Original Prusa i3 MK3s

[joer]

Has anyone had any experience with Prusa printers?  I am looking at getting one as a kit in the near future.  They seem to be well supported by the manufacturer.

[joer]

I ordered the printer.  My guess it will ship in a couple of weeks.  This seems to be a good machine to learn 3D printing on. 

I am currently learning Fusion 360.  This is my first pass at 3D CAD.  I've used AutoCAD on and off since the mid 1980s for 2D stuff so this seemed to be the way to go.

[a1rgunz]

I don't think you can go wrong with Prusa, so many printers on the market are clones of that design, so they have to be doing something right. Having good manufacturer support can be a huge plus.

Fusion 360 is a great CAD program, I've been using it for about a year both personally and professionally and am very happy with it. The only real downsides are the constant new releases which are sometimes buggy or change the interface a bit and it doesn't always play well when transferring things between it and SolidWorks (this is more an issue with SolidWorks than anything, but frustrating). For the features and price I don't think it can be beat!

[Rob M]

if youre new to CAd, tinker is easier to get started.. I use tinker and fusion , and for basic ideas, tinkercad covers almost everything.. put a box on the screen , you can add another shape , or subtract a shape from the box.. Start there, it will go fast.. the hollow transparent shapes are for subtractng , SO use those for holes and so on.. Fusion has a million advantages, but getting from A to B is the challenge, B to C is just a matteer of time.

[joer]

if youre new to CAd, tinker is easier to get started.. I use tinker and fusion , and for basic ideas, tinkercad covers almost everything.. put a box on the screen , you can add another shape , or subtract a shape from the box.. Start there, it will go fast.. the hollow transparent shapes are for subtractng , SO use those for holes and so on.. Fusion has a million advantages, but getting from A to B is the challenge, B to C is just a matteer of time.

I considered Tinkercad but decided to bite the bullet and go with Fusion 360.  My first project was a drain plug stub alignment widget for a Newport Brass sink drain.  It basically centers the stud on the open/close arm.  A little piece of plastic that seems to be made of 'unobtainium".  A visitor to the house trying to fix a plugged drain unscrewed the drain plug pulled the clogged widget out and threw it away.  Nobody seems to have them.  It was pretty simple to design on Fusion though it took a bit of a learning curve.

[Rob M]

good to hear. if youve already started , stay on fusion.

[Insanity]

Good to hear that printer is what my ender is based off of. It will come in more handy than you think it will as you keep at it.

[joer]

Good to hear that printer is what my ender is based off of. It will come in more handy than you think it will as you keep at it.

Before retiring, I bought a TIG welder, MIG welder, a mini lathe, and a full size mill.  All are very handy to have and more so than I ever imagined.  I frequently use all of them for projects around the house.  My daughter is a mechanical engineer and can't wait till the printer arrives.  She has used both Catia and Solidworks.

[Insanity]

Heck ya man best I have is a flux core mig, its a nice hobart and has served others more than it has me lol. I dont have the stability or space for such items even though I have been formally trained to operate them. I look forward to seeing your progress with your prusa. Remember ABS is like a lego loves heat and stinks. PLA is super easy to print with but hates UV/direct sun light, PETG is the best of both worlds at least in my experience. Durable like ABS dose not need an enclosure dose not stink and prints as easy as PLA with some minor tuning.

[joer]

Well the printer kit finally arrived.  The lead time kept stretching out from 3-4 weeks to 6 weeks when my kit finally shipped.  Their current status for new orders is 7 weeks. 

I started building the kit on Monday and spent roughly 3 hours a day going through the build process.  From start to finish including calibration and live Z setting it took me around 12 hours.  The Prusa build instructions are very complete.  Probably the most detailed instruction for anything I ever built.  However, I switched from the paper manual to the online version for better detail on the images.  My setup was a large monitor connected to a laptop.

So far, I have built the classic benchy and that drain plug aligner.  All in PLA.  I purchased another spool of PLA and two spools of PETG that were ordered separate from the printer.  It was a good thing that I separated my order.  I avoided paying import duties and the additional items didn't delay my kit.  Shortages and shutdowns due to Covid are impacting just about everything these days.  Quite a few people on the Prusa forum are upset by the shipping delays.  This is going to be the new normal for a while.  Many PCP folks buy Yong Heng compressors for their setups.  Guys selling them in the US were charging around $235 with free shipping from within the US a year ago.  My guess they were being imported by the container load then.  Today, you can't touch them for under $400 and all seemed to be shipped from China.