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New prusa xl

Janger

(John)
Administrator
Vendor

Darren

Ultra Member
Premium Member
I know nothing about 3d printers, except that they make cool stuff. I really want to get one. When I do, I want to get something pretty decent. Is this one that you would recommend to a noob?
 

Mcgyver

Ultra Member
The prusa mk3 <snip> are good bets to start. They’re more money and also work well without any fuss.

Not for me it didn't, it was nightmare. I eventually figured out the problem: they'd deviated from the E3D V6 hot end heat break (if you are not aware this printer is based a lot on open source design stuff) and that messed everything up. Unbelievably so. Constant jams requiring disassembly. They put a shoulder in the bore, which, according E3D drawings, its not suppose to have. You can't believe the frustration before I discovered the cause, of course having no clue as to what it was: - a deviation of a bore inside a part, on a printer I paid a premium for because its just suppose to work! Without measuring equipment, the average poor sod would never find the problem. No idea if they are still shipping that way or they corrected it. I suspect they must have, and its otherwise perfomed well. One thing for certain, they never apologized. Not worth the premium imo.

I wrote them the equivalent of a engineers NCR report with photos, drawings of the measurements I found, deviation from the E3D, all the details......they wrote back in true Bill Gates style suggesting I check the firmware version and reset the printer. Running ok after I found the problem, but yeah, I'm still plenty bitter. Grrrrr
 
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Janger

(John)
Administrator
Vendor
Not for me it didn't, it was nightmare. I eventually figured out the problem: they'd deviated from the E3D V6 hot end heat break (if you are not aware this printer is based a lot on open source design stuff) and that messed everything up. Unbelievably so. Constant jams requiring disassembly. They put a shoulder in the bore, which, according E3D drawings, its not suppose to have. You can't believe the frustration before I discovered the cause, of course having no clue as to what it was: - a deviation of a bore inside a part, on a printer I paid a premium for because its just suppose to work! Without measuring equipment, the average poor sod would never find the problem. No idea if they are still shipping that way or they corrected it. I suspect they must have, and its otherwise perfomed well. One thing for certain, they never apologized. Not worth the premium imo.

I wrote them the equivalent of a engineers NCR report with photos, drawings of the measurements I found, deviation from the E3D, all the details......they wrote back in true Bill Gates style suggesting I check the firmware version and reset the printer. Running ok after I found the problem, but yeah, I'm still plenty bitter. Grrrrr

That is just bizarre @Mcgyver . @Jwest7788 and I have one and they have been very good overall.
 
I've been reading about different 3d printers, and this Prusa seems like it would be a good one to grow with.
Would it be a decent machine to start learning on?
I don't have any 3d print experience.
Ken
I'm thinking about this as a " Buy once, Cry once " expenditure.
 

van123d

Well-Known Member
This looks like a terrific printer. But this is really a premium printer with expanded capability that comes at a premium price. It would not be my recommendation for someone new who just wants to learn on. I think you would do better starting off with a more basic ~$500 printer, something like the Ender 3 S1 which includes auto-bed levelling. I would only recommend going to something like that new Prusa if you had a known demand for the expanded capabilities it offers (bigger print volume, multi material support).

3D printers are not really a mature technology where "Buy once, Cry once" holds true. The capabilities and quality are improving rapidly so you are better to upgrade as you outgrow your current machine and take advantage of all of the new developments at the same time.
 

Dabbler

ersatz engineer
The printers introduced over the last year are way better that 'premium' printers from just 2 or 3 years ago. I agree with the Ender S1 if you are going for a 'bed slinger' printer -- Prusa Mk 3 owners always say nice things about them, and should be worth the price.

Core XY printers are *very* expensive everywhere, except for the Ender 7, and I haven't heard good things about the E7. For the price not a very good value.

- If you do go Prusa XL, you know that Prusa releases good printers into a great ecosystem.
 

Johnwa

Ultra Member
My son has a Prusa MK3 and it prints way better than my geriatric Prusa I3. The I3 bed is too small and it’s a bit clunky. I can’t justify the price of a real Prusa MK3 so I’m cloning it.
 
3D printing is a rapidly evolving technology where some DIY hacking of your printer can pay great dividends. If you are one of those that prefers to have every thing ready made by someone else then you can pay big bucks and get a Prusa.. If on the other hand you don't mind learning a lot about the technology and getting your hands dirty with some hacking of your printer then you can achieve a superior product by beginning with a solid inexpensive printer like an Ender 3 and upgrading it.

 

Galoot

Member
I bought the Prusa MK3S+ a few months ago and according to the statistics menu I have done 201 hours of (error free) printing. I bought it as a kit and after assembly, it worked right out of the gate. I use Fusion 360 for designing things.
 
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