Ok, I know this is going to be full of differing advice and opinions but though I’d ask.
I’m looking at the Prusa mini with a 7"x7"x7" build platform.
so First, will that be large enough for the primo parts.
if so, i think I’m OK to pull the plug on it.
Otherwise I was looking at the creality ender pro with a (I think) a 9.5" z build height.
Just curious what people thought of either printer.
I can only say I have a Creality Ender3 that I’ve been pleased with. And just my opinion but given how many stories I’ve read of Primo cores going off course after 10-15 hours or more printing, should I ever decide to upgrade my burly to a Primo, I’ll happily send Ryan $28.50 for the Primo core.
i have an ender 5ish. pretty much the only thing original is the frame, motors and power supply. i think it was good enough to be able to print the primo out of the box. i just cant leave things alone
I saw a guy a few months back print the core in a prusa mini. That’s the largest part. I personally would go for the prusa. I have an MK3S and I love it.
I think @wellthad is right, I own an ender 3 and it does take a bit of fine tuning and some upgrades to get to a really good spot. That said I think I have spent maybe $250 total on my ender3 and I’m happy with its performance for the most part… I have printed all the primo parts on it except the core (just haven’t pulled that trigger yet) I personally think that choice depends on the kind of person you are. If you want to tinker and upgrade and see progress, buy the ender. If you want it to just work out of the box and to just be able to send prints to it and not think about it much, buy the prusa.
I just purchased Ender 3 v2 for $250 @ microcenter. Brand new to 3d printing and it was a very simple assembly! Very impressed with the print quality as well.
I didn’t, just given the print time involved and always the the possibility of an OOPS!, I think the shop sells the Primo core very reasonably and I’d likely go that route if I decide to upgrade.
The prusa is excellent, but it has one kink: Z height sometimes changes based on how hot/cold it was before you started the job. The probe is kinda wonky there. So make sure you check your first layer if it is allright. Otherwise you have to adjust the layer height on the fly (which works well, but you need to get used to it).
I had to do it a few times while printing the parts. Here is a link to my build, you can see how good most of the parts look: MPCNC Primo Schneewittchen - Oldenburg, Germany.
I either personally own or purchased for my work one or more of the following: Ender 3, MK3s, Prusa mini. So I can tell you a little of what to expect.
All three have great print quality and tolerances. The Ender 3 and mini both have Bowden tubes setup so they tend to “string” a lot more but this can be mostly solved with slicer settings.
The Prusa printers have a lot more upgrades that don’t make them print better quality. They make them print more reliably. So if you want hands on experience with manually leveling a bed, setting first layer z height, recovering from power outage and having many many many failed prints due to a dozen other possibilities then go with the Ender 3. If you don’t want to invest the time, frustration and wasted filament then go with one of the Prusa printers.
In this video he explains many of the concepts I hint at. The Prusa printers come with many of these upgrades that is why they are more expensive to start with.
Now I need to knock on the Prusa mini just a little. We had to adjust the hot end a little to stop some jams we would get when we used generic PLA. Easy to do and there was documentation. We chose to upgrade the drive gear with the bondtech dual drive. A $60 upgrade at the time. This was not necessary but we like it. I have noticed the same issue with the first layer Z height needing to be adjusted sometimes when switching from one print to another back to back and the printer is still warm. (Rebooting the printer helps for some reason). And our mini printer has an issue where the automatic bed level compensation is not working at all. Meaning the left side of the bed is low and the right is high causing some first layer issues. No other mini owner complains about this so I think we just got a lucky one. Most other mini owners I talk to love them. They are happy with how well they work.
Me. I love the MK3s. It never fails for any fault of its own.
My favorite 3D printer is the creativity 3d elf, it’s under $500.
But for a beginner I would recommend a Sunlu S8 (Creality CR10s clone but with a more common mks base mainboard) which can be found for $200 including free shipping from the USA.
The Sunlu S8 is the easiest printer I’ve ever assembled, 6 screws and it’s ready to turn on the power.
There are a lot of sales happening on 11/11/20 for 3d printers, that would be the day I would grab one.
There is a November 2020 coupon code from sunlu “O5KZL8STKS”. I just bought one for my cousin. It’s his first 3d printer.