Great choice.
Prusa has a new in-US company supporting their products - Printed Solid. You can get many Prusa items there at lower shipping cost and faster turn-around. They also have some great filament choices with their Jesse filament.
Prusa filament is great filament but pricey and that's a lot for shipping. I generally pay about $20-25 per kg for filament and get it from Amazon or other US sources generally with free shipping. I would start with more than 2 rolls of filament. PLA is great for most things unless you need heat resistance. PETG is better for heat resistance but a bit harder to print well and colors are limited.
Spare parts will be important. You will want spare nozzles for certain, and you might want specific tools to make nozzle changes easier as well as cleaning tools. The Prusa spare parts kit is fine, but it is a lot more than you will need in the short run. I've run my MK3 pretty hard for years and have only replaced nozzles a couple of times per year and the teflon tube inside even less often. I lube the rods occasionally with lithium grease and have lots of spare parts but not really had problems aside from the occasional nozzle clog which requires a cold pull or a nozzle replacement to clear up. I keep both real Prusa nozzles and inexpensive third party nozzles on hand and either works fine. I do find the cheap nozzles may have some burrs to remove inside but that is easily accomplished. A few drill bits just under 1.75mm are handy for cleaning nozzles, and needles just under nozzle diameter which is usually 0.40mm. Tool sets just for nozzle work are available on Amazon and elsewhere. A nozzle torque wrench and socket the right size are helpful. It's easy to damage the heat break or wires when servicing the nozzle which is the most common maintenance item on the printer. A spare heat break would also be wise to have on hand, though I don't think I have damaged one yet, but it is quite thin to resist heat flow. If you break the wires a spare thermistor or heater could be needed, I have yet to break those but I do have spares. The Revo hotend upgrade improves on these things. More on that below.
You'll want isopropyl alcohol 90%+. I would get one or more spare build plates, however they do last a long time, but they can get damaged easily. They have three types of surfaces to choose from. Each has two surfaces that can be printed on.
You may not want to get too many spare nozzles because you might decide to change the hotend to a Revo which uses different nozzles. This is a recently available improved hotend from E3D. It offers easy, tool free nozzle changes with leak-free nozzles that can be changed cold (regular nozzles must be hot-tightened and removed). It has better protection for the wires, heats much faster, and the ability to easily change nozzle diameters is coveted by some. The Revo nozzles are expensive and won't be available from third parties. I would build the printer stock to start with, I only mention this because you might not want to get too many spare parts in inventory until you have decided what you will be using longer term.
People commonly use glue-stick to control adhesion for some filaments. I find Aquanet unscented hairspray to be easier to apply and superior to glue-stick, but that's a personal preference. Depending on which sheet type you are using some filaments like PETG or TPU will over-adhere to the sheet and can damage it when removing the print while others may under-adhere and make spaghetti or much worse. But a very thin coat of Aquanet works to promote the right amount of adherence while preventing too much. I don't apply it every print cycle with PLA it's hardly needed, but my old tired smooth sheet needs a bit of help now and then, and for PETG or especially TPU I want a fairly fresh coating or the print may over-adhere and fail to come off without damage. One can lasts me years, and I print a lot.
A good set of ball-end metric hex wrenches will be appreciated during assembly. A really flat surface will be useful, you don't need a surface plate but that would work, I use a marble end table surface, many use scraps available inexpensively from the local countertop suppliers. Assemble it as square as you can, it will help with printing precision.
Prusa has a new in-US company supporting their products - Printed Solid. You can get many Prusa items there at lower shipping cost and faster turn-around. They also have some great filament choices with their Jesse filament.
Prusa filament is great filament but pricey and that's a lot for shipping. I generally pay about $20-25 per kg for filament and get it from Amazon or other US sources generally with free shipping. I would start with more than 2 rolls of filament. PLA is great for most things unless you need heat resistance. PETG is better for heat resistance but a bit harder to print well and colors are limited.
Spare parts will be important. You will want spare nozzles for certain, and you might want specific tools to make nozzle changes easier as well as cleaning tools. The Prusa spare parts kit is fine, but it is a lot more than you will need in the short run. I've run my MK3 pretty hard for years and have only replaced nozzles a couple of times per year and the teflon tube inside even less often. I lube the rods occasionally with lithium grease and have lots of spare parts but not really had problems aside from the occasional nozzle clog which requires a cold pull or a nozzle replacement to clear up. I keep both real Prusa nozzles and inexpensive third party nozzles on hand and either works fine. I do find the cheap nozzles may have some burrs to remove inside but that is easily accomplished. A few drill bits just under 1.75mm are handy for cleaning nozzles, and needles just under nozzle diameter which is usually 0.40mm. Tool sets just for nozzle work are available on Amazon and elsewhere. A nozzle torque wrench and socket the right size are helpful. It's easy to damage the heat break or wires when servicing the nozzle which is the most common maintenance item on the printer. A spare heat break would also be wise to have on hand, though I don't think I have damaged one yet, but it is quite thin to resist heat flow. If you break the wires a spare thermistor or heater could be needed, I have yet to break those but I do have spares. The Revo hotend upgrade improves on these things. More on that below.
You'll want isopropyl alcohol 90%+. I would get one or more spare build plates, however they do last a long time, but they can get damaged easily. They have three types of surfaces to choose from. Each has two surfaces that can be printed on.
You may not want to get too many spare nozzles because you might decide to change the hotend to a Revo which uses different nozzles. This is a recently available improved hotend from E3D. It offers easy, tool free nozzle changes with leak-free nozzles that can be changed cold (regular nozzles must be hot-tightened and removed). It has better protection for the wires, heats much faster, and the ability to easily change nozzle diameters is coveted by some. The Revo nozzles are expensive and won't be available from third parties. I would build the printer stock to start with, I only mention this because you might not want to get too many spare parts in inventory until you have decided what you will be using longer term.
People commonly use glue-stick to control adhesion for some filaments. I find Aquanet unscented hairspray to be easier to apply and superior to glue-stick, but that's a personal preference. Depending on which sheet type you are using some filaments like PETG or TPU will over-adhere to the sheet and can damage it when removing the print while others may under-adhere and make spaghetti or much worse. But a very thin coat of Aquanet works to promote the right amount of adherence while preventing too much. I don't apply it every print cycle with PLA it's hardly needed, but my old tired smooth sheet needs a bit of help now and then, and for PETG or especially TPU I want a fairly fresh coating or the print may over-adhere and fail to come off without damage. One can lasts me years, and I print a lot.
A good set of ball-end metric hex wrenches will be appreciated during assembly. A really flat surface will be useful, you don't need a surface plate but that would work, I use a marble end table surface, many use scraps available inexpensively from the local countertop suppliers. Assemble it as square as you can, it will help with printing precision.
Last edited: