Am I expecting too much?  

Re: Am I expecting too much?

Good summary of the issues that have been posted the last 2 weeks.

I am guessing most new features work perfectly when printing directly from SD, not using Octoprint, so perhaps that should be the baseline. I wonder when you read the mk2s forum, it will also contain problems.

Also, Josef himself said the MK3 will not print nicer compared to MK2S, it just has more "smart" features. But you are probably right, people will usually only post stuff in case of problems. And I do believe the mk3 will need some more finetuning in the firmware and slicer settings. And perhaps there are a few hardware problems that need to be addressed as well... who knows.

I am wondering when the quality reviewers will review this printer. I will be receiving mine soon, shipping label had been printed. I also have a mk2s, which I am going to sell, but perhaps I will keep it a little while longer, until the mk3 is finished to compare prints.

Re: Am I expecting too much?

I was about to post something similar, though not as detailed so thank you. I'm curious to hear about a couple of good stories so please post em if you got em. I watched ron.?? do his youtube build thinking his went well then I saw he had to get his power supply replaced. Ido.d, Josef did say it wouldn't print any better than the 2s but I kind of assumed it wouldn't print any worse as well, now looking at the all of the benchys I'm not so sure that's the case. I've watched a couple of build videos and read through the online instructions a couple of times and have to say I don't feel there's anything very complicated about the build, heck they recommend using a wire tie to set the PINDA, I was expecting to have to grab gauge blocks and feeler gauges from the machine shop at work so I guess I over anticipated the complexity of the build. For me the most daunting part seems to be cable management at the Einsy Board, it looks tight in there.

I expect to tweak a little but also have ideas I'd like to put to the test.

Re: Am I expecting too much?

I'm having a great experience with my first ever printer, only on day one so maybe it will change. but i printed the buddy model and its looking really good. Build was really easy and fun. and selftests, calibrations went good. frame were square etc.
Printing a lithophane now and its looking flawless for a beginner doing a config for a new filament type for the first time.
Couldnt be happier with my printer.
only thing would be the spool holder.. it broke.

wish i had a picture of my print but daughter wanted to play with it and now i cant find it.

Re: Am I expecting too much?

So far no problems here. Never owned a 3D printer and built the MK3 in 5 days after school with my daughter. Just fired it up on the 6th day and did the alignment and printing the tree frog in Pink PLA from the SD car with no adjustments. So far so good about 30 minutes into the print. Everything seems like a quality build to me and the instructions were pretty clear except in a few places.
Maybe I am the lucky one or many only people who are having problems are posting more often than people like me.
3 of my co-workers bought 3D printers from China for under $200 and when I told them about Prusa the printed a load in their pants when they saw the $798 price tag for a kit shipped. My basic reasoning for not going the China route is I am buying it for my kids and I want to work and not have to fix it every time they use it.
In my opinion this is a quality build, I would prefer Stainless Steel slider rails over harden steel but I lubed them with a rust prohibitor Boeshield t9. Just a light coat and rubbed it off.

Re: Am I expecting too much?

So far no problems here. .... Maybe I am the lucky one or many only people who are having problems are posting more often than people like me. .....

In my opinion this is a quality build, I would prefer Stainless Steel slider rails over harden steel but I lubed them with a rust prohibitor Boeshield t9. Just a light coat and rubbed it off.

I was thinking/hoping that all without problems are too busy having fun with their printers to post their experiences... We use NyOil ii to lube the rails on our precision equipment at work so I figure I'd use it for the Prusa as well.

Edit: I used to use Boeshield on my bike chain and felt it gummed up in time, maybe it's not the same in a less harsh environment.

Re: Am I expecting too much?

I haave had
mk1 prusa
Mk2 prusa. Missed mk2s

Mmu prusa.. and
now have a mk3. Still building the mk3

Mk2 prints down 0.05mm layer. Mmu annd mk3 print down to 0.07mm. Layer height. Doubt if I will be able to tell the difference.

Mmu seems very finnickey.

PEI is better than glass for me.
Removeable PEI shold be b etter.

BONDTECH gears are brilliant

Never used raspberry pi. Or Octoprint.

I did buy a ups . So power panic is less likely to be a problem for me.

I suspect all of the clever options will be ironed out soon.

I wonder how many issues are owner originated. I know i have messed up a couple of times.

Still enjoy my hobby.

Hope you all get to enjoy your hobby too.
Ps. I still have a chinese printer and it is pretty rubbish compared to my prusa

Regards Joan

Re: Am I expecting too much?

@joan.t being that you seem to have a handle on things I'll be looking for your impressions... I'm a little concerned because I have nothing to compare against so I won't really know what is and isn't acceptable.

Re: Am I expecting too much?

Don't worry, you're going to love it! We are ironing out the kinks for you. You'll thank us later.

Re: Am I expecting too much?

As an MK2 Kit owner who later upgraded to the MK2S I’d like to add my opinion after receiving the MK3 yesterday.

1) Build wise it was way easier and I swore I’d buy a ready built printer next time after how awkward it was for me due to having MD which makes my muscles weaker. I had a few calibration issues due to warped Bed which caused the head to crash and damage the PEI with the MK2 but with the MK3 I built it in half the time and it calibrated perfectly first time!

2) It’s way quieter than the MK2 so much so that when it’s cooling down I have to check if the fans still spinning.

3) the removable bed is well worth it and I’ve already ordered the 2.5. It’s a lot easier to make sure it’s level and iive had great first layers compared to my MK2 which I had to shim to get level due to slight warps.

4) print quality wise I’ve noticed the files on the SD do look slightly worse. I got my Marvin out I printed a year ago and the overhangs aren’t as smooth and a few ringing issues. I’m going to spend the weekend checking my belt tensions and tweaking my slicer settings. I did do a quick test print of a Porg with my MK2 profile and compared results and they were pretty similar but still slightly better from the MK2.

5) I wish the backplate wasn’t on the back of the extruder as this makes tweaking the X belts way more awkward than it needs to be however the Y belt is easy to tweak now which I prefer.

6) calibrating the extruder I was pleasantly surprised to see the e-steps were spot on 100mm so that’s a plus. I did notice the MK3 does over extrude where as the MK2 under extruded so my flow rate is around 0.91

I haven’t used other features yet but overall If the quality issues can be overcome with slicer profile tweaks which I’m sure they can be I’d choose the MK3 over the MK2. It’s faster, much more sturdier, so so quiet and much easier to build.

Re: Am I expecting too much?

You're absolutely right, people who received their units, and are blissfully printing, are less inclined to create a thread about how wonderful their prints are coming out vs having issues.

I know someone who received a perfect pre-built unit and has fallen off the radar. When I asked him how his printer was working he told me that his head has been down because he's been too busy printing, flawlessly.

3d makernoob did a live build and seemed to overcome the kit with no issues. Granted he has literally built dozens of kits so he had a lot more experience over the average user. He prefers Prusa and is buying more MK3 printers for his farm so that's a vote of confidence.

Re: Am I expecting too much?

Well, the MK3 is my first ever and whilst learning fast (and a lot) and Y-Axis calibration auto home not working at all I did start printing and playing with settings. Any good? No idea as I have no real comparison but thought to place some pictures here for all to see and judge.

The heart (downloaded from thingiverse: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1327509 is printed on PLA Optimal settings, no support, no brim, stl transformed by Prusacontrol software, printed on 50% scale.

The PS4 support (also downloaded from thingiverse: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2311613 was printed with the same settings.

Oh and suggestions on further optimising settings are obviously very welcome(!)

Re: Am I expecting too much?

Let me start by saying I have never owned a 3D printer but am excited to have my MK3 ship in January. At least I think I am excited.

I have been reading every post on this MK3 forum for months, and recognize that the only reason someone posts is because they are having a problem. If someone received a MK3 in perfect condition and is getting top-notch prints, they have no reason to post on the forum and thus they are underrepresented here. That said, a lot of what I am reading makes me wonder if the MK3 is ready or if it was rushed out the door before Prusa could work out the bugs. Here's what I mean.

My perspective is that when you buy a Prusa, you're buying a kit, with all that implies. The market for this printer is someone who wants to get their hands a little dirty and doesn't mind having to tinker with it to get everything to work right. Even if you're buying your Prusa assembled, it's still a preassembled kit.

I've had over five years of experience with hobby-level 3D printing, though this will be my first kit printer. There certainly are affordable non-kit printers out there that work out of the box.

The difference is that you're going to be more limited in what you can do with that non-kit printer. You won't have the same ability to hack your printer, and you won't have access to newer features that might not be fully baked (I'm looking at you, optical filament sensor).

So, yeah, people are having problems. A brand-new model of kit printer will always start shipping as a buggy beta. Prusa is pushing the envelope and doesn't have the testing and engineering resources to get things to the level of reliability you expect from your toaster or microwave oven.

The hope is that if you invest the time and effort to tweak it, you should wind up with a fantastic printer that does things you won't see in a TierTime printer for five years or more. But if that's not the deal you wanted, this may not be the printer for you.

Re: Am I expecting too much?

Power panic, filament sensor: sound cool, but don’t affect normal workflow much. Filament sensor can easily be disabled, but seems to work fine for most filament. (Gray pla, White pla, blue translucent petg for me).

The killer features for me work fine:

I’ve got a Rostock max and an ultimaker. This one prints a bit better than the UMO, and is way easier to use.

Re: Am I expecting too much?

I have a Mk2S from kit bought about six months ago. Once it was built and calibrated it has been a constant pleasure. Reliable from day one. Since then it has been upgraded into a 30x30 Ali extrusion frame (Haribo Mod). Also have a scratch built printer to the Prusa design.

When I saw the features on the Mk3 I ordered on the spot, 24 hours after announcement. My Mk3 is here and I built it in the evenings after work. The build and setup were a pleasure with only one minor glitch which I was able to discuss immediately with Prusa support (Thank you Shane, hope you are having a great Christmas 🙂 ). The new features are awesome albeit some a little sensitive yet - this is the price we pay for using what are basically experimental machines. A few experimental prints and some tweaking and I am up and running. My Mk3 is behind me as I type this and the blasted thing is so quiet I keep having to turn around to see if it has stopped! It really is a huge step up from the Mk2S and I have no doubt that any initial issues with print quality and new feature functionality will be ironed out as soon as possible.

Currently the Mk3 is printing parts for a new project, a Hypercube Evolution and they are every bit as good as the ones I have already printed on the Mk2S Haribo, but the Mk3 ones were completed faster and much quieter,

Mk3 worth the money and the setup required? No doubts here. I am enjoying every second of it and would not hesitate to purchase again, or whatever else Prusa come up with next!

Thank you Josef Prusa and everyone at Prusa Research. I am a very happy customer 🙂

Re: Am I expecting too much?

I got two MK3 running row. One in my Fablab and one at home.

In one case I had to disable the filament sensor because it would trigger with translucent filament, which makes sense. Should have read the manual! 😆

I also had the problem with the poorly aligned x-axis belt on BOTH of the printers. It caused an annoying rubbing sound where the wheel comes in contact with the plastic. I solved it with a little bit of silicone oil. Now the sound is gone. I actually had the same problem with my MK2S as well!

The only thing I am truly disappointed in is the firmware of the MK3. It feels quite unstable. On my first MK3 it crashed when I wanted to do a PID calibration. After the recent update it crashed several times during a print, but only on the printer sitting in he Fablab. The one at home didn't do that yet.

All in all I really love the printer and can't wait to upgrade my MK2S with the 2.5 upgrade. I love the new heatbed and the MK3 is so silent it is ridiculous. I also have the clicking PSU, but it is not really that noticeable so I don't care really. I would totally buy a printer from Prusa again.