New to 3D Printing  

Re: New to 3D Printing

Seven days from order to delivery of my i3 MK3S kit. Very nice! Got started on it last night. Instructions have been fairly simple and complete so far. There was the one bit of confusion with the Y-Axis assembly regarding mounting the nuts for the Y-Belt idler. Plain nuts or nyloc nuts? It appears that someone already addressed that and apparently the new manuals have been fixed. Plain nuts it is, however, i chose to use nyloc nuts and as i suspected i was two nyloc nuts short when i got to the bearing installation. No problem, there were some in the spare parts bag. Actually, having flown radio controlled helicopters for many years i happen to have tons of spare parts from helis that didn't fair well which include piles of 3mm nyloc nuts so i chose to use them on all parts. For the Y-belt holders i found 3mm screws that were a bit longer and again used nyloc nuts to hold the belt ends in place. Just feel a little better that the screws were secure. Basically i am finished with the Y-Axis assembly with the exception of consuming 15% of the Haribo gummies. I will complete that task this evening.

Tim.m30 posted that i should add grease to the bearings before assembly. There was no mention of that in the manual and i forgot about it. If that needs to be done it should be fairly easy to correct. What grease should i use?

Re: New to 3D Printing

Have a look here https://prusacommunity.com/set-your-bearing-straight ... and enjoy your build.

Re: New to 3D Printing

Perfect! Thanks Markster.

Re: New to 3D Printing

FWIW Fusion 360 is free for makers/hobbyists. I've been using it recently and it's been working well.

Re: New to 3D Printing

This is for anyone else assembling the kit. Printer is complete and finally got it powered up and running. Started the initial automatic calibration routine and got stuck at X-Axis length. After a few attempts i finally figured it out. On the bracket securing the harness on the back of the extruder body, the small square clamping tip of the wire ties where the free end inserts into was pointing to the left and hitting the bracket for the X-Axis motor. That very small amount of interference was enough to keep the X-Axis from passing the calibration test. Rotating the wire ties to the vertical position fixed it and i moved on to test printing. So simple yet something that stopped everything. Hope it helps someone else.

Re: New to 3D Printing

You are going to love this printer. The build was fun wasn't it? I actually bought the MK3 back in early January. Enjoyed it so much and use it so much that I bought a MK3S kit last week. Looking forward to doing that build and will be getting a MMU2S for the new one as well. My problem now is not having enough room for the printers I have with where I originally put them. I'm actually in the process of getting one of my spare bedrooms emptied out to set it up for the printers. My only problem is that when people come over they want to see what I'm printing and moving them to the back of the house makes it less convenient for people to check it out.

Re: New to 3D Printing

I already love it eric. After everything was set up I performed the initial squish test and tried to print the essential JP whistle. It worked loose on the first couple of layers so i knew i had it wrong. I made an adjustment on a second squish test and tried to print the whistle again. PERFECT!! I can't believe how smooth it turned out. Then i printed the tree frog and again it turned out perfect. What a piece of cake. 😀 My wife was quite impressed as well so my expenditure was met with approval. Tomorrow i will try a more complex print and see what happens. It's hard to imagine that it could be so simple to begin 3D printing. Thanks Josef for making it so easy. Now i just have to learn how to use 3D design software so i can use it for what i intended to.

Re: New to 3D Printing

the best prep for your bed is to wash it with warm water and dawn dish soap (in the UK use Fairy liquid) by using a wad of clean kitchen paper towel dampen with warm water and put a dollop of Dawn on the pad and scrub (i do it twice at 90 deg to each other holding the plate by the edge as it is a phonograph record rinse under running water and dry with clean paper towel keep touching only by the edge... I do this every other day of printing with both kinds of plate.
then set your live z with this method https://shop.prusa3d.com/forum/assembly-and-first-prints-troubleshooting-f62/life-adjust-z-my-way-t2981.html it is far better than the zig zag method in the firmware

Re: New to 3D Printing

This is for anyone else assembling the kit. Printer is complete and finally got it powered up and running. Started the initial automatic calibration routine and got stuck at X-Axis length. After a few attempts i finally figured it out. On the bracket securing the harness on the back of the extruder body, the small square clamping tip of the wire ties where the free end inserts into was pointing to the left and hitting the bracket for the X-Axis motor. That very small amount of interference was enough to keep the X-Axis from passing the calibration test. Rotating the wire ties to the vertical position fixed it and i moved on to test printing. So simple yet something that stopped everything. Hope it helps someone else.

I had the exact same problem with the exact same resolution. I was taking into account the warnings in the instructions to not have the zip-tie heads on the top of the cable bundle to not hit the spool holder and over compensated.

Re: New to 3D Printing

Been playing all weekend. Printed several items with different filaments. Only a couple of failures. Created a name on Tinkercad. It printed perfect but i forgot to add a base and ended up with six loose letters. They looked good though! Tried it again and added a base but that one failed. I'll try it again when i have time. Printed a spare printer part to try ABS filament. Used the gcode file from Prusa website and figured out that i needed to import the stl file and change the filament type. Did that and sliced it up. It printed perfect. I'm learning. 😀 I can't believe how easy this printer is to use. I do love it so. The hard part is about to begin which is learning how to create my own designs.

Re: New to 3D Printing

Been printing for a couple of weeks now but business got stupid (of course right after I got a new toy) and I have been working crazy hours. But I decided to print a couple of spare parts while I was working on what I thought were critical parts such as extruder and fan parts that might get damaged. I went a little overboard and now have most of the plastic parts printed and again I am absolutely amazed at the quality of the prints. I have been working with Fusion 360 trying to learn CAD design and while I have made some progress I was simply too busy to concentrate. I will get it and start making my own designs shortly. Thanks to Lars Christensen for the excellent instructional videos. Now that work has settled down a bit I can spend more time learning. These printers are just too cool and the MK3S is working perfectly. The bearing gcode file available on the Prusa SD card is awesome. People cannot believe it was printed all at one time and actually spins freely. As far as some of the comments I have seen on the forum concerning shipping times I guess they just like me or something because I have had great service. I ordered a spare steel build plate (smooth surface) on March 4th and was notified that it was on backorder which I already knew according to the shipping schedule. I believe it stated 2-3 weeks if I remember correctly. On March 7th DHL delivered it. Now that is service. I am having fun with this thing and it appears that my research paid off because this machine has made it easy for me to begin in the 3D printing business.