Kit Assembly Feedback
Both the quality of the kit and the quality/speed of the prints from the Mk3 are an utter revelation to me and I'm seriously impressed. I wanted to give some thanks and recognition of this as well as offering what I hope are some constructive comments on how the kit/instructions might be improved in some areas. Bear in mind that the existing ones enabled me to get this built with a huge smile on my face, achieve Slightly Skewed straight off, and produce perfect PLA prints first time, so I'm already a Prusa convert!
The way you have structured the kit parts, the quality of the printed material, and the ability to follow the manual online with other makers' comments are all superb. It's been a lot of years since I felt like a little kid unboxing things, and you gave me that feeling, every credit!
In terms of kit/instructions feedback...
- I found inserting the bearings into the X-axis carriages a bit of a pain in terms of keeping the space in between/poking the first one down to the end. A printed hollow cylinder to act as a spacer inbetween the two bearings would make this very simply.
- Step 31 Mounting Extruder - I found that even with the screws only loose I couldn't manoeuvre the cables into the slots. I had to do this as part of marrying up the two pieces, and only then start to engage the screws.
- That nylon filament clamp is an utter nightmare. It stood out to me as the rest of the kit is so professional, methodical and logical, and this seems like a real fiddle. I'd rather have some sort of bend-and-clamp mechanism if possible. I got it done, but it stands out in my mind as the only point in the assembly that I was frustrated with what I was doing.
- The LCD display casing rattles/buzzes at the top edge at times, perhaps some screws up there would eliminate this?
- Inclusion of the Pi spacer piece would have been a nice touch (I print in ABS so after the calibration I switched back to ABS and did it then).
- The locks (2 piece clips) on Thingiverse for the antivibration feet should be standard in the kit, I now understand when people talk about them often popping out!
- The PINDA probe was extremely difficult to adjust during calibration. I only need to move it a fraction of a mm so I turned it and used the screw thread, but I don't think I would have managed to correct any greater deviation, the holder was just too tight.
- The manual doesn't tell you about the calibration results. I thought I had a problem when it returned "slightly skewed" but I then found out that all is well. I was worried given I had assembled it with an engineer's square!
- Thank you for the S3D profiles posted on this forum - it would be worth pointing at them from the manual for S3D users, and also highlighting the work that has been done for presets in Slic3r PE (e.g. taking the S3D ABS profile from Josef, and applying the 240C temp specified in the Slic3r profile for Filamentum gave me a near perfect print immediately, with just some under-bridge looping to sort out).
All of this culminated in the best test prints I have ever produced (even if it is in PLA :P) at a speed that I've never printed at before.
Definitely a Prusa fan, thanks.
Re: Kit Assembly Feedback
don't forget to leave comments on the online manual, i got a couple of good tips that way too.