Random Thought: A cheaper second printer, with less lead time!  

RE: Random Thought: A cheaper second printer, with less lead time!

Hi,

That would save you maybe $20 max (maybe ~$10 is more realistic) and increase PR the support effort because of the wrong printed parts. I think this is an easy business decision.

The lead time for the kit is already down to 5-7 business days.

RE: Random Thought: A cheaper second printer, with less lead time!

I bought an Ender-3 and Creality CR-10S Pro to round out my printers.  I am looking at a Anycubic Predator now.  

RE: Random Thought: A cheaper second printer, with less lead time!

I am considering a 2nd printer, but I just want a small one. I'm seriously looking at the Monoprice Select Mini Pro, but it's definitely a bit dated by now (2016 I think). The Tevo Michelangelo looks very tempting, but seems to have dropped off the face of the earth in terms of discussion. The Ender 2 sounded decent. I just want something small and unobtrusive.

RE: Random Thought: A cheaper second printer, with less lead time!

https://www.monoprice.com/product?p_id=38481&gclid=EAIaIQobChMI9eaj74au4wIV17fACh0xfQWEEAQYASABEgKQ2vD_BwE

RE: Random Thought: A cheaper second printer, with less lead time!

Posted by: charles.h13

https://www.monoprice.com/product?p_id=38481&gclid=EAIaIQobChMI9eaj74au4wIV17fACh0xfQWEEAQYASABEgKQ2vD_BwE

Delta? Really? 😊 

RE: Random Thought: A cheaper second printer, with less lead time!

Maybe.  

RE: Random Thought: A cheaper second printer, with less lead time!

Maybe.  

RE: Random Thought: A cheaper second printer, with less lead time!

I understand the joy of having small fully enclosed 3D printer but I don't want to miss flex plate and automatic bed leveling anymore. Most of the time it's just slice, load filament, hit the print button and no worries. Come back, remove the sheet, easily detach your print and next one ... I'm still using first side of my first removable PEI sheet. On my old MK2 I had to replace it twice after the same amount of print time.

Maybe would be nice to have small MK4 lite (small size), MK4 (current size) and MK4 Pro (bigger size). But that's something for another topic 😉

RE: Random Thought: A cheaper second printer, with less lead time!

I did not think about the support for peoples poorly printed parts; I think having prepared G-code would mediate most of it. but i do think it would be more than $10-20 savings. Manuals and documents alone are a few dollars, few more for tools and other extras, printed parts are more than plastic: Plastic, wear, cleaning materials, labor, electricity, failed prints, packaging. Kits already include filament it would just be PETG in place of PLA. I would think its closer to the $50~$100 range. The kit comes with a lot of unneeded (but nice to have) extras that can be shared. 

I have several printers now, even a couple deltas; the MK3 (soon to be MK3s) is still the go-to. 

RE: Random Thought: A cheaper second printer, with less lead time!

Posted by: nikolai.r
Delta? Really? 😊 

I've seen all sorts of comments on that thing. Most seem to be "it's worth $150 but don't expect much." Some people love it and I've seen good prints, so I am tempted. The Mini Select cantilever is on $200, so also very tempting. I'd just like to be able to print something small out while my Mk3 is busy with overnight jobs.

RE: Random Thought: A cheaper second printer, with less lead time!

Posted by: nicholas.l8

I did not think about the support for peoples poorly printed parts; I think having prepared G-code would mediate most of it. but i do think it would be more than $10-20 savings. Manuals and documents alone are a few dollars, few more for tools and other extras, printed parts are more than plastic [...]

I think part of the reason this won't happen is branding. Prusa is not targeting the low end generic with little support. The TriangleLabs guys are already doing that over on AliExpress, so it just turns into a race to the bottom. I suspect (and hope) Prusa wants to make enough profit on each sale to be able to provide live support and a quality experience for the majority of users. There are already dozens of low-end competitors for users on a budget. Prusa would have to invest a lot and add to an already complex pipeline in order to pull this off. Neat idea, but I don't see it happening myself.

RE: Random Thought: A cheaper second printer, with less lead time!

I hope to see Prusa move to more expensive printers and hope ours are someday considered a great deal even used. 

RE: Random Thought: A cheaper second printer, with less lead time!

I decided I wanted a second printer, looked at the AliExpress offerings, decided I'd rather spend a little more and get another Prusa. Ordered late on 06/30/19 and it was in front of me on 07/08/19. The Triangle Labs stuff was in the $465 range without the Einsy I believe, so buying a genuine Einsy from Prusa you're around $615 and still need to print all the parts? No thank you. I bought the real deal and ate the Haribos! LOL

Did you guys see the unopened MK3 kit that sold on ebay recently? Went for almost as much as buying a new MK3S $690!

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Unopened-UnassembledOriginal-Prusa-i3-MK3-kit-/333234926960?_trksid=p2047675.m43663.l10137&nordt=true&rt=nc&orig_cvip=true

RE: Random Thought: A cheaper second printer, with less lead time!

I'm also always tempting to buy something smaller/cheaper. 3D printer in range of $150-$300 sounds almost like getting a Starbucks coffee. But then I remind myself what will happen if I do that:

1. Upgrade Software to meet all the safety features
2. Upgrade Hardware to meet the quality I already got used to
3. Upgrade Hardware to get same convenience I already got used to
4. Get new spare parts as my current ones wouldn't fit on this cheap thing

In total I would spend more then $150-$300 and invest lot of time to get there where I already am. This thinking helps me to stay with my current two Prusa machines.

This also helps me to work on another projects and use my printers as tools and don't work for the printers.

RE: Random Thought: A cheaper second printer, with less lead time!

I really would like to buy all prusa machines, but I like tinkering with the others.  

RE: Random Thought: A cheaper second printer, with less lead time!

Posted by: nikolai.r

I'm also always tempting to buy something smaller/cheaper. 3D printer in range of $150-$300 sounds almost like getting a Starbucks coffee. But then I remind myself what will happen if I do that:

1. Upgrade Software to meet all the safety features
2. Upgrade Hardware to meet the quality I already got used to
3. Upgrade Hardware to get same convenience I already got used to
4. Get new spare parts as my current ones wouldn't fit on this cheap thing

In total I would spend more then $150-$300 and invest lot of time to get there where I already am. This thinking helps me to stay with my current two Prusa machines.

This also helps me to work on another projects and use my printers as tools and don't work for the printers.

You have that right .. Have been tinkering with an old P3 Steel for years .. gone thru more iterations that I can count, spent absurd dollars on E3D extruder products (the clickers..) , the BMG extruders, Duet Wifi Board .. and on and on and on ..  On occasion it surfaces from one of my bouts of "let's try one more time.." and actually prints something of similar quality to my everyday Prusas.. but not often and never consistently ..

For what I have spent on this education, I could have two or three more Prusas on the line.. not really sure how much I have spent in money or time.. 

Will stay away from the race to the bottom .. It is nice for an education, but then again, who would want to go back to high school?

Recently I put up one of Prusa MK3 printers on ebay klein and the highest offer was 150 under the kit price.. pretty good .. when I put my P3 Steel XL with a laundry list of upgrades on, well .. nada,, zilch, nichts ..