Maintenance Requirements for i3 Mk3
What are the maintenance requirements, longevity, or service suggestions for the printer, when used continually, for longer durations:
Linear Bearings. How long do they last? How often should they be replaced? How to tell if they need replacement?
Nozzle: How do you know it needs to be replaced? What are the symptoms?
Various bearings, belts, etc: Is there a replacement estimate? What are the symptoms indicating replacement?
Motors: Do they ever need replacement? What are the typical failure indications, aside from not moving?
PFTE Tubing: Does it wear out, or become abraded on the inside? Is it something to monitor for maintenance?
Is there a typical lifespan? For example, we know a car with 100,000 or 250,000 miles is getting older and worn out (generally) while a car with only 25,000 miles and only a year or two old probably is in good condition. What are we seeing as the reasonable lifespan for a Prusa i3 printer?
RE: Maintenance Requirements for i3 Mk3
I suppose you could look up the datasheet for the linear bearings. Some datasheets for mechanical parts list MTBF (mean time before failure). Use this as a guide and keep a track of how many print hours your printer has done.
Same for the motors but its anyones guess how long the belts and tubes will last.
RE: Maintenance Requirements for i3 Mk3
I suppose you could look up the datasheet for the linear bearings. Some datasheets for mechanical parts list MTBF (mean time before failure). Use this as a guide and keep a track of how many print hours your printer has done.
Same for the motors but its anyones guess how long the belts and tubes will last.
I suppose I could, then make many assumptions about travel, forces, lubrication, and you could likely derail the calculations by thinking of even more things to look up. It could become a wonderful PhD thesis, even.
Or, I could ask on this forum and learn what people's practical, real-world, actual experience is. My guess is that asking here what others have seen and experienced will be infinitely more useful than theoretical calculations. Hence, my post 🙂
RE: Maintenance Requirements for i3 Mk3
Excellent question, and something I've wondered too after getting my first one running last week.
RE: Maintenance Requirements for i3 Mk3
Maybe someone from PRUSA could post how many hours their oldest print farm printers have been running for with the same parts.
Normal people believe that if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. Engineers believe that if it ain’t broke, it doesn’t have enough features yet.
RE: Maintenance Requirements for i3 Mk3
I suppose I could, then make many assumptions about travel, forces, lubrication, and you could likely derail the calculations by thinking of even more things to look up. It could become a wonderful PhD thesis, even.
Definitely and I will use it as an idea for my PhD thesis as well if you are not against, of course. Do not for get to ask writers from writemyessaysonline to have your paper edited before final submission.
RE: Maintenance Requirements for i3 Mk3
^^^ Not this bot on here as well!. Mods, please block the above, it is some sort of bot advertising essay writing and can be found on various forums around the world.
Normal people believe that if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. Engineers believe that if it ain’t broke, it doesn’t have enough features yet.
RE: Maintenance Requirements for i3 Mk3
^^^ Not this bot on here as well!. Mods, please block the above, it is some sort of bot advertising essay writing and can be found on various forums around the world.
Considering the parties involved, that's kinda funny!
RE: Maintenance Requirements for i3 Mk3
@seattledavid this is a good question, and I was wonderoig the same, like you wrote about the car, even if it needs maintenance we all know how long usually a car can last, so what about our printer (in days of prints of course) ?
Like wrote Chocki, Prusa with their farm should be able to give some good informations.
I have mine since a few months, and I don't even know if it should last 1 year of print (or less 😯 ) or 2 or ...
MK3S & Fusion 360
RE: Maintenance Requirements for i3 Mk3
Nozzle: -- when it start oozing filament. If you are mainly printing PLA or PETG it could be many years before it needs replacement. if you are printing abrasive material, it could be a few hundred hours. There are hardened nozzles but they present their own problems with heat transfer.
For the other items, when they no longer function and are out of spec. Every single part of the machine is replaceable so you should be able to go many years with your Prusa until they stop supporting the printer.
RE: Maintenance Requirements for i3 Mk3
@enzo-m
I’m one of those persons who changes the oil in their car on a schedule, not when it is broken down in the middle of the road. I keep spare parts on hand for the wear items.
It would be nice to have some expectation for how long something often lasts...like the heater block, nozzle, belts and other things. At least a ballpark estimate.
One person told me that a printer with 1000 hours on it would normally be at end of life. Really?
Prusa must know. It would be nice to see some stats.
RE: Maintenance Requirements for i3 Mk3
[...] It would be nice to have some expectation for how long something often lasts...like the heater block, nozzle, belts and other things. At least a ballpark estimate.
It's worth keeping common spares on hand, both due to wear and things simply going wrong. I try to keep at least one of things that commonly break like thermistors, heater cartridge. Nozzles I have lots of anyhow, so that's not a big deal. I should print out a set of spare extruder parts, but in 2 years, have not had an issue.
RE: Maintenance Requirements for i3 Mk3
Prusa also probably know which parts sometime fails and which doesn’t (or less) and provide some kind of useful list of parts to have.
I will compose myself a repair kit with a list of parts but probably not the most likely to fail. So my list is :
Nozzle fan (3wires), heater cartridge and thermistor, X and Y belt, 2 or 3 bearings...
I understand that at the end of this list I will have a second MK3s 😜
what would be your list ?
MK3S & Fusion 360
RE: Maintenance Requirements for i3 Mk3
What are the maintenance requirements, longevity, or service suggestions for the printer, when used continually, for longer durations:
Linear Bearings. How long do they last? How often should they be replaced? How to tell if they need replacement?
Just look for any roughness on the smooth rods occasionally. Any roughness needs attention. With correct installation and general cleanliness, wipe with a paper towel once in a while and they will last a long time. If roughness occurs you can rotate the rods a few degrees and install new linear bearings making sure they ride on a smooth section of the rods. A well setup printer should not need this for a very long time, but check occasionally
Nozzle: How do you know it needs to be replaced? What are the symptoms?
If not using abrasive filament, just filaments like PLA, PETG, ABS likely not for a very long time... like years. If using any abrasive filament, even wood types, it could degrade a brass nozzle very quickly and you will know because filaments like PETG that usually print flawlessly start to give you trouble like blobbing and rough surface. Just change it and know that you will need a different nozzle in the future for abrasive filaments.
Various bearings, belts, etc: Is there a replacement estimate? What are the symptoms indicating replacement?
No estimate here. Go through the self tests and any deviation from worn belts to sloppy motors will show up. If all the test pass you should have no problem getting good prints if you have set it up correctly for Z height, etc. After running the built in tests there are very few variables to be concerned with and if you have problems look at basics like Z height, print speeds, retracts, or temps appropriate for the filament in use.
Motors: Do they ever need replacement? What are the typical failure indications, aside from not moving?
A damaged motor is unusual, but can happen I suppose. It is rare and can manifest in skipped steps, bad bearings, winding failures. But it would be rare. Self tests should isolate the motor issue. Heat would probably be the biggest enemy of stepper motors and then gunky linear rods overworking the motors (and causing excessive heat in the process) or running inside a hot enclosure.
PFTE Tubing: Does it wear out, or become abraded on the inside? Is it something to monitor for maintenance?
If printing filaments that need very high temps (not PLA, PETG, ABS) then maybe over time. But PTFE is not known for hardening or wear over time. The exception might be with very abrasive materials like carbon fiber, but even that would not be usual. Just have a few pre-cut tubes ready if it's a concern for you.
Is there a typical lifespan? For example, we know a car with 100,000 or 250,000 miles is getting older and worn out (generally) while a car with only 25,000 miles and only a year or two old probably is in good condition. What are we seeing as the reasonable lifespan for a Prusa i3 printer?
Did you build the kit or was it a pre-built. If you built it then the likely hood of early failure would probably increase, but you would be in a better position to diagnose and repair since you are very familiar with the mechanics of the printer.
The one thing you didn't mention was wire breakage. This is probably the biggest concern. If not routed properly and protected properly you could develop internal wire breakage from constant movement over time with the hotend and heater bed bundles. But that would be obvious when trying to print I would think.
A properly setup and maintained printer should give you hundreds of hours of trouble free operation and even if minor issue occur like nozzle degradation, it is easy and cheap to fix.
Build right, keep clean and the printer should last a very long time.