Learning about 3D printers and looking for input

[7milesup]

Dang the Prusa Mini is over $700CDN!

Have you looked at Kiwi (I think that is what it is called; Craigslist equiv.)?

What about someone shipping you one from the States. How does that work, or wouldn't it.

 

[DavidR8]

Have you looked at Kiwi (I think that is what it is called; Craigslist equiv.)?

What about someone shipping you one from the States. How does that work, or wouldn't it.

Used market here is laughable unfortunately.
Your second idea is a good one. The Prusa Mini kit is 349USD. Add 25% for exchange and it's $436CDN. That's a price I can handle for a quality printer. No idea what it might cost to ship from Wherever USA to me in Victoria BC. Guaranteed it would be less than the difference between 700 and 436!

 

[slodat]

I didn’t want to fuss with building a printer. I bought a pre-assembled Prusa i3MK3 about 18 months ago. Worked flawlessly out of the box and continues to. I added an Octopi which really makes it much more user friendly. Very happy with it!

 

[DavidR8]

I didn’t want to fuss with building a printer. I bought a pre-assembled Prusa i3MK3 about 18 months ago. Worked flawlessly out of the box and continues to. I added an Octopi which really makes it much more user friendly. Very happy with it!

I’d like one but I can’t justify the cost in CDN dollars.

 

[7milesup]

I didn’t want to fuss with building a printer. I bought a pre-assembled Prusa i3MK3 about 18 months ago. Worked flawlessly out of the box and continues to. I added an Octopi which really makes it much more user friendly. Very happy with it!

What does Octopi do for you? Just curious.

To me, a really cool upgrade for the Prusa would be a touch screen. I have seen one person do it but have not looked into it.

 

[RandyWilson]

The Prusa is made and ships from Prague, so I'm not sure the US<>Cdn exchange rate applies.


Octoprint / Octopi. Before I installed it, I would go to the garage and retrieve the micro-SD card. Return to the desk, fumble around inserting the SD, mount, copy files, unmount, return to the garage with SD, fumble inserting it, start the printer, select the file. PRINT. Watch the first few minutes to make sure things were going as planned. Then there would be trips to the garage every 10-15 minutes to check on things.

With Octoprint, it is now upload the file from desktop to Pi, hit print. Watch the auto-bed-leveling and print start on the camera, check on the print job occasionally via camera. When the print is done, go to the garage for the first time, retrieve print. Clean bed, and ready for the next one.


I've missed a few days of forum reading; haven't read the entire thread yet. I bought my printer five months ago. Creality Ender 5 Pro. I have added a glass bed plate, bed leveler, filament sensor, and finally the Pi running octopi. Roughly $550US all told, not including consumables, to get a solid machine.

 

[slodat]

Randy summed up what Octoprint/Octopi does quite well. I haven't taken the SD card out of my printer since I setup Octoprint. Drag and drop on my desktop PC. Check the camera here and there on long prints. Works well. Totally changes the relationship with the printer.

Prusa quoted like 3-4 weeks when I ordered my printer. If I recall correctly, it took about 8 or so days to get here. Packed VERY well. Can't say enough good stuff about the pre-assembled Prusa i3!

 

[DavidR8]

The Prusa is made and ships from Prague, so I'm not sure the US<>Cdn exchange rate applies.

Yeah not sure sure what's going on but the US price for a Prusa i3 KM3s kit is $749 from Prusa3d.com.
Lowest price in Canada is $1049. The US dollar is slightly stronger against the Czech krona so perhaps that's the difference.

 

[fursphere]

Just wanted to add another vote for Octoprint as well. I have one one each of my machines.

 

[ttabbal]

Octoprint is great. And there are a number of raspberry pi cases and camera mounts available for most printers. They make nice early projects while tuning print profiles and such.