Kit without printable parts?  

RE: Kit without printable parts?

There was a thread some time ago where it was mentioned that it might be possible to build a piece-by-piece FrankenMMU, for lack of a better term.

IIAC the circuit board and the stepper motors are really the only MMU-specific parts required.  The plastic parts can be printed and the other 'vitamins' such as the bearings, are stock items.

RE: Kit without printable parts?

@jsw

Thanks, I'm not suggesting to bypass Prusa: they developed the MMU and it's fair to pay them for one. I'm just hypothesizing that they should make a kit available without the plastic parts.

RE: Kit without printable parts?

Posted by: @gglockner

@jsw

Thanks, I'm not suggesting to bypass Prusa: they developed the MMU and it's fair to pay them for one. I'm just hypothesizing that they should make a kit available without the plastic parts.

Actually, the whole RepRap philosophy is open-source hardware, and Prusa was one of the key players in the very early RepRap movement.  There are lots of various I3 clones out there, and many are put together by techies who love to do that stuff.

Before I got the first printer of my own I considered making one from scratch.

RE: Kit without printable parts?

Actually, the more I think about this, the more I think this goes for any add-ons for existing customers. Want a second i3? Want to add a Mini to go with your i3? Buy a kit with the electronics, fasteners and mechanical parts.

RE: Kit without printable parts?

Kits are readily available for clone MK3 and Mini, but the quality is not anywhere near as good as Prusa original, they use cheaper clone hotends, motors, etc. 

There have been a few threads on here about clone builds, they are not without issues.

RE: Kit without printable parts?

There's a recent review of a Mini clone here.  I forget all of the details, but IIRC the bottom line is that yes, it does work, and yes, you get what you pay for.

I had been toying with the idea of getting my own 3d printer for a few years, but I had joined a local 'makerspace' and I could either book time on one of the machines in the 3d lab or leave a thumb drive with a .stl at the desk and the staff would run it as time allowed.  All I had to pay for was the filament.  (You could either bring your own, or they had a collection of spools that they would weigh at the start and end of your session and charge you for what was used.)

Then in January of 2020 (yeah, right before the Covid hit the fan) all three of the 'good' machines were down, bookings were pushed out and there was an infinite backlog of jobs to run.  I then decided to bite the bullet and get my own machine -- BUT, the machine I was leaning toward, the Taz 5, was one of the machines that was down and the staff was having a frustrating head-banging time getting the parts to bring it back to life.  Scratch that.

The consensus at the makerspace seemed to be that Prusa was the brand to get, and to pay the fare and get a 'real' Prusa and not a clone, so that's how I got here.  Yes, I got what I paid for and I'm happy I went that way.  The prints off of my MK3s are consistently better than what came out of the Taz, and right up there with those from the Uprint, which is well into five figures in price and very proprietary, as in it only works with their brand of filament and uses disposable build plates.

RE: Kit without printable parts?

@jsw

Indeed.

I have zero regrets buying a genuine MK3S+, I looked at clones, but you are in for around £500 with postage, without printed parts, will get clone support (from china) low quality psu, hotend, board, motors, bearings etc etc.

The MK3 is not exactly budget at £700, but it is a quality product.

Buy right and buy once is my philosophy. My only regret......wish I had skipped the ender 3 went right to the full fat MK3 latte.

RE: Kit without printable parts?

Back when I was considering printers, some of the various I3 clones on Ebay were selling for US$250-ish.  They were very liberal in the use of the Prusa brand name for the clones on Ebay.  They were obviously not Prusa products.  I would think that Prusa would take issue with the use of their brand on the cheaper (and not so dependable) clones.

At the time the Creality machines had their fans and detractors.  They were very reasonable in price but a lot of people had issues with them, so I decided to pass.

RE: Kit without printable parts?

@jsw

The clones have variable quality.  I own 3.  Two from China and one I made myself.  I would recommend that everyone avoid them. They work and work well, but there is one heck of a learning curve to get them reliable.  

RE: Kit without printable parts?

I have 1 project machine at the moment (Tronxy Core XY), which is kind of on the back burner TBH until I get nearer to the top of the MK3 learning curve, going to start printing with PETG after I finish my current project, after some very intensive trial and error now getting very good prints from .4 and .25 nozzles with various PLA stock, getting better with supports (which are still proving to be a real challenge). The journey has just began TBH, but the MK3 has been solid as a rock.

However, I suspect that when pruse release the XL, that could be replacing my core XY project machine, its got quite a lot of flaws.  And am pretty much past the stage of polishing turds.

I want reliability, and prusa provide that in spades.