Getting a Prusa Mini, but have second thoughts  

RE: Getting a Prusa Mini, but have second thoughts

I love my prusa mini+, but yes it has quite a few issues which have never been addressed because the team at prusa moved onto the next thing, It's a good out of the box machine for printing standard PLA at default settings, but stray from that and you will need to address it's shortcomings. The extruder is weak and worse than that the idler isn't very good at holding the tension you set so the bondtech IFS extruder is a huge upgrade which will definitely pay you back in time saved. Alot of people would recommend a revo system as a replacement hotend, I have one but I'm not a huge fan, it's a bit flighty and honestly the v6 in the mini is pretty good, heatcreep issues aside, apart from replacing the standard heatbreak with the bondtech one and printing a different cooling duct I'd leave the hotend as is but if you are wanting to print tall then a brace for the z-axis is a great idea and squash ball feet really help keep the noise down.

I love my mini, and I'm even more grateful to what it's taught me along the way by breaking.

RE: Getting a Prusa Mini, but have second thoughts

I’d say my Mini has been okay.  I upgraded it a bunch and I still run into some issues. I’ve done the silicone bed leveling mod, Bondtech extruder, added Z-brace and probably more stuff I’ve forgotten about. I am adding a Dragon hotend now (this isn’t Prusas fault, I screwed up my own hotend)

For the money, I should have gone i3.

Now? This may be in unpopular opinion but I’d buy a Bambu over a Prusa until Prusa catches up. They just spent too much time on the XL and the i4 feels like too little. 

RE:

This is my first printer, and I print only for myself and not much (1 kg spool over 2 months), but I haven't touched anything in my Prusa Mini+ and it just works out of the box, and I printed only PETG.

It really saved me a lot of time not to tweak it at all, which is really great and relaxing, because I do other things at work that break a lot and dealing with another broken tool would be too much for me.

Though  it was delivered from Czech to Poland, so maybe transporting may cause issues for some?

If I would go now with a printer I would reconsider MK4 because it is just bigger, but the price is also noticeably higher.
But if you already have MK3 maybe get the same printer or MK4, because Mini+ has a bit different mechanics and software, and you will have to adjust models per printer model, which may be suboptimal if you need to print the same thing twice or more (in that case just two same printing devices scale better than two different ones).

RE: Getting a Prusa Mini, but have second thoughts

(sigh, that time to edit post is too low)

One more thing - notice that on the forums you will mostly see posts of people having issues, and not people having a great time, so this causes a bias in perception. 
Just like you go to the hospital and see only sick people and not the ones that are healthy, because they spend most of time outside of the hospital.
I had the same second thoughts after placing an order and waiting for the printer, but I just decided to wait and see how it goes and if it would fulfill my requirements, and it did that very well.

RE:

Thanx for the feedback! 

The issues that can be found with the Prusa mini, are they easily diagnosed and fixed by a reasonably handy person without resorting to third party parts? Or are there lots of Minis out there just collecting dust since their owners have given up on them? 

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A lot of issues I see are related to the fact that people do not take time to read carefully the manual and make basic errors or doing too many changes at once and they do not know which change did improvements or worsened the results. This causes even more frustration.

Lot of issues are easily diagnosed and fixable without any additional parts as described on the Prusa Mini+ troubleshooting guide pages https://help.prusa3d.com/tag/mini-2 on the bottom.

If you do any woodworks, model assembly/painting, electronics like RaspberryPi etc then you'll be fine. If you are stuck then just talk to Prusa Support team.

BTW, I ordered pre-assembled one, was not in the  'IKEA' mood when I was ordering it, I wanted to be printing ready (well almost, but it was way faster than full assembly).

There are several hundred thousand Mini's out in the world.   At any time we have a dozen or so people with issues posting here; at least half of those issues are simple misunderstandings by newcomers that we deal with many times over.  About half of the remainder are compounded when someone ignores basic advice and leaps on some wonder cure from equally misinformed Youtubers.  The rest are the interesting ones...

Only you can decide your own use-case, to help you decide look at the 'Help' tab above, read the various manuals and troubleshooting articles - could YOU follow them ..?

Cheerio,

RE: Getting a Prusa Mini, but have second thoughts

The Prusa Mini makes a really good second (or third) printer.  My has been a workhorse and have had very few problems with it.

I have used it to print parts for my MK3 with it.   

I am using it with a Palette 3 for multi-color prints.   I have been able to make 8 color prints with it.

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I have been running two Minis for more than 2 years, no issues. The only upgrade I wholeheartedly recommend is a dual drive extruder. I have the Bondtech IFS on one, the Triangle clone of the original Bondtech extruder on the other. Both work flawlessly, and I never had to adjust the idler, had no clogs, nothing. Originally I used the stock E3D V6 hotend, again, no issues. The titanium heatbreak I bought still sits unopened in a drawer. I then switched to Dragon hotends because I change nozzles all the time. 

I think these are GREAT little machines. I can't tell you exactly why but they're kind of more fun to use than my Mk3s or XL. 

RE: Getting a Prusa Mini, but have second thoughts

Thanx for the support guys, i feel a lot better now so i'm looking forward to getting the printer!

RE: Getting a Prusa Mini, but have second thoughts

Prusa Mini is my first printer. I didn't improve anything. I only print PETG.I bought it in 2019. Before it arrived, I studied the problems of 3D printing. I've never had a major problem, I've never had a nozzle clog etc. I've never contacted support.

RE: Getting a Prusa Mini, but have second thoughts

I bought my Prusa Mini just over 12 months ago. It currently is my first and only printer. It has been fantastic. The only problem I had is a few weeks ago the hot end sensor failed. I ordered a new one which arrived within a few days. I'm back up and running again. I print mainly with PLA and PETG. I've never had a nozzle clog. It just works. I can't recommend it enough.

RE: Getting a Prusa Mini, but have second thoughts

You’ll not regret getting a Mini. The only change I made to mine was to get the new super PINDA, making my printer a Mini +. Apart from needing a cold pull once, this workhorse just keeps running. The quality is great for PLA and PETG. It always pleas3s me when I have had a few months break, I dust the built plate and clean with alcohol, load a model and off it goes without needing me to adjust anything. 

RE: Getting a Prusa Mini, but have second thoughts

There was an issue with the order, the Mini was supposed to be delievered after two weeks but nothing happened. Then the delivery time went up to 6-7 weeks, and i couldnt wait that long so contacted support and asked them to cancel the order. 

I will go for the Prusa mini next time i get a new printer, hope delivery time is shorter then.

RE: Getting a Prusa Mini, but have second thoughts

I have a Mini & an MK3S, both stock. Some people like to tinker - I just want to design & make things. No need to upgrade. Regular maintenance is enough tinkering for me.

RE: Getting a Prusa Mini, but have second thoughts

I have two Mini printers for over a year now and both of them are working great. No upgrades, exept for the firmware and Prusa Link. PLA, PETG, ASA, PC - all of them print fine. I do use printing chamber when printing ASA and PC.

The only thing that i dont like about the Mini is that they are not working on getting the “Prusa Connect” working for the mini.