Prusa Mini Quality  

RE: Prusa Mini Quality

Great news.  Underextrusion is a huge problem when you switch extruders. 

RE: Prusa Mini Quality

Those prints do look much better.

Cheers

-Bob

RE: Prusa Mini Quality

When you purchase a Prusa, you also purchase proper (i.e., non-community) assistance. If you haven't received sufficient responses from the community, have you tried speaking to a live chat representative for official support? Link at least one of those locations so that readers here can read and offer advice.

With a Mini, I was up and printing in less than an hour, and I'm really happy with the outcomes thus far.

RE:

When you purchase a Prusa, you also purchase proper (i.e., non-community) assistance. If you haven't received sufficient responses from the community, have you tried speaking to a live chat representative for official support? Link at least one of those locations so that readers here can read and offer advice.

With a Mini, I was up and printing in less than an hour, and I'm really happy with the outcomes thus far.

RE: Prusa Mini Quality

Hi

I will add some points from my side for the people who will find this topic in the end of 2023, or later...

First when i decided i want to print some chassis for some little electronic devices, inspired by some video on YT i decided that maybe i should try 3d printing, i did some research, i knew only few brands, and that i want to choose libre software based device. Besides of the brands i heard about before, i found some manufacturer who pretend to be the first from china to make a open source printer... sounds good, and that they apparently made a second version of the printer which was quite popular around community. So i checked in their public available repository if i can find the firmware, and what kind of slicer they use... And i couldn't find that time the firmware, not sure if it's there now, but after that i just switched back my atention to the other brand. While i'm in EU, was just optimal to check what Prusa has to offer... I had already good experience with Czech tea shops :), so i decided to give it a try, their printer was two times more expensive, but was open sourced, i reviewed the photos, parts etc. so i thought that it's not very expensive to maintain in the long run, besides i read some stuff in the net to find the right paths, so i decided for MINI+.

I ordered my first 3d printer in the beginning of October 2023, which arrived some week after, i decided to order "semi assembled" version,
because it was available faster, and since it was my printer i wanted to see how it works while it's well assembled and calibrated, so then i can learn from the proper example...
Also the difference in the price between that one and the kit was around one spool of filament... and it was almost ready to print out of the box! 🙂
Some week after i got the printer, and later i ordered another plate, because i realized that i want to use also PETG filament for some functional part, and i read that i have to use other plate for it, so i ordered txt... First night i got the printer i put the parts together (3 of them) and i tried to understand what is going on with this famous "first layer" thing, and weird layer of plastic on the bottom for the first few models sourced from printables, and test prints included in usb stick (which died shortly after).

I found on the forum that some other user had similar issue, so i asked in the same topic about similar question i had also, and without prior experience with 3d pritntng i was not sure when i will scratch the plate or destroy the hotend which will not be covered under warranty, so i was bit cautions...  the story about that you can find here: with my R&D process 🙂 https://forum.prusa3d.com/forum/assembly-and-first-prints-troubleshooting/prusa-first-layers-are-not-solid/  
and after that i was able to set up the sheets very well, and since then i didn't touch it at all, i'm just printing... everyday 🙂 it took me 13 days between order the printer, shipping, and some two evenings of trials... to understand what is going on with this first layer calibration process... The other stuff, probing the printer is doing by itself, and from the stories i read in other places i understood that i like that approach. From the link above you can see where i started, and how helpful is community here, because i was able with help of them to figure out what is wrong, and how to fix it (so basically change a bit nozzle distance from the bed) and sinc then i'm printing without fixing anything related to that changig plated based on the material i use to print, but recently it's mostly PETG. Which is also interesting because i found also some 150k+ views 3dprinter specialist on YT, who claim that it's too difficult to print on PETG, so he is avoiding it. Ok, i have beginner mind, so i tried anyway it was apparently very difficult, and i really like that material, and since i managed to print a lot of  spare parts, and other more or less interesting things... and it's awesome. When i printed and confirmed that it works, the radiator vent wrench, i was extremly happy, and the temp. in the room started to raise again, it's winter here... I moved on, started to polish the skill, to print reproducible things, i changed from simple to advance mode in prusa slicer, and even recently to expert ;p again out of curiosity...

One of the first few times i tried to remove filament, i took it too harch... but it worked, i managed to take it out of extruder... just some prints later realizing that something weird is going on with ... extruder, ok, i was not sure but apparently from what i read i could be some leftovers of the filament, i was using that time some spool of used filament which i bought on ebay, which was brittle a little (PLA) so anyway i had to dissasemble the extruder, i followed the doc on the page, and it was easy to follow, and after i deteached the parts, to see what is inside, and clean it, i was impressed by the simplicity of it, and how nice it is, ah and i spotted the part of filament which i unfortunately ripped out, with excessive force, not understanding what the process of discharging the filament looks like... and i think it was most stupid thing so far i did to the printer. 😉 I assembled it quickly back, and was continuing the printing.

I found just on the beginning that there is new test branch of firmware, so i just flashed the FW, to check what this "IS" is... it was fast, i ran into issue with wifi transfer, but usb was working fine, and soon after few days there was alpha 2 which fixed the issue with transfer for me... then beta, rc, and final version now...

I managed to print reproductible quite accurate parts with PETG and PLA material:

and the PETG one is really good:

In the meantime i found some issues which i reported on github, so i resolved, or found workaround... Anyway most of them gone with the final FW version, but there i found also some quite serious bug, which i reported already, and even informed one fellow printer about it... And i will continue that, if i spot something weird i will report, maybe some stuff i will be able to fix, and provide solution, anyway i have no doubts i will be able to support other people looking for some solution for their problems...

Then friend of mine heard that i have a 3d printer, so asked if i'm able to print some little series of parts to check what i can do with that... Why not, i printed some series of around ~60 parts, first 12 (first build plate) were quite poor, due to my tests of new type filament i choosed to try... But when i realized that for that particular one i have to increase the bed temp +15 degrees for the first layer, and after that +10 for the rest of the model, and raise the temp of hotend from 220 to 230, and it's really only thing i had to do in slicer, i came out with pretty good parts in the end.

I think it was possible because i read many posts here in the forum, and the friendly support i got during my first layer calibration effort was really important step to start the journey 🙂 Interesting thing is that one of the person who helped me solve the issue, appartenly got his printer just some months before me, and was already able to advice me what to do to fix it. So you can see that the strength is in some basic understanding of physics, and the power of community behind those printers, it's really well done... and it's joy to look at it while printing, really without any issues... Now it's almost 2 months since i ordered the printer, and it's still printing without any issue... Even now, it's the odometer:

I'm not sure if 1,4km of filament is a lot for 16 days of printing, but all the stuff i printed after my initial research and first layer calibration, now it's really good quality... To the point that now i'm gonna print more of the PETG parts, and other stuff on this printer, and because of the bigger volume of them i decided after my experience with this great little prusa MINI+ printer to order today another one, because i'm sure now that it will be able to print that stuff i have to, and even if i face some issue on my way i will be able to figure out, replace part if needed by myself, ask fellow printer here, or even write to the support chat about advise...

So if you are reading it for the first time considering the first printer to have, that one is really great, i don't have any issues expect the one i did myself 😉
And while the the price for stuff can differ, the real value of community, and libre software running on open hardware is invaluable! Really.

ps. i will try also MK4

Happy Hacking,

RE: Prusa Mini Quality

* the white lego brick is genuine, i printed the red and black, which fits well from the top and the bottom
* there are some typos, but i cannot edit anymore...
* anyway it's a good printer 🙂

RE: Prusa Mini Quality

I usually don't post but this is my first lol. I've purchased my Mini+ year ago. I bought as a kit and some filaments with it, like PLA/PETG different colors. I didn't notice any issues as it was my first printer and all the prints were perfect. First month I didn't even design myself. I just downloaded and played around with slicer, different options and experimenting in expert mode from day 1. I successfully disassembled whole thing, took out PCB and redesigned it outside of my enclosure, added some modifications and generally speaking I was "abusing" this printer a lot. But I was learning and I had to sacrifice. Thanks to Prusa's sturdy design and build it never let me down. I have printed lots of stuff and designed and built a lot of prototypes for my projects(Current stats show 72 days of printing and 141km filament being used). I did experiments so much that I was having issues with extruder, warping, uneven layers, bubbles... many sorts of them. But I never talked to helpdesk or support. I just read manual, forums and did some google search in case of something that I don't know. Again, maybe you have faulty parts or some other issues but I don't think it is that bad. I consider buying MK4 but no money no honey atm. my point is, if you purchased 3d printer you kinda accepted that fact that you're going to deal with some issues. I did a lot of research before buying and never seen a single person with decent 3D printing experience saying that some particular printer has no issues. All of them have issues and it is what it is. You have to understand that there is no magic, it requires a lot of man power, trial and failure and investment. Look at printing related videos and posts from 2014-2016 era on internet.