What would you do  

RE: What would you do

Welcome to the forum. Did you order the kit or the pre-assembled?

RE: What would you do

I ordered the pre-assembled version; I saw 8 hours of building for the kit and figured it was pretty involved.  There is a lot of information to disseminate so looking for any advice from those with experience. 

RE:

I also ordered the pre-assembled. It comes with a 'Prusa Academy' educational series with quizzes which I found very helpful. You should be getting a link. 

RE: What would you do

Follow these forums for a while, you will learn to recognise some of the commoner problems and associated fixes.

And play with a few 3D design apps, decide which suits you and start learning to use it.

Cheerio,

RE: What would you do

Welcome to the forums @rangertown:

I would say to scan through these forum pages looking for any topics involving “bed adhesion” or “first layer adhesion” and read as much as you can. 

Pay particular attention to suggested cleaning methods as this is critical to first layer success. Alcohol alone, as suggested in the official Prusa documentation, is woefully inadequate, especially with the textured sheet, and especially with PLA.

Read everything you can find on print sheet types, how they differ, which materials work best with each sheet type, which materials to avoid with each sheet type, when to use blue tape or kapton tape, or glue stick, or something more exotic.

Know that PLA and the textured sheet don’t play nice together.

And, this thread and associated files created by user @jeffjordan for the best way I’ve found to find your correct Z height every time.

https://forum.prusa3d.com/forum/original-prusa-i3-mk3s-mk3-assembly-and-first-prints-troubleshooting/life-adjust-z-my-way/

Spend the time to read through the entire forty plus page thread. There is a wealth of information in this thread that I wish I had known before I flipped the big red switch. You can find the print calibration files where they have kindly been reposted by user @sylviatrilling near the bottom of page 42.

When you receive your printer and get started, you’ll doubtless have many more specific questions. Most of them will have already been answered in these pages so take time to search and learn. When you get stuck, you’ll find people here are willing and able to help you get unstuck, or at least point you in the right direction to help you help yourself.

Best of luck and have fun!

RE: What would you do

Another great resource is Bobstro's Notebook which gives you a wealth of information not only how to, but why, and how it all fits together.  https://projects.ttlexceeded.com

RE: What would you do

Thanks for the suggestions, super helpful!   I think there is enough there to keep me busy for a while.  Just in my brief time browsing this forum I've seen a few questions and solutions on bed adhesion, thanks for the advice, I focus there first.

I purchased the I3 MK3S+ with 2 rolls of prusment, black PLA and Orange PETG literally out of guessing.  I then read more on types of filament and purposes.

I plan on learning fusion 360 and I would like the ability to create small parts for either my truck or things around the house.  Of course, my kids will want toys... Can't wait to get started!

RE: What would you do

Happy printing!

RE: What would you do

Posted by: @rangertown

I'm just ordered an i3, should be here in a few weeks.  This will be my first 3d printer.  While I wait, I was wondering if there were things you would have done differently as a beginner?  Would you have read specific articles, understood a concept?  Or are you happy with the learning approach you took?

Any links to good material or pointers?

In retrospect, I would have ordered the Prusa kit at the start.... IF I had known about Prusa.  

I did it the hard way, first with a pre-assembled Wanhao Mini which was semi- OK, then a Geetech mousepad with a miserable Acrylic Prusa clone included. That is when I found out about Prusa, and obtained an incomplete secondhand Mk2s, brought it back from the dead, upgraded to MK2.5S, and finally built a MK3s, as I had obtained and repaired a dead Prusa EinsyRambo control board.  The MK3s frame and heatbed was a substantial fraction of the cost of a MK3s+ kit but oh well!

It would have been cheaper to buy two assembled MK3s, but not nearly as educational!