MK3 2018 Wish List  

Re: MK3 2018 Wish List

With the new year upon us and another four weeks until my first 3D printer is shipped I'm already thinking of upgrades and additional capabilities. The thing is, which could be added to the MK3 and what would require an entirely new printer?

1. Dual or Quad extruders. Quad would be too much, but would go good with the MMU upgrade. At the very least a dual extruder upgrade would allow for printing with supports or colors with minimal purge block waste.
I've only been a member of this website for the last six weeks, but it doesn't take an expert to know that over time the purge block waste would pay for a dual extruded system over time.

The use of dual extruders cause significant problems with alignment and also the 2nd extruder can crash into the print. Multiple materials is always a challenge with the current paradigm and I think Prusa is on the correct track with their MMU.

2. Longer print bed, maybe twice the size, but I could see it being up to three times longer. Could the bed be doubled in size with minimal change?
Yes, I know people are reporting long print times now, but for longer, thinner items the times would be proportional.

Sure - just google around and you can find examples of larger machines. One may want to change to 10mm shafts instead of 8mm. Rigidity is already pretty low so making the printer large should come with structural changes, not just stretching the components.

3. SPEED: If I were to put together this list when I first joined the website I would have said speed it up, but I now know it would affect the precision. Can you setup parameters to speed up on the interior and slow down for more precision on the outsides of the project? Could multiple extruders help with the speed of the product?

Building and making things are not new to me, but 3D printing is. I'm looking forward to learning more and enjoying a new hobby and business opportunity.
What would the more experienced 3D printer owners like to see?

Happy New Year to all and may it be a better tomorrow for everyone!

Yes, the speeds can be changed for infill vs perimeters. You could install the software and play with Slic3r settings to see what is available.

This is my second printer - my first was a Printrbot Metal which I've put to good use for 3 years. It worked well but a significant limitation is that it did not come with a heated bed and when I purchased the 'upgrade' I found that the new board and new software were not totally figured out. Printrbot does not have the huge customer base like Prusa and so there wasn't as much help available and I decided to cut and run.

I won't know what my wish list for features is until I've used the new printer a bunch. Out of the gate my guess is that I'll want the frame to be more rigid. I think the print quality could go up if the frame was more rigid. My short-term wish list is for the firmware to become stable.

Re: MK3 2018 Wish List

I know I’m talking out of turn here, I don’t even have mine yet. But from Tom’s and 3D Maker Noob’s videos, I would think a more secure foot design would be prominent on the list.

Re: MK3 2018 Wish List

From your list it looks to me like you might have bought the wrong printer. There are products out there with some of the features you mention. Philosophically, Prusa has chosen to go down a completely different path with the build volume and MMU.

1) As well as the problems with alignment that themzlab mentioned, multi hot-end designs also reduce the build area substantially which kind of goes against point #2. Personally, I have both a MK2S and a MK2SMMU and MMU feature doesn't get used that much TBH. If you're only using two materials (say PLA & PVA) then the purge block isn't actually that big. As soon as you start doing quad colours, then the purge block is fairly big, but how often do you plan to print quad colour?? Personally, I'm happy with the "waste" material for the few items that I print that need multicolour/material. I think it's a fair trade off.

2) If you want something with a bigger print area then maybe you should look at a CR10? It'll cost a lot to increase the size of the print bed, but much like the Ultimakers, it would be fairly cheap to increase the Z axis which I think would fit with the Prusa way of doing things.

3) FDM printers are slow.

Re: MK3 2018 Wish List

With the new year upon us and another four weeks until my first 3D printer is shipped I'm already thinking of upgrades and additional capabilities. The thing is, which could be added to the MK3 and what would require an entirely new printer?

There's still a lot of art to 3D printing, and every machine has its quirks. I suggest that you hang on to this list and revisit it once you've had the printer for six months and have really gotten to know it. My guess is your list then will be completely different.