Almost a year in using the Mini+
So, the 29th of june I have had my Prusa Mini+ for a year. And it has been a pleasure! I am so happy I chose a 3D printer from Prusa. The build quality, ease of use and overall output quality has been fully to my expectations and the some.
So why did I choose a Mini+ in stead of a cheaper chinese printer? Here are some main points:
- Initial setup: I bought the pre asembled version and put it all together with very little effort. After adjusting the nozzle height a few times the first layer came out perfectly and has been ever since.
- Bed Leveling: The automatic bed leveling has worked flawlessly for me. A couple of years ago I had an Ultimaker Go (which costs about four times more) and I got so tired of constantly adjusing the levelingwheels using a sheet of paper. The Mini+ goes through the calibration every time I start a print and makes the leveling a joy with no hassle.
- Guiderods: No adjustment needed for the guiderods used throughout the printer. A much better solution than the guide wheels used by most chinese printers.
- User Interface: Clear and responsive with all the features I could ever need. And in color!
- Filamentsensor: I have had the filament run out for me in the middle of a print on several occasions. The filamentsensor has worked perfectly every time making it easy to continue printing.
Although the Mini+ is not depending on modifications in the same way as chinese printers in order to work properly, I have made a few.
- Extruder: A couple of months in I exchanged the original extruder for a Bondtech IFS Extruder with dual gears. This was well worth the investment and extruding has been problemfree since.
- I found the filament stand included a little unpractical when it came to change the width to accomodate different spool widths. I ended up with designing and printing my own rotating spoolholder.
- I printed out covers for both the flat ribbon cable that exits the electronics box and also on top of the same box preventing the cable from the heat bed to snag.
- Finally I bought an extension to the USB port to make it easier to access.
All in all the Prusa experience has been a very good one and I expect no less in the months to come. I have set my eyes on the MK4 but that is a project for the future.
Happy printing!
RE:
Can you share more details about how frequently you print and with what kind of materials?
Can you please share url to the custom spool holder you designed?
See my GitHub and printables.com for some 3d stuff that you may like.
RE: Almost a year in using the Mini+
I use the printer several times a week printing nametags for my lodge. When I print a batch the sessions can go on for entire days at once. I have been using eSun PLA+ but recently I have had problems with brittle filament causing it to break. Right now I am using filament from ADD:NORTH and Spectrum.
RE: Almost a year in using the Mini+
I have not yet shared my spool holder on Printables, but I am considering it... This is how it looks like:
RE: Almost a year in using the Mini+
this looks pretty nice, especially in two colors 🙂
See my GitHub and printables.com for some 3d stuff that you may like.
RE: Almost a year in using the Mini+
Thanks!
RE: Almost a year in using the Mini+
@steaming-t
Very similar experience here. You may want to consider a dryer box. My first year I did not use any, and in truth most of the time it is not needed for PLA in the dry climate I live on. But I got one some months go and it truly make a difference.
RE: Almost a year in using the Mini+
I am using the vacum bags from eSun. Seems to work ok. Dryerboxes does not seem to fit into my workflow. But thanks for the advice anyway...
RE: Almost a year in using the Mini+
Can you give more details how much filament you used within a year or average time to print whole 1kg spool?
I'm just wondering about future costs and wanted to compare to the experiences of the others.
I have Prusa Mini+ for 1month now, printing about every third day and being in 2/3 (or more?) of the current spool.
See my GitHub and printables.com for some 3d stuff that you may like.
RE: Almost a year in using the Mini+
I am afraid I don't have any numbers to give you. Generally, I find the cost of a 1 kg spool of filament to be so low that it really doesn't matter to me.
RE:
My mini+ is also about a year old now.
Used regularly.
These are the data I come across at the info screen of the printer.
Print time 16 days and 4 hours. (is total 388 hours to date)
Filament 1204.8 meters.
Assuming 1KG spool of Prusament Pla has 345 meters,
then I have used 3.5 spools to date.
RE: Almost a year in using the Mini+
Ok, I looked at the statistics and this is the "hard" facts:
X axis: 126.9 km
Y axis: 106.6 km
Z axis: 343.3 km
Filament: 5.3 km
Print time: 62 days
Quite impressive don't you think?
RE: Almost a year in using the Mini+
Looks like it's over 15 spools - so over a spool per month.
Thanks for the info!
See my GitHub and printables.com for some 3d stuff that you may like.