I'll have to take a look at this. I have been wanting to get my first printer and am willing to spend more to get one that I don't ever have to fuss around with, as I just want to use the printer and not work on it. I was heavily considering the MK3S+, but I had talked myself into going with a Bambu Lab printer, either the P1P or X1 Carbon: https://bambulab.com/en. So this new offering from Prusa deserves a look, but I think I am still leaning towards the Bambu Lab products. They have a lot of features.
Original Prusa MK4
41–50 of 277 posts
Re: Original Prusa MK4
#42The 70% print time reduction seems like a game changer. Any way to do this with the MK3S?
Re: Original Prusa MK4
#43These 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 own two MK3s+'s. They are solid machines if you are looking to print PLA and some PETG. The stock extruder is a PITA. The MK4's redesigned nozzle/heat break & 10:1 extruder are basically a Bondtech LGX + Revo & should make for a great improvement. The MMU3 seems like a marginal improvement, you still have purge towers & large buffer boxes. Hopefully the reliability out of the box has improved. I wonder if it's too…
Agree it’s tough. The non enthusiasts that don’t give a shit and aren’t interested in a cash outlay are in the sub $500 market. Once you break that point you’re unlikely to want to save a couple hundred bucks. I would have definitely had started with the Bambu if it were available a couple years ago. If I get tired of my MK3S I would be highly unlikely to upgrade to a Prusa.
Re: Original Prusa MK4
#44Prusa printers were great many years ago. in 2023 I'd recommend buying any cheap Chinese brand. I bought an i3 MK3S+ and it almost made me lose my love for 3d printing, the machine is clearly stuck in the past, you don't even have remote printing out of the box, you face as many issues as you would with a cheap 3d printer, but you have to pay over $1k USD and wait months to get one.
super weird since it just worked for me, unlike creatility stuff
Re: Original Prusa MK4
#45So I would really like to get into 3D printing, but I struggle with discomfort over the health implications. I live in a small rented apartment and can't easily work out space or, much more importantly, external venilation. Yes, I've looked into PLA vs. ABS, I've looked into enclosures with carbon/HEPA filters, etc., but I still don't want to have it in my living space without a vent to the outdoors. Here's the best…
If you can shell out a little more, you might be able to print a Nevermore filter[1] and use activated carbon to filter VOCs, provided your printer is enclosed. You could also buy a Bambu Labs P1P, which is fully enclosed, or build a Voron. There's also the Creality Sermoon V1, but with chinese printers you always have to replace / upgrade the parts, so they're really not that cheap in the long run. 1: https://github…
Just a note that the P1P does not come fully enclosed. You need to either print your own sides or buy them from someone. I don't think Bambu Lab even sells them, and even then they are just side panels and don't include the front. The Bambu Lab X1 Carbon comes fully enclosed, however. It is one of the main reasons that I am considering just going for the X1 Carbon. If the P1P had a fully enclosed option, I would go for it.
Re: Original Prusa MK4
#46These 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.
> how far Prusa is behind truly next-gen printers like the Bambu Lab X1-Carbon
Can you expand on this?
Re: Original Prusa MK4
#47Earlier quoted context omitted.
Box around the printer with a vent/fan blowing outside. It'll be negative pressure in the box, so everything should just vent out. Even if you can just crack a window and get the airflow going out the window... you can push a flexible tube far out onto your balcony...
This is the best way. Inline duct fan and a flex hose running out of your window (you can print an adapter/connector to fit perfectly). It works very well even if your enclosure is not airtight (and it shouldn't be when printing PLA since you want a constant stream of air getting inside for cooling) - just let negative pressure do its thing.
Kind of depends on ventilation setup in your house, some houses/condos are built to draw air through windows and out through fans with high static pressures, in which case trying to vent out don't work that well.
I tried it with SLA printer and it just filled the room with resin stinks for days. It really depends...
Re: Original Prusa MK4
#48Prusa printers were great many years ago. in 2023 I'd recommend buying any cheap Chinese brand. I bought an i3 MK3S+ and it almost made me lose my love for 3d printing, the machine is clearly stuck in the past, you don't even have remote printing out of the box, you face as many issues as you would with a cheap 3d printer, but you have to pay over $1k USD and wait months to get one.
Is this satire? I have a Prusa mini, and for a 3D printer it’s as close to “it just works” as you can get. My friend got an Ender3 and has spent countless hours modding it, replacing parts etc and he still can’t print PETG reliably while I print in any of the “normal” materials without worry at all. The stories I hear about cheap Chinese printers are like my friend with his Ender, just dialed up to 11.
I agree with this. Unless you love tinkering and modding, and don't mind spending more in the long run, a Prusa is pretty much the gold standard for reliability/consistency. I bought cheap, with the understanding that I'd be spending the money over time and maybe have a better machine in the end, but it hasn't really worked out that way. The cheap printers get costly pretty quickly. I've learned a lot, but it's all been by necessity while troubleshooting various issues that I wouldn't have had with a better printer. If you want to print, get a good printer. If you want to tinker with stepper motors firmware, extruders, hot ends, bed leveling sensors, etc, then something cheap might be a better intro. Going cheap got me started, but it was a much steeper learning curve, included a lot of frustration along the way, and was ultimately more costly.
Re: Original Prusa MK4
#49These 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.
> how far Prusa is behind truly next-gen printers like the Bambu Lab X1-Carbon Can you expand on this?
The biggest disadvantage in my mind of the Prusa MK2/3/4 printers is they use the original i3 design. It's a good design, and very simple to build, maintain and program. But it limits the print speed due to the amount of mass that has to move, particularly in the Y axis. The entire bed has to move which induces vibrations at higher speeds.
Newer printers (including the Prusa XL) use a CoreXY design, where the extruder is controlled in the X and Y axes by belts, which results in less mass that has to move, and allows the printer to print much, much faster. In the case of the Bambu Lab printers, it can be two to three times faster for a similar print quality.
Re: Original Prusa MK4
#50These 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.
> how far Prusa is behind truly next-gen printers like the Bambu Lab X1-Carbon Can you expand on this?
The printer is on par with dirt cheap Chinese competitors like Sovol.