Is there a clone worth getting?
A while ago I had an Ender 3 Pro which I upgraded with a BL-Touch and self-printed parts. It worked great and was reliable but not something I would call plug and play.
Is there a clone that's relatively plug and play? I don't mind assembling but don't want constant readjustments.
Have a look at the Sovol SV-06. It is a direct knockoff of the Prusa Mk3 and a seemingly decent one. Only have a Prusa myself so I can’t speak for the Sovols reliability but heard nothing but good things about it.
Thank you! Looks promising and it's a price I can justify :)
I agree. Went from ender 3 to sovol svo6+. I like it.
I got an sv06 a few weeks ago as my first printer and I really like it.
Prusa is more expensive and better mostly because its built better, not because of software. Any open source (marlin) board can be updated by user and its also easy to flash klipper for example.
Constant readjustments are due to bad design and no QC. If you want more reliable printer dont look for knockoffs. My first printer was prusa knockoff, it looks better than prusa, steel frame with no printed parts, but its not even close. Its collecting dust now
Yes that obviously makes sense but is the price step up really worth it for someone who only prints occasionally? The price difference between the Prusa MK3S+ and Sovol SV-06 is almost 500€
The question is whether you want to get into 3D printing or get a printer that has a chance of your hobby becoming fixing 3D Printers.
I went the cheaper route too first, at the end of the day it never worked as well as my Prusa and I probably put a similar amount of money into it before giving up.
Yeah its 3x price so not worth if you achieve the same goal. Personally Id try to avoid bed slinger, but if I was buying one I would go for prusa just because I know they are approved. But if I was buying 200ish € printer id probably go for ender just because they take more than half of 3d printing content on the internet. I dont know much about sovol tho
I am a Elegoo fan on this. Checkout Neptune 3 pro or 4 pros. I suppose Elegoo should pay me for advocacy here :)
I would honestly go with a Sovol SV06 if you want a prusa clone, and if you want a bed slinger that has a lot of good value, go with the Artillery Sidewinder X2. Newegg sells it for $300. Already has literally every upgrade anyone here will tell you to get - direct drive, touch probe, 110v SSR heated bed, oldham couplers on the Z, belted dual Z, touch screen, usb, volcano hot end, titan extruder, the whole kit and kaboodle. And they use a nice edge-card style connector so when you put the XZ frame on it, it connects everything in the print head so it's dummy-simple to assemble too.
On top of all that, it's a 310x310 build volume. So it really is a crazy nice machine for the price. It even has self-adjusting XZ V-wheels on the X gantry so you're not having to deal with eccentric nuts.
About the only thing this machine is lacking is a PEI build surface.
Not really. You're talking about mass produced versus direct production. The real value is in the software. While it is possible to find excellent devs to hire as subcontractors, they are very expensive and only work for a short time on products that are mass produced. As soon as they check all the required boxes they are done and get paid. The schedule is rushed, the requirements are poorly constrained and stupid changes get made in the middle. This is what all mass produced goods are like in practice. It isn't about a company or product. It is only about profit. Direct production involves full time staff for everything. The devs don't get paid as much as subcontractors, but given enough time there is no comparison. A full time dev can polish and tune their work orders of magnitude better than what goes into mass produced junk. The software is where all of the really polish comes from. Comparing hardware specs is a fallacy promoted by a mass produced goods culture. I have both types of printers, there is no comparison between my MK3S and KP3S
I understand where you're coming from, but I can't justify paying the Prusa tax lol. Don't get me wrong, I would consider getting one, but my usage just isn't that high.
Regarding your development point, there are several open-source projects like Marlin or Klipper that are free to use for 3D printers. Even Prusa uses a variation of Marlin as the base for their firmware, though they modify it to fit the needs of their printers.
I'm not entirely sure about this one but couldn't they simply use Prusa's firmware if its a 1-1 clone, eliminating the need for additional development costs?
Prusa constantly updates their stuff and it is often pushing the limits of the hardware. This has made every cut price clone obsolete by the time they come to market. This is a moving target. That is the business strategy to avoid clones trying to undercut Prusa. The clones also have no resale value just like all of the mass produced junk and even more so for proprietary. You actually own a Prusa, even the right to buy or sell it second hand. You own it for life and no one can take that away. It is the lowest depreciating option you will find. From that perspective, it is the cheapest option you can buy.
Marlin, RepRap, and Klipper are just baselines. If you're doing one yourself Klipper is the only way that makes sense. It is a ton of work. This is like saying "I have a broken down Mercedes and I can get a Chevy 350 crate engine for $1500. The amount of time and effort in between those two are far more than anyone realizes without experience. The results speak for themselves when you look at how many people have prusas and actually use them to print things that are not printer hacks.
I have an ender I don't ever make adjustments. I can almost always just print remotely. What adjustments are you doing? Granted it took a while to mod mine with bl touch and a new board and new extruder drive.
I have a couple of issues, actually. I had it set up perfectly and loved the results it produced (perfect bed adhesion, perfect layer stacking, no elephant foots whatsoever).
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But then I moved and stored it away and didn't touch it for almost a year. Now I have issues with bed leveling and extrusion.
Even if I manually level the bed it gets uneven in between printing jobs. My BL-Touch can't even counter it. Some time after that my extruder stopped working correctly. It wont feed filament and just grind away at the gear. I've check for clogs and if the gear was worn out but that's not issue. I have a feeling this printer is cursed lol
Now I just want a clean printer that I haven't tinkered with yet so I can back into 3D printing after my unintended hiatus haha. Any idea what to do with my current printer? I don't really want to fix it anymore.
Another vote for sovol sv06.