You mentioned you stripped one of the tensioners - does a screw thread into a 3d printed part? Is there a more robust version of the part?
Sort of. A metal screw is threaded into a square nut that sits inside a 3D printed part. All good unless one gets to the end of the screw's motion range, after which the square nut begins to turn inside the plastic part and strips it.
I have printed spares for the plastic part, also I know better than to trust Prusa's frequency detector applet, so this is not a deal breaker once you understand the system. There are much better ways than Prusa's applet to detect the belt's frequency, some described in the linked article.
Prusa offers free downloads of all the printer's plastic parts: https://www.printables.com/model/1167816-core-one-printable-...
> Is there a more robust version of the part?
The original part is printed using PCCF, very strong, but the embedded square nut is too small to resist worst-case forces.
Generally, it seems like if you just want to reliably print PLA, get a MK4S, but if you want the temp-controlled enclosure or filament versatility, get a Core One.
Apparently there is a filter add-on that might help with printing something smelly?
https://www.prusa3d.com/product/advanced-filtration-for-prus...
And if you're printing ABS then you need fume extraction because unlike more common materials, ABS fumes are toxic.
It's not strictly necessary for your basic PLA and PETG, but it can help sometimes if the ambient temperature is really low or if the environment is drafty which can cause prints to lift off the bed.
I print mostly ABS filament, and during the winter here in Washington State, I could't make my printer room hot enough to avoid warped prints from my earlier unenclosed printer. This printed completely solved that issue.
The Core One has a Core-XY motion system, meaning the print bed doesn't have to move very fast during printing. This greatly speeds up typical printing.
Also there's the issue of Prusa's open-design philosophy -- you're free to modify the printer's hardware and software.
I've never owned a Bambu Labs printer, so I might not be the best source for a point-by-point comparison.
I swapped my Ender5 for an X1C two years ago, and since then, I have only had to do whatever maintenance the X1C tells me. Using my X1C feels much closer to using my laser paper printer, whereas my Ender5 ended up being a hobby in itself.
kinda irritating that every single thread about a Prusa printer has a dismissive post from someone who went from a janky Ender to a Bambu
A lot of HN users have bought a Bambu and feel a need to justify their choice after the fact in a way that gels with their outsized need to perform as experts in front of others. This leads to a lot of comments basically just repeating Bambu talking points without having evaluated any alternatives. "The printer for the masses" just becomes received wisdom.
If you know better, just let it wash over you and go do cool stuff.
I'm also sort of wondering if it's a bit of an American thing, where Americans tend to have this odd self-disparaging impulse to call Western-made products crap and point to Asian manufacturers as having figured it out. See e.g. Japanese cars. Perhaps Bambu is perceived as the Toyota of 3D printers or something.
[0] https://buy.lulzbot.com/products/lulzbot-3d-printer-taz-work...
Bambu: break the least. That's it, that's the whole secret to why everyone recommends them. Sure, the print quality is good, and there are some nice QOL things, but they took off because you can hit print and expect to get a print.
Prusa: These are mostly reliable. Not as reliable as Bambu. The Prusa printer I have right now has had two fatal malfunctions over the years I've used it, both of which were due to design flaws Bambu printers don't have. They are making a lot of progress, and I hope they catch back up.
Creality (Ender manufacturer): No one should buy Creality products. They are worthless. Everything from the lowest bargain-bin Ender 3 to the latest K2 Plus will break and might burn the building down.
I basically never 3d printed before, because every time I wanted to print I spent more time fiddling with the printer than I spent on my actual hobby. Now I spend almost no time thinking about the printer, and I use it almost daily.
I think both Prusa and Bambu have great printers and target different demographics, Bambu was a better fit for me and my needs, and I think a lot of people fall into the same general class as me. If you want a 3d printing appliance go with a Bambu, if you want to spend time customizing and upgrading and tinkering with a 3d printer go with another brand like Prusa.
Prusa is the company making reliable, open and therefore repairable/upgradable printers. But reliable is first, and the majority of Prusa printers will not be modified from purchase.
Prusa did some great stuff but the market copied the good stuff and evolved past them.
Again, you said it yourself: You went from an Ender to a Bambu, and you seem to just assume that a Prusa requires "tinkering".
Maybe it’s not a big deal to do this on first setup, but clearly someone thought it was worth writing a blog post to explain to people.
The Prusa obviously has a self-calibration, I believe they introduced the idea a few years ago.
I would have said "allows tinkering." Many Prusa buyers expect to be able to improve things by tinkering. It's more a philosophy than a necessity.
There was a time when one's ability to modify a product was a "good thing". When the Apple II came out in 1977, I bought one, and within weeks of tinkering, its designers wouldn't have recognized it. Same idea.
By tinkering I made my Apple II drive a printer, useful for me, but a change the Apple people tried to keep from the non-tinkering public.
It might be genetic, but I've learned to hate closed platforms.
I've been made fun of for decades for being a Linux user with slogans like "I want to use my PC, not work on my PC". Guess what, thanks to what I learned and the network it got me I have a nicer occupation than any of them and got to participate in a few projects that changed the world a little. You should seek out experiences that build you, not disparage them.
What makes Prusa so great is that you don't have to "make the 3D printer your hobby", but you definitely can. I can think of few products that balance this so well.
I've just started writing these in the hopes of reaching that 15 yo with potential, not an army of MacBook-wielding TypeScript slingers.
The other thing to note is that they're in stock, folks have had to wait quite a long time to get their core-ones.
I'd love to support prusa or the others instead, but have hardware to ship and can't justify paying more for less reliable and more costly to run printers.
Prusa is great, but it's hard to justify an increased cost to my customers for "greatness".
Z-axis and XY-axis calibration: Designed to be unnecessary. Not possible with stock software. Possible with Orcaslicer on old or custom firmware, in which case the procedure would look similar.
Belt tensioning: Similar, but easier and better designed (no half-baked app involved).
Camera: Bambu also requires an account, I believe. Other than that, it's much better: it comes with the printer, is in color, has a light, runs at a useful framerate, and can take offline timelapses.
I don't think the comparison is positive for Prusa.
Fair comment, but Bambu Labs owners have similar issues on a much less open platform where they can't DIY themselves to a solution.
I'm a bit old-school (and a former NASA engineer). I think being able to fix things yourself is an advantage. Young people might not see the world that way.
But to be frank, I might not be the best Prusa advocate. In the linked article I posted a remedy that involved baling wire, without once asking myself, "Baling wire, really? Won't young people find this hilarious and off-putting?"
There are a number of differences between young people and my generation. One of them is ... we built things.
1. The Nextruder looks 5 years behind Bambulab nozzle switching, without to mention the cost of a new nozzle. A clogged nozzle is a non issue in a Bambulab printer, but it causes me a big cost and more work with my MK4 (which has the same extruder as the Core One).
2. How is it possible that these printers still lack at least a cheap webcam?
3. One of the strengths of Prusa should be support. It used to be very good, years ago. Now the issue the OP is reporting about the app that is not able to detect the principal component in the sound of the belt, is an example of a more extended problem, that one can see in many ways, especially in the MK4 / Core One documentation, that is especially lacking.
In general, here the OP is doing the work that Prusa should be doing to provide a better experience, without to mention all the design issues that they are not fixing directly before shipping their printers. I'm also a Bambulab user, and my A1 costed a fraction of my MK4 and it is the printer I always hit because of the zero-issues. It just works.
Now companies may have ups and downs, but there is some problem at Prusa: they are still not understanding what's really happening and where their problems are.
2. Reasoning i heard is that Prusa printers are used a lot by print farms that dont want them for security reasons and that there are aftermarket cams that are going to be a lot better than what they can deliver. Again cam on Bambu P1S is pretty bad so if you like the feature you end up changing it but because the chip in P1S is pretty low powered you end up adding whole different camera system.
3. This is very good point. I guess they were under pressure to release asap and the docs are rushed / in process. The upside is that they have track record of long support for the products.
I am not sure that they are so clueless.
I’ve had P1S for some time. It’s great. I wanted focus on 3D printing not on 3D printer.
But now? Bambu is update away from not being able to print outside their cloud. There is zero openness. They do everything to stop any kinf of reverse engineering or alternative firmwares. Afaik they might just decide tomorrow that they stop support some of the older models and they simply stop printing.
I still ended up messing, modding, tweaking and learning about the Bambu printer anyway.
But i also found a lot of use for 3D printer. So idea of buying 3x times more expensive printer kit that will take me 20h to assemble and then even more time to tweak to print as good as Bambu… is OK? Almost intruging? I will know that with care it will work for a looong time i will know how it works and it will be valuable knowledge.
It seems a lot like linux vs mac. At some point you bite the bullet and never look back. Or you do and go back.
I definitely understand how the printer works better than if I bought it assembled. It'll definitely save me time troubleshooting/maintaining/repairing it later. But I spent more time building it than I could ever save during teardown/rebuilds.
I bought a kit because I like building stuff, the Core One kit had the same appeal as a Lego model or a model car. If that's not appealing to you, do yourself a favor and buy the completed printer.
If you do get the kit, get a couple of ice cube trays to use to organize fasteners; keeping them organized in the bags Prusa sends was a battle I wasn't interested in fighting.
I dont want the print to pause in some gcode function waiting for me to pick &place
[1] https://www.prusa3d.com/en/product/original-prusa-xl-assembl...
Most modern printers also support simpler multi-material setups which change the filament in a single tool automatically. Waste is fairly high (because of the need to purge), and speed fairly low (because of the need to purge), but the technology is mature and cheap.
> And manually switching isn't feasible if you're trying to do something like print supports--are you going to swap filament rolls by hand every layer?
No, first because I would use support material just for the interface and if it's curved, then no. Even with X1C's AMS, any IDEX, H2D print time would be hilariously ballooned. I'n saying that dual-nozzle design didn't make it possible, it made it more convenient.
- I forget which plate was used for petg and which one for pla and mix them up
- Revo nozzles had clogs, solved by switching to diamondback
- Can't pull the very end of the 3rd party spools and either gives me "motor overloaded" or void layers.
If you're using Open Cascade through something other than FreeCAD, you may be having a better experience anyway. FreeCAD uses their own fork, which is hundreds of commits behind.
Not entirely perfect and some compromises, for example faceting isn't always consistent and hashtag highlighting doesn't seem quite right, but overall still it's good enough for me. The wiki on GitHub is pretty good, and with the source in hand I have had an easy time understanding what it does and tweaking it as needed.
For openscad itself, there are nightly builds with the new geometry engine, which too mostly works for me and is a huge speedup over the older CGAL engine. Renders that took minutes in CGAL now take seconds with the new engine. I like to take faceting through the roof for nicely rounded curves, but that kills CGAL apparently.
Maybe I'll try blender addon tomorrow.
Alibre CAD has affordable permanent/monthly licenses, I recommend that as the affordable commercial option.
It looks like he posted this so may see my comment. I just want to say thanks, I appreciate the things you've put out into the world.
And thank you for your kind words.
Link to my free book "Confessions of a Long-Distance Sailor": https://arachnoid.com/lutusp/sailbook.html
lutusp•7mo ago