I love the idea of building a printer, but I know that my attention span is limited on these sorts of things. As in, I’ll be reliably obsessed until it’s done and tuned, and then I’ll forget everything until the next time I want to use it.
So my big question, for someone who’s owned one a while: is the printer ever “done”?
Is there a point after which it “just works”? Or is it always going to be more like “it’s great! I just need to tweak the blah blah setting every time and retighten the frobnitz every 3 prints, no big deal really!”
I always see the quote about “if you like printERS, build, but if you like printING, just buy one” - but nobody talks about the timescale on the fiddling and whether it ever stops.
(currently own a Prusa mk3s I built as a kit and it’s been pretty solid as a tool!)
I assembled a Prusa Mk3 a few years ago, and other than swapping a nozzle that wore out (they don't last forever) it's still working fine.
I grease it about twice a year, and clean any gunk from the nozzle (takes a few seconds) every so often. I wash the print bed thoroughly about 3 or 4 times a year.
I'm interested in 3D printing, but not interested in fiddling with the printer itself. So, I have fiddled to print soft rubber filament for example, but for every experiment with something strange like that I have 50 or more routine prints in PLA or PETG.
Yep this matches my experience pretty well! It’s been a good printer and I haven’t had to do much, and I avoid fiddling and mostly use it as a tool. I’m always eyeing the newer faster printers but I don’t love the cloudiness of Bambu and Prusa’s new stuff seems nice but not quite worth the leap yet. Voron has interested me for a while though.
At least for me, the printer is never "done", but it isn't in the "I just need to tweak the blah blah setting every time" sense.
Rather, there's just always something to make better even if the current solution is fine. Say, swapping out the toolhead for a lighter or more modular one, or building another MMU because it can handle softer materials that I print maybe once a year and don't have to use the MMU for, or replacing the hotend with a higher flow or sturider one, or adding more lighting and cameras, or switching the motor mounts to a double shear design to be able to dial accelerations up, etc. Right now I'm working on building a TradRack MMU while planning out a teardown and rebuild of my backup Voron0.2.
I could stop at any point and still have a printer that's near the top end of what's accessible on the market, but the open source 3d printer community moves incredibly fast and it's nice to be able to participate in it.
I avoid buying 2d printers because they are so maintenance heavy... I use a 3D printer in a shared makerspace, where whoever has the most avialability takes on maintenance issues when they arise.
The Prusa mk4's we use are extremely reliable; most problems come down to users doing dumb stuff... or at least, doing risky stuff and not monitoring the print.
I find that I usually have some /kind/ of print I'm making (say, very hollow terrain pieces for tabletop wargames) get my printer settings dialed in over the course of a few failed prints, and then can print more of that kind of thing very reliably. In other words, good printer settings are project dependent, but can usually transfer reliably across simlar projects. And then I don't have to think much about the printer - it just does its thing.
> So my big question, for someone who’s owned one a while: is the printer ever “done”?
The printer is never "done" :). But there are plenty check points where it's "pretty good".
For example, here is my rough timeline:
- I sourced the parts and built it. Took around 4 weekends.
- The initial tuning took a while (like a month). But this was very fun. I tried almost all the Slicers. I fixed constructions issues (square angle, deracking, belt tuning, ...). After this step, the machine becomes "good enough". I can print various parts in the house and I was satisfied with the quality.
- I started pushing for speed and redid many parts of the printer. I learned about various limitations (like Flow Rate is the real limit for speed). This phase last a long time for me (like a year). I ended up replacing like 75% of the printed parts with CNC parts. During this time, the printer is still online and printable.
- I didn't modded the printer much after that. I found my sweet spot between speed / quality. I want to mod it with a 120W Hot End heater to increase the Flow Rate (already bought it), but it's not quite a necessary thing. It's more for fun. The tinkering goes on as long as you feel it's fun. But I wouldn't say you _need_ to tinker to _keep_ it working.
> Is there a point after which it “just works”? Or is it always going to be more like “it’s great! I just need to tweak the blah blah setting every time and retighten the frobnitz every 3 prints, no big deal really!”
After the first tuning phase, the Voron was "just works" for me. Or at least, if there was any issue, I could immediately tell what went wrong. And no retightening needed so far except one time the printed feet cracked (that was the reason I switched to CNC aluminum parts).
Edit: I built a large Voron (350mm), and it is really _heavy_ (almost full metal in my case). That's why the printed feet cracked. Beside that, maintenance is almost zero. I don't even wash the spring steel bed. Just click print and walk away.
Thanks for your insight! That’s great, seems like it’s been a fun project but not like a REQUIRED ongoing project. My first printer was a cheap i3 clone and it was more in the “never works right” category and I was hoping to avoid going back to something like that experience haha.