3D Printing Prusa MK3s Spare part recommendation

H-MINUS · Oct 6, 2019

My high school son and I are new to 3D printing and we recently purchased and assembled the Prusa MK3s. He downloaded Fusion 360and has started designing his own prints.

I was going to order another print bed or two and some more PLA and PETG to try. What would you Prusa owners say the minimum if any spare parts would be? Seems I’ve read some have had the IR filament sensors failing.

Figured I’d add some spare parts in to get the most out of shipping cost.

Thanks for your help.
Dan

cwbullet · Oct 6, 2019

I keep the following on hand as replacements:

V6 Hotend assembled (quick swap when there is a jam)
Fan shroud (they melt) (I print them in ABS with CF)
Hotend heater cartridge
Hotend thermistor
Bed thermistor
Cable for power panic
Cables for power supply
Pinda Probe
E-axis parts that are near Hotend (I print them PETG with CF)
Filament sensor (I have not used it)

mpitfield · Oct 6, 2019

You're going down the rabbit hole. Possibly it is just me, but I do see this quite often with people who get into 3D printing. You will start off having spare belts, and spare 3D printed parts for your three axis, then next thing you know, you will have enough spare parts to make a second printer. Welcome to 3D printing!

Having said that, if you have more restraint than myself, then it's a good idea to have a spare length of GATES GT2 Belting as well as the bearings for your pulleys. The nozzles will wear so having a spare nozzle and possibly upgrading to a harder nozzle for longer life in the process. Once you start printing, you will get tired of cleaning the heater block, so investing in some silicon socks for better heat retention in the block and easier cleaning will be an easy one. Then, of course, there is downloading all of the 3D printed Prusa parts as spares, or the new versions, when they are revised.

Good luck and welcome to 3D printing

H-MINUS · Oct 7, 2019

Thanks for the replies. This gives me some direction.

Dan

cwbullet · Oct 7, 2019

I am sure you will experience the Murphy’s Law of 3D Printing: “If you buy back up parts, the original parts you sough to back up will last forever”.

I bought my first printer a year ago. In 6 months, I bought parts and back ups for ones that fail. I even repaired motors and parts after they broke down. In that time, I had enough parts to build a second printer. I have three MK3s variants. One with a Moquito hotend, one with the stock hit end and a Bondtech, and one that is 100% stock. Based on my experiences, you will never buy the part that fails. Hopefully, you have better skills at predicting.

The list above is the ones I have had to replace.

manixFan · Oct 7, 2019

A PTFE feed tube. But unless you are planning on printing 24/7 right off the bat I would wait a couple of months and decide if you want any upgrades (like a hot end or better z-mounts). Buy (and print) those and then keep the originals as spares. And read up on storage and handling of the different filament types. You’ll need a dry box for storage. And an raspberry Pi for a print server, and a webcam for remote monitoring, and...

You get the idea.

Tony

cwbullet · Oct 8, 2019

manixFan said:
A PTFE feed tube. But unless you are planning on printing 24/7 right off the bat I would wait a couple of months and decide if you want any upgrades (like a hot end or better z-mounts). Buy (and print) those and then keep the originals as spares. And read up on storage and handling of the different filament types. You’ll need a dry box for storage. And an raspberry Pi for a print server, and a webcam for remote monitoring, and...

You get the idea.

Tony

I can't believe I forgot the PTFE tube. That was my first part to replace.

FredA · Oct 8, 2019

Wow - you "need" all this to keep a Prusa running and you guys call an Ender 3 a bucket of parts....looks pretty much the same to me.

cwbullet · Oct 8, 2019

FredA said:
Wow - you "need" all this to keep a Prusa running and you guys call an Ender 3 a bucket of parts....looks pretty much the same to me.

Trust me. You cannot compare unless you own both. They are night an day. I own 7 printers - 3 Prusa, 2 Enders, 1 CR-10S Pro, and an Anycubic Predator. The Predator and Prusas outclass the Creality but if all you want is a cheap printer to mess with, the Ender or CR-10 is ok.

Comparing 2 Enders and 3 Prusas, you have to look at over all reliability and number of failed prints. One of the Prusa has over 3000 hours of printing in a year with over 80% success rate on prints It has been down less than 10 hours total in 12 months. I can replace parts and upgrade it in minutes to an hour and a Prusa comes with temperature runaway protection which you have to upgrade.

My Ender has been down for weeks at a time is more like a 50-60% success rate on prints. The quality is night and day between the two. Don’t get me wrong, I would not trade any of them. Each as their strengths and weaknesses. The Ender is cheap but is less reliable. Is it a bucket of bolts? It depends on which on you get. There are horror stories about purchases. I recommend you buy from a reliable dealer so you can return it if you buy any Creality printer.

KilroySmith · Oct 8, 2019

I'm far from an expert at 3D printing, but just went through this whole process building a kit with my son. Some lessons to help:
1. The biggest problem that everyone has is getting the print to stick to the print bed. We've finally gotten pretty good at it, but it caused a lot of frustration early on. Solicit good advice on how to do this. I'd give you my advice, but it probably doesn't fall into the category of "good".
2. PLA is by far the easiest to print with. I'd suggest using it for awhile until you're up to the challenge of figuring out ABS or PETG.
3. Don't worry too much about spares at this point, IMHO. Use the printer and have fun. If something breaks, Amazon Prime will get you back up and running in a couple of days.
4. I tend to build jigs that need reasonably precisely located holes and supports; I was having trouble doing that (and modifying designs) using the graphical 3D programs (probably a limitation of my brain). Anyway, I found that OpenSCAD (Free!) made this kind of work easier to do.

Anyway, have fun with it.

manixFan · Oct 8, 2019

KilroySmith said:
I'm far from an expert at 3D printing, but just went through this whole process building a kit with my son. Some lessons to help:
....<snipped>....
4. I tend to build jigs that need reasonably precisely located holes and supports; I was having trouble doing that (and modifying designs) using the graphical 3D programs (probably a limitation of my brain). Anyway, I found that OpenSCAD (Free!) made this kind of work easier to do.
....<snipped>....

I also find it easier in many instances to create guides and templates in OpenSCAD than in a more traditional CAD program. What I did for my last mount was create a module for each set of mounting holes for the different altimeters I use and another module to add mounting bosses of any height. Now it's easy to create a altimeter mount by just combining the modules and placing them as needed on the main mount. The CAD software I use has similar capabilities but it's a lot harder for me to figure out. OpenSCAD is a great tool for rocketry. Obviously previous programming experience helps but for most projects there really isn't any true programming, it's more just descriptive code.

Tony

This code (when combined with the Boss module) will create bosses with holes for a Stratalogger:

Code:

module StrataLogger(){
                translate([0,0,0])boss(bossH,bossH,bossH/2); //Stratalogger upper left
                translate([.65,0,0])boss(bossH,bossH,bossH/2); //Stratalogger upper right
                translate([0,-1.8,0])boss(bossH,bossH,bossH/2); //Stratalogger lower left
                translate([.65,-1.8,0])boss(bossH,bossH,bossH/2); //Stratalogger lower right

cwbullet · Oct 8, 2019

KilroySmith said:
The biggest problem that everyone has is getting the print to stick to the print bed.

Or stick too much depending on the surface.

3D Printing Prusa MK3s Spare part recommendation

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