Prusa Mini 3D Printer Review: The 3D printer to buy on a budget

Prusa Mini Hero Source: Windows Central

When Prusa get-go told the world they were making a printer that wasn't a new version of the amazing MK3s, I was secretly hoping for something larger. At start, I was disappointed that they went for a miniature version of their nigh famous printer, merely the moment I had the Prusa Mini set upwardly and printing, whatsoever concerns I had melted away. This is the review of the Prusa Mini, and it is nigh to take the 3D printing globe by storm if you can become hold of one that is.

Original Prusa Mini

Prusa Mini 3D Printer

Bottom line:

The Good

Affordable
Print quality is astounding
Can be networked to create a print farm
Easy to setup

The Bad

Information technology'southward a little small, I gauge?
In that location actually isn't anything bad
Oh, information technology might have a while to get to you lot

Prusa Mini 3D Printer What I like

Prusa Mini Batman Source: Windows Key

Prusa Research has been a large proper noun in 3D printing for a long time now, and the Mk3, Prusa'south flagship device, is synonymous with quality and reliability. Even so, it has always been at what hobbyists feel is at the loftier-end of their budget. $700 plus aircraft for the kit version is a steep price to pay when y'all are just starting. The Prusa Mini, though halves that price with very little in the way of trade-offs.

Category	Prusa Mini
Build volume	180 ten 180 x 180 mm
Maximum travel speed	200+ mm/s
Max. bed temp.	100 degrees celsius
Max. nozzle temp.	280 degrees celsius
Layer height	0.05mm
Materials	PLA, PETG, Flex, ASA, ABS, Flex
Connectivity	USB, Ethernet networking

Equally the name suggests, the Mini is a smaller version of the Mk3, and yous would be well within your rights to assume the cheaper version of a printer would suffer when it comes to print quality. I can tell you that I haven't seen that at all. You would be hard-pressed to run into any difference between the quality of the Prusa Mini and its big brother. I did have a moment of business that the Mini uses a Bowden setup, which I thought may limit the materials I could use. Still, I had no trouble printing PLA, ABS, or ASA. While I didn't become effectually to press flexible materials, UncleJessy on YouTube managed to make an incredibly skillful print with TPU in his latest video.

Equally you can see from the gallery to a higher place, the print quality on circuitous models like Batman and the zombie mitt from Fotis Mint is splendid, but what impressed me virtually is the dimensional accuracy. When I printed the nut and bolt, I had little hope that the bolt would screw on correctly — I have had bug in the past — simply information technology is as perfect a print as I have seen.

Setting up the Prusa Mini is extremely like shooting fish in a barrel. Unlike the Mk3 kit, the Mini comes more often than not together, with a few pieces that demand screwing in place and plugging into the mainboard. Prusa Enquiry has a dandy manual to assistance y'all get the prepare up correct, and within an hour, I had the showtime print ready to go. With the Prusa Mini, the development team has stepped away from SD cards equally the memory input and replaced information technology with a USB thumb bulldoze — a much need upgrade in my view — but they accept also added networking to the Mini as well. Having the power to network a group of Mini'southward together in a print farm is a massive advocacy for a pocket-sized business organization looking to make small and medium-sized parts apace.

Prusa Mini 3D Printer What needs piece of work

Prusa Mini Model Source: Windows Central

You would be hard-pressed to see any difference betwixt the quality of the Prusa Mini and its large brother.

In that location is very little work that needs doing to the Prusa Mini; information technology's already terrific. I think the biggest downside is perhaps the print bed. If yous are ownership a 3D printer with the give-and-take "Mini" in the title, you lot should await a modest bed, but others seem to disagree. The bed on the Mini is 180mm x 180mm, which is not that bad. The Prusa Mk3 has a larger bed, of course — 250mm x 210mm — but it certainly isn't double the size to make upwardly for the cost. Fifty-fifty the Ender 3 — a much closer price range to the Mini — is but 40mm bigger each side, and the print quality on the Mini is much higher. While having a large print bed is great, y'all accept to balance cost, bed size, and print quality when y'all're starting as a hobbyist. The Prusa Mini offers the all-time balance of the three.

The but existent negative right at present is the length of time y'all will accept to wait for a new Mini from Prusa Research. Delivery times for the Minican vary from six to viii weeks — equally opposed to the two to three weeks of the Mk3 — and so if you are on a time crunch, yous may need to look elsewhere.

Prusa Mini 3D Printer Should you buy?

Prusa Mini Chompy Source: Windows Central

There are a lot of reasons why the Prusa Mini might be a skilful pick for y'all. The machine'due south overall size is small plenty to fit on your desk, for example, or the fact that information technology can be linked together to create an affordable print subcontract. The price is another huge selling point. At simply $350 + shipping, it is an incredible bargain for the quality of prints that you go.

If you start out in 3D printing and want a low-cost 3D printer that doesn't compromise quality, then the Mini is your best pick. There will be people who will tell you that ownership a cheaper printer and spending six months getting configured is part of the "joy of printing," but information technology isn't. The hobby has now progressed to the signal where the joy tin can come up from what you make, not how long it took you to make the machine piece of work.

Original Prusa Mini

Prusa Mini 3D Printer

Lesser line: The Prusa Mini is now my go-to recommendation for anyone on a upkeep. The print quality is as good equally printers twice the cost, and it prints brilliantly out of the box. I have been amazed at the Prusa Mini functioning, and yous will be also. Yous'll need to gild information technology soon, though, as they take a little while to arrive.

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