Are you happy with your MK3?  

Re: Are you happy with your MK3?

Yes, but had/have small issues (no dealbreakers)

Although I have some minor issues (pinda temp calibration mostly) I am absolutely happy with my MK3. I have to admin that while I held my order waiting for the powder coated sheets I was reading the forum and became quite pessimistic.
Now I'm 3 weeks into printing and I wish I did not held my order- the stickered sheet works really well and it's much more durable than I thought because of bad experience with PEI stickers. I love the whole MK3 - its a lot quieter than my old printer (CTC-3D) while being faster and generally better.
Even I am having a small issue with the pinda probe calibration because of which I have to readjust the live z on bed temp changes- it is still much less hassle than constant manual bed leveling I was used to. Previously I hated large prints because perfect first layer could cost me almost an hour of time.
Maybe it would be fair to sum up the issues I was afraid of due to forum posts but which I am not having:
- PSU clicking: well with the few first prints I could hear barely audible clicking just before it started to print but it went away on like 5th print
- PSU rattling: none of it
- Filament sesnor misfire: had it once. With red translucent TPU. To be fair I was pretty sure it'll happen with this filament, still left the sensor on due to curiosity. Red laser on red translucent material, what do you want. Maybe next i3 iteration could incorporate the "Darkfield" sensors from logitech mouses?
- Flexible filament printing: having 0 issues with printing TPU (SainSmart, hardness 95A) with default filaflex profile. Yet to try TPE (Ninjaflex). I understand that slight extruder redesign may be needed for TPE. On my old printer I redesigned it myself due to lack of available designs.
- Crashes/layer shifts: 0 crashes in the stats of my printer

For me the MK3 is worth every cent spent.

Re: Are you happy with your MK3?

Yes, but had/have small issues (no dealbreakers)

Although I have some minor issues (pinda temp calibration mostly) I am absolutely happy with my MK3. I have to admin that while I held my order waiting for the powder coated sheets I was reading the forum and became quite pessimistic.
Now I'm 3 weeks into printing and I wish I did not held my order- the stickered sheet works really well and it's much more durable than I thought because of bad experience with PEI stickers. I love the whole MK3 - its a lot quieter than my old printer (CTC-3D) while being faster and generally better.
Even I am having a small issue with the pinda probe calibration because of which I have to readjust the live z on bed temp changes- it is still much less hassle than constant manual bed leveling I was used to. Previously I hated large prints because perfect first layer could cost me almost an hour of time.
Maybe it would be fair to sum up the issues I was afraid of due to forum posts but which I am not having:
- PSU clicking: well with the few first prints I could hear barely audible clicking just before it started to print but it went away on like 5th print
- PSU rattling: none of it
- Filament sesnor misfire: had it once. With red translucent TPU. To be fair I was pretty sure it'll happen with this filament, still left the sensor on due to curiosity. Red laser on red translucent material, what do you want. Maybe next i3 iteration could incorporate the "Darkfield" sensors from logitech mouses?
- Flexible filament printing: having 0 issues with printing TPU (SainSmart, hardness 95A) with default filaflex profile. Yet to try TPE (Ninjaflex). I understand that slight extruder redesign may be needed for TPE. On my old printer I redesigned it myself due to lack of available designs.
- Crashes/layer shifts: 0 crashes in the stats of my printer

For me the MK3 is worth every cent spent.

I haven't had any issues with Ninjaflex on the default FLEX profile. I do turn down the speed/flow manually at the printer though. Once it finishes the mesh bed leveling I turn it down to 70-75% and all is good. Print further away from the bed form PLA about 0.1mm and leave the temp at 240, dropping it down will cause a clog and flexible filament to spew out from the side of the extruder.

Re: Are you happy with your MK3?

- Flexible filament printing: having 0 issues with printing TPU (SainSmart, hardness 95A) with default filaflex profile. Yet to try TPE (Ninjaflex). I understand that slight extruder redesign may be needed for TPE. On my old printer I redesigned it myself due to lack of available designs.

I did a quick test with one of the new extruder designs being built,and printing TPU @ 60mm/s. It... extruded flawlessly. My current cooling is a bit of a joke, so there's no way to vouch for "quality". But I can say that I was able to extrude without "jamming up" at 60mm/s, with a filament I was unable to print at 5mm/s before.

Re: Are you happy with your MK3?

Overall, yea it's been a good machine for me, I guess. My primary issue with the machine is pretty well summed up by the thread about the extrusion issues. I don't however have any of the issues seen in the print issues thread though, which is odd, because I'm using the same everything that they are...

Re: Are you happy with your MK3?

I did a quick test with one of the new extruder designs being built,and printing TPU @ 60mm/s. It... extruded flawlessly. My current cooling is a bit of a joke, so there's no way to vouch for "quality". But I can say that I was able to extrude without "jamming up" at 60mm/s, with a filament I was unable to print at 5mm/s before.

pavlo.s, which design are you using? I still have problems with TPU, and won't even attempt TPE on my MK3 any more, I fall back to my MK2S for TPE.

Happy with my MK3?...not really. Maybe in 6 to 12 months once they get some of these issues resolved, but if I needed to order a PR printer today, I'd shell out for another MK2S. At this point, I like pretty much everything about the MK3 except the all the E-axis issues (gee-wiz...is that important?) and the total failure to deliver on the powder coated PEI plates.

Re: Are you happy with your MK3?

No. I am seriously considering selling it at a loss just to be rid of it.

At first, it was printing OK - not as good as other printers I have used, but not too bad for a new printer, and I thought it would eventually be OK. But then I had some big layer shifting and an (undetected) crash on my first large print. I emailed support about it, and from there things have gotten steadily worse. So far support has told me to:

Since doing #2, the printer has just been unusuable. Sometimes it will not even finish the XYZ calibration without colliding with the paper sheet. I can hear the x-axis belt rubbing, but I'm at a loss as to how to fix this. If it finishes the XYZ calibration without issues, the first-layer (live Z) output looks terrible - way worse than it did before. I've checked and double-checked everything I can think of on the forums here.

At this point I'm thinking I am an idiot for paying over twice the money I could have to get a more traditional, mostly pre-assembled printer that uses metal parts.

Re: Are you happy with your MK3?

Yes, very happy with it.

Re: Are you happy with your MK3?

I've had my MK3 kit for 2+ months, and I'm very happy with it. The MK3 is my fourth 3D printer and my first kit. No hobby-level 3D printer is problem-free but my MK3 has had far fewer problems than my three other printers did when new.

The biggest hardware problem I've seen in my printer is the well-documented problem the optical filament sensor has with some filaments. This is really pretty minor (none of my other printers even has a filament sensor, so I'm perfectly happy turning the sensor off when printing with a problem filament). There is room for a little improvement in print quality, but I attribute at least some of this to the fact that the default print settings on the MK3 are much faster than most printers.

My biggest complaint is that Slic3r does a very poor job with supports, and this doesn't seem to be a priority to fix. Cura does better with supports, but has other limitations.

Re: Are you happy with your MK3?

I did a quick test with one of the new extruder designs being built,and printing TPU @ 60mm/s. It... extruded flawlessly. My current cooling is a bit of a joke, so there's no way to vouch for "quality". But I can say that I was able to extrude without "jamming up" at 60mm/s, with a filament I was unable to print at 5mm/s before.

TPU is gravy, you don't need any change in the extruder design to print it. It's almost as easy as printing PLA. TPE might be a different story...

I'm totally happy with my MK3. Prints everything I throw at it. Love printing with PETG and TPU. The only think I wish could be 'fixed' is the inconsistent extrusion (mine is the minor kind that has been noted elsewhere). I use my own compile of the firmware with LA enabled, looks real good. I also wish we had better cooling.. low overhangs can be a challenge, especially those in the back of the part (sometimes unavoidable).

I'll leave you with this...

Re: Are you happy with your MK3?

pavlo.s, which design are you using? I still have problems with TPU, and won't even attempt TPE on my MK3 any more, I fall back to my MK2S for TPE.

Happy with my MK3?...not really. Maybe in 6 to 12 months once they get some of these issues resolved, but if I needed to order a PR printer today, I'd shell out for another MK2S. At this point, I like pretty much everything about the MK3 except the all the E-axis issues (gee-wiz...is that important?) and the total failure to deliver on the powder coated PEI plates.

I'm not going to out and say which one I'm using, because the designer isn't ready for the masses yet. (I don't think). I will be posting more about it, as it gets more... ready to release.

I heard the WHOLE story of the Powder Coated PEI. All I'm gonna say is, it's heart breaking. If it was any other company, they would have simply "ditched" the Powder Coated Sheet... They are working on it, and when it is released, it's going to be EPIC. (PS: They are EPIC. I would know, look up my posts, and notice the background in many of them.. )

TPU is gravy, you don't need any change in the extruder design to print it. It's almost as easy as printing PLA. TPE might be a different story...

I'm totally happy with my MK3. Prints everything I throw at it. Love printing with PETG and TPU. The only think I wish could be 'fixed' is the inconsistent extrusion (mine is the minor kind that has been noted elsewhere). I use my own compile of the firmware with LA enabled, looks real good. I also wish we had better cooling.. low overhangs can be a challenge, especially those in the back of the part (sometimes unavoidable).

I'm not printing 98a TPU. I would think that would print like butter.

I'm printing 90a TPU, which is much closer to ninjaflex... except it's properties are different...

Ninjaflex is "Softer"
Ninjaflex in filament form, maintains it's "straightness" better.
Ninjaflex is "more stretchy".

The 90A TPU is...
SUPER firm.
Super Bendy. It has NO resistance to bending. I'm talking directly comparable to Ninjaflex, if not more "bendy". (in filament form)
SUPER rigid. It has no "Compression/Stretch" to it.

I know that sounds a bit like contradictions, but I don't know how to word it. I haven't printed Ninjaflex, but I have felt it in my hands.

Just trust me, this 90A stuff, is PURE EVIL. I tried printing it at 250c @ 5mm/s, and I had a 50/50 fail ratio on a 1hr test print.

Anyway, as I said, I ran 60mm/s with NO issues, once I get my extruder re-printed... AGAIN... I'm gonna see just how fast I can extrude that stuff before something gives/breaks/fails/comes-out-the-side.

Re: Are you happy with your MK3?

poll not working...

No, i'm not the mk3 has major problems.

I bought another MK2S to replace the MK3 until the firmware and the STLs are fixed.

cannot print ninjaflex TPU at all it spits out the sides of the filament loader.

i just finished the MK2s #2 tonight and i'm running startup tests.

Re: Are you happy with your MK3?

No, I wish I had ordered the MK2S. After playing with a DaVinci Mini for a year, I decided to upgrade and did a ton of research. I was ready to buy an MK2S when the MK3 was announced. Given Prusa's reputation and customer service I decided it was worth the wait so I waited for 4 months to get my kit.

I can wait on the powder coated bed, or even linear advance because I have faith they are coming. The two major issues for me are:

First layer inconsistency with pinda temperature that forces me to preheat before every print, and if I get distracted and miss the PINDA temperature I calibrated my first layer at, I have to cool everything down and try again. https://shop.prusa3d.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=30&t=14815

Inconsistent extrusion that makes straight walls wavy. I've yet to do a long print because I don't want to waste filament and 12+ hours of print time on something that looks like that. I spent the first couple of weeks fighting this issue with slicer settings and tweaks to my printer to find that it appears to be a fairly common problem. https://shop.prusa3d.com/forum/original-prusa-i3-mk3-f30/-testers-needed-inconsistent-extrusion-t15433.html

I've been disappointed with support since that was one of the reasons I went with a Prusa. I don't feel like they have deep enough knowledge about the above two issues to be helpful and the fact that Brigandier's issue on github about the extrusion inconsistency has 15 comments and no response from a dev doesn't give me confidence that they are looking at the issue. I've seen a dev post once on the forum (after Stahlbrick's stellar research into the pinda problem), but it has been crickets otherwise.

Re: Are you happy with your MK3?

To be honest, I thought things were going to be better with the MK3. I was having minor issues with my MK2S, so I shelved it and bought a MK3 thinking if everything went well I would buy the MK3 upgrade kit and have 2 MK3's pounding out beautiful prints. At the time I didn't have any reason to believe it wasn't going to go well. After all my MK2S was mainly awesome and what minor issues I was having with it were still workable, just not ideal.

The first couple prints with the MK3 were neat. It certainly is quiet, the magnetic bed is absolutely brilliant, and it's fast, for the most part. Then I started looking closely at what it was producing. I started noticing the same things that many are noticing about the inconsistent extrusion and started playing with things... change a setting here, tweak something else there. Except that nothing was working to fix the issue. Then I find that others are having the same issue... and in the midst of all of this I'm having an additional frustration with trying to print things on my MK3's warped heat bed (new one is on the way... thanks very much Prusa Support!).

Needless to say, I wanted to print some things, so the MK3 is now on the shelf for a bit and the MK2S is back on the main stage. Rather than update the MK2S to a MK3, it's just getting a full makeover: The full Prusa i3 Bear Upgrade V2
And it's staying a MK2S. About the ONLY upgrade from the MK3 I would put on it is the magnetic bed. Forget the temperature sensing PINDA v2, forget the filament sensor, forget the 5V fans. The MK2S does what the MK3 can do, albeit a bit slower, but it does it more beautifully and without all of the extra bells and whistles.

I'm sure that, in time, things will get sorted and everything on the MK3 will work mostly fine. Until then, mine will stay on the shelf.

Re: Are you happy with your MK3?

Are you happy with your MK3?

(Not asking about other, MK2/MK2S. If you don't have a MK3 do not vote).

Background:
I have a MK3 on order but after reading the forums I'm starting to get cold feet. Thinking about swaping to MK2S. But first I want to know if MK3 owners are satisfied or not.

I am going to answer your question directly as an owner of both MK2S and MK3 besides already haven posted my feelings in this thread.

The MK3 has the potential to be a really great machine. But, it's currently caught up in the whole "beta test" mode. If you're willing to wait possibly weeks or months even beyond the time you receive it for all of the bugs to be worked out of it, then keep your MK3 order. It is still a really great machine. A lot of the features are actually really excellent. A couple of the main things I can think of right now that are absolutely phenomenal are the 3030 extruded aluminum frame and the magnetic bed (including the reworked Y-axis gantry plate the bed mounts on). It really is very quiet when printing and, if tuned correctly, has the potential to bang out prints quite fast.

On the other hand, if you want to just print without a lot of the hassle of the bells and whistles getting in the way, then go for the MK2S. About the only thing you need is a lot of patience when assembling it. The threaded rod Y-axis assembly alone can be a real pain to square up. And even if you think you've done it right, there is the possibility that after you calibrate XYZ on the printer, it will come back with "Your axis is slightly skewed." (I know some people can live with that, but to me, that's bothersome.) But aside from that, it produces really great prints, just a bit slower than the MK3 could (if the MK3 could produce the same quality prints that is).

So, that's my 2 cents... take it with a grain of salt. The decision is still yours.

Re: Are you happy with your MK3?

If it was my first and only printer, I might say pleased. But, my MK2 is a better printer and I am seriously considering cancelling my MK2s to MK2.5 upgrade. I don't want to make my great MK2s into a less than stellar MK3 wanna be.

Maybe they will work all this out, but my print quality has done nothing but gone down. Now I have a problem on the Y axis that resembles salmon skin although it is different.

For now, I would say pass!

Re: Are you happy with your MK3?

Try the pull now!

I also did one on a Prusa owner FB page.

Here is that result:

Edit:
I will keep my mk3 preorder. Main reason is it's potential to be very quiet and future upgrade path.

Only free space in my apartment is a wardrobe behind my wifes computer chair. If she gets annoyed by the sound I'm screwd .

I will get the mmu mk3 upgrade when it's available and also most probably MK3S upgrade when it arrive.

Even if MK2S is superier today it's not going to get the same development and love as the MK3 going forward.

Re: Are you happy with your MK3?

pavlo.s, which design are you using? I still have problems with TPU, and won't even attempt TPE on my MK3 any more, I fall back to my MK2S for TPE.
Still running stock R2 parts. May switch to JLTX's design when its finished,

Re: Are you happy with your MK3?

Yes, I am happy.

*qualifiers*
- I never did use the printer with the filament sensor, assumed it would be more trouble than it was worth so it sits on the table next to the printer, thus bypassing any trouble it would cause : )

- I have only printed PLA and PC-MAX (requiring 100C+ heated bed) so far. Both work ok.

- the X axis belt would rub and squeak when it was newer but just waited it out and it does not squeak anymore.

*modifications*
- printed new clamp for the Y axis belt holder to move the belt over a bit and prevent rubbing.

- printed a different tie-down for the right Y axis rod so I could improve the 'level' of the bed. This made the Y axis rods parallel to each other.

Re: Are you happy with your MK3?

I'm also in the "When it works" camp. Right now my Mk3 is DOA, still waiting for a reply to my issue here in the forums (Fully plugged extruder)/ I really regret not getting the pre-assembled setup as the kit was very fidgety and took way longer than I expected. I've still yet to get a good print out of it, and now Im stranded.

Re: Are you happy with your MK3?

Bought the pre-assembled MK3 and it's been an excellent machine for me. Love the print quality, speed of print and the quietness.

Had a few issues that have been addressed including a power supply issue. I have done some updates to the extruder bits to better handle flexible filaments.

I'm passing my MK2S on to my Son and we are both happy with our respective printers.

A big "YES" vote for the MK3!