3D Printer Journey

[kgg]

Some of you may know that I like my 3d printers for this hobby and other stuff. I figured I share some of my experiences those planning on getting into it or planning on upgrading equipment.

I first purchased a Prusa i3 MK3S it came not assembled to save a few hundred in assembly costs. That in itself was a 12 hour assembly journey.

Used it for about 120,000 meters and started to notice some minor print changes and decided to get a second machine so we bought another Prusa i3 MK3S and a Bear upgrade kit along with the Bontech extruder assembly. That assembly made the first look like a walk in the park, definitely not for the faint of heart. It took about 40 hours to assemble.

Thankfully we had the Bear Prusa Upgrade completed as we had a catastrophe fan failure at about 160,000 meters on the first machine so we then replace it with a whole new Bontech Mosquito extruder. We got about 20 hours of use and then had a stepper motor support failure. Which we suspect was why we were having previous minor print changes related to belt tension. Upon examination of the failed part it was obvious Prusa cheaped out on proper infill needs for that stress location.  We printed on the Bear Prusa Upgrade a much better stepper motor support and for the other side a better tensioner mechanism.

We installed a 1mm nozzle in the new Bontech Mosquito on the older Prusa i3 MK3S machine. What a difference in print time. As a comparison we printed a simple 6.5 mm thick part on the Bear with .4 mm nozzle and the same part on the rebuilt Prusa i3 MK3S. The Bear Prusa took 10 hours 58 minutes to complete and the rebuilt Prusa i3 MK3S took 2 hours 58 minutes to complete. Does it ever lay down filament. That is a significant reduction in print time, saving 8 hours. Guess what is getting upgraded next on the Bear Prusa Upgrade.

If you are planning on going the Bear Upgrade route, which I would strongly suggest, buy:

1) HiWin, not the chicom rails and linear blocks (H and C). Chicom are no where near as good. C were out of stock and had to mix in match 3 to get one 'good enough'. HiWin "just works".

2) Extruders are Bondtech Prussa Mosqutio Kits. Dont bother with the E3D v6 based Prusa upgrade kit. Not worth it. Go for the mosquito. Much better results. BUT pay for the SLS printed parts. MUCH better quality.

For other details or links to parts drop me a note.

Photo 1 --- Rebuilt Prusa i3 MK3S with the part showing the time.

Photo 2 --- Bear Upgraded Prusa i3 MK3S and UPS in background for both machines.

Photo 3 --- Rebuilt Prusa i3 MK3S new stepper motor support.

Photo 4 --- Rebuilt Prusa i3 MK3S new belt tensioner support.

[jimi]

Thanks for the info Kgg and for sharing 

[kgg]

Hi jimi,

Merry Xmas, my experience with the 3d printers may help someone down the road.

kgg