RepRap Prusa i3

The Prusa i3 is a no-nonsence low budget printer with great quality

Took a while to get things right, but practice makes perfect. 

Only thing I had problems with at first is the Aluminum Plate Bed. Get it to hot and will warp.

So I used blue tape and lowered temp. Works fine this way.

Now the self leveling works fine.

I love what it can do.

I love it because it helps me think what i am going to do

I like the quality put into the kit: clear manual, top quality components. I was also able to find all the answers to my questions on the Prusa's website forum.

This printer was an excellent introduction to the world of 3D printing, I've learned so much by breaking/fixing this thing.

The build instructions were largely pictorial. A couple of steps were for older revision builds so I had to do some detective work and figure out which parts in the box were different from the included BOM.  It all went together pretty easy and took about 12 hours to build in total.  It took another 5 hours of experimentation to really get the printer dialed in and calibrated properly.  Most of this was due to my inexperience in assembling printers.  Some of the included printed parts broke fairly quickly.  Print any and all replacement parts you can find right away.

The firmware comes preinstalled, I had to contact HICTOP to get the firmware files and haven't tried to modify them as the printer works fine as is.

The print quality is very good, it matches or exceeds the quality of the Makerbot Replicator2 I have at work.  I have successfully printed at a z resolution of 0.8mm and it looks great.

The included power supply is not sufficient for printing ABS as the nozzle and bed voltage rails would dip to around 7.5V if both were turned on.  I also had a lot of missed steps if I tried to print with both heaters on.  I recommend upgrading to a 30A power supply ASAP.

The metal bed warps a little when heated to 70° and above so perform your bed leveling with the bed heated.

The inductive sensor for the Z stop is difficult to make fine adjustments to, I'm working on adding a microdial height adjuster from an old wood router to aid in adjustments.  Checking the initial Z height and bed leveling are a constant battle.  It needs to be recalibrated every 2 or 3 prints.

I have only had to contact Support once when my inductive sensor died and it was promptly replaced.

Overall, I am very happy with my HICTOP.  The auto bed leveling is invaluable and makes getting prints to stick a LOT easier.  The machine requires a lot of fiddling to keep running in top condition but to be fair I pretty much run in constantly.  If you are a person with a good deal of electromechanical assembly experience you will have no problems getting this baby up and running.  If you're not familiar with basic electronics concepts this could be a challenging printer to get working well.  I would rate this printer a B overall.  I love it.

This was my first 3d printer.  As a beginner it took a few weeks to figure out all of the bells and whistles, and tedious extra problems that come with learning something new. I have subsequently purchased two others just like it.

 I currently 3d print as a hobby as well as business. And do all of my business printing on the Prusa i3s.

It takes a little bit to get used to it to begin with. However once you get the hang of it the print quality is outstanding.

There's a wide variety of software available for this style printer, and I have a feeling there will be for a very long time to come. 

I have built several Delta style printers, and while the way they work is really cool, I still prefer printing on my  prusa i3. 

While the quality of my prints and and few other points are partially due to the software, it's hard to judge whether they are a result of the printer quality or the printing software (Simplify3D bought separately). That being said, the $340CDN (final price to my door for the kit) I spent was well worth it. Being new to 3D printing there was a bit of a learning curve but it didn't take long before I was producing amazing quality prints. I would highly recommend anyone getting into 3D printing buy a kit and build it so they understand why things go wrong when they do. I have over 1000 hours on my printer and have yet to replace a single part. It just keeps on printing. Very happy with my purchase and a great new hobby!

No es muy facil de calibrar al principio y si no eres perseverante posiblemente te termines cansando. 

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