Advise for getting an MK3S+  

RE: Advise for getting an MK3S+

Are you an experienced printer? Or is 3d printing new to you?

If you had issues with the Mini - chances are good you will have issues with the Mk3S. Both are hobbyist machines, and require tinkering and fiddling to use reliably. They are not the Easy-Bake-Oven of printers.

You'd be better off finding someone who owns a Mk3, and hooking up with them for a while to see if the sport is within your skill sets. I say this because it appears the mini was trouble for you; the Mk3 will be no different.  I don't know where you have problems with the Mini - but a printer is a printer. If slicing and dicing was the issue - the Mk3 is exactly the same as a Mini in that regard. If tuning a print was the issue, well, same parameters exist in the Mk3. If the Mini had mechanical problems due to kit build; the Mk3 has those exact same issues.

I'm curious, why do YOU think a Mk3 will somehow be different than a Mini?

RE: Advise for getting an MK3S+

Posted by: @tim-2

Are you an experienced printer? Or is 3d printing new to you?

If you had issues with the Mini - chances are good you will have issues with the Mk3S. Both are hobbyist machines, and require tinkering and fiddling to use reliably. They are not the Easy-Bake-Oven of printers.

You'd be better off finding someone who owns a Mk3, and hooking up with them for a while to see if the sport is within your skill sets. I say this because it appears the mini was trouble for you; the Mk3 will be no different.  I don't know where you have problems with the Mini - but a printer is a printer. If slicing and dicing was the issue - the Mk3 is exactly the same as a Mini in that regard. If tuning a print was the issue, well, same parameters exist in the Mk3. If the Mini had mechanical problems due to kit build; the Mk3 has those exact same issues.

I'm curious, why do YOU think a Mk3 will somehow be different than a Mini?

I got my feet wet with 3D printing for the past 18 months with an Ender3 Pro. I heard a lot of good things about Prusa so when I discovered the Mini and thought I would give it a try -- and was disappointed. I did not build up from a kit, I spend the money and got the 80% built purchase.

My issues with the Mini were:

• Improper assembling of the unit, which may have damaged it over time. I paid extra for the unit to be assembled properly, and it was not. I did not discover some of these issues right away, and once corrected did not seem to help my long-term issues.
  • The Bowden tube was wrapped around the electrical cable to the heat sink; did not notice right away and it caused many clogs.
  • The heat brick was 4mm too low and resulted in constant clogging.
  • Every single hotend and fan screw was 50% or less screwed in.
  • The Bowden connection to the extruder was screwed in crooked.
  • Stripped Allen-head extruder screw, making it very difficult to get the extruder on and off.
• Bad or ineffective extruder -- over the past 40 days the extruder was grinding more and more. I clean it out and it works for a few prints, then starts grinding again. This has been getting worse and worse and now does it half way through the first cleared print. This extruder is not the quality I was expecting from Prusa, and since it was within 60-days I opted to return it and try an MK3S.

Bottom line is I was tired of dealing with what might be a "bad egg". Still want to give Prusa a try, and with a good tax return decided to give the MK3S a try.

As for why MK3S over the Mini, from what I've seen they are NOT similar.

• The MK3S has a much larger print area.
• The Mini extruder, I'm sorry, is terrible. The MK3S extruder, from what I can see, is MUCH better.
• WiFi
• New PINDA
• Built in filament sensor.
• Etc.

Am I wrong? These are the questions I came to the community for help with. If the MK3S and the Mini I had are that similar, then maybe Prusa is not for me. It's not like I never had any issues with my Ender3, but bad luck with the Mini was way more prevalent.  

And ... "hooking up" with someone with an MK3S is why I made this post.

LM

RE: Advise for getting an MK3S+

@lovesmuppets

As an Ender-3 owner, I can tell you that I own multiples Mk3S and Minis and they just simple work for me.  I am sorry you have had difficulty but you not the only Ender owner to have problems.  The Mk3S is a more robust machine but works very similar to the Mini.  The mechanics are different.

I not sure I agree with your terminology of terrible.  I would classify my ender as terrible.  The Mini is just a different machine.  I have 4 and they work very well.  I print 8-12 hours per day on each.  

If you had problem because you got a lemon, then maybe the Mk3S might be the right machine for you.  The method of setup and printing is similar between the Mk3S and Mini.  It is vastly different from the Ender.  If you are able to adapt, it will work for you. 

RE: Advise for getting an MK3S+

Posted by: @cwbullet

@lovesmuppets

As an Ender-3 owner, I can tell you that I own multiples Mk3S and Minis and they just simple work for me.  I am sorry you have had difficulty but you not the only Ender owner to have problems.  The Mk3S is a more robust machine but works very similar to the Mini.  The mechanics are different.

I not sure I agree with your terminology of terrible.  I would classify my ender as terrible.  The Mini is just a different machine.  I have 4 and they work very well.  I print 8-12 hours per day on each.  

If you had problem because you got a lemon, then maybe the Mk3S might be the right machine for you.  The method of setup and printing is similar between the Mk3S and Mini.  It is vastly different from the Ender.  If you are able to adapt, it will work for you. 

Hi Chuck,

It could very well be that I happened to score a "lemon", which is why I wanted to give Prusa another chance. Since I have the scratch right now to get an MK3S+ I thought I would go that route rather than try another Mini. I really wanted the Mini to work out, and may try it again in the future as a second unit.

As for my Ender, that thing ran like a beast for over a year until the extruder finally crapped out, and I've actually had some very good luck with that unit. The grind marks in my filament from the Mini extruder were just horrible, and I was disassembling the unit and doing multiple cold pulls daily. Yes, maybe I got a bad one, but I've also seen comments from others with the same grinding issue. Instead of opting to go Bondtech I went for the warranty window and the chance to move up to an MK3S+.

I'm happy to hear that the Mini and MK3S+ operate in a similar manner. What I did like about the Mini was it was rather simple to use. The hardest thing about it was learning PrusaSlicer after using Cura.

Thank you for the comment.

LM

RE: Advise for getting an MK3S+

@lovesmuppets

Just to clarify: The PINDA is the same as in the Mini. The Mk3S has no wifi. It has only an 8 bit board so the display is kind of old-fashioned compared to the Mini's.

But it does indeed have a better extruder, and of course the larger print surface. Having said that, since swapping the Mini extruder out for the Bondtech extruder, my Minis have been performing not any different than my Mk3S. 

As cwbullet said, you were the lucky winner of a lemon, it seems. I don't believe your experience is representative of the Mini and I hope your experience with the Mk3S will be better. 

I would get a set of spares, in particular thermistors and heater elements, a couple of extra PTFE tubes, etc. If you can lay your hands on a satin sheet, go for it. They're awesome. 

Just be careful that your total doesn't exceed $800 or you may/will get hit with import duties. There's a recent thread on one of these forums on just that topic.

RE: Advise for getting an MK3S+

@lovesmuppets

I wish I had your luck with the ender.  I am batting 33% on Creality printers.  

RE: Advise for getting an MK3S+

Words of @fuchsr are wise.  Satin sheets are indeed awesome.

RE: Advise for getting an MK3S+

I'm a complete and total newbie with 3D printing, its been something I wanted to get in to for a few years until I took the pluge and bought an I3 mk3s+ kit earlier this year.

A little bit of research before it arrived on setting it up etc and I had it up and running without any hassle.  My build time was between 11 and 12 hours - and about an hour and a half of calibration and setting live Z etc.  The prints that come on the SD cards just worked and look really good.  The only issue was bed adhesion which was sorted with soap and hot water.

If you do get one, it seems the instructions arn't correct with regard to the linear bearings, clean them out and re-lube before assembly.

I haven't ordered any "spares" just a textured build sheet and some filament at the same time as the order.

Now I just need to get a hang of the slicer software, im getting good useable prints that work - but i'm sure they could be better!

No complaints so far

RE: Advise for getting an MK3S+

Just to add to @fuchsr:

If you are going over 800, try to add it to separate orders.  I order parts consider ordering them as a second order.   Add two spools of filament to the separate order and it might lower your shipping totals.  

RE: Advise for getting an MK3S+

+1 to Chuck (@cwbullet): the printer kit alone will not incur import taxes. Then create a second order with steel sheets, spare parts, filament, etc. Shipping for the second order should be about $15, which is far less than import taxes.

RE: Prusa Mini+ is an excellent piece of hardware, firmware & software

I also had some issues with the preassembled Mini+. For example, the extruder‘s idler screw was fastened too much which lead to grinding. The nozzle got clogged in the second print, the Micro USB-port of the Buddy board did not work. 

However, I had excellent experiences with the Prusa support. They spent a lot of time for analysing and solving my problems, sent new extruder parts and a new Buddy board. Now, everything works perfectly. No extruder problems, no clogging problems. All prints are just fine. Support is one of the most important factors when buying a printer.

I also own a Flashforge Dreamer and a Sindoh 3DWOX 2x. They have decent support as well.  However, Prusa by far provides the best and most responsive customer service. I guess, their mantra is, „You never print alone“. Add to that the Prusa ecosystem (add-ons, Prusaslicer, Prusament, … ).

The only thing Prusa could improve is the quality control before sending a 3D printer to a customer. If they had checked my preassembled Mini+ in a fully assembled state, they would certainly have found most issues. 

That said, the print quality of the Mini+ is excellent. I‘d not change to an MK3S+ as long as I do not need the larger print volume. 

The only things I will change in the future are exchanging the original extruder with a Bondtech Extruder for the Mini as well as mounting a Bondtech Heatbreak instead of the original one to further improve the print quality. 

Update

Sorry for not keeping up with this thread, as I did want to post an update/comparison of my Prusa experience.

First, after all is said and done and I've had time to think about it, I'm still extremely disappointed with the Prusa Mini. I know many on the boards love them, but for that price I expected better. I realize that several of my issues may have been solved by upgrading to a Bondtech extruder, but that pushes the price of the unit to over $500 US all said and done, and that's just too rich for my blood. I could take that same amount and buy a Viper or Neptune (two decent printers friends of mine have and love) and have cash left over. To me it just is not worth it.

Second, there is definitely a quality control issue with the pre-built Mini units, as mine was built terribly. However, for all my complaints it fell on deaf ears with Prusa support, which was also very disappointing. Apparently you have to have video evidence of issues when you unbox and use your printer. Prusa support did not offer to meet me half way on any of my complaints, and even charged me for parts I know were damaged by faulty assembly when I returned the unit. I guess customer satisfaction doesn't mean much anymore, and the buyer is always wrong unless you have unerring proof. Even a comp spool of filament would have been a nice gesture.

Overall, my negative Mini purchase ended up costing me $130 for my trouble. For me this is a fail.

On the flip side ... my MK3S+ has been up and running for a month and working very well. I had no issues with the pre-assembly, and no major issues I can attribute to the unit itself. The only "weird" issue I've had is my Live Z has for some reason changed by nearly .30 since the first test print. Not sure if this is due to a "breaking in" period, I just found it odd. I also have a small "dead" spot on the very very far left I can't get a good first layer on, and I'm in the process of moving to the Nylock nuts and Octoprint to hopefully correct that issue.

Lastly, I'm also a bit confused about the VAT charges on items bought from Prusa. On the Mini and MK3S+ I didn't have any VAT charges, but I was socked with a $40 charge when ordering $120 of Prusament. I haven't had the time to look into it, but something is not right. I'm in Wisconsin, US, and dealing with Prusa is my first venture into buying direct overseas.

Happy Printing,

LM

is there a perfect printer?

Thank you for your report, and so I don't forget: happy to hear your i3MK3 made a good impression on you.

About Mini.. is the only printer I have, so it's hard to compare to other brands (except what I can get from web). Anyway, I can say I'm happy with it so far (upgraded to Bondtech heatbreak & extruder during assembly). But I think it's quite overpriced as it is. I chose it because I needed small printer and because of mostly positive reviews. However if I knew what I know now (and by forgeting my limited space), I would probably be happy with some other 500€ printer too -or even happier.
Support.. luckily, I didn't needed it. But then, I needed to break Prusa warranty (appendix on board) to be able to use Bondtech upgrade in reasonable manner. Which is the only complain I have -and quite important in my eyes.

Let me repeat, that I don't regret buying it. It's a solid printer as such and I got what I expected -ok, I didn't expect losing warranty, though. But if it happens I need a second printer, I will probably look elsewhere.

Just sharing my opinion