Kit Assembly or Pre-assembled.  

RE: Kit Assembly or Pre-assembled.

The instructions at https://help.prusa3d.com/en/guide/building-your-mini_177717 are for the Mini, not the Mini kit. I've not seen instructions for the kit, they will probably publish them around the time the kits start shipping.

Don't worry about the 40 steps, each one is very simple. There are many people here who will help if you have issues. Don't forget that you have access to support from Prusa as well. If you do need to contact support, use the web chat from the eshop page, it gets a quicker response than email.

Good luck and enjoy.

RE: Kit Assembly or Pre-assembled.

I have bought the Mini as Factory assembled as it was not available as Kit. I don't know why Prusa decided to deliver this Printer in the beginning as Factory assembled, I would prefer the Kit for some reasons.

Regarding Prusa Support, the instructions for the Mini+ will be available when the first batch of the Mini + will be shipped in February.

As gordon-w already wrote, it is very simple to build the Factory Version.

RE: Kit Assembly or Pre-assembled.

I'm the opposite, I wanted the pre-built kit due to being a newb but in my haste accidentally ordered the kit. Guess I'll be learning how to build a 3d printer 🙂

I'm actually quite excited to get to know all the bits of my 3d printer from start to finish!

RE: Kit Assembly or Pre-assembled.

Posted by: @andy-w-2

I'm the opposite, I wanted the pre-built kit due to being a newb but in my haste accidentally ordered the kit. Guess I'll be learning how to build a 3d printer 🙂

I'm actually quite excited to get to know all the bits of my 3d printer from start to finish!

You won't be sorry, the Manual is good (stick to the Online-Version). It is fun and doable.

RE: Kit Assembly or Pre-assembled.

@andy-w-2

You do get a lot more familiar with the workings doing the build.  That said, when I buy a 2nd one it will be pre-assembled! 😉 

RE: Kit Assembly or Pre-assembled.

Posted by: @richard-alpert

I have bought the Mini as Factory assembled as it was not available as Kit. I don't know why Prusa decided to deliver this Printer in the beginning as Factory assembled, I would prefer the Kit for some reasons.

 

I'm not a company owner neither I manage resources, anyway as a noob it took me 5 hours assembling piece by piece the clone, may be an expert can make it in less than 2hours. The packaging and labeling of any discrete piece is not so different than assembly and then packaging 3 pieces. Those have a similar production cost. I assume at the beginning They preferred sending directly a preassembled device to avoid most of out of the box issues.

RE: Kit Assembly or Pre-assembled.

Posted by: @turro75

[...] Those have a similar production cost. I assume at the beginning They preferred sending directly a preassembled device to avoid most of out of the box issues.

Based on what I recall from the Mk3 rollout, this is likely correct. I read a detailed post once -- sadly long lost now -- that explained how much more effort went into the kits, from requiring detailed documentation to packaging and labeling individual pieces. Prusa may save a few bucks on assembly and testing with kits, but maintaining their level of quality for a kit is not trivial. It makes sense they'd want to be sure the basics are working before hoping a bunch of new users can reliably assemble kits themselves.

RE: Kit Assembly or Pre-assembled.

The value of a kit is learning to build the kit so you find otu how to take it apart and fix it.  That is invaluable.  

RE: Kit Assembly or Pre-assembled.

Posted by: @cwbullet

The value of a kit is learning to build the kit so you find otu how to take it apart and fix it.  That is invaluable.  

And inevitable! A kit is great if you've got the time. If not, you can work backward when needed with a pre-assembled unit. At some point, yeah, you're going to end up tearing it all down, so be prepared accordingly. 

RE: Kit Assembly or Pre-assembled.

@bobstro

Isn’t that the truth.  Inevitable always comes quicker than you think.