New MK3 - not everybody has issues and problems
Got my MK3 on the 3rd of April after ordering in on the 20th of January. On the day of ordering the ETA was march 5th so delivery ended up being 4 weeks later. Not a big issue for me. Started the build on Tuesday and everything progress nicely until I ran in a problem with one of the two trapezoidal lead screw nuts, being very, very tight. Look for burring on the inside thread, tried a bit of lube but with no change. Wrote the chat support, which worked like a charm and they would UPS me an new trapezoidal nut. Left the build and went to bed.
The trapezoidal nut is now in plastic and not metal as I remember it from my MK2S, so I got the idea to try to heat the metal lead-screw with a small gas-solder for electronics and the turn the trapezoidal nut fast over the heated area to de-burr it on the inside. Work like a charm - are two runs over the heated part of the lead-screw if was now operating perfect and I started finishing the build.
When build was done, I turned on the printer, ran the wizard as per instruction. Expected to have to update firmware, but it was running the latest version, inserted filament and did the first layer calibration. Sliced a couple of my projects in Slic3r for MK3 instead of MK2S and did my first print, which came perfect! Did some larger prints - also perfect!
Just thought it was time to share a happy story to this forum, where you otherwise can easily get the idea that everybody has problems and issues... Well - for me everything turned out just as expected!
So what are my first impression so far?
1) The new removable bed is absolutely a killer feature. So easy to flex of the PLA prints and also did my first PETG with glue as separator and that was just a easy to remove.
2) The noise - or rather the lack of noise. The printer is so quite that it hard to tell if it is still printing or done when in the next room. With my old MK2S, there was never a any doubt on this.
3) No false alarms on the filament sensor yet. I have only been printing with black and white PLA and black PETG, and havn't reach the end of a spool yet.
4) Speed improvements? Havn't really seen any of these on the prints. The time to complete seem like almost the same as on my MK2S, but maybe coming firmwares / Slic3r updates will provide this.
I can easily state that I am a very happy new Prusa MK3 owner and bed and no noise alone was worth the upgrade for me. Now looking spend some quality time on optimizing my slicing profiles and get a lot more experience with PETG which I did print on my old printer because of the bed glue cleaning hassle on the fixed bed.
Keep up the good work, Prusa, and to all of you still waiting for your MK3 - keep looking forward, its really fantastic!
/Kasper
Re: New MK3 - not everybody has issues and problems
Give it a few more days. Your printer will get much quieter. 😉
My printer still makes some TERRIBLE noise in the area of ~100mm on Z... I've got a burr or something on the right side Z screw, very similar to you. (sounds like mine isn't as bad though)
It used to make all kinda of nasty noises at lower layer heights, but it's VERY quiet.
I like printing small things. (like Marvin, Benchy, etc) I sleep with my printer in the same room... I wake up randomly and think. "Oh, my print is done." I'm halfway to it, when I hear it do a travel. "Oh... I wish this was louder." (And I'm NOT in stealth mode)
Once the new firmware comes out with LA turned on, be ready to be amazed! It's awesome!
Hi, I'm Sean. I used to work on CNC machines.
I try to not make mistakes, but the decision is YOURS.
Please feel free to donate to my filament/maintance fund.
Re: New MK3 - not everybody has issues and problems
I built my Mk3 last Friday afternoon; it has been printing quite a bit since.
Loaded the 3.2.0 alpha firmware, because I wanted to use Linear Advance. Set up KISS profiles and found that LA would not work properly with PreloadVE turned on. LA and Preload basically do the same thing - given that I can only use one or the other, I prefer Preload for better prints.
I have infills set to 170mm/s and perimeters at 90. Only really noticeable with larger models where a few minutes are saved. Smaller models are not much difference time-wise due to acceleration/jerk factors.
My Z axis is noisy but only when the bed is at the front; it's completely quiet at the rear.
Didn't bother with hyper-fine bed levelling; I think it it still required, but only just; there really is not a huge probe level sensing difference across the bed.
Disappointed with the filament sensor which doesn't work will all filaments.
Did a 30 hour print last Sunday and noticed that crash detection does work, although I suspect that the motors on the Mk3 are being fed with less current and it would not have "crashed" on the Mk2.
Overall, very pleased with the Mk3; it's certainly a lot more physically stable than it predecessors, although I do have some concerns about the added features (more to go wrong) and lack of MPU capacity - I really would have preferred a much more capable 32-bit device. The 1/32 stepping extruder does a good job but it also limits the E speed (higher unload speed essential for the V1 MMU).
Peter
Please note: I do not have any affiliation with Prusa Research. Any advices given are offered in good faith. It is your responsibility to ensure that by following my advice you do not suffer or cause injury, damage…
Re: New MK3 - not everybody has issues and problems
Anyone else found prints from their mk3 are noticeably not as good as from their mk2?
Re: New MK3 - not everybody has issues and problems
Loaded the 3.2.0 alpha firmware, because I wanted to use Linear Advance. Set up KISS profiles and found that LA would not work properly with PreloadVE turned on. LA and Preload basically do the same thing - given that I can only use one or the other, I prefer Preload for better prints.
Hate to call you out, but you are the only person using KISS and this "preload" system.
Do you have the Moiré pattern on your printed parts?
This thread has a nice white cube that shows it VERY well.
Thanks!
Hi, I'm Sean. I used to work on CNC machines.
I try to not make mistakes, but the decision is YOURS.
Please feel free to donate to my filament/maintance fund.
Re: New MK3 - not everybody has issues and problems
I put my MK3 kit together 6 weeks ago and I'm pleased. I'm not an expert, we had two Makerbots here for awhile that I used whenever I could elbow my daughter and her friends away and I've also used the printer at our local library and at the STEM school where I volunteer, but this my first original Prusa.
First off the print quality was much better than what I had seen. I print precise devices like Bahtinov focusing masks and aperture stops with fine lens filter threads for astro-photography, cases for electronics test equipment and amateur radio transceivers, space models (Voyager and Curiosity rover) and toys for the grand kids including flying toys, insanely complex transformers and print in place iris boxes.
I have used the Prusa, Makerbot, Solutech, Hatchbox and Inland PLAs and Hatchbox PETG all with good results. The only real problem I had was in printing PLA again after printing PETG, where it took me awhile to learn how to really clean the print surface.
I'm running Octopi on a Raspberry Pi 3B that communicates by USB with the EINSY. I have a Pi V2 camera attached to the bed to stream and do time lapses. I've used Brigandier's very cool Octopi plugin to measure and plot bed level and reduced my variation to 1/3 of its initial value. I have to say that I haven't really seen a difference in the prints after, but then I mostly print smaller objects that are centered so the variation out to corners may not come into play.
I'm now running Brigandier's 3.1.3 with Linear Advance turned on. The only problem is the annoying warning every time I turn the printer on or connect with Octopi.
Re: New MK3 - not everybody has issues and problems
I'm now running Brigandier's 3.1.3 with Linear Advance turned on. The only problem is the annoying warning every time I turn the printer on or connect with Octopi.
That can be disabled, but Prusa asked me not to release them with it off as a nicety to their support. When you get your compiling process lined out, shoot me a message and I will send you the instructions.
@OP:
No doubt the MK3 has some awesome features, but there are issues that we can pretty much confirm 99.9% of users are seeing (as some are firmware related):
At this point I am thinking most of the people who are saying their MK3 doesn't have problems either have vision problems, or are comparing to a printer that had lower quality prints so these seem "great". Everything is relative, but this still isn't what was advertised.
My MK3 Parts: [Bowden] [New Shoes] [TPU Micro Springs]
Re: New MK3 - not everybody has issues and problems
@Brigandier: thank you, that's exactly what I think everytime I see these threads. If you think you aren't having problems, you just haven't noticed yet. Some problems have gotten corrected over time though, so I can see how you might be pleasantly surprised if you've read about so many problems and then you build your kit and things go pretty well from the start.
Btw. I would say overall I'm happy with my MK3 but with the caveat that I trust Prusa to fix the firmware issues and I can fix any lingering mechanical issues. I do still think the machine was released too soon and unfinished, but we'll get there!
Re: New MK3 - not everybody has issues and problems
Heavy ringing in Y unless printing slow external perimeters (15mm/s or so). This is mostly caused by the rubber feet Prusa ships with and can be mitigated with mods thankfully. Ultra speed though? No.
Thank you for saying this, I am seeing all of these things. The printer is great , its just very inconsistent because of these things.
Also do your feet fix the ringing issue in Y? And what speed do you recommend.
Re: New MK3 - not everybody has issues and problems
Heavy ringing in Y unless printing slow external perimeters (15mm/s or so). This is mostly caused by the rubber feet Prusa ships with and can be mitigated with mods thankfully. Ultra speed though? No.
Thank you for saying this, I am seeing all of these things. The printer is great , its just very inconsistent because of these things.
Also do your feet fix the ringing issue in Y? And what speed do you recommend.
I bit the bullet and print everything at 15mm/s. It's a speed hit, but the quality boost is worth it. My sorbothane feet help, but not like you'd think. The ringing doesn't go away, it just doesn't happen for as long of an area as the sorbothane actively cancels out the vibration. The issue is there was vibration to cancel out to begin with, and it's going to leave a mark before the sorbothane ever gets a chance. 😉
Best bet is to find a way to mount completely rigid. Look at the "Rock Bottom" thread, I have a feeling it's going to have interesting results.
My MK3 Parts: [Bowden] [New Shoes] [TPU Micro Springs]
Re: New MK3 - not everybody has issues and problems
Heavy ringing in Y unless printing slow external perimeters (15mm/s or so). This is mostly caused by the rubber feet Prusa ships with and can be mitigated with mods thankfully. Ultra speed though? No.
Thank you for saying this, I am seeing all of these things. The printer is great , its just very inconsistent because of these things.
Also do your feet fix the ringing issue in Y? And what speed do you recommend.
I bit the bullet and print everything at 15mm/s. It's a speed hit, but the quality boost is worth it. My sorbothane feet help, but not like you'd think. The ringing doesn't go away, it just doesn't happen for as long of an area as the sorbothane actively cancels out the vibration. The issue is there was vibration to cancel out to begin with, and it's going to leave a mark before the sorbothane ever gets a chance. 😉
Best bet is to find a way to mount completely rigid. Look at the "Rock Bottom" thread, I have a feeling it's going to have interesting results.
Are all your speeds at 15 mm/s or just perimeters and visible areas?
Re: New MK3 - not everybody has issues and problems
Are all your speeds at 15 mm/s or just perimeters and visible areas?
Just external perimeters. It sucks though, with transparent filament you can still see ringing on the perimeters just inside of the external one.
My MK3 Parts: [Bowden] [New Shoes] [TPU Micro Springs]
Re: New MK3 - not everybody has issues and problems
Are all your speeds at 15 mm/s or just perimeters and visible areas?
Just external perimeters. It sucks though, with transparent filament you can still see ringing on the perimeters just inside of the external one.
Good to know I will try it. Doing my longest print so far at 19 hours, when that finishes tonight I will try it out.