Live data from Hacker News

Original Prusa MK4

prusa3d.com

111–120 of 277 posts

Re: Original Prusa MK4

#111

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.

I don't think that's quite correct, according to Prusa, the XL has started shipping to customers two weeks ago, though presumably still in low numbers: https://blog.prusa3d.com/the-state-of-open-source-in-3d-prin...

I'm not super happy about the wait myself, but the XL is a considerably more complex beast, and I'd rather see them getting it right than sacrificing quality to meeting some self imposed deadline.

Re: Original Prusa MK4

#112
post #76
post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Agreed. I'd also argue that Blender is a poor suggestion compared to OnShape or Fusion360, which better suited for this type of design.

Re: Original Prusa MK4

#113
post #94

I have one of the first Prusas... and it sucks. It sucked from the very fist day. Faulty components. Material would not stick to the table. Warping. Miserable experience. It has been collecting dust ever since.

Yeah, old printers suck. I got my first printer in 2011. It sucked. New Prusas are fantastic printers and have been for a while.

Re: Original Prusa MK4

#114

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'm just learning too, but wanted to throw in that for an HN audience, OpenSCAD may be intuitive for modeling. You basically write up models in a simple declarative programming language. I found this easier to get started with than more GUI based tools.

Re: Original Prusa MK4

#115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Prusa just aggressively brands opensource stuff. I mean, they fork it, develop it further, and give it back to the community. That's entirely within the spirit of open source! "Aggressively branding open-source stuff" would be like Chinese Alibaba sellers ripping off open hardware or Amazon redistributing PostgreSQL as an AWS SaaS offering.

I figured someone would take issue with that, I guess my problem is they don't do a great job of attribution.

It's literally on the loading screen.

https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/56096557/107885845...

Re: Original Prusa MK4

#116
post #3

I have a Prusa MK2 clone that I recently revived with Klipper firmware, a cheapo Kingroon MK3S Pro that I bought to tweak a bit, and have been looking at getting a Bambu Labs or building a Voron - and either of those seems like a better investment than the MK4 if you can build and tweak the printer yourself. But the key thing is that the Bambu (and other upcoming Core XY printers) are aimed at the non-modding market…

How is the Bambu a better deal? All I'm seeing is a $1500 printer. Is there some other model?

Yes: https://store.bambulab.com/collections/3d-printer

Re: Original Prusa MK4

#117
post #82

These are nice and I have MK3 as well. However, I am doing most of my prints on HP MJF these days. It’s so much better and the cost is very reasonable. FDMs are good toys that require love. A lot of it (which can be good and bad).

I too would rather print on a hundred thousand dollar plus printer than a one thousand dollar one.

I still use Prusas for my robotics work because I can print multiple parts in a work day and iterate quickly. Either you are ordering parts and have to wait days for them to arrive, or your budget is very different from mine.

I did work at Google X and have a few MJF parts still from their in house machine. They are nice, but they are in a totally different league. My MJF benchy sits next to my Prusa MK3s at home.

Re: Original Prusa MK4

#118
post #94

I have one of the first Prusas... and it sucks. It sucked from the very fist day. Faulty components. Material would not stick to the table. Warping. Miserable experience. It has been collecting dust ever since.

At my work we have a Prusa mk3 as well as a $20k Markforged Mark2 printer, which can add carbon fibres for stiffness and strength. The Prusa is about as good when we don't need those features, similar speed and the slicer is actually better.

Re: Original Prusa MK4

#119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a proprietary versus open source argument. You can build a mk4 clone for much less than the price of a Prusa-branded one, as everything is open source. The higher price tag is like a donation to open source. Prusa also makes the open source XL if you want an CoreXY model, or you could go with a Voron which is also open source.

> It's a proprietary versus open source argument. You can build a mk4 clone for much less than the price of a Prusa-branded one, as everything is open source. The higher price tag is like a donation to open source. I would say the higher price tag is more like "Prusa" using its name as a quality assurance system where if you want to get something working without much hassle (since nearly every other mk4/mk3s clone th…

> since nearly every other mk4/mk3s clone that has been out there really really sucks except the ones from Prusa

I have had an Ender-3 V2 for a few years and it definitely doesn’t suck. I did add a BL Touch sensor for auto-leveling, and OctoPrint for remote printing/monitoring - which are great convenience upgrades. But the printer itself is very reliable and the only maintenance I’ve needed to do is to replace a few clogged nozzles.

For anyone just getting into 3D printing I would definitely recommend an inexpensive i3-style printer vs spending two to three times as much on a Prusa.

Post reply on HN