Hi everybody! I’m about to dive into the world of 3D printing and finally chose the Prusa i3 (or steel version) to start with. However, when I started looking for seller, I found so many different manufacturers from so many sites. I was wondering from which seller/manufacturer I should buy, since the quality of the parts are really important to me! (I don’t want a cheap plastic chinese version) Thanks for guiding me to the best seller I could find who could deliver to Canada!
Personally out of all Prusa i3s I’m extremely partial to the P3Steel, so that’s what I’ll recommend. Acrylic and plywood Prusa i3s have a lot of wobble in their sheet frame, and while I haven’t used aluminum i3s I’ve heard they also have a significant amount. The wobble translates to poor print quality and sometimes even loss of tramming (90 degree angles). My steel i3 is rock solid, and the way it’s designed allows for zero warping of the frame, resulting in perfect angles every single time. It even allows for higher speeds since the frame is more solid.
The only vendor I know of that sells P3Steel kits is Kitprinter3D 17. However, another option you could take is sourcing a frame from them or from Ebay and buying all of the other parts separately, which would be a longer and probably tougher project but may be cheaper and would certainly give you a lot more customization.
Last thing I’ll say is that you shouldn’t be afraid of Chinese parts. Stick with genuine brand-name parts for the parts that require precision (the hotend, the rods, etc) but for a lot of the other less significant parts (the endstops, the belts, even the controller board) Chinese parts work just as well as more expensive US or Europe-made parts.
I bought an original Prusa i3 (http://shop.prusa3d.com/en/ 6). Yes you pay a bit more, but the service you get when assembling your kit is exceptional! It also benefits from the steel main structure against warping, and the solid printed ABS parts are also sturdy and durable. After assembling it turned out one of the end-stops was faulty, and within two days they sent me a replacement part, so again great service (basically 24/7 online).
Also, printing quality is great, and because you can set all the temperatures, speeds, fans etc yourself you can really experiment with a lot of different materials and shapes.
Any update is also communicated to you, so you can make the prints and order the parts correctly; nice tinkering guaranteed!
I completely agree. I also have an original i3 kit, and it has just blown me away in every way. The parts are all very high quality, well made, and they use only the best electronics (miniRambo, E3D V6, etc…). When my printbed was damaged in shipping, they dispatched a new one the next day. The customer support is just great. Every tool required is provided, even down to the fact that at one point two tiny screws need to be tightened, so a whole separate screwdriver was included. While I have never used a P3Steel, I can say that once properly tightened the lasercut aluminium frame has excellent rigidity, and I have printed up to 150mm/s without issue. Print quality is really pretty good, and with the aluminium over acrylic or plywood frame it can handle damn quick speeds. The only downside is that you have to be prepared to do a lot of tinkering to get it working well, but as long as you know what you are doing that is fine. I would 100% recommend this as great value printer, though a little bit of previous experience is probably helpful.
