Unofficial Prusa Mini Wait Thread  

RE: Unofficial Prusa Mini Wait Thread

Posted by: @charles-h13

Posted by: @icephoenix

I have never owned a printer, but i worked at a printing farm a while ago. So far I used the Formlabs Form 2, some Series 1 Pro from Type A Machines, a Prusa i3 MK2S, an Ender 3 and a Lulzbot Mini. So far, my favorite has been the Lulzbot, but I'm curious how my Prusa MINI will hold up.

I own 3.  One has been printing nearly around the clock for 1.5 years.  It has been repaired twice and I have had 3-5 jams.  Each time they are back running in a few days.  I did have one PCB burn up on one my printers but that was my fault due to the screw being loose on the PSU connection.    

The Lulzbot has been a real workhorse. It needed almost no maintenance for the 6 months I've been there even though it was running 24/7. They said they were originally planning to replace it over a year ago because they were switching to all 1.75mm printers and the Lulzbot used 2.85mm, but it just never broke so they continued using it 😀 

The Type A printers needed a lot more maintenance than the Lulzbot or the Prusa.

RE: Unofficial Prusa Mini Wait Thread

I understand that the lulzbot will handle TPU easier  in the larger diameter filament size... 

Joan

RE: Unofficial Prusa Mini Wait Thread

Posted by: @joantabb

I understand that the lulzbot will handle TPU easier  in the larger diameter filament size... 

 

Joan

A  Lulzbot TAZ or Mini with the Aerostruder tool head does a great job of printing TPU using 3mm filament.   You can also get 1.75mm tool heads from  IT-Works-3D.   They also have Hemera Toolhead for the TAZ/Mini.

It is really nice to be able to switch tool heads instead of having to switch nozzles. 

Unfortunately right now there are a lot of questions about the future of the Lulzbot printers and it will still be a few months before the questions are answered.

RE: Unofficial Prusa Mini Wait Thread

Posted by: @joantabb

I understand that the lulzbot will handle TPU easier  in the larger diameter filament size... 

 

Joan

I have never used the Lutzbot, but my prusa with Bondtech works well with TPU.  

RE: Unofficial Prusa Mini Wait Thread

@icephoenix

What is a type A printer?  

RE: Unofficial Prusa Mini Wait Thread

Posted by: @joantabb

I understand that the lulzbot will handle TPU easier  in the larger diameter filament size... 

 

Joan

I have to admit that I never printed TPU with the lulzbot. At the farm they printed about 90% PLA and 10% PETG with the FDM machines.

RE: Unofficial Prusa Mini Wait Thread

@icephoenix

That is the exact opposite of my printers.  I print 20% ABS 60-70 PETG and 10 % PLA.  

RE: Unofficial Prusa Mini Wait Thread

Was told in chat: it should be shipped at the beginning of the next week... unfortunately I can´t provide the exact delivery date because we have many orders from the first days.

Was also told that the issues have been fixed and shipping is ongoing.  I'm a 10/13 order.

RE: Unofficial Prusa Mini Wait Thread

Posted by: @clemens-m

Can those people reading this topic and having received a shipping notification please update the spreadsheet to give the community an idea of shipping progress?

I mean this spreadsheet:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1cEUO-8AQevqBbD37C25bSPWbb3Lpk6q_-WZuZ0HOIOY/edit?usp=sharing

Best regards, Clemens Mödlin

I'm within the next 10 spreadsheet lines to ship and I have yet to hear anything. They told me it would ship by today but that has not happened. I contacted support again just now and they're telling me first week of February with no guarantees.

RE: Unofficial Prusa Mini Wait Thread

Posted by: @bruce-p4

Posted by: @joantabb

I understand that the lulzbot will handle TPU easier  in the larger diameter filament size... 

 

Joan

A  Lulzbot TAZ or Mini with the Aerostruder tool head does a great job of printing TPU using 3mm filament.   You can also get 1.75mm tool heads from  IT-Works-3D.   They also have Hemera Toolhead for the TAZ/Mini.

It is really nice to be able to switch tool heads instead of having to switch nozzles. 

Unfortunately right now there are a lot of questions about the future of the Lulzbot printers and it will still be a few months before the questions are answered.

Changeable tool heads is something that Prusa really needs to add, though the prices of the heads on the Lulzbot site are a bit steep for some, like more than a printer itself.  Prusa is good about advancing designs, and it would be great if you could put new tech extruder/hotends in with out having to tear down the printer and start all over with calibration.

Still no word on my 14OCT Mini.   The order was received about 7am their time, so hopefully I'm early on.

RE: Unofficial Prusa Mini Wait Thread

Posted by: @milehigh3der

Posted by: @bruce-p4

Posted by: @joantabb

I understand that the lulzbot will handle TPU easier  in the larger diameter filament size... 

 

Joan

A  Lulzbot TAZ or Mini with the Aerostruder tool head does a great job of printing TPU using 3mm filament.   You can also get 1.75mm tool heads from  IT-Works-3D.   They also have Hemera Toolhead for the TAZ/Mini.

It is really nice to be able to switch tool heads instead of having to switch nozzles. 

Unfortunately right now there are a lot of questions about the future of the Lulzbot printers and it will still be a few months before the questions are answered.

Changeable tool heads is something that Prusa really needs to add, though the prices of the heads on the Lulzbot site are a bit steep for some, like more than a printer itself.  Prusa is good about advancing designs, and it would be great if you could put new tech extruder/hotends in with out having to tear down the printer and start all over with calibration.

Still no word on my 14OCT Mini.   The order was received about 7am their time, so hopefully I'm early on.

Changeable heads would be awesome.  It is quite an engineering feat.  

RE: Unofficial Prusa Mini Wait Thread

I guess to buy 3 MINIs and install different nozzle on each of them will become cheaper than one with on-fly changeable heads. 

RE: Unofficial Prusa Mini Wait Thread

@zoltan

Good point. It is affordable,  

RE: Unofficial Prusa Mini Wait Thread

Posted by: @zoltan

I guess to buy 3 MINIs and install different nozzle on each of them will become cheaper than one with on-fly changeable heads. 

That is one of the big financial problems that Aleph Objects faced with the Taz and the Lulzbot Mini.  It made it real hard to compete against quality low cost printers.   Instead of buying a hardened steel tool head for my Taz for $695,  I ordered a mini with plans to swap out the nozzle.

RE: Unofficial Prusa Mini Wait Thread

I have thought about it more.  Buying  different minis for specialty filaments make a lot of sense.  

RE: Unofficial Prusa Mini Wait Thread

Posted by: @charles-h13

I have thought about it more.  Buying  different minis for specialty filaments make a lot of sense.  

Mini print farm with different nozzle materials & sizes on each - completely eliminate setup time - fine tune parameters for each.

RE: Unofficial Prusa Mini Wait Thread

Just that the Mini has reduced max temperatures and with that, a smaller range of materials to choose from.

Different nozzle diameters - okay, although the only sizes that truly make sense on a Mini would be 0.4mm and smaller ones like 0.25. 0.6mm and above you usually only use for large objects to reduce the print time at the cost of (perhaps unneeded) detail and to strengthen the structure. The Mini doesn't have a particularly large print bed, so the usefulness of a large diameter nozzle is fairly limited on it.

Different materials - I'll only say, no official support for anything more exotic than PLA, PETG, ABS variants and flexible filaments. These do cover a good range of general applications, but if you really want to get the max out of a printed part in terms of strength or temperature resistance, you need materials that are not on the Mini's menu. And exactly that would be my personal definition of "specialty" filament.

Buying multiple *printers* for specialty filaments makes sense. Buying multiple *Minis* for that goal, not really. And only very little for different nozzle diameters.

RE: Unofficial Prusa Mini Wait Thread

@julianr

They are adding more and more filament profiles, now there's also Filamentum PC, PC-ABS and Taulman Bridge (Nylon). I think you can print any filament as long as it is within MINIs temperature constraints. You just may not get help from official support if it something "unsupported", or at least it will be up to CSR's discretion.

RE: Unofficial Prusa Mini Wait Thread

I think we are declining from the goal what the MINI is thought to be. Nice toy to taste and start with, within acceptable price, good support, continuous development and a increasing number of owners joining our growing community. 

Let us see what the announced XL brother will be capable for those who want to print large stuff with 0.6 nozzle within large materials range.

RE: Unofficial Prusa Mini Wait Thread

@zoltan

It is marketed as a reliable print farm workhorse. I don't think that the form factor has to indicate it's a toy