That's encouraging and a super nice print! I would definitely like to be able to print larger things like this.

I started with a wanhao i3 and this is the reason I paid the premium for the Prusa. Glue stick and manual bed levelling is a pretty crap experience.

Most people just use a piece of paper to level the bed and you only have to do it every so often, but it really is a pain compared to a self leveling machine.

while newer prusas have gotten slightly more user friendly, my first prusa was an mk2 and i literally spent 13 hours assembling it and another 3-4 hours calibrating the axis. most new users wont have the patience or skill for this. i also dont reccommend buying a fully assembled prusa because then you wont know how to take it apart to fix it. most chinese printers go together in an hour or two, and dont require much calibration because its all built with 80/20 extrusions. i will always reccommend a creality as a first printer.

Yeah assembly was huge but no idea why it took so long to calibrate. Mine was printing pretty much right away after building, also an MK2. Then again I really took my time during the build to ensure things were even.

Also agree on not buying the kit, knowing how to build it goes a long way.

Let's see how this flies.

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Here is my take on the Ender/Prusa debate. Ender to me reminds me of a Windows machine that allows more flexibility and has more of a community based printing approach. The Prusa reminds me of Apple. Apple because when you buy a Prusa you are not just buying the printer. You are buying the the hardware, firmware, and software (slicer) that is all designed to work in the same ecosystem. This is why Apples are more reliable. They own the end to experience. Soon Prusa will have their own version of Octoprint. The other thing is Prusa just comes with functionality that you have to add later on the Ender (i.e. BLTouch).

I have several of each, but now own a heck of a lot more Prusa's for our company. Bottom line is they work and work well. So do the Enders, but there are simply more variables. I bought the first Prusa mini and built it. Not a big deal, but then bought the rest assembled.

One last thing is that Prusa's support is outstanding. They stand behind their product as well.

I know this stuff about Ender vs. Prusa can get religious at times so my intent was not to start a debate. I just wanted to express my experiences.

I agree on the overall point but I think there has got to be a better comparison than Apple because Prusa does not go out of their way to keep you in their ecosystem or try to lock you down from modifying/doing things your own way. I've been using a prusa for years and never touched their slicer for example. (EDIT: I just realized I lied. I use prusa's version of slic3r but that's mostly because I was using it before prusa forked it)
I had no idea they were doing their own octoprint though, that sounds intriguing.
I feel like Apple does the ecosystem thing as a business model but Prusa does it because it makes their products more reliable. I'm trying to think of an analogy that isn't Apple but not really coming up with anything. Maybe Valve? Their products are solid and work amazingly well in the ecosystem they're designed for but they do not stop you from doing your own thing with them.

I see the big commercial units that take special filament spools and don't let you do anything outside of their ecosystem like the apple of 3d printing. They are designed for totally different users than us hobbyists though.

You also realize that the Prusa i3 design is fully open source . . . the complete opposite approach of Apple? Then again, every analogy breaks down at some point.

Apple has a lot more open source projects than you might imagine.

https://opensource.apple.com/

I agree with all you guys. Prusa to me is really genuine. They are real all the way to the top. I hope they can keep it going with how big they have become. You are correct, my analogy was more of them supplying the different layers in the overall experience. That to me goes a really long way.

Either way, it is great to have competition out there so we as consumers can compare/contrast and be "experts" on picking them apart!

Btw, working on printing the articulated dragon right now. Here are a couple pix as it has progressed (2+ day print at the rez I am doing this at).

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The extruder upgrade was a HUGE upgrade for me. My ender 3's plastic extruder cracked in the first month of using it and while it seemed like it was working, it was messing up random layers where that crack caused the mechanism to lose a lot of tension and under-extruded more often than what I had realized. I thought it was a bunch of other stuff for a good while, but wasnt till I took apart most of the mechanisms and inspected each closely I would find minor hairline fractures.

But the Apple computers have never been (not that I would expect them to be), but they made a huge mistake by not licensing their computer technology.

Just ordered the creality 5 pro. My son, 7 yrs old, asked for one for Xmas. Haha! This one will be for the BOTH of us. But I’ve never used one before. Always been interested and very well versed in computers and CAD. Looking forward to making some mods. Best place to find stuff is “thingiverse”??

Thingiverse website is terrible (nearly unusable), but it has the most models.

Prusaprinters.org is a joy to browse, but not as many models. The monthly contest submissions are always fun to check out.

If you're into miniatures, there are countless patreons to support where you'll get high quality stuff that otherwise isn't available on the bigger sites.

I almost always just use thingiverse because the community is the biggest there but plasticbugs is right, it's a terribly managed website. For the traffic it gets you'd think they'd be able to do something with it.

If you're well versed in CAD you will probably find yourself making things more than downloading them. (depending on what you use it for of course)

Being able to whip up something custom for a single application is such a joy and I can do it even with my terrible CAD skills.

There is this awesome vet show where the guy makes these super high end implants and uses 3d printed riggings to make sure everything lines up and holes are drilled perfectly straight etc.
It's one of my favourite aspects of the hobby when I can come up with a template or tool just for the specific job I'm doing.

I just got an Ender 3 V2 today, made my first two prints. The octopus’s mouth came out a little wonky. Does it needs some type of support?

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I like both companies.. Like I said previous, I'm totally in on the XL because they finally designed the printer correctly (made it easy to service, and did leveling correctly). Seriously, all of you current prusa owners, wait until your extruder gears start wearing out and let me know what a pain it is to get at the extruder (if your 3d printed parts don't break as you take them apart). My extruder is all by itself and comes apart with 2-3 screws. And before you say "oh well a direct extruder is better because it's closer to the nozzle", you're wrong. Having a heavy weight on the carriage means you can't run the head as fast as I can. Also $120k stratasys printers also use bowden tubes for the same reason.

Any type of underhang is gong to potentially come out rough or wonky like that. This one is tapered so it's not too bad but you're right that supports would help. You have to weigh the trade off though between supports potentially making some imperfections somewhere else depending on how you implement the supports. (also time it takes to remove/clean up supports)
More cooling helps too. If you can print at a lower temperature or increase your part fan speed it can help.

I agree on this one. The extruder carriage design is brutal. Way too many parts to remove and adjust just to get in and access everything. It makes me really try to avoid servicing it all.

What are you using for a slicer?

I’m using Cura.

https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3495390

It mentions it needs support for the mouth. So need to add it only there with the slicer or with the file that already has it integrated

Try 'Tree' support, 'Touching Buildplate'. It will add supports where needed, but will only attach the base to the build plate, not the model. And set 'Support Wall Line Count' to 1 (that will make a minimal support, easier to remove). There's some other settings that can help, but give that a try first.

Not too shabby for a first print!

Which file did you grab from thingiverse?

Woops. the nose tapers in the opposite direction than I was thinking. That definitely would benefit from supports.

I swear sometimes I’m blind. I never even noticed that it explained that it needs the supports.

Thanks, I picked the one clearly marked that it needs you to add your own support, lol

Here's the 5.6 stl file w/the Tree support. So the support is only from the Buildplate to the mouth. I had Raft turned on.

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I will try it again with the build plate. I just noticed that I managed to picked the file that said “not tested yet, should work” it had the legs in the spiral.

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I have an Ender 5 Pro, works great. There are some adjustments to print for the printer itself. Check thingiverse for that. I printed a cable support, box for around the display, extruder wheel and additional bed support. I also upgraded the board to the more sillent one, but you can always do that later. So do the setup on youtube there are enough videos to help you. The bed levveling video just a page ago was also very helpful. I use a paper that is folded and later only the paper. Start easy with some small prints and not be tempted to print a full scale Mando Helmet the first run

I bought this on Facebook marketplace this summer. I paid $225 for it and it prints fantastic. I have only leveled the bed 1 time and it has been pretty much plug and play. I would love to have a Prusa someday but this was my first 3d printed and I wasn’t sure if I would like it so I only invested a small amount.

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They have a model that already has just the mouth support built-in so you don't need to add any supports with your slicer. Use the file called Octopus_sup_v5.6.stl

I’m not sure if anyone else saw this but micro center is selling ender 3 pros for $99 after coupon.
Here is the coupon
https://www.microcenter.com/site/content/specialoffer3dprinter.aspx

I should get a second... for spare parts.

Wow, it’s kind of a no brainer at that price point.

In store only, while supplies last.......

Just a FYI: If these are the version that don't have the upgraded motherboard, the thermal runaway is not enabled in firmware by default. I think that changed w/the 32 bit mother boards.

Great price tho!

Surprised to hear so many positives on the prusa. I have a prusa and a qidi x-pro and I'd 10x rather have the qidi than the prusa. It's just easier to work on, has less issues, and was even cheaper. Prusa has the bigger build plate and maybe slightly better quality, but that doesn't do much good when your prints have a tendency to form giant filament balls around the printhead when things go wrong every 30 or 40 prints. I'm not really a Prusa fan after using it a lot, it's just overpriced for what it is in my opinion.

You definitely have an issue with your printer and it needs to be adjusted if that's happening. I literally just did the first maintenance on my prusa I've done in 2 years outside of tightening the belts once a year ago. Other than maintaning the buld plate. The material prusa uses really needs to be clean and using acetone is almost a must to get PEI really sticky and clean.

Filament ball around the nozzle sounds like a bed adhesion problem, unless it's happening during the print. Then it sounds like a clogged nozzle.

Thanks, picked one up this morning.

When the qidi print has an adhesion issue, it just falls off the plate. When it happens on a prusa, you get this huge mess. The printer is fine and the bed adhesion is fine, it's just occasionally that when I'm printing the exact same print over and over one time it will come loose for some reason or another, but then it will work fine for the next 30 or 40 prints.

I've definitely had the filament ball many times, what a pain that is. I've had one where the entire extruder was encased in filament. I put on a silicone sock to try and avoid it but it went under the sock and was even worse lol..

I'm wondering what type of bed the qidi uses? I've noticed PEI definitely needs a refresh with some acetone after several prints or it becomes almost unusable. Makes me wonder if the difference is coming more from the material on the bed than the printer itself.

What you are saying is true for the MK series. But the mini does not have these tendencies. I have a farm of about a dozen of these printing very high rez around the clock. I proactively maintain the farm and I think the helps with clogs and other issues. In my opinion the Prusa Mini is the best printer for new people into the hobby and those that have been there a while. It costs a little more, but worth it for the feature set and quality. And yes, I liked Enders too, but to me Prusa edges em out in almost every category accept price.

Victory is mine at last.

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very cool....

Crap, I gotta do that.

Is the model split into multiple pieces to make
Them easier to paint?

Wow, you got lucky there. I'm seeing $100 off of a $300 Ender 3 Pro. $200 is still good, plus you're supporting local retail.

It was on sale for 200 yesterday. Went up to 300 today.

The price went up today. I did get lucky.

Thats a great question TBH. I started having under-extrusion issues suddenly, and thought I had a clog. I did all the "normal" things, but it didn't help. I finally cracked the hotend open to find the tubing had started to melt (enough to mess up extrusion easily). I bought it directly from Capricorn a couple of years ago, so I know its genuine. I run most of my prints at 220 or 225, so Im not even sitting that hot either. My guess is that after 2+ years and a ton of prints later, it started to just break down. I cut a small section off, put it together and its back to working just fine.

You are taking all the things out of context though. Half that stuff you do no matter what. You need to bed level any printer or set a z offset for example. You also make it seem like a prusa never needs a new nozzle. You may not have run into it, but they do.

That video "upgrade" is to put on a whole new hotend. Thats apples and oranges. The only things I said could use an upgrade on a stock ender3 are the bedsprings ($6 part on amazon and takes about 2 minutes to install if you are drinking a beer at the same time), and the extruder ($12 upgrade from amazon that takes all of 5 minutes to install). Ender 3 plus 2 upgrades is still a hell of a lot cheaper than a prusa. A lot of people mention a bltouch, but thats really un-necessary IMHO. I had one, got rid of it. Its more hassle than its worth. Upgrade the bed springs, level the bed and bam, you are good.

The reason you see the Ender recommended is because of all the basic 3d printers, it's the best value. It's pretty decent out of the box and 1/4 or 1/5 the cost of a prusa. Not saying the Prusa isnt good, its just really expensive and IMHO, not worth the money. They do have great support though, you just are paying for that.

We run ender 3 printers, they have been great. We have upgraded all of them with better parts. I'd guess it takes less than hour and about $20 in parts to do all of the upgrades and it's a great way to learn how your machine works. None of it is very difficult.

The only criticism I really have for it them is the need for leveling, which can be a real pain at times.