Prusa resin printer at competetive price?  

RE: Prusa resin printer at competetive price?

I'm currently selling mine, but I am going to guess you live in continental Europe (I am in the UK) and so delivery would be very high.

Cheers,

Andy

RE: Prusa resin printer at competetive price?

I guess I don’t understand the idea of open source on the SL1/CW1. There doesn’t seem to be anything open source except for the software. I have (had) this combo and came from Elegoo Mars Pro / Anycubic Photon S. I did not like using ChiTuBox. The Photon version of it was even worse. Using Prusa Slicer was so much better. I thought, at least for the reliability and much better build quality I would appreciate the SL1/CW1. The build quality is better. But I had so many initial problems that took way too long for support to help with (over a month waiting for them) that I decided to return everything and go with an EPAX X1-K / Anycubic Wash & Cure combo.

I think one of the things that bothered me most about the SL1 was the incessant noise from the tilting mechanism. In the end it never resulted in better prints than any of the other far less expensive printers I had. And the CW1 seems to be built around the gastro container that makes too many design concessions to make it work right - the anycubic wash and cure station works much better.

RE: Prusa resin printer at competetive price?

Posted by: @andyinswindon

I'm currently selling mine, but I am going to guess you live in continental Europe (I am in the UK) and so delivery would be very high.

Cheers,

Andy

May I ask you why you are selling or sold this Printer? Is it still available?

RE: Prusa resin printer at competetive price?

Posted by: @h2

Hi everyone,

I currently share an Elegoo Mars with a friend but am considering getting my own 3D printer. I am all into open source (software and hardware) and I have been using Prusa-Slicer for some time now -- which is a great piece of software.

I would love to buy a device from Prusa to support also the development of the software. I have no problem with assembling the device myself. But I really can't spend >1400€ on a device that I can essentially get for 220€ from a competitor.  Paying 100€ would be OK and having network support is a nice bonus that Elegoo/Anycubic don't have in the cheap price range. I might even pay 200€ extra (which is almost 2x the price of the competition). But I don't see myself spending 7x the price of the competition. How is that justified? Does the SL1 have anything special that I am overlooking?

And do you know if Prusa is a planning a new (cheaper) printer in the near future?

 

Thank you for your comments,

Hannes

 

 

If you are on tight budget, and still not to strugle with most budget chinese MSLA printers, i would highly recommend you Epax X1 / X1K (mono screen) / latest E6 + Anycubic CureWach station. 

For 350-600$ Epax printers you are getting high quality machine, that you don't need to upgrade and thinker around.

IMHO, right now only thing that would convince me to go for SL1 is sustainable long term prusa upgradeabilty + 24/7 support, otherwise Epax is way to go.

RE: Prusa resin printer at competetive price?

Posted by: @3dalhemija

IMHO, right now only thing that would convince me to go for SL1 is sustainable long term prusa upgradeabilty + 24/7 support, otherwise Epax is way to go.

Those were two of the main factors that drove my SL1 decision (being able to use PrusaSlicer was the other).

My experience since ordering it at the end of July is that the support is terrible as the Live Chat clearly doesn't have enough info to support beyond basic issues before you get punted to email support which gets really slow really fast.

So far there hasn't been any rumors about upgrades that I'm aware of, but really the only potential upgrades I see that wouldn't effectively replace the entire printer (e.g. a larger build volume) are moving to a mono screen and (hopefully) a better tank design that is less prone to leaking. Otherwise it will be minor tweaks (like moving from the dual bolts on the platform gimbal to a single bolt) that won't really be an "upgrade" like the S or S+ for the MK3. I think the majority of any upgrades for both the SL1 and CW1 will be software related.

RE: Prusa resin printer at competetive price?

I currently ordered the SL1 bundle with CW1. I was , like you, skeptical (and i still am) if it worths the price difference in comparison with othe printers out there. Especially since i see comments with there is a small problem that causes resin leakage if you leave the resin in the tank.

In the end it came to the following factors for me. 

Black friday offer. 200E less plus free shipping plus 100+E worth of resin.

If i would buy a resin printer plus a curing station form different vendors there would be additional shipping costs.

One vendor with good reputation for customer service (i already have an mk3s/mmu3s combo). The mmu2s is not one of their strongest points but the mk3s is excellent with the support concerning it to be  at the same level.

Prusaslicer. One slicer for everything with constant updates and features additions. Also firmware upgrades for all my devices from one reputable vendor.

But there are also the following concerns in the back of my mind

Is not a rep rap prusa machine. If i'm not mistaken is a another team that design it an build it. Most of the parts are fabricated and not printed and thus i dont know how its hardware upgradability is going to compare with their FFD line up

The resin leak problem. I read in a forum post that the acknowledge it and there are in the process of examining remedies. 

The LCD screen. To pricey for what it actually is and a consumable.

Price. The price is on the high end for the specs .

RE: Prusa resin printer at competetive price?

Posted by: @tsamisacytanet-com-cy

I currently ordered the SL1 bundle with CW1. I was , like you, skeptical (and i still am) if it worths the price difference in comparison with othe printers out there. Especially since i see comments with there is a small problem that causes resin leakage if you leave the resin in the tank.

Having had mine for a couple of months now I will unequivocally say that the SL1 is WAY over priced. There are some nice features (the resin calibration makes using any resin easy), but at the end of the day it comes down to print volume and print quality. Those two items do not stand out against much cheaper units. I'd say about half the price would be a much more appropriate price point for it.

The CW1 is a different story in my opinion. I watched a few reviews and everyone seemed kinda "meh" over it and I think that tainted my early view. After using it for awhile, reading what others have to do for cleaning/curing, and then see their results, I'm really liking the CW1. Some more volume would be nice as I've had some issues getting everything from a print to fit when I pack the platform full. The dryer is, I think, the killer feature for me as that seems to be where most cleanings fall down. My only complaint there is that they only let you dry for 10 minutes at a time and I find 30 minutes to be my sweet spot. I submitted a PR to the firmware to change that though.

In the end it came to the following factors for me. 

Except for the Black Friday deal, your list looks identical to mine.

One vendor with good reputation for customer service (i already have an mk3s/mmu3s combo). The mmu2s is not one of their strongest points but the mk3s is excellent with the support concerning it to be  at the same level.

This has been the biggest disappointment to me. Live Chat can not help beyond basic and scripted issues. I have yet to have an issue that I could resolve via Chat and once you get punted to email support things slow way down. My initial issue (bad UV board) took over a month to get resolved. The tank leaking issue took almost a month before they acknowledged the issue and continue to insist that some leaking is acceptable (cause what is a little toxic spill between friends right?). Even getting a replacement LCD that was (likely) damaged while cleaning up after a leak took more back and forth than I think it should have.

Is not a rep rap prusa machine. If i'm not mistaken is a another team that design it an build it. Most of the parts are fabricated and not printed and thus i dont know how its hardware upgradability is going to compare with their FFD line up

Yes the SL1 came from them acquiring another company. Yes most parts are metal, but I would say the following things:

• It is solidly built, so non electrical parts aren't going to need to be replaced.
• Unlike FDM printers, I don't see any gains that could be made from changing structural parts.
• While all the parts are metal, most/all have STEP files available in GitHub, so you can still modify them and print them if you wanted.
• The only two physical changes I would like to see are the use of a Mono screen and getting the tanks fixed. Neither can be solved with a FDM printer though.

The resin leak problem. I read in a forum post that the acknowledge it and there are in the process of examining remedies. 

At least the community stepped up here and did what Prusa hasn't. Check the thread on the resin leak issue and there is a link to an American vendor for an o-ring you can install (it's a 1mm cross section with a 100mm ID). Get yourself some of those and install it before installing the FEP. I've now had resin in my tank for almost a month straight and no more signs of leaking.

The LCD screen. To pricey for what it actually is and a consumable.

The initial one where you have to get the UV calibrator is indeed expensive. When I bought mine in July they have a listing for the LCD by itself for significantly less ($50USD vs $85USD as I recall), but that option seems to have disappeared. While still pricey, keep in mind that you are getting it already assembled into the frame while with the cheaper printers you have to work with a bare LCD which is more likely to get damaged during install.

Speaking of LCDs, since I started looking at getting my SL1 the replacement LCDs have either had a 2-4 week delay or been out of stock entirely. I suggest going ahead and ordering your first replacement so you have it on hand rather than being stuck with a dead printer for an unknown amount of time while waiting on a replacement.

RE: Prusa resin printer at competetive price?

@gnat

Even after the black friday deal i still thing is overpriced but i bit the resin bullet and went for it. I actually read good comments about the CW1 and this was another minor factor. On itself is around 700 E. So i was either going to go with another approach on the washing/curing station also or buy them a s a bundle. I read the thread about the leakage and honestly i'm hoping that the response you got on the resin leak was a momentary lapse (of a few months) of reason and they are on a path for fixing this problem. AI to prefer the green tint of color to be on my resin and not on my skin.

I saw you thread. Unfortunately i live in Europe and the shipping cost its disproportionally higher that the cost of the o-rings from a US supplier. But since the last thing i want is to go through all the hassle you went with the chemical spill i searched a bit and i ordered those from a vendor from UK https://www.ebay.com/itm/293838564312 . There are 100mm ID nitrile orings with 1mm CS diameter and hopefully they will arrive before the Brexit . Thanks for the tip

Another thing that prusa has on their plus site and im not sure at what degree they acknowledge it is their community. Its sometimes more helpful that prusa support itself. I believe ther should monitor the topics more often.

RE: Prusa resin printer at competetive price?

Posted by: @tsamisacytanet-com-cy

@gnat

I read the thread about the leakage and honestly i'm hoping that the response you got on the resin leak was a momentary lapse (of a few months) of reason and they are on a path for fixing this problem. AI to prefer the green tint of color to be on my resin and not on my skin.

I'm in the "I'll believe it when I see it" camp in regards to them fixing it, but since we have a work around that doesn't involve removing and emptying the tank after every print, I'm not as upset as I initially was.

I saw you thread. Unfortunately i live in Europe and the shipping cost its disproportionally higher that the cost of the o-rings from a US supplier. But since the last thing i want is to go through all the hassle you went with the chemical spill i searched a bit and i ordered those from a vendor from UK https://www.ebay.com/itm/293838564312 . There are 100mm ID nitrile orings with 1mm CS diameter and hopefully they will arrive before the Brexit . Thanks for the tip

Yeah finding a local supplier was what I was implying, I was just referencing McMasterCarr so you could see the complete specs.

Another thing that prusa has on their plus site and im not sure at what degree they acknowledge it is their community. Its sometimes more helpful that prusa support itself. I believe ther should monitor the topics more often.

Yeah I am starting to understand that the great support for the MK3S isn't Prusa so much as a large community willing to help you out so that you really only need to go to Prusa if there is a need for a replacement part. Unfortunately the SL1 community is small so there aren't a lot of answers already available yet.

As negative as I am about the SL1 (mostly Prusa themselves), I do still hope that I've seen the last of my unexpected issues and can start forgetting the pain under a pile of successful prints.