Prusa MK4 Thread

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JavaLava

Limp Gawd
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Starting a thread for the Prusa MK4...lets try keep it MK4 related, so anyone interested in the MK4 can get the most out of this discussion ;)

My 3D printing journey started in 2017/2018 when the wife gifted me a MK3S kit for my birthday. As I learned the in's and out's of 3D printing, I slowly upgraded it to a MMU2S (had great success with it, going to get the MMU3 for sure), MK3S+, and then experimented with mods and third party extruders over time. When the XL was announced officially, the tech on it intrigued me with the Nextruder, perfect first layer, etc...nothing critical...just "that would be nice to have" thoughts. MK4 gets announced and got a order placed almost immediately and it arrived a few days ago.

Had a few days to use it and here are my thoughts and impressions.
  • Being an assembled printer, it was a great "out of box experience" to simply take the MK4 out of the box, plug in, do a 3 minute self check, upload a print, and immediately start printing. No other calibration needed...no 20 minute put a piece of paper under it, no first layer calibration, no sheet profiles, nothing.
  • The "perfect first layer" works as advertised. I have all the sheets: Smooth, Textured, and Satin and you simply just swap the sheets and hit print. It only probes the area the print takes up and not the whole sheet anymore as well.
  • Almost everything on this printer is replaced (Prusa says its 90%). When I was considering the upgrade kit, I came to the determination I would just have a bunch of parts sitting around that I can't use (even to have for maintenance and replacement parts) or less I built a new MK3. Of all the replaced parts, they are improved in the smallest of ways, such as cable clips for the LCD cable going along the 3030 extrusion, M3 screws for tension in the X Axis parts to better keep the bearings in place, bigger anti vibration feet, stronger and thicker printed parts, etc etc. I have seen a lot of variants of these improvements in mods over the years, so glad to see them default now.
  • The motors run quieter sure, but with the fans and Y axis/bed movement, honestly its mostly as loud as a MK3. Not terrible by any means...it sits next to me and I can work/zoom with it running and no one knows...but don't expect anything quieter.
  • The LCD is pretty much the same as Mini and options in it...nothing really to report there.
  • The firmware for the Input Shaping and speed improvements is not out yet, so print times are pretty much the same as a MK3 right now. With the 0.9 stepper motors, it does run smoother, etc.

Probably going to stay happy with this purchase. As fun as it was to learn 3D printing, tinker with calibration, mods, etc...I mostly just been finding myself wanting to print projects (RC and robotics, models, functional parts for around the house, etc) and less on the tinkering side (when I get the time to 3D print these days, I really dont want to be doing any of that anymore). Being able to just take this out of the box and start printing almost immediately, not having to worry about Live Z with changing Nozzles or Sheets, etc is just going to go a long way with me. When the MMU3 goes on sale, I will be getting one of those as well. Here is my hot take on it...hope it helps make up peoples mind who is on the fence, etc.

Finally, a pic of it in action:
1680893684966.png
 
JavaLava said:
The firmware for the Input Shaping and speed improvements is not out yet
Click to expand...
For real, Prusa?

After some reading, there's no accelerometer with the nextruder? How will it do input shaping then? You'll have to add one because I hope their solution isn't just to bake the value into the firmware. It needs to be calibrated for your specific printer and location.
 
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Really liking my MK4, took delivery of mine yesterday and have been going almost non-stop with it since. Previous to this, I was printing on a heavily moded Ender 3.
I'm also in the XL pre-order camp, but waiting for the 5 extruder version to ship before "confirming" my order.
I, like you, had a lot of fun building, modding, and learning about the printer itself. But, I also want it to "just print" now with minimum hassle. So far, the MK4 is killing it on that front.
 
NightReaver said:
For real, Prusa?

After some reading, there's no accelerometer with the nextruder? How will it do input shaping then? You'll have to add one because I hope their solution isn't just to bake the value into the firmware. It needs to be calibrated for your specific printer and location.
Click to expand...

The 32bit Buddy board has an Accelerometer input...no details past that yet....so can't really say. On there Youtube Monthly Live show, they made mention it should be soon/around the corner.
 
JavaLava said:
The 32bit Buddy board has an Accelerometer input...no details past that yet....so can't really say. On there Youtube Monthly Live show, they made mention it should be soon/around the corner.
Click to expand...
Right. It's just they really should include that. An accelerometer is like $5, and that's off amazon.
 
So I dropped a pre-order on a kit and splurged on the satin sheet. Is it worth it to toss in a spare nozzle?

I haven't done much printing for a hobby since the days of the Kickstarter beta testing (My old M3D is collecting dust) and I had access to a few commercial resin printers and a MakerBot replicator at work.
 
Depends on your goals, and what filament(s) you use.
I primarily print in PLA, PETG, and ASA. So I use the normal sheet and a textured sheet. At some point I'm going to get the V6 nozzle adapter and a couple hardened steel nozzles for abrasive filaments, but that's a bit down the line.
 
Eulogy said:
Depends on your goals, and what filament(s) you use.
I primarily print in PLA, PETG, and ASA. So I use the normal sheet and a textured sheet. At some point I'm going to get the V6 nozzle adapter and a couple hardened steel nozzles for abrasive filaments, but that's a bit down the line.
Click to expand...
Is the V6 nozzle adapter in the store page compatible with the MK4? I couldn't find it on there.

Planning on starting with the 3 materials you mentioned, and maybe some TPU once I get the hang of things.
 
I figured an extra Nextruder V6 adapter would be a good buy as I could put a .6 nozzle on it. When I went to go modify my order it then won't accept the $50 shipping rate they have on the printer itself and instead bumps up the shipping about another $50-60. Making the Nextruder adapter cost about $80+. I'll pick one up after elsewhere or a later date. I see that there's some place here in the states that stocks them as well and it would cost half as much.
 
I'm sure printedsolid will eventually get them. If you're just going to use a normal 0.6 nozzle, you can just buy the normal one too. Only need the adapter if you want to use V6 nozzles.
 
Accursed said:
I figured an extra Nextruder V6 adapter would be a good buy as I could put a .6 nozzle on it. When I went to go modify my order it then won't accept the $50 shipping rate they have on the printer itself and instead bumps up the shipping about another $50-60. Making the Nextruder adapter cost about $80+. I'll pick one up after elsewhere or a later date. I see that there's some place here in the states that stocks them as well and it would cost half as much.
Click to expand...
I did the same thing but I forgot to check shipping. I can wait for that much extra!
 
ThatOtherGuy314 said:
I did the same thing but I forgot to check shipping. I can wait for that much extra!
Click to expand...
Based on past experience, it wont be that much. They'll just toss it in the box with the printer and change the cost back down. What does happen though, is your duties are going to be higher. If I'm ordering accessories along with a printer from Prusa directly, I do the accessories in a 2nd order.
 
Eulogy said:
Based on past experience, it wont be that much. They'll just toss it in the box with the printer and change the cost back down. What does happen though, is your duties are going to be higher. If I'm ordering accessories along with a printer from Prusa directly, I do the accessories in a 2nd order.
Click to expand...
The forum had this:
PRUSA FORUMS

It shows a $800 limit; with just the satin sheet $839 is my total.

In your experience, it is worth it to split the orders?
 
ThatOtherGuy314 said:
The forum had this:
PRUSA FORUMS

It shows a $800 limit; with just the satin sheet $839 is my total.

In your experience, it is worth it to split the orders?
Click to expand...
I don't do it frequently enough to know off the top of my head. I mostly only order printers from Prusa direct, then parts/accessories and even some filaments from PrintedSolid (based in the States, so no duties). For that little it's probably not worth the extra shipping vs duties, but you'd have to run the numbers to be certain.
 
JavaLava said:
Starting a thread for the Prusa MK4...lets try keep it MK4 related, so anyone interested in the MK4 can get the most out of this discussion ;)

When the XL was announced officially, the tech on it intrigued me with the Nextruder, perfect first layer, etc...nothing critical...just "that would be nice to have" thoughts. MK4 gets announced and got a order placed almost immediately and it arrived a few days ago.
Click to expand...

So how does the XL compare to the MK4, any advantages etc?
 
Finny76 said:
So how does the XL compare to the MK4, any advantages etc?
Click to expand...

XL is a CoreXY architecture and the MK4 is a bed slinger. Outside of that, the XL has a bigger bed size and tool changer compared to the MK4....these are probably the only big/obvious differences between the two.
 
JavaLava said:
XL is a CoreXY architecture and the MK4 is a bed slinger. Outside of that, the XL has a bigger bed size and tool changer compared to the MK4....these are probably the only big/obvious differences between the two.
Click to expand...

I juts got my XL after patiently waiting over a year... Haven't had a chance to open the box, but super excited... This will be my first 3D printer, so I have a Lot to learn :)
 
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