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Looking for a third printer, is the mini a good choice?  

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Rob
 Rob
(@rob-6)
Trusted Member
Looking for a third printer, is the mini a good choice?

Coming up on a year of printing. I have a room in the basement with my current printers, mk3s+ and CR10s pro v2 (will be sold when my xl arrives).

I would like a little printer in my office up stairs and was considering the small mono price delta. Then looked more into the features and can’t live without a removable flexible bed…

So I have been researching more again and considering the success I’m having with the prusa, maybe the mini.

There just seems to be more concerning issues with the extruder and clogs. My mk3 just works flawlessly. Should I take the leap for a mini or wait and consider another mk3??

What should I know before considering this more?

Posted : 20/04/2022 1:44 am
cwbullet
(@cwbullet)
Member
RE: Looking for a third printer, is the mini a good choice?

Yes!

--------------------
Chuck H
3D Printer Review Blog

Posted : 20/04/2022 1:46 am
Swiss_Cheese
(@swiss_cheese)
Noble Member
RE: Looking for a third printer, is the mini a good choice?

My vote goes to the MK3, I own three of them and not had any issues with any of them to speak of.

The Filament Whisperer

Posted : 20/04/2022 3:51 am
towlerg
(@towlerg)
Noble Member
RE: Looking for a third printer, is the mini a good choice?

What should I know before considering this more?

Consider what materials you want to print.

Posted : 20/04/2022 11:05 am
Rob
 Rob
(@rob-6)
Trusted Member
Topic starter answered:
RE: Looking for a third printer, is the mini a good choice?

Looking at printing PLA and PETG. I have the mk3 for flexible filament. 

Posted : 20/04/2022 11:34 am
fuchsr
(@fuchsr)
Famed Member
RE: Looking for a third printer, is the mini a good choice?

I have Mk3S and Minis and love them all. I haven't personally experienced any issues on my Minis with the heat break that others have reported. I do however strongly suggest spending a bit extra and getting the Bondtech dual drive extruder (disclosure: I don't have the original, I use Trianglelab clones). Not that the original extruder didn't work but it was quite temperamental and required much more attention to correct idler tension than I was willing to spend time on. One downside though is that it means maintaning profiles and gcodes for different models, different set of spares, etc. I also added Dragon hotends to my printers, so at least on the hotend side it's standardized now across the board.

Posted : 20/04/2022 11:42 am
Rob
 Rob
(@rob-6)
Trusted Member
Topic starter answered:
RE: Looking for a third printer, is the mini a good choice?

Good point about profiles and such. Plus an all new amount of time dialling retractions, speed, etc.

I was looking at consolidating all hotend stores the E3D revo but not likely an option for the mini and there still seems to be some teething issues….

Posted : 20/04/2022 12:28 pm
Weinberger
(@weinberger)
New Member
RE: Looking for a third printer, is the mini a good choice?

Hello.I don't know much about 3D printing and I would like to know what the E3D revo.

Posted : 20/04/2022 12:38 pm
Chris Laudermilk
(@chris-laudermilk)
Estimable Member
RE: Looking for a third printer, is the mini a good choice?

Sounds like the Mini is a perfect fit. Small, printing PLA & PETG. My experience with the Mini is it just works. I built mine just after last Halloween and it's run almost without a hitch the entire time. At first there was a newbie learning curve and I have had two jams--both from changing filament types and not purging well enough.

I actually plan to switch my Mini hotend over to a Revo. I currently have a Micro in my Voron Trident that's run flawlessly for (checks history) nearly 200h now. That one will move to my Mini when the Voron Edition preorder arrives and replaced it in the Trident. I'll be printing up the latest version mount & improved cooling duct using the stock Mini fan instead of the tiny one that came with the Revo Micro.

Mini+ (kit) - Revo Micro | Antler Cooling | WiFi (4.4.0RC1)

Posted : 20/04/2022 1:22 pm
HermannSW
(@hermannsw)
Estimable Member
RE: Looking for a third printer, is the mini a good choice?

I started 3Dprinting on Ender-5 3Dpriner of younger son for some months.
Then I got my own MINI+ two months ago, and really like it.

Only after I printed @herbert's "Bed Level Correction for Prusa Mini" model 5 days ago, I realized that my MINI+ had a 1st layer issue that the model printed during 1st layer calibration did not show at all. So if you go with MINI+, you should print herbert's model until 1st layer settings are good:
https://www.printables.com/model/30854-bed-level-correction-for-prusa-mini/comments#comment-218629

I have not seen any problems others reported with the MINI+. I think the reason is that I spent the extra money for the semi-assembled MINI+ so that I was not able to introduce failures. The extra money for filament sensor was well spent as well.

The only issue the MINI+ really has sometimes is too early extrusion after a print's heatbed calibration, and then sometimes not loosing all excess material on the first side line print. The borescope nozzle camera I added to my MINI+ helps a lot to see problems. Most times pliers help to reduce extruded material just before movement starts, sometimes a third attempt with spattel during initial movement is needed:

Posted : 22/04/2022 6:54 am
Weinberger
(@weinberger)
New Member
RE: Looking for a third printer, is the mini a good choice?

 

Posted by: @weinberger

Hello.I don't know much about 3D printing and I would like to know what the E3D revo.

Can someone help me understand?

Posted : 23/04/2022 11:36 am
languer
(@languer)
Trusted Member
RE: Looking for a third printer, is the mini a good choice?

+1 for Mini for PLA and PTEG.

Posted : 23/04/2022 6:15 pm
cwbullet
(@cwbullet)
Member
RE: Looking for a third printer, is the mini a good choice?

The mini will print 99% of what need to print.  

--------------------
Chuck H
3D Printer Review Blog

Posted : 23/04/2022 6:20 pm
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