I’ve been waiting to finish up with some major life stuff before diving into the world of 3D printers. Now that is finally behind me, and I am currently trying to find out which printer I want so that I can place an order.
So far I’ve set my eyes on the new Prusa CORE One. It ticks a lot of the boxes that I think I am after, including:
- As open as I can get (before going into that Voron-stuff, which I think I’m not ready for). I don’t want to be bogged down with having to run proprietary slicers through Wine and things like that. I am not sure how big of an issue that is with e.g. Bambu or Creality (if at all), but I’ve seen enough rug-pulls and enshittification processes that I don’t really want to risk that. I want to be sure that I can use FOSS tools such as Blender and FreeCAD for design, and similarly open slicers, and the whole workflow will work just fine.
- As future-proof as I can possibly hope for. I think the upgrade path from the MK4 to CORE One shows that they are serious about sustainability and longevity of their devices, and as far as I can tell, I should have no troubles sourcing replacement parts. I also want to support companies with this philosophy.
- Has a decent print volume (I know there are bigger, maybe I will be constrained by this at some point?)
- Enclosed - a major reason I did not want the MK4S was that it was not enclosed (but maybe you can get an enclosure?). It will be placed in my study where I spend most of my computer time (which often times is a lot, so I imagine I will be in the room while it is printing). I imagine, with the additional filter, that it will be better with an enclosure. Also, it will be easier to keep good temperature control during prints, as it can get cold here during winter.
- Locally produced (I’m EU based).
I understand that other manufacturers provide more “bang for the buck” and that I in that sense will be overpaying feature-wise. I am fine with that given my emphasis on the above criteria.
However, I am a complete newbie to 3D-printing. I am sure there are some limitations I have not thought about, and I was wondering if there are any major things I have not thought about that would actually affect me negatively and should make me reconsider this model?
For many people the size will be fine. Most people can get along with 180 cubed for probably 80% of their printing needs. Not a lot of people need the really large print volumes.
I would assume that a CORE kit would come with Prusa’s excellent assembly instructions. Which should make it quite easy to put together.
I’m starting to think that Prusa is switching their focus from consumer grade printers to entry level pro machines and better. Prusa can’t really afford to be in that market as the race to the bottom accelerates. But there is a niche for small business use and full blown commercial use. Qidi seems to be the only player in that market right now. And the CORE seems to offer all the goodies that Qidi has with a much better reputation for reliability and support that would appeal to a small business.
@bluewing I am sharing my personal experience with the MK4S, since I went down from a 256^3 printer.
Belt tensioning on the MK4S Kit was a pain to do, so I am curious how belt tensioning for a core kit will go. I hope they give a better solution than the tuning app, as tensioning belts for a core xy is noticeably harder.
Neither of these are blockers anyway, like I said, I am happy with my MK4S.
Yeah, There are some maintenance things with CoreXY I’m not overly impressed with. The belts being one of them. Still, I think they are the future for consumer printers now. It’s going to be interesting to see how the CORE does in the market.
I did consider an up grade to my Mk3s to Mk4 abilities. But in the end I didn’t figure it was worth the money and effort for my needs. In the end, it might be considered slow now but it’s a tank of a printer. I am considering upgrading the control system by adding Klipper to my Raspberry Pi and flashing new firmware for the old 8bit Rambo board. It sounds like it would get me a Mk3.5 level of control and speed.