The prusa looks indeed like a very good printer, and the price is good indeed but it’s not targeted to the same audience hence the price difference also
The base kit of the MK2 is cheap but you have to build it with all the problems that can lead to
You have to add an extra amount for the 4 feeder thing (which looks great i agree)
The MK2 is very opened so i guess (maybe i’m wrong) that ABS and such can be tricky
Not possible to print PVA!
No wifi connection/camera
And i really don’t agree with the one nozzle multiple extruder approach it’s very nice if you print the same material, but it’s impossible to print reliably different materials (and let’s not even talk about PVA).
So it’s not really comparable if you want my opinion
Side note if someone is really eager to have one UM3 soon i’ll have one in stock tomorrow
I know people who’ve made custom dual extruder set-ups for the UM original series, and I am sure it has been done for the UM2 as well. Go check out thw Ultimaker forums, I’m pretty sure there’ll be good documentation on the procedure.
I’m really not blown away by it, and while I don’t doubt Ultimaker’s quality, I am a bit skeptical of some of the design choices.
Dual extrusion via separate heads is a trend that is being moved away from in the industry for good reason. I am surprised to see them go down this route so late in the game, and I’m more than a little concerned about the longevity of the nozzle lifting mechanics. There’s a reason other manufacturer’s haven’t gone down this route; something like that requires very precise mechanics to get right every time. It is entirely possible that the nozzles “move” hundreds, if not thousands, of cycles per print (each could have to raise/lower multiple times per layer - imagine a couple thousand layer print at high resolution). It’s definitely the engineering brain raising a red flag with that - maybe I’m wrong and I hope I am, but I just don’t see that mechanism working precisely for a long period of time. Time will tell I suppose, but I’m not jumping at the gate to make a decent investment for a printer that may not work for that long.
Inclusion of the NFC also makes me a bit wary; this makes future implementation of DRM in the future very easy for the company and not something I want to deal with. Hopefully, they learned from the mistakes other companies have made with DRM and won’t even try going down that road.
My other issue is the build volume. It’s smaller than competing, similarly priced dual extrusion machines which I find kind of disappointing. I was really expecting a big volume with the UM3! I’ll make a final assessment after seeing this unit out in the wild for a couple months, and seeing how it stands up to wear and tear over time.
Once again, Ultimaker have blown our expectations out of the water with quality, features, design, and functionality.
The approach to Dual Extrusion is very interesting and definitely a lot easier than an E3D direct hotend with pneumatic connector seperated above it (An equivelant comparison to the UM3).
The webcam feature is interesting, I haven’t been able to find much information about it however the remote connectivity aspect and remote monitoring feature is something long overdue on the Ultimaker brand in my opinion.
