@Alexander, Did you apply the Mosfet fix to your i3? Also, the wire crimp fix?
That model has had two issues which should be addressed if you haven't already. (Both risked burning homes down)
I have two printers,
a Monoprice Select plus (~$400), and later upgraded to a Prusa I3 MK3 kit (~$799 USD for the kit || ~$899 USD assembled printer).
I didn't know if 3d printing was something I would get much enjoyment or utility out of. As such I didn't dive right into a pricey printer.
Monoprice
Pros:
- Not too expensive
- Will have you actually printing in 1-3 hours
- Prints look pretty good!
- Not too terrible to service. (More on that later)
- Heated bed for printing a wide range of materials
- Spring levelling means if you crash into the bed it's not the end of the world
- Really large community online to help with mods and support
- Came with a bit of filament (not much, enough to print a little sample print)
Cons: (This was all while I was very new to 3D printing. Possible that I generally got a lemon machine, also possible I was somehow the cause of some of these issues, but this type of thing isn't new territory for me, so I suspect more of the former than the latter.)
- This printer also had a fire hazard recall / fix to be implemented related to spring bed levelling shorting out the heatbed.
- Learned to service as I had the first printer stop working within a month due to a stepper / stepper driver failing, got a replacement printer from Amazon.
- The second printer had it's own issues:
- Had to replace the thermistor (Temp sensor) in the heatbed
- Main extruder heater failed
- Had to replace the main part cooling fan which stopped working and caused a print to fail
- Replacement's motherboard died ~3 months later, had to buy a replacement ($140) (Probably this is what caused some prior issues)
- Still throws odd errors causing prints to fail half way
- Monoprice support is non-existent. Opened a ticket online, called and left a message. Two weeks later got a call back, and the kid I spoke to knew basically nothing about the printer.
- Spring bed levelling needs to be adjusted after every print. (Huge pain in the rear)
- The bed surface they use works very well (too well?). I often struggle to get parts off of it without tearing the bed surface ($10 part and 1/2 hour to replacement) or damaging the part. Only once have I cut myself deep enough to consider getting stitches, haha.
- Print quality isn't actually fantastic, I just had no frame of reference, so anything printed was great! lol (I can print the same thing on both printers if you want a side by side?)
- Have not seen a single update push out for this machine since I bought it. There is actually a group producing their own hand made firmware becuase of the lack of updates.
- These guys started their own, as the native firmware doesn't even have some of the basics, like thermal runaway protection to prevent your printer catching on fire.
Monoprice summary:
Man, the machine was simple to get running initially, with only 4 screws to install, but it was a huge PITA by the end of the process, having to replace everything except half the wiring, the frame, and the motors themselves. Not many "creature comforts", but will get your feet wet with 3d printing.
Prusa i3 MK3
Pros:
- Print quality is very good. (First print had a jaw-dropping effect after being used to the Monoprice)
- The nature of printing your own parts, instead of mass fabbing them in china is that Prusa actually beta tests their own crap before shipping out broken or faulty designs / parts. See:
- The print surface is removable, held on with magnets, and made of spring steel. You flex the sheet metal and the part pops off. Easy.
- The heated bed has embedded magnets for the included inductive probe/sensor. This means the printer's firmware runs an automatic mesh bed levelling algorithm before each print. No springs, perfect layer height.
- I chose the kit. Took a good chunk of time to put together, but I am intimately familiar with the printer's construction as a result.
- Many parts of the printer are actually 3d printed (see: reprep). Which means 1/2 the parts I could remake if I need to.
- Nothing has failed yet though, been since February printing pretty much non-stop
- Filament optical sensor detects when you run out of filament and pauses the print for you to reload a new roll.
- Came with 1KG of filament
- Two different slicer software packages included.
- "Prusa Control" --> Which is essentially beginner mode printing. Upload file, pick 4 settings from dropdown menus, print. -- Preconfigured for the printer, no setup required.
- "Slic3r Prusa Edition" --> Full blown slicer with all the bells and whistles
- Has a whole set of calibration tools and programs built into the machine. Just select the program and follow the on-screen prompts.
- Has a self-diagnostic thing to check if anything is wrong. Gives you a to-do list if anything is out of specification
- Large community for support
- Prusa pushes regular updates to the slicer software and printer firmware. (Actual changes occurring ~daily to software: https://github.com/prusa3d/Prusa-Firmware/commits/MK3)
- Live support agents from Prusa Research who are also extremely familiar with the machine
- Prusa has a neat upgrade path system they've chosen to allow their printers to be of higher quality. (More on that in the summary below)
- Silent mode is a thing, and it's truly super silent.
- Power outages do not ruin prints, the printer will just pause and wait for power to come back on.
- Crash detection and recovery
Cons:
- Expensive for a starter printer
- Doesn't look as cool out of the box (Just look at that link in @Janger 's original post, it's a cool looking printer!)
- Requires upgrades if you want things like multiple extruders or an enclosure.
Upgrade path:
Prusa is pretty constantly rolling out software updates, and new hardware periodically. Sometimes bigger commitments like their new Multi-Material Upgrade, which is being overhauled currently, shipping in the next month or two (for 4 different filaments at one time. Either 4 different colours, or 3 colours and soluble supports, etc.)
They've never outright said it, but I get the sense that they put all of their per product price into high-end components, and leave out things that only some users will need (like an enclosure), they then offer solutions separate to the base printer, which are often easy to implement, because you own a 3d printer. Of all of them the Multi-Material Upgrade is the only one they're going to charge for that isn't a consumable anyways.
Here's their enclosure solution video: (skip to 1 minute in
Here's the most recent upgrade to the printer's 3d printed parts:
https://shop.prusa3d.com/forum/gene...-f61/new-printed-parts-version-r3-t23017.html
$20 solution for wireless file upload to the printer:
https://www.prusaprinters.org/easy-wireless-printing-with-flashair-sd-cards/
etc.
Summary:
If I could start over knowing what I do, I would have just skipped the monoprice completely and started with a Prusa MK3. It's been solid, without issue, super convenient, with lots of safeties and features that generally make it feel like the technology is as flushed out as paper printing is. As such, I tend to print more, and more functionally, because I am not fighting the machine the whole time. It's more money, but a "you get what you pay for" type situation IMHO.
Look into PETG, which you can print on any of the printers listed in this thread, without the need for an enclosure. It also doesn't stink like ABS.
https://3dprint.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/3dp_colorfabbngen_chart.jpg
Prints like PLA with strength much closer to ABS, without the curling and smell issues of ABS.
If you want, come by sometime and I can show you both printers.
JW
