Prusa Mini+, Should I add mods or will it work really good without?  

RE: Prusa Mini+, Should I add mods or will it work really good without?

There's a bunch of things I can do but the only upgrade I truly recommend is the Bondtech extruder. Plenty of people happy with the stock extruder but I found it to be q bit finicky and requiring constant adjustments of the idler screw for different filaments. Haven't had to do this once and never had a clog since adding Bondtech extruders to my Minis. (Actually, I'm using the cheaper Trianglelab clones)

RE: Prusa Mini+, Should I add mods or will it work really good without?

Oh, alright! So that is for the grip?

RE: Prusa Mini+, Should I add mods or will it work really good without?

I had thought I would mod mine a bunch after getting it. But, so far I've done almost nothing since it works great as-is. I've just printed up a couple of little brackets so far. Not really looking at changing the extruder or hotend parts since they are just working so far. I'm taking the (successful) approach that I did with the car when setting it up for track days: leave things alone until I find something where stock isn't working the way I want, then make one considered change and see how it works before changing other things. Also, make sure I understand that aspect and get the mod dialed in before throwing other parts at it.

RE:

If you want to use flexible or filled stuff: Bondtech Extruder or similar

If you have trouble with the heatbreak or the tube inside: E3D Revo Micro hot-end

If you did the Revo upgrade: You can do a part cooling fan duct upgrade for better overhangs

Elsewise the printer works great and is reliable. Good choice for a beginner.

PS: You could also do the Base upgrade.

RE: Prusa Mini+, Should I add mods or will it work really good without?

The printer will be printing a lot of PETG, ASA and PLA. Not flexible that's for the Prusa MK3S+

Do you think it's necessary for a Bondtech extruder? 

RE: Prusa Mini+, Should I add mods or will it work really good without?

Many people manage really well without Bondtech extruders

regards Joan

RE: Prusa Mini+, Should I add mods or will it work really good without?

Thanks, Bob! Will take a look at this! Not new to 3D printing but I like to know what others think if something happens.

RE: Prusa Mini+, Should I add mods or will it work really good without?

I voted No since a lot of issues you may encounter will come from just learning how to tweak the stock printer.

Modding would only be necessary once you hit some walls and limitations, but even then these are soft walls and limitations as they will all be things you can learn to mitigate by tweaking the stock configuration.

In saying this though, I upgraded my extruder to the bondtech and it has been night and day difference in print quality, consistency, and even some artifacts that I used to have to adjust for.

If you're dying to mod your printer, i'd definitely recommend the flexible printer feet on prusa printers as well as the Z-Axis brace to significantly reduce noise and vibration.

Otherwise a tool and nozzle holder, or a front USB holder would be simple and fun mods to start with while maintaining your ability to get used to the stock printer.

RE: Prusa Mini+, Should I add mods or will it work really good without?

Isn't the only possible answer yes anyways, if you ask to do something or not? 😉

But realy, no need to modify anything if you do not have heatcreep. If you have heatcreep, forget about Bondtech Heatbreak etc. Simply do one Change that is completly free: Modify the connector of the hotend fan. Remove black cable and connect it to J21 Pin 2 (marked in green in the Photo).

GND on hotend fan connector is PWM, set in firmware to about 38%. Doing the mod,  it goes up to 100%. Loud, but nearly 3 times as much cooling the coldend. No heatcreep ever again.

Of course this is overkill (and loud). But for free.

If you invest about 15€, you can buy a Noctua 5V like used in mk3 and connect it this way. Still about 50% more airflow than stock configuration, so no heatcreep anymore - but silent.

RE:

I can absolutely recommend the MK3S dual gear extruder for the Mini(+). It's an awesome upgrade and makes the extruder very quiet.

You can find it here:
Prusa Mini Dual Drive Extruder Revision 6

It a design from @djkirkendall and remixed by @Infantryman

RE: Prusa Mini+, Should I add mods or will it work really good without?

I second this. The printer is now nearly silent, and can now handle softer filaments. For the price of a Bondtech gear set, it's well worth it.

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Can somebody please explain to me what means that losing the 3:1 gear reduction from the original extruder? With this one: Prusa Mini Dual Drive Extruder Revision 6

RE: Prusa Mini+, Should I add mods or will it work really good without?

The Mini's stock gear is huge compared to the spline driving the filament, hence the large gear ratio. I'm not sure why, maybe it has something to do with pushing filament from one side. Even with the direct dual extruder gear, the stepper motor's movement is so fine that there's basically no reduction in resolution.

I love this mod. It's been flawless so far, and makes the printer nearly silent since there isn't a middle gear clicking around when retracting.

RE: Prusa Mini+, Should I add mods or will it work really good without?

Posted by: @jamehz

The Mini's stock gear is huge compared to the spline driving the filament, hence the large gear ratio. I'm not sure why, maybe it has something to do with pushing filament from one side. Even with the direct dual extruder gear, the stepper motor's movement is so fine that there's basically no reduction in resolution.

I love this mod. It's been flawless so far, and makes the printer nearly silent since there isn't a middle gear clicking around when retracting.

Thank you very much for the information. But I still do not understand why is a losing the gear reduction (from original to this mod) is a negative thing. Because here: https://www.printables.com/cs/model/56487-mk3s-extruder-for-prusa-mini/comments

Someone is saying things like: 

Nice mod. The biggest issue with this is you lose the benefit of the gear reduction on the stock mini extruder.....

but the point still stands that you removed one of the biggest advantages of extruder design these days. The gear reduction. Have you looked into the bondtech extruder for the mini? It provides the best of both worlds. You've removed 1/2 the advantage of using the bondtech gears.

The mk3s extruder is also lacking this great feature. To add to this, you also used what is probably the worst revision of the mk3s extruder. It's been known for quite some time that the filament path isn't straight on the r5 extruder. If you take a look at the r6 parts, you will see that prusa has FINALLY corrected this.

What is the adventage of gear reduction? And does this 6th revision have it? Like the person is saying to look at R6 parts where PRUSA has finally corrected it? 

I want to install it because of this what you said: silent since there isn't a middle gear clicking around when retracting. But there are also 2 small gears connected to each other and one is drived by the other one.

Anyway thank you for reacting and trying to help with my questions.

RE:

Posted by: @bazim

 What is the adventage of gear reduction? And does this 6th revision have it? Like the person is saying to look at R6 parts where PRUSA has finally corrected it? 

I want to install it because of this what you said: silent since there isn't a middle gear clicking around when retracting. But there are also 2 small gears connected to each other and one is drived by the other one.

It's hard to say if the Mini's Dual Extruder revisions follow Prusa's MK3S revisions since it involves significant modifications from the MK3S design. I might have to ask! There may be a reason they're calling this current one Revision 6.

I've just read a bit on the gear reduction discussions, and yes, there seems to be some difference between some other extruders with larger drive gears versus the MK3S Bondtech gears in terms of being able to extrude filament "smoother" with smaller motor steps but by most accounts it seems to be at a near-microscopic level that we can't really see with the human eye. For what I'm printing, I can't really tell. I may have to test some vase mode prints with shiny silk PLA to see if there are any artifacts to note. I myself am using a lot of PolyTerra PLA with the matte finish so flaws are much harder to notice.

One benefit is certainly the silent extruder. Yes, there is the second gear being pushed by the other, but there is a line of filament sandwiched in between so you don't get that gear backlash like the Mini gear has. Between the gears and filament they just move in unison.

Another benefit I've just confirmed is the ability to print softer filaments. I've just successfully printed a test square of TPE 85A - it's nearly as soft as 'al dente' spaghetti - and went great! I used the Filamentum Flexfill 92A profile to start. (For some reason this forum isn't letting me upload images to show my results). There is one weird quirk happening that I think PrusaSlicer 2.5 will fix with the new Pressure Equalizer feature, but for the most part it's working!

I was always able to print harder TPU with the stock Mini extruder and treat it almost like PLA, but this soft stuff was never an option until now.

RE: Prusa Mini+, Should I add mods or will it work really good without?

I need to read is few times because my english is not so good, but you seems to me like really experienced guy. Thank you for the information.

I was worried because that one person was telling like the gear reduction missing in this mod is really really bad and disadventage. And I understand now about the backlash of the gears in the original one that this does not have. Again, that is really a thing that is bringing me to this mod.

Next you are talking about the smaller motor steps. I looked in to the settings of my printer and I have extruder steps like 325. And in the mod page is written that you need to change this motor steps to 140 so it is much smaller than the original one. Or is this opposite? Smaller number = bigger steps?

Do you need also playing with the tension screw of the doors like on the original one? Or this is another benefit because the tension is absorbed by the teeths so you don't need to be that precise with the tension screw (with spring)?

RE: Prusa Mini+, Should I add mods or will it work really good without?

Posted by: @bazim

I need to read is few times because my english is not so good, but you seems to me like really experienced guy. Thank you for the information.

I was worried because that one person was telling like the gear reduction missing in this mod is really really bad and disadventage. And I understand now about the backlash of the gears in the original one that this does not have. Again, that is really a thing that is bringing me to this mod.

Next you are talking about the smaller motor steps. I looked in to the settings of my printer and I have extruder steps like 325. And in the mod page is written that you need to change this motor steps to 140 so it is much smaller than the original one. Or is this opposite? Smaller number = bigger steps?

Do you need also playing with the tension screw of the doors like on the original one? Or this is another benefit because the tension is absorbed by the teeths so you don't need to be that precise with the tension screw (with spring)?

No problem! Glad I can help in any way I can.

When it comes to the extruder steps, yes, the smaller the number, the more the filament will feed along with the motor movement. I think the value represents "Steps Per Millimetre" so the dual extruder value (140) outputs filament 2.3 times more than the stock value (325). How much of a practical difference does that make? I really don't know. 140 steps for a millimetre still seems pretty fine for my purpose.

Yep, there's a tension screw (actually the same spring and screw as the Mini extruder) to adjust, and I've found I need to tension it very little since there are now two sets of teeth gripping the filament. I currently have it set so the end of the screw is flush with the hex nut on the door, and has been fine so far. It leaves very shallow indents on the filament and hasn't slipped so far. Printing TPE 85A has been fine with that setting as well. 

RE:

Do you need also playing with the tension screw of the doors like on the original one? Or this is another benefit because the tension is absorbed by the teeths so you don't need to be that precise with the tension screw (with spring)?

This has been the main advantage of upgrading to the Bondtech dual drive extruder (or in my case, the Trianglelab clone). I haven't had to adjust the idler for months, even though I print a wide range of materials and brands.