3D Printing Into the 3D printing pond with a Prusa Mk3

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caveduck

semi old rocketeer
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Finally succumbed and ordered Prusa's finest from Prague, in kit form. I know plenty of people here have these and would love some tips on essential upgrades/mods, also recommendations for ABS/PETG/Nylon filament.
 
I've been printing for about a year with a stock Mk3s. No upgrades are needed. You can upgrade the frame to a Bear (much stiffer) and upgrade the extruder to several options that can make some improvement in print quality, but I personally haven't seen the need for it on rocket stuff. I use the textured print sheet and PETG from eSUN, 3DXTech, Prusa, and Atomic which all print great for me. I haven't tried any of the super cheap filaments because I'd rather just print something than spend hours trying to make it work. I'm usually an upgrade-everything kind of guy but this one checks all the boxes in reliability and quality for me.

I went down the rabbit hole of trying to make the MMU2s work, and it just didn't. It's a cool little device but I spent 8 hours tweaking things for every 1 hour of print time. I converted mine back to single filament, but kept the teflon feed tube to the extruder which really helps with filament management the way I have mine set up. I use a spring loaded auto rewinder at the spool to eliminate filament tangles on full rolls. I may eventually go back to the MMU2 but for now I have rocket stuff to make and can't afford the down time.
 
You can upgrade the frame to a Bear (much stiffer)

I have the bear installed. It makes zero difference in print quality. I would recommend sticking with the stock frame unless you want a particular look.

I have 3 MK3S printers. I almost bought a 4th over Xmas. I have one stock. One with a Mosquito Hotend. One with a Bondtech extruder. I would recommend sticking stock until you get used to it. If you must upgrade, the Mosquito is the best upgrade I have installed, but it was also the toughest to complete. I can now print just about any filament I want. The Mosquito prints at very high temperatures.
 
I have a mk3s and a mk3 that is upgraded to s. Both do everything I need them to, no upgrades needed, they print pla, abs, petg, nylon, and exotic blends really well. Hot end is the only meaningful upgrade I have seen people do.

Worth mentioning I have 2 powder coated bed sheets, and now consider them a mandatory part of the kit, you could call that an upgrade.
 
Like others have posted just leave it stock for awhile, there is no upgrades that are a must and best thing I ever read was most 3D printer mods are solutions looking for a problem not solutions for a problem.

That being said I did the BMG upgrade aswell as the MMU2s and all though they both work and are neat I wouldn't do them again.
 
I guess you could consider it an upgrade to the printer but it does not modify the actual hardware - I highly recommend getting a Raspberry Pi and running OctoPrint on it:

https://octoprint.org

You can download and print a case that will mount the Pi right to your printer. I also bought a very inexpensive web cam to run with it which I think is a crucial accessory to monitor long prints. I used the SD card for a while but now I can't imagine not having the Pi to monitor the printer remotely.

I would also read up/watch some tutorials on how to calibrate first layer (simple) and extrusion multiplier:

https://help.prusa3d.com/article/ZhBlGFD9Ah-live-adjust-z
https://help.prusa3d.com/article/d9j1xdg7vj-extrusion-multiplier-calibration

Getting those right will really make a big difference in overall print quality.


Tony
 
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I have the bear installed. It makes zero difference in print quality. I would recommend sticking with the stock frame unless you want a particular look.

I have 3 MK3S printers. I almost bought a 4th over Xmas. I have one stock. One with a Mosquito Hotend. One with a Bondtech extruder. I would recommend sticking stock until you get used to it. If you must upgrade, the Mosquito is the best upgrade I have installed, but it was also the toughest to complete. I can now print just about any filament I want. The Mosquito prints at very high temperatures.

Good to know on the Bear. I could see where it may help if you're going to print really tall things, but I generally don't.

Did you do any other mods for the Mosquito, and what temps are you regularly printing at? I'd like to try some PEEK which needs 410C or so. I haven't really researched any other Prusa limitations that would prevent that, but I figured the hot end would be #1.
 
You all did not disappoint! Glad to hear that I ought to be able to get going with little or no hacking.
 
You will love it. It is not a beginner mod, but if I can do it, anyone can.

Maybe this belongs on a dedicated Prusa mods thread, but Mosquito Magnum is up and running. I printed the parts out of PETG a couple of days ago and started on the build this morning. It was no more difficult than building the Mk3s in the first place. I used this video to update the firmware. The only issue I had with the firmware process with some disagreement between the Arduino IDE and Mac OS Catalina. It opens the firmware just fine but it wouldn't compile correctly. I suspect it may be something to do with Catalina's inability to play nice with some software.

Luckily I have a Windows virtual machine on the Mac and was able to compile the firmware there. I was not able to upload the firmware directly from Arduino, so I exported it back to Slicer to flashed it from there.

Overall it's a slightly tedious process but is certainly within reach of an average computer user.

Here's a shot of my old hot end that I pulled out. I think she's been leaking a little bit for a while and dropping blobs on parts. Hopefully the Mosquito is a little easier to keep clean.
8pNdjiL.jpg
 
Mosquito running for 2 months and never had to clean it. I do use silicone socks.
 
The MK3 shipped out of Prague today, so my data point indicates the queue is currently 11 days. Excited! Now I have to magically find space in the garage to build and operate it. The mill has somehow eaten more space than I thought it would :)
 
The Mk3S arrived Friday in good order and I started assembling it yesterday. Already thinking about machining a few parts (e.g. the plastic Y belt tensioner clamps are an adjustability disaster) but I'm resisting the temptation and will mostly build it stock. I hope.
 
Just build it stock and enjoy it! Any perceived deficiencies will either make themselves known, or you'll forget about them quickly when it delivers print after print. I agree the Y belt tensioner seems inadequate but once adjusted, hasn't been an issue for me at all.
 
I'm approaching half done after the first weekend (and not getting much done Sunday as I didn't feel well). No real gremlins thus far, though I think it would be pretty hard to build using only the supplied tools by someone who wasn't used to building things. My T-handle metric hex drivers have really come in handy, and I had to (carefully!!) use a small deadblow mallet to get the X axis slides fully seated in the plastic brackets; there was no way I could just push them in. You will also need to use a small flat blade screwdriver to seat some of the deeply recessed square nuts into the fittings.
 
First actual error encountered in the kit parts and instructions. The two parts clamping the hot end in place need M3-35 bolts, not the supplied M3-40, which protrude too far to fit in the recesses. Things like this make me appreciate having Marshall's Hardware just 2 miles away. Marching along, about halfway thru the extruder head / X axis chapter.
 
Finished up over the weekend. My mistake above, the hotend does need 40mm bolts when you get everything into the stack :)

Started the good old 3DBenchy boat printing when I left for work, came home to a seemingly decent version of it. I have no idea if this is good on the fine points, but there were no axis shifts/skews/shearing so I'm pretty happy about that for the very first run.
upload_2020-2-17_20-5-54.png
 
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