Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Original Prusa MK4

prusa3d.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

71–80 of 277 posts

Re: Original Prusa MK4

#71

Post by OJFord »

gattilorenz wrote: post #62

Not quite on topic, but I wanted to start 3D printing for a long time, but it feels there’s a huge gap from where I am (0 knowledge of 3D modeling and obviously 0 experience with printing) and where I want to get (design some custom parts that would make my life easier, e.g. a custom support for my Magic Trackpad that integrates with my keyboard). Does anyone have a good recommendation to go “from zero to hero”?

For primarily functional parts like that I'd recommend the Prusa Mini. That's exactly the position I was in a few years ago, and to be honest I just jumped in, Fusion360 (for example) is pretty accessible if you have an engineering mindset at least. Clough42 has some great design through to printing videos on YouTube. I think I'd seen some of those, and then had a go at designing something I wanted, (which was easy enough and looked good 'on paper') and then ordered my Mini.

Re: Original Prusa MK4

#72

Post by [deleted] »

rhinoceraptor wrote: post #12

These look like very solid improvements over the MK3S+ (I personally have two MK3S+, and use them a lot), and I love their commitment to open hardware and for making upgrade kits available, but it's a bit disappointing to see still how far Prusa is behind truly next-gen printers like the Bambu Lab X1-Carbon.

[deleted]

Re: Original Prusa MK4

#73

Post by donkeyd »

gattilorenz wrote: post #62

Not quite on topic, but I wanted to start 3D printing for a long time, but it feels there’s a huge gap from where I am (0 knowledge of 3D modeling and obviously 0 experience with printing) and where I want to get (design some custom parts that would make my life easier, e.g. a custom support for my Magic Trackpad that integrates with my keyboard). Does anyone have a good recommendation to go “from zero to hero”?

> a good recommendation to go “from zero to hero”

Below is pretty much how I did it:

Step 1:

Buy an Ender 3. It's cheap and there are tons of upgrades out there. Start printing stuff from Printables/Thingiverse in order to understand how slicing and printing works. Learn the jargon by researching issues you run into (don't just ask on forums, search for yourself).

Step 2:

Find some upgrades for the printer through Youtube, Reddit and the likes. Buy (or print) them and upgrade your printer. Run into issues, fix them and start understanding how the entire thing works.

Step 3:

Print this [0] model and watch this [1] video on how it was designed. It shows really well what constraints you're working with when designing for 3D printing and how to work around them. Then, start designing your own prints in whatever CAD software you want to learn. I started with Fusion 360, but anything is fine, probably.

0: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2064269

1: https://youtu.be/mziT7KV-fRI

Re: Original Prusa MK4

#74

Post by lardo »

throwawayprusa wrote: post #38
gjsman-1000 wrote: post #18

Nice - but it's been over a year and a half since preorders for the Prusa XL began and it still has not shipped!!! It is clear now that people who preordered the Prusa XL had availability sacrificed for the MK4. It just sucks if you've been waiting more than 18 months for that, only for the MK4 to get day-one availability before your long-awaited preorder.

They are drowning in cash but only hiring cheap, mediocre engineers. When they manage to hire enthusiasts, they either burn them out or leave them to their own devices without unifying vision or structure - as long as the owners like them. The culture is pure nepotism. Also, people who manufacture the printers are paid peanuts and are managed super strictly. Also, XL was announced because they were "feeling like they…

Do you have any insight into why Josef Prusa's name and face is plastered over every square inch of everything they produce?

Re: Original Prusa MK4

#75

Post by tcoop25 »

rhinoceraptor wrote: post #12

These look like very solid improvements over the MK3S+ (I personally have two MK3S+, and use them a lot), and I love their commitment to open hardware and for making upgrade kits available, but it's a bit disappointing to see still how far Prusa is behind truly next-gen printers like the Bambu Lab X1-Carbon.

I just canceled my X1-Carbon order. Just spend some time on the Bambu Labs subreddit and you will see a lot of frustrated owners. It is insanely loud, and it seems unreliable and buggy.

I have owned a lot of printers over the years, and the only printers I, or any of my colleagues come back to are Prusa printers. They are incredibly reliable. The few times we have had issues with a part, we have been able to print a replacement. I am constantly excited by fancy new printers that all promise to be the next big thing, and stupidly keep buying them.

I will take Prusa's amazing customer support, a product I know I will be able to upgrade when they release the next iteration, and the company that has the best free software as well (the Bambu is just a forked version of Prusa's slicer).

Re: Original Prusa MK4

#76

Post by donkeyd »

sf_rob wrote: post #69
codercotton wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I hope it's not against any rules... it's not as far as I know of, so I plugged your comment into ChatGPT: Sure, I'd be happy to help you get started with 3D printing! I'll break it down into a few steps, from learning the basics of 3D modeling to printing your first custom part. Learn the basics of 3D modeling: To start, it's important to get familiar with 3D modeling software. Two popular free options are Tinkercad…

This is good advice. Tinkercad is hardly more difficult than Microsoft Paint and can be easy enough to start doing some basic DIY modeling in an afternoon.

I don't think it is. It starts with the design phase, which is arguably the hardest part, especially if you have no clue how printers work. It's much easier to just start printing pre-made stuff and then learn how to design your own, also taking inspiration from the stuff you've already printed.

Re: Original Prusa MK4

#77

Post by mitthrowaway2 »

zokier wrote: post #25

From outsider perspective (fdm) 3d printers plateaued relatively quickly; while the speed improvement is undoubtedly nice for heavy users, even at 3x speed I don't know if it is really transformative. Meanwhile the print quality hasn't changed really that much afaik? Of course being more reliable and less fiddly are certainly good improvements but I don't see them being transformative or making 3d printing conquer ne…

The main FDM 3D printer patents expired at around the time the first iphone came out. I've been involved with them since those early days. If you ask me, the pace of improvement in usability, quality, reliability, and functionality of 3D printers has been as good if not better than smartphones. And it continues today. These upgrades in first-layer sensing and nozzle exchanges are a bigger relative improvement than the incremental increase in smartphone camera resolution. And the ecosystem of filament suppliers, G-code slicers, and 3D models available for download for people who don't want to do their own CAD has also grown.

Reliability is a huge, huge deal. Back in 2009 we were dealing with constant nozzle jams, delamination from the print bed, print errors, drifting, ooze, extruder slip, and all sorts of other problems. You had to keep a constant eye on the printer, and manually tweak the G-code generation parameters to get good results. It's come a long way and still going.

Re: Original Prusa MK4

#78

Post by gattilorenz »

grepLeigh wrote: post #68
gattilorenz wrote: post #62

Not quite on topic, but I wanted to start 3D printing for a long time, but it feels there’s a huge gap from where I am (0 knowledge of 3D modeling and obviously 0 experience with printing) and where I want to get (design some custom parts that would make my life easier, e.g. a custom support for my Magic Trackpad that integrates with my keyboard). Does anyone have a good recommendation to go “from zero to hero”?

I met someone building a similar trackpad! He's using a 3D printer to create the housing. https://www.reddit.com/r/ErgoMechKeyboards/comments/113rfhm/... /r/3DPrinting has a comprehensive guide to getting started with 3D Printing: https://www.reddit.com/r/3DPrinting/wiki/gettingstarted/ The designing and iterating of physical components is a learned skill, just like designing and iterating on software becomes easier…

Awesome! As a side note, mounting the trackpad to my keyboard (at work I glued L brackets to a MS Natural keyboard, and plastered the keypad over) worked wonders for my RSI. I’m going to design a holder for my Matias Ergo Pro, eventually.

Re: Original Prusa MK4

#79

Post by aspett »

tcoop25 wrote: post #75
rhinoceraptor wrote: post #12

These look like very solid improvements over the MK3S+ (I personally have two MK3S+, and use them a lot), and I love their commitment to open hardware and for making upgrade kits available, but it's a bit disappointing to see still how far Prusa is behind truly next-gen printers like the Bambu Lab X1-Carbon.

I just canceled my X1-Carbon order. Just spend some time on the Bambu Labs subreddit and you will see a lot of frustrated owners. It is insanely loud, and it seems unreliable and buggy. I have owned a lot of printers over the years, and the only printers I, or any of my colleagues come back to are Prusa printers. They are incredibly reliable. The few times we have had issues with a part, we have been able to print a…

Here's the thing, though: It's almost definitely a case of silent majority. The printer is pretty phenomenal and I've had excellent support from Bambu so far in New Zealand, no less.

Re: Original Prusa MK4

#80

Post by Casteil »

donkeyd wrote: post #73
gattilorenz wrote: post #62

Not quite on topic, but I wanted to start 3D printing for a long time, but it feels there’s a huge gap from where I am (0 knowledge of 3D modeling and obviously 0 experience with printing) and where I want to get (design some custom parts that would make my life easier, e.g. a custom support for my Magic Trackpad that integrates with my keyboard). Does anyone have a good recommendation to go “from zero to hero”?

> a good recommendation to go “from zero to hero” Below is pretty much how I did it: Step 1: Buy an Ender 3. It's cheap and there are tons of upgrades out there. Start printing stuff from Printables/Thingiverse in order to understand how slicing and printing works. Learn the jargon by researching issues you run into (don't just ask on forums, search for yourself). Step 2: Find some upgrades for the printer through Yo…

To add a few things:

- Start your journey with PLA, and small prints. PLA is the easiest/least fussy material to print because it doesn't tend to string, or warp/shrink/lift off the bed like PETG/ABS. Nothing's worse than having a large print fail (usually boils down to slicer settings, hence the need to get familiar with your printer via smaller prints first).

- PrusaSlicer is, IMO, one of the best slicer options out there... works for virtually all printers and it's free/open source: https://github.com/prusa3d/PrusaSlicer/releases

- TPU filament is AMAZING to have for functional 3d prints... but you need a direct drive extruder to be able to print it reliably. If you can afford it, shoot for an Ender with a direct drive extruder e.g. the S1 or S1 Pro.

- Other stuff: Use Mainsail on a Raspberry Pi or similar for remote control/monitoring from any browser or phone (alternative: Creality Sonic Pad), Klipper firmware for GOING FAST (pressure advance setting), print mods/upgrades for your own printer (e.g. webcam mount, tool holders, parts cooling fan ducts, etc)

Post reply on HN