Prusa i3 Mk3

[Matt]

We’ve been using the Prusa I3 Mk3 as our primary testing printer for the last year, It does very well out of the box, but we’re getting some just as good results with the Ender 3s. What are other people’s opinions in regards to how They handle Printing with the Prusas?

[Brian Etty]

I have an Ender 3, Monoprice Mini V1, Qidi Tech 1, and a Prusa I3 Mk3.

Of all the printers I would say the Prusa is by FAR my favorite. It just works. I did have to replace my LCD screen because of a loose SD Card reader, but it was barely a pain. I highly recommend them if you can afford them. I bought the Kit and everyone in my opinion seems to think it takes a really long time to build. I didn’t really find that. Its an effort of time, but quite enjoyable, and you learn a bit doing it.

[Ghoultard]

@Brian, yes I agree also. The Prusa i3 Mk 3 is an awesome printer

[Matt]

Has anyone tried the new prusa slicer, we will be having a look at it the next few days.

PrusaSlicer

[hakan]

I am using it basically ever since they started releasing beta builds. Both for my private printer at home and the small farm of mk3s machines (with the upgrade) in our Lab.

Long story short, works beautifully for me, especially the gyroid infill for the big main parts of the Sky Reaver.

[Matt]

Do you use a raft and if so, how do you find it? I usually prefer the Cura settings for Rafts.

[hakan]

No raft, I start immediately with the first layer of the model. Works pretty fine for me.

For largish models, e.g. for the sections of the Sky Reaver, I use a large brim (20mm), but I think that is mainly a problem of my steel platter. Same goes for the Gloomwood Trees, they simply don’t want to stick, so I print the brim, and after 5mm or so of height, I use some blue tape to make the brim really stick to the platter.

[Matt]

Useful tips. I usually print with a raft for larger buildings on the Prusas, and use a brim on the Enders. But yes I have had to resort to using printer’s tape to save prints. Sometimes the printers can be so fickle.

[pietervde]

I have an i3 MK3 as well, and I don’t use rafts, at all.

for just floors: no brim, no raft. there’s enough surface material anyway, and it doesn’t get top-heavy.

for walls: I turn the brim on, the default brim that can be selected with the layer heigth setting. the walls sometimes get top-heavy, so a bit more surface area helps in that regard.

while floors can be set to quite a low infill percentage, I also found that 15 to 20% infill (depending on the temp in the room. if its low, I can go to 15..) works best for walls, no lower, because otherwise some of the layers near where ‘bricks’ in the wall meet curl upwards due to not cooling enough, causing the printer to hit them, and toss the wall over.

with that in mind, I’ve printed several-day long prints of castle walls, with the entire plate filled up. I’m expecting the walls from the clorehaven kickstarter to go significantly easier and faster, especially the tudor walls, because there’s far less layers of bricks that need to be prepared for. if you want, I can give an update on that once I try them. 🙂

[seanwmcinnes]

What print settings do you recommend for your tiles on PrusaSlicer please? I’ve just using using the base 0.15mm SPEED profile and it’s done ‘okay’, but it does get some drooping in the clip slot.

[seanwmcinnes]

Apologies, just found another post telling me where to find the settings. Carry on. haha

[Author]

Posts