3D printing experience

UncleJoe

Joe
Senior User
Well I last year I bought a 3 D printer kit. I started to assemble it and then my father passed away, so I was very busy with the estate and just put everything in a box and figured I would get back to it later. I have now completed the assembly and made a dozen or so items with it.

My feedback for what its worth, your mileage may vary. After a lot of internet research i decided on the Prusa printer as it seems to be the most popular kit around. With a popular product there is a very large user community and they are a very helpful resource. Yes there are less expensive printers and they may be just fine and yes you can buy the Prusa fully assembled for a few hundred extra but I wanted the experience of building it so I could better understand how it all works. Let me say that if every manufacturer had an instruction set this clear and online support this good I am convinced that world peace would break out and everyone would just get along. :)

Something I have never seen before is that while they give you a beautiful printed guide they also have the guide online with interactive user comments on each step. If you are having difficulty with a particular task you can look at the user comments for that step and someone may have a tip that makes that step a little easier. It may be as simple as there are 4 bolts to tighten but make sure you tighten the center one first then the outside ones. But it is advice from real end users who assembled the same kit with the same instructions that really makes this thing work.

One other little thing that may just be generational. They include a bag of gummie bear candy. They tell you how many gummies to eat after completion of each task. Some tasks are more difficult so you get more gummies for completing it. Silly? Maybe, but it does make assembly a little more fun.

The final tuning takes some patience to get just right as there are so many variables that affect print quality, but a little patience and persistence pays off big time. I think I was able to get mine fully tuned in about an hour.

There is an enormous repository of prints available on Thingaverse and PrusaPrints. (PrusaPrinters) . I have also been designing my own objects in Sketchup and Fusion and they work very well.

So far this has been a lot of fun. I am not trying to make money with the printer like some are. I am retired and I had a job that paid well if I still wanted to work I would, this is just for fun. I made some toys for the grand kids and have evolved them in making some and they love it. My oldest grandchild is only 5 but its never too early to involve them in age appropriate STEM projects.

So if you have been thinking about getting into the 3d game I have had great experience with Prusa and the user community is global and extremely helpful to new people without trashing them for not knowing something.
 

Bas

Recovering tool addict
Bas
Corporate Member
+1 with Prusa. I have a Prusa MK3S and it's been very reliable. It's not as simple as plugging in an appliance, there is still some tinkering involved with temperature, slicing the model, printing supports, scaling, etc. but it comes in manageable increments. Creating toys, models, shop accessories, parts etc. has been a ton of fun.

And I finally have blast gates that perfectly fit 4" thin wall PVC.
 

spartyon8

Peter
User
I bought a Creality Ender 3 V2 and have been more than happy with it. It took very little to assemble and start printing.
 

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