Prusa mk3 is a really good starter printer. You can also swap the parts into a Bear Upgrade https://all3dmakers.com/products/mk3-bear-upgrade
Even with large printers, get good at cutting up models and orienting parts for better bed adhesion and overhangs. Download and learn MeshMixer.
I agree with Luke, better metric allen screw drivers save your hands and wrists.
Do you want to build a chainsaw or cut down a tree? Building a 3D printer will teach you a lot about the technology (I’ve built a couple) and will walk you through all the steps in alignment, leveling, etc to get a good print.
In addition, if you have to replace a failed part deep in the guts of the machine you’ll have the experience to tackle it.
On the other hand, if your interest in 3D printing is more on the design of models/printing models side of things, a prebuilt printer will get you printing much faster. With DMS being closed, having others to tap into for more help might be more difficult. The Prusa directions seem to be good, though.
The Prusa (Even the prebuilt one) comes with all the Allen wrenches you’ll need.
Prusa has a few articles on their website, the differences seem small but they say the two behave differently based on what material you print with. They also change the texture of the bottom of the print.
I only print PLA and I have the smooth, some isopropyl just before a print and it works great. Smooth was my only option when my printer shipped, so I’ve never tried the powder coated sheet.
There’s really no need to buy many extras. Theyve got two sides and if you’re careful last basically forever. I’ve got some crazy thousands of hours on my printer and haven’t had to flip it over yet.
The tax is something about a customs fee, when I bought mine the kit+shipping was set up to slide right under what you could get shipped into the US duty free iirc. Not sure if that’s changed.
I would probably go with the Artillery Genius if I was going with a Chinese small printer, direct drive and silent stepper drivers. I’ve had a jgaurora A5 at one point and could print an entire mandalorian helmet but only after I modified it for bed leveling, and the ultrabase glass texture didn’t hold all the time.
I’m actually a believer now in using rafts for small parts even with good bed leveling, modern slicers can make rafts pretty reliable.
To answer @Josh_Melnick question I have heard bad things about textured but it gives a slightly better feel to parts, I would stick with smooth pei sheet and get a textured later to play with.
Either the smooth sheet only or both sheets. The textured sheet has limited uses in my opinion but if you’re printing a lot of panels it might be useful (so the bottom doesn’t look 3D printed). I wouldn’t get the textured sheet as the only bed sheet.
@Josh_Melnick The tax warning was not on the Mini page when I ordered last week but the $$$ is about half the MK3S.
I did add on the $30 extra beds and $20 filament sensor because… Why not? I only run PLA now but who knows what I’ll use in a few months.
Does anyone out there have a Mini?
I totally agree with @JRay about buying a used Prusa but I have watched craigslist and ebay for a while and have not seen a real Prusa.
Note that there are many “Prusa” printers on ebay that are not the official ones. Real Prusa printers are listed as “Original Prusa” and only available from Czech Republic.
The suggestions about assembling you own is good but I missed out by buying a used one carefully assembled by @Dale_Wheat and the Mini which will arrive and require very minor assembly.
Maintenance hint: I’ve run the MK2S hundreds of hours and think I have done a reasonable job on maintenance but I notice some wear on the top of the Y axis smooth rods. I rotated the rods 45 degrees and all is well. Hint: Lubricate these more often than the suggested 100 hour interval.
The best article I have seen recently on hard work, entrepreneurship and capitalism is the Prusa Timeline. It started and still is Open Source.
It’s honestly mostly for my 10yr old to learn on and create rockets with. I’ve experimented a bit but I’m not 100% bought into it yet.
It seems to be a solid little printer for us. Easy easy easy to use straight out of the box.
Sorry, I’m late to the party.
I agree with almost all the things said on here. I’ll give you a bit of my own story on this.
My first 3D printer was an Anet A8. Most people would tell you that’s a garbage printer…that’s isn’t completely without basis. I bought it for $138. Built it myself from a kit. It caught on fire once, I replaced a bunch of the components over time but they were pretty cheap and so I’m probably up to ~$300 with it. I wanted to see whether I would actually use a 3D printer.
I then went to the Prusa Mk3, which I bought as a kit. It was really interesting seeing the different design decisions Prusa had versus the A8 and I could definitely see improvements in things that I would have to adjust all the time on the A8 that the Prusa design “fixed”. Even without my experience of having owned a “beater” before, I would still suggest building your own so that you have at least a working knowledge of components, there will be maintenance required and when talking with tech support or other people, it will be handy to have a working knowledge. Plus one thing that I haven’t seen mentioned here is the bag of gummy bears to rewards yourself for completing each step with the Prusa!
I know friends who own the Ender, also an excellent machine. I am still a Prusa believer and I think it is the best machine overall for long-term. If you bought an Ender I would still put that as a good choice, but Prusa in my opinion is the best option.
I’ll use the car analogy:
Anet A8: Beater convertible, cheap, plan on spending more time under the hood than driving the car. When it is running, good fun.
Ender: New Camaro, performs well, requires relatively little maintenance, good for budget.
Prusa: Porshe, drives very well, great dealer support, pricey but worth it.
The Anet A8 was a great experience but much like a high maintenance lover or a 60s Italian convertible, too much maintenance required for me
I’m extremely happy Prusa Mk3 that sits quitely beside me working away while I do the same, asking for modest upkeep. I’m at the age now where I’m looking for a stable relationship…not a dangerous fling.
I got the PEI version because the powder coat bed was on back order when I got my printer in 2018.
Works pretty well with PLA and ABS as long as you keep the fingerprints cleaned off (IPA, acetone, or a soapy wash in the sink all work).
My PEI has de-laminated a bit, leaving bubble artifacts on the bottom of prints much like the tape on the PolyPrinter bed does. The bubbles come and go and can sometimes be squeegied out. This pic of my bed shows a bubble above the word “Original” as well as some artifacts of bubbles past across the bed (which are too small to make a mark).
