New Prusa Mini

[Gene Uselman]

I think we all have good reason to feel sorrow these day... so lets buy something? I just received this Mini from Jos. Prusa and company and will take it home and build it as I wander aimlessly around the house [sheltering at home for a few weeks- I expect the rest of this year actually] and report on it- I expected to be impressed and I am, of course. Too bad brother Tim is not around to kid me about drinking the Prusa Koolade, but this one is only $350 and looks like an hour to assemble. I actually bought it to take to Islamorada next Feb... if I can't go expect some really bad attitude hereabouts. Gene

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[Jeffrey Aley]

Nice, but I gotta ask: in the photo, to the left of the orange box, is a logo of a heart with a line through it. Does that mean "no love allowed"? or "don't use this to 3D print a Pacemaker"?

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[Gene Uselman]

I have now been printing for 10 days in our little slice of heaven in the Keys with the Prusa Mini. I am gobsmacked by this little printer. The print area is fairly small at 7inches cubed but I normally build things in pieces if I can to facilitate my normal revisions. This is the little brother of the Mk3+ that I have had for a couple of years and that is a great printer [$1000 assembled] and is a high standard to live up to [at $350/400].

As every one knows you can buy a working printer for ~$200 or so and I have built three of them for friends... they print OK. What you gain with a Prusa [and I am sure some other printers] is ease of use. Similar to buying a cheap laser vs. a better laser. If you don't mind a lot of tinkering [and I love to tinker] and upgrading certain components and then figuring out how to incorporate them, you can make a $200 printer work.

What you get with a Prusa is good to great prints, every time, with out much [if any] input. Pete tells me that they are installing 3D printers on our Submarines now and I know they have one on the Space station and I know why. I have designed in Fusion 360 [or downloaded, if I could find what I wanted] and printed several things to make our stay more comfortable here. If you are going to be underwater or in space for a length of time... you will think of something you have forgotten or something that would come in handy. I print with PETG filament [most people use PLA which prints easier [altho I have no problems with PETG at all] and will not warp out of shape in the sun.

I can also make things for the kiddies and the staff here [it is an ocean fishing oriented resort- but thankfully they do not require me to fish]- here is a relief of an old fisherman that I am preparing for the office desk- the square tiles are for testing paint colors and are 1x1 inches for reference- they have two textures, one from the build plate and one is the top after the printer finishes. This is not done at the highest quality [layer thinkness] setting but will be OK for their uses I think. The figure comes off of the [rather crude] backplate for painting and I will flip the bottom [nice] side out.

This is getting windy as are all of my threads... if anyone would like to hear what you gain with a Prusa, please comment.

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