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Well I finally did it bought my first 3D printer it should be here in July


G+_Rud Dog
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The Prusa in kit form. In the process of searching for a depository of printable files for my first print. Then it is off to learn possibly Fusion 360. Found a video describing the difference in nozzle sizes and it was great. These kind of videos focusing on parts of the system are in my opinion very useful.

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Glad you took the plunge! :)

 

As far as learning fusion 360, I found that the gentlest series was Paul McWhorter's "Learn fusion 360 or die trying":

 

After that, Lars Christensen has a ton of Fusion 360 videos that helped me, and recently I've been watching Tyler Beck.

 

In the comments of Prusa's latest video (on nozzle diameter) I saw that you were asking about temperature and types of filament. You should check out Thomas Sanlanderer's recent videos about different filament types. He has the following listed: Flex/Nylon, Petg, Abs, Pla.

 

The Prusa "3d printing handbook" also should give you enough information on different filaments to get started. You can download it online, as well as the kit build manual. I recommend building from the online manual and reading all the comments. Let me know if you have any questions or run into any troubles during the build process.

 

Among other projects (I'm easily distracted), I'm currently making the enclosure build that Prusa as on their youtube channel. But because I'm scared of fire, I'm switching out the acrylic for polycarbonate. I'll post pictures when it's finished to let everyone know how it went! :)

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Congratulations on your first 3d printer! I recently purchased my 3rd, a JGaurora a5. Been using fusion 360 for around 3 years (couldn't stand tinker cad, the little sibling to fusion). It has a little bit of a learning curve but there are a ton of great videos for help. The ones mentioned are great and Lars is very active and responds to emails.

Not sure that going with polycarbonate over plexiglass will make much difference if your printer catches fire. Plexiglass is laser cuttable where polycarbonate isn't as it emits poisonous gasses. I built my enclosure into the base of my bench. 18664%20-%20gplus25dc083885327bb1523c028

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Hurry up and wait is the theme for my 3D printer it is supposed to ship July now unless Tesla has taken over manufacturing I feel comfortable it will arrive around that date.

 

In preparation for the use, I am taking the time to learn Fusion 360 and contemplating creating a printer enclosure for the unit.

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At least you got a ship date. I ordered my MK2S to MK3 upgrade a couple weeks after sales opened. Due to the "pre-order" nature of this, ship date was a mystery for a long time. About a month before I received it I believe they had a schedule listed based on order date. I think I ordered in Oct and received in Apr. This was pretty much my same experience with the MK2 because of the publicity Prusa got from front cover of Make magazine (and some very favorable reviews from prominent youtubers). Should be much better for you because they have caught up with orders at this point.

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Hey Rug, are u going to get the Multicolor extruder Kit/ addon?

 

I'm still on my upgrade mission, with my clone Fire start ( Anet A8). Printing and learn anything I can find.

 

When u get yours it's going to be like butter-babby!!! Right out of the box ( I'm soooo-jelly)

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Wow! That's quick! I guess they caught up with the backorders on the MK3! I'm still waiting on my MK3 multimaterial preorder, but I think they're still researching that one.

 

A word of advice. All the build videos you'll see on YouTube have people assembling the printer using power tools (power screw driver). We'll they assemble and review printers for a living, so they are well practiced. Unless you have a lot of practice screwing into plastic with power tools, use hand tools instead so you can feel the resistance and know when to stop.

 

I thought I would try to assembly my second printer using power tools to save time. Everything was going well until I tried to attach the idler door onto the extruder.

 

A common mechanism to hold printed parts together is to have a hole for a square nut to slide in. You then screw into the nut from the mating part to pull them together. I didn't the nut properly aligned, and tried to use the screw to force the nut into alignment. Instead my drill forced the nut to freespin, tearing through the plastic. If I had done this by hand I would have felt this was not a good idea and would have tried harder to align the nut.

 

I had to have a replacement made from 3dhubs. It was a well made part, but it put my build back two weeks. Once it arrived, I made sure to do the rest of the build by hand and had no problems.

 

In this case slow and correct beats fast and sloppy.

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Kenneth Branch jr didn't go with the multi-color update who time will tell and it is coming as a kit so will be busy for some time not sure how long . Trying to get AC into my shed and a box to enclose the printer in but time is slipping away.

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Well between wife's do list and backyard projects managed to get some time to start the 3D prusa build.

As those wondering how the build is going a few missing screws but that was alleviated by the bag of spare parts they send with the kit.

So far there are a couple things I found vague.

First one is how tight the bed plate belt so be there is nothing other then make sure it glides freely.

The second thing I spent a lot of time on was the portion of the build where they mention how to level or remove rocking motion from the frame, early stages of the build. The instructions a once again vague.

Trying to get some more build time in today. Reminds me of building RC cars or model airplanes.

Here is the meager progress.

18675%20-%20IMG_20180629_094418%5B1%5D.j

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Looking good! If you can point me to specific questions in the online build instructions I can do my best to answer them.

 

The MK3 is much easier to build than the MK2. The MK2 had threaded rods for the Y axis frame held in place with washers and nuts. I remember spending a lot of time rechecking the Y axis frame and ensuring it was level in order to get the lauded "axis perpendicular" message when running the calibration.

 

Both were enjoyable builds though!

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Jeff Gros one of the big features of this printer is the online build procedure. This procedure allows you to follow the build manual online as well as questions and comments either yours or others. Great feature but I can't seem to log on with my username and password. Email was sent to support but no response. Kind of bummed this part of the experience will not be available.

Looking forward to hearing back from them before I complete the build.

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There is one step seemingly impossible to complete. They call out a short filament to be inserted to the printer head simple enough only all the force in the world will not make this filament go into the hole described. There is no explanation what this filament does?

18679%20-%20Filament.png

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Yes. I remember this part. Very difficult.

 

What does it do? Its just a cable stiffener.

 

In the end i ended up shaving some of the filament so that it was thinner and easier to insert.

 

In my MK2 it actually popped loose during printing. I printed with it loose and it caused no issues, as there were other pieces holding the cable to the extruder. Its just a cable stiffener after all.

 

Still inserted on my MK3! :)

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