Unofficial Prusa Mini Wait Thread  

RE: Unofficial Prusa Mini Wait Thread

Ordered my first ever 3d printer, the Prusa Mini+ on 6th Jan. I guesstimated an early March delivery date based on the lead-times table and updated my Raspberry Pi clock to alternate between the time and a countdown to my estimated delivery date. I'm so freaking excited, I've been modelling stuff in TinkerCad, making huge collections here on PrusaPrinters and Thingiverse and having fun practicing slicing on PrusaSlicer. I CAN'T WAIT!!

RE: Unofficial Prusa Mini Wait Thread

@andy-w-2

You will love it.  

RE: Unofficial Prusa Mini Wait Thread

Exciting to see that delivery times were just updated and have shortened.

RE: Unofficial Prusa Mini Wait Thread

@craigb

Pleased to see your post, I checked and Im excited mine has moved forward one week, im 2nd week of Feb now 🙂

RE: Unofficial Prusa Mini Wait Thread

Wow, order lead time for the kit has decreased from 9-10 weeks to 6-7 weeks. I've been checking the shipping estimation page religiously (and building my character while waiting...). I ordered my MINI+ kit on November 25 (with a lead time of 8 weeks) and originally shipping was supposed to happen after January 25, but now it's starting 4 days earlier. I'm still not sure if I can allow myself to get excited!

RE: Unofficial Prusa Mini Wait Thread

@raymate

This is all great news for customers and the company.  

RE: Unofficial Prusa Mini Wait Thread

I suspect you're seeing the benefits of the introduction of the injection moulded front and rear. Apparently they took about 50% of the time taken to print a set of mini parts. Cutting the production time like that should reduce lead times or something has gone very wrong (assuming other parts and assembly / packing teams can keep up!)

RE: Unofficial Prusa Mini Wait Thread

Posted by: @gordon-w

I suspect you're seeing the benefits of the introduction of the injection moulded front and rear. 

When I first read that Prusa is using injection molded (IM) parts, I was a bit disappointed. Using 3D printed parts always seemed part of Prusa's reprap ethos. I was pleasantly surprised to read about Prusa's approach:

• Rather than making IM the emphasis, Prusa is using filament scraps to produce the IM parts. Users are still able to 3D print and improve other parts over the life of their printer.
• IM parts are only being used for structural parts that are slow to print and are not likely to change.
• Prusa is doing the IM process in-house.

So in typical Prusa fashion, they've moved a process in-house that would normally be outsourced, are recycling filament scraps to do so, maintain the ability to iterate rapidly as changes to the design are made, and speed up the production process to move orders out the door.

I'm really impressed they managed to do this at one of the most challenging and busy times of the year. 

RE: Unofficial Prusa Mini Wait Thread

@bobstro

Totally agree, the other thing that I feel is a plus, is that they are using rejected parts and filament from their extrusion lines to do the injection moulding, so there is a reduction in the environmental impact of their manufacturing, which can only be a good thing.

RE: Unofficial Prusa Mini Wait Thread

Any ideas when orders placed on week 48/2020 start going out? The shipping table says January 21 2021 and hasn't been updated. (I'm in that group)

RE: Unofficial Prusa Mini Wait Thread

@aerith

I’m in the same group as well. I placed my order on November 25 and got a confirmation last Thursday that a shipping company has received electronic information about the package, but nothing else has happened since. Not sure if the printer has been sent or not. In the past the shipping info table has been updated on Tuesdays, so perhaps we get an update today.

RE: Unofficial Prusa Mini Wait Thread

@speedymac

You got a tracking number?

That's reassuring at least. I ordered  November 28. Hopefully I'm up soon.

RE: Unofficial Prusa Mini Wait Thread

@aerith

Yup got a tracking number and my order info at shop.prusa3d.com says the order has been shipped, but not sure what to think of the tracking details (below) because they have not been updated for 5 days now. But I think your order should be up this week!

RE: Unofficial Prusa Mini Wait Thread

@bobstro

I'm just surprised that Prusa didn't do this much earlier. Injection molded parts are more precise, more stable, and much higher quantities/time can be produced. Given the number of units sold, this is certainly worth considering. This could also reduce production times. I think Prusa will certainly have already thought about this.

RE: Unofficial Prusa Mini Wait Thread

I am thinking that the fact that Prusa is not shipping to the United Kingdom right now has probably freed up a number of units to fill other orders earlier.    What the number might be, I do not know, nor can I hazard a guess. 

RE: Unofficial Prusa Mini Wait Thread

@aerith

I can’t see them discontinuing shipments permanently. 

RE: Unofficial Prusa Mini Wait Thread

Posted by: @cwbullet

@aerith

I can’t see them discontinuing shipments permanently. 

Of course not, but no business is going to have units on hand that cannot be shipped and paid for orders that can be shipped where those units can fill orders and don't.  

Great Britain will have to get to the back of the line when they come back in to the world of commerce. 

RE: Unofficial Prusa Mini Wait Thread

@bill-marcy

I doubt they will be in back of the line for all countries.  Just because they do not want to live the EU policies, costs, and mandates does not mean they are doomed.  I think the US will alway be here for them and they will just need to open relation ships with EU countries individually.  

RE: Unofficial Prusa Mini Wait Thread

Posted by: @cwbullet

@bill-marcy

I doubt they will be in back of the line for all countries.  Just because they do not want to live the EU policies, costs, and mandates does not mean they are doomed.  I think the US will alway be here for them and they will just need to open relation ships with EU countries individually.  

I am not knowledgeable enough to discuss United Kingdom / EU politics.  Sorry. 

I am pretty sure though in the Prusa warehouses, there is not a big pile of printers and parts earmarked for Great Britain as soon as the red tape problems are sorted.    I think that those printers and parts that were ordered or were anticipated (Business forecast before the EU problems) to be ordered were shifted to other orders that were able to be immediately shipped. 

Again this is pure supposition on my uneducated part.    

RE: Unofficial Prusa Mini Wait Thread

BREXIT is a huge problem for business but ti will resolve over time.