About to purchase.  

RE:

This is pretty much what I did.  I learned to print at our local makerspace and used the machines there until I broke down and got my own, which, fortunately, was not that far before Covid hit the fan.

At the time of my order, they (Prusa) had a warning to order the kit and any additional supplies separately to save on duties.  I don't know if that still holds or does for your location.

I use the smooth and textured build plates, mostly obtained from Prusa, and I can usually depend on a 5-7 day latency between clicking on the order and the package hitting the porch in Omaha, NE, US.

I get almost all of my 3d print supplies Stateside, usually via Amazon.  In my area there are absolutely no brick-and-mortar vendors that stock any 3d print supplies.

As for glue sticks and lubricant, the Kores glue sticks are available Stateside (and worldwide) and I use the Superlube (with Syncolon PTFE) which is readily available.

The only other thing I would suggest, particularly if you plan to use the glue sticks for and adhesion booster and/or a release agent, is to use something such as Layerneer instead.  It does not leave an impression on the underside of the print like the glue stick does, and it lasts a long time.  The one thing about it is that it tends to be in and out of stock, so I would suggest grabbing one bottle as soon as possible.  Amazon has it in stock at this time.  A bottle lasts forever.

RE: About to purchase.

I bought both fans for the hotend.. not expensive.. I haven't used them in year 1 of operation. But I am on my second brass nozzle (0.4).. So I'd get at least 1 more brass 0.4. You don't need to worry about glue sticks.. almost anything works.. I just go to my Dollar store for those. I use a smooth a textured sheet. The textured (rough) is superb for PETG. (and TPU). 

RE: About to purchase.

I keep a 'crash kit' near the machine of some high-failure items and things that might not be readily available.

Such things as the common tools (metric hex key set, 'breaker bar' and wrench for changing nozzles, etc.) as well as ABS prints of the extruder parts in case I have a BOD or other meltdown, a complete hot end, cleaning filament, acupuncture needles, dental mirror, a spare Einsy board, belt material, etc.  I put this together thinking of things that may not be easy to get during Covid.

RE: About to purchase.

I thank jsw and Crab for the comments so far. 

Spare parts are on my list for the future.  I had planned on printing what parts I could for my printer as soon as I was comfortable with it.  Didn't think of the stuff that required ABS, so will put some ABS or other high temp material on my list.  A bit more reading on materials before ordering.  I didn't get a chance to try different materials in prints.  My one nylon print was a disaster and I suspect that it was a moisture related issue since the spools were just stored on the shelf.

I do have two 0.4s on my list at this time.  I do know I will need a hardened nozzle in the future and I may order one at this time.  I have a feeling that being new, the parts with the printer should last at least a year.  As some of the stuff I will be printing doesn't need to be very precise, I am thinking of larger nozzles as well.

I didn't think of customs fees.  I don't think it will make any difference due to the size of the order as I will get dinged either way, but I may break the order up into two, since there will be a delay on the printer.  Shipping may be a bigger hit though.  Will have to look at the on-line ordering and see what it tells me.  I also have to deal with the exchange rate.

Where I live in western Canada, there is very limited support.

RE: About to purchase.

Hi,

I built my printer from the kit which I ordered with only the smooth PEI sheet. I live in the Czech Republic, so getting spares and accessories is pretty easy when they are in stock. After building my printer I soon purchased a satin sheet and a textured sheet.

The bottom line is that the satin sheet is my daily 'workhorse' and I only use the other sheets when I need the particular surface finish of the textured sheet, or I am printing something tall and thin, in which case I might use the smooth PEI sheet. I print only in PLA and PETG at the moment, but I'll be trying ASA soon, so it will be interesting if my experience holds good for that as well.

You can print just about any material on the satin sheet without problems (see the materials guide here), and the print will self-release when the sheet cools down. I've never had the need (so far) to use glue stick or anything else to aid adhesion.

Good luck!

Cheers,

Tim

RE:

 Good to hear from another Canuck.. I order my Prusa parts now exclusively from VoxelFactory.com, if possible.. They have many parts and are pretty knowledgeable and have the best support of any of the shops I've run across in Canada.. My nozzle went in 6 months, so getting another brass nozzle is a good idea. You'll need a filament dryer at some point. I went the cheap SUNLU route via DIGITMAKERS in Canada. But the SUNLU S2 is poorly designed, (as maybe many of the sub $100 off-shore printdryers), and failed within 8 mo. Sunlu wouldn't talk to me and DIGITMAKERS would only warranty if I paid shipping both ways which was equal to the cost of the printer.. (I eventually negotiated down to one way, but was still 50%), so I refused to throw more money at it. So I'd recommend to stay away from those low end dryers (I hated to spend $200 for a dryer) and either go with the more expensive PRINTDRY PRO model, or you can opt for a food dehydrator method. 

I absolutely think OctoPrint is a must on a home 3d printer and I love my PI 4 with it installed. If I was doing it now, I'd get a Orange PI Zero 2 with 1GB RAM and a good heatsink from AliExpress for about $60 and install it on that. (My Pi4 was $200). Hands down the best thing I added to the printer.

.. besides the squash ball feet mod to dampen some of the vibration. (on printables.com)

I also bought the kit and built.. great experience.. don't rush it.. get some wiha screwdrivers from digikey.ca .. 263 2.5mm, 2mm, 3mm or any quality 2-3mm hex screwdrivers.. 

RE: About to purchase.

Thanks Tim and Crab again for comments.

Dry?  Yes, keeping things dry is not much of an issue where I live if you don't run a humidifier.  Static is an enemy here.  I get static shocks when I run my snow or leaf blower.   I have desiccant and will be purchasing humidity monitors for my floss storage.  All my floss will be stored in monitored containers.  Years ago, I was working for a company and one of the top techs from the home office came out and wondered why our drying oven was hardly used (by hour meter) and we showed him the desiccant indicators sitting on the benches were showing dry enough for the electronics.   If you know Canada, it gives you a good idea where I live.   In my detached garage, it shouldn't be a problem.  🙂

As for metric and small tools.  Already have them for repairing electronics.  Now OctoPrint is something I have heard about when I started looking into this.  I may do that as I would love to monitor my printer remotely and I understand you can connect a USB camera to OctoPrint for viewing the print progress.  Reaading, a Pi 3 minimum if you want to run a camera.  I have a couple Pi 2s not being used.  Maybe make one a OctoPrint and one a USB camera server.  Thanks for confirming my thoughts.  Will be looking at the Orange Pi 2 from AliExpress.  Have a long wish list to order once the printer is ordered.  I don't need and partly don't want (at this time) to stream the g-code to the printer.

I looked at VoxelFactory.com as an option.  They sell the printer but none of the other items I want in this order.  No printers in stock at this time.  Direct from Prusa.  I want to start with Prusa filament when setting up and for the first while to be compatible and give me time to learn the finer details.  I have a long list of stuff to print already and still need to learn how to calibrate to different filaments.  Direct from Prusa is the way i will start.  May cost a bit more but if I wanted to save money from the start, I could purchase one of the many clones that are sold on the net.  One of the final confirmations of purchasing a Prusa was a YouTube video showing a cheap printer and the costs of all the upgrades to bring it to equivalent to the MK3S+ and it ended up being just a little under US$100 less than the initial purchase.  There are some items that I will be ordering from Filaments.ca which was recommended to me by one of my work associates.

I appreciate the info being provided.  It is an issue when ordering your first system.  So many "cheap" systems out there but you end up paying to get a decent system.  I have read that most cheap system need to be upgraded sooner than later.  Spare parts are important as well as what items wear out or fail the most.  The cost of the fans is low so extras may be worth it of course, the reviews on the fans at this point are not good and I may hold off.  Same with the hotend.

My original plan was to design and build my own printer from scratch.  After much research, I am satisfied that the small extra cost to get a fully functioning 3D printer is well worth the price to start.  Especially when you see most of the build your own printers required 3D printed parts.

RE: About to purchase.

Keeping filament dry is a lot better than drying it.

I now have three makeshift dryboxes, Home Depot storage tubs, each with 3-4 of those silica gel dry-packs and an el-cheapo humidity gauge.

When the humidity creeps up into the high 20s, I'll bake the dry-packs yet again.  That depends on how often they are opened.

For drying filament, I usually let it run in the Ninja Cooker overnight, set on 'Dehydrate' at 120F/49C.  I've only run into one case where a spool of filament could not be restored to the point it would print well.

RE:

+1 @jsw for keeping filament dry.. Everyone has their own 'system' for keeping their stuff dry.. I'm in Nova Scotia and can spit into the ocean, so it seldom gets below 60% humidity. All my filament sits in $20 Canadian tire plastic cereal boxes that have seals and dessicant so I can spool to printer while they stay inside. I used exactly the same rationale when I bought my Prusa kit. Am a retired electrical engineer/College instructor so was looking for something that would satisfy that 'builder' gene. 

I completed a few online courses on Fusion 360 and find that is an excellent environment for creating 3D models for mechanical-style parts. Took a bit to ramp up, but well worth the investment in time. The version of Orange PI I was reading about is the "Pi Zero 2, not the Pi 2" which comes with 512 or 1GB of RAM (you want 1G) and can get from AliExpress for about $60. I think that can support 1080p USB cam fine. OctoPrint is an awesome addition to your workflow.. There are some tutorials online for setting it all up. The actual Raspberry PI 4 (4G) is the gold standard if you go that route and CanaKit have kits you can sometimes get which include an approved PSU/adapter and case /w heatsink & SD card, cables.. Their higher price kits sometimes have stock.

Prusa filament is very expensive here.. You'll get one silver spool with your kit. But since then I've used mostly Eryone, Overture and Polymaker PETG and PLA (for PETG the rough sheet is super (as is the satin from what I read .. don't use the smooth with PETG without glue stick or something other intermediate surface). TPU prints very well on the Prusa as well. I got one of Eryone's 1/2kg spool (Shore 95a) to tinker with and worked very well for some RC car parts (not tires.. TPU can't replace actual rubber, yet) Get a Prime membership and all that filament works as well as Prusa as far as I could tell (as do many other brands.. those were just the ones I found reasonably priced). Eryone and eSun will sometimes have big sales from their own online web sites, but color choice for Canada runs out fast.. you can buy 6 spools for as low as $16-20 where Prusa goes for $40-60 from domestic vendors. 

I'm really interested in eventually building one of the Voron models and getting into Klipper.. but the PRUSA kit is an excellent first model with your background. I've found the support excellent and its reliability has been good in my first year with it... The enclosure for it is expensive and I've recommended a Bambu X1C for a friend.. we will see how that works out when it arrives in a month. 

RE: About to purchase.

I agree with jsw for keeping things dry.  Living in S. Alberta, that usually isn't an issue.   Even during our snow yesterday, we were at 87% humidity.  A few days ago, we were close to 20% which is interesting when it is -15 and the snow disappears as it sublimates, even at night.  I will still be setting up some type of dry box for my filament, both for using and storage.  I have a bag full of desiccators similar to the ones in jsw's picture.   In the one forum thread, they suggest 30 to 50%.  My workshop is at 35% last I looked.  Dust will be more of an issue so I might as well throw in a desiccator in the box that keeps the dust out.

Things will change as I progress.  I have seen the issues at work with 3D printing have been learning even though it was not my area and I couldn't run the printers.  I have designed items and had them printed.

I will look at OctoPrint on a Pi in the future.  Will put it on a laptop whose home will be beside the printer once the bench is complete this week.

My next AliExpress order will be temp/RH monitors for the various boxes.

I use FreeCAD and have done a quick look at their 3D workbenches.  Did some testing with the Mesh Design workbench for fixing damaged models but I am not sure if it works as well as advertised.  More testing.  I have used it for different design projects at work and home for years.

Like Crab, I am retired and I think I have the same "builder gene" in me.  Now I have the time and place to do it.  🙂

RE:

I bought about 10 of those humidy sensors (round or square) and they are horrible for accuracy. I have some that just sit at one number ('10') for anything from 5-50% .. so don't expect them to be too accurate. They are good for knowing roughly when to recharge.. I'm surprised Prusa put one on its enclosure..  I use an Aqara GH2 camera attached into my HomeKit network to view my print bed. This camera is also a hub and I bought an Aqara humidy/temp sensor for each dry box (about 8) and I can monitor humidity via my Homekit network.. and likely I could get an alert when humidity goes above a certain level. (I set up each box as a 'room' in homekit). Works very well.. Humidity sensors are quite a bit more expensive.. but the cheap ones I have found very hit and miss for accuracy.. (mostly miss). 

Posted by: @robin_13

My next AliExpress order will be temp/RH monitors for the various boxes.

 

Like Crab, I am retired and I think I have the same "builder gene" in me.  Now I have the time and place to do it.  🙂

 

RE: About to purchase.

If there is an issue, then I will pull the sensors and build my own.  Did you get the ones with the remote sensors or built in.

I have had some RH indicators that just don't work. 

Interesting note.  I said I had a bag of desiccators that I am going to use.  I put them in the oven tonight to dry them out and they got a bit darker.  Are supposed to be clear when they need recharging but yellow when dry. 

I took the plunge.  Placed my order today.  MK3S+ kit with enclosure, spare parts and filament.  Also ordered the MSU for future.  I have to wait weeks for some of it but that is how things go.  Will give me time to do other stuff.  New bench for printer (and other stuff) is almost completed and will be painted/stained in the next couple of days.  Now to find out how my estimate on prices works.

I do thank all the comments.  It did change my selection for filaments and I did drop some of the items I had in my original list but added others.  Of course, reading the forums over the last few nights opened my eyes to many different things.

RE: About to purchase.

I have found that the bags of dessicant that are orange and are in a bag are best. About 50g per bag. They have about 1 colored bead for every 25 or so and go dark when wet. I dry the bags for about 4 minutes on defrost in the microwave and then wait for about 5 minutes and then turn over and repeat until the weight is down to about 51g. I found the individual pellets too hard to manage.. they roll everywhere and I have a pet that I call 'hoover' (a vacuum brand) and so I don't like that around. I use one 50g bag per drybox and lasts about a month for me. 

RE: About to purchase.

Hi all.  Thanks for the comments on the printer.  Well it arrived today in the multiple boxes.  Earlier than expected and even earlier than what was shown on the Prusa site. 

Now to decide, do I put the enclosure together first or the printer?  I guess the enclosure since the power supply for the printer mounts on the enclosure.

Being in Canada, I was surprised that the GST and taxes were so low on the purchase.  Exchange rate from US to CA dollars is a killer.

As one other person on the forum stated that they built their printer with their child, I plan on doing the same thing.  I am not in a rush since the location for the printer has to let the paint cure for 7 days.

As for humidity in my workshop.  After painting yesterday, it was 25% on the ventilation system monitor.

And for Crab, I did order a Orange Pi Zero for Octoprint.  Thanks for pointing out the Orange Pi's.  I have a use for a more powerful single board computer and the new Orange Pi 5 will meet my needs.

RE: About to purchase.

Put the printer together first, then build the enclosure whilst the printer prints test pieces in PLA

Joan

RE: About to purchase.

Thanks.  Just reading through the forums on the printer and enclosure.  I cannot put things where they belong for a week as I am literally waiting for the paint to dry on the bench where it is going.  Didn't realize that the epoxy paint needed 7 days drying time before use.  🙂  I do have another large bench that I will use for assembly and more than enough room to still allow the enclosure to be built.