MK3 damaged PINDA
Howdy,
Question: Should I get replacement parts for my MK3 hot end or upgrade toward the 3.xx or 4 path?
I have had my MK3 for a number of years and it has worked amazingly well. Tons of great prints.
I think the hotend has finally given out, and the PINDA has become damaged/skewed. I have attached a couple photos to try and demonstrate this.
My question as above is should I order replacement parts for the existing hardware, or consider upgrading?
I am not a big tinkerer, and quality is my main concern. Money is not a giant issue, but I certainly dont want to waste it. 🙂
Appreciate any input you may have.
PS: I am considering getting a larger printer for cosplay items, but the XL is too $$$ and I really dont know what to do select with all the options.
Thanks,
Kel
RE: MK3 damaged PINDA
I think the regular PINDA is not available anymore. You would probably have to get a SuperPINDA. Not sure if one can simply exchange these two without further modifications. If I get it right however, your PINDA isn't damaged, is it? It is merely the fixture which should be a simple reprint (if you have no functional printer left one can also buy replacement print parts from Prusa.
My own two cents on the MK4 or any upgrade is that I would wait for the first proper reviews to come out on them. At this point there is really not a lot of indpendent information available if the Nextruder or the higher resolution stepper motors of the Mk4 truly improve the print quality by any recognizable amount.
For large print volume at very high quality (as well as speeds but I don't care about that not so much either) Vorons are a good choice but I would strictly recommend them only to those interested in tinkering. If you enjoyed building a Prusa kit, you should be able to handle a Voron kit from LDO (brand is important here) too, only the firmware dialing in is a bit more involved than on a Prusa but nothing one can not handle, community support on Discord is great and manuals are good too.
For plug and print alternatives that are also big and high quality (and not as expensive as an XL) I don't know. Maybe a Qidi x-Max 3? I don't know how well it really prints in terms of quality but it looks interesting. It has all the key features, corexy (important at large bed sizes), input shaping and is one of the very few affordable printers with active chamber heating up to 65°C at least. So if you are interested in printing technical materials this is a big plus. It should print ABS like an ace and something like PC-Blend at least at smaller models decently well.
Mk3s MMU2s, Voron 0.1, Voron 2.4
RE: MK3 damaged PINDA
I think the hotend has finally given out, and the PINDA has become damaged/skewed.
Your part cooling fan is mounted at an angle, so do you not have MK3S at least?
Looks to me that only the plastic parts are damaged. If you have no other printer available, repair the pinda fixture with some repair glue and print new plastic parts for your extruder in PETG or ASA or ABS.
If your Printer is at least MK3S (and uses the steel ball and a small lever at the filament sensor), you can print this set of parts for the extruder:
See https://www.printables.com/de/model/61346-i3-mk3s-to-mk3s-upgrade-printable-parts
If you would upgrade to MK3.5 or higher you would have to print the pastic parts on your own, too. Or buy them.
RE: MK3 damaged PINDA
Awesome, thanks so much. Appreciate your time and expertise!