this is it, make:’s best overall 3d printerfor 2017, the prusa i3 mark 2. you might be surprised that this is our firstpick - it doesn’t have the refined looks of an ultimaker, nor the structural rigidityof a lulzbot. but we were consistently impressed with thequality of the prints that came off this machine, and the reliability with which it kept printingthem out.
how much does it cost to 3d print something, and we haven’t even mentioned the best partof this printer - the price. the prusa i3 mark 2 can be had for $899 us. that’s the printer that comes to you fullyassembled, ready to print as soon as you take it out of the box and set it up.
but, if you prefer to take delivery of yourprusa printer in its classic fashion, you can still purchase it as an unassembled kitfor $699. the prusa i3 is spun out of the reprap community- the open source movement dedicated to building self replicating machines. open source is still fully embraced by prusaresearch, and you can see plenty of telltale marks in the printer’s construction - manyof the structural parts of the printer are 3d printed - and while this look might notplease everyone, it’s tough to argue that this isn’t a refined piece of machinery. the lcd interface is spartan, but provideseasy access to filament loading and unloading,
preheating the nozzle and print bed, and manuallymoving the print head. untethered printing is achieved using an sdcard, and there’s a usb port for tethered printing - or other controllers. there’s a lot on offer here with the prusa- the all metal e3d hot end of the print head is one of the best in the business, and isable to achieve temperatures of up to 300 degrees celsius. this enables the mark 2 to print with justabout any filament available today - flexible filaments, nylon, polycarbonate, and plentyothers. the printer uses 1.75mm filament, which leavesyou with no shortage of options to choose
from. one of the other big evolutions to come withthe prusa i3 mk 2 is the heated print bed. it uses three different power zones to compensatefor cold print bed corners by heating up the edges just a bit more than the center. the bed also houses an array of magnetic calibrationnodes. the probe on the print head will look forthese before every print, which allows the printer to not only auto-level before eachprint, but also compensate for any alignment tweaks - in any axis - that might happen tothe printer. prusa research are so confident in this featurethat that they believe that a kit built printer
will print every bit as well as one that arrivedpre-assembled. the other highlight of the print bed is thepei printing surface. this should all but effectively remove theneed for any printing surface adhesive helpers like glue, abs juice or painters tape whenprinting with traditional materials. just print away, and remove the print oncethe bed has fully cooled. give it a swab with alcohol to remove anyresidual grease or dust every few prints, and you’re ready for perfect first layers. you will still need some adhesion helperswhen printing with more exotic materials like pet, nylon or flexible materials.
while you might be tempted to dive right inslicing models using cura - and the printer is fully supported in that software - you’regoing to be much better off using slic3r to prepare your prints. the profiles for the mark 2 are updated andoptimized by prusa research on a much more rapid cycle, and their own fork of slic3rships with the printer. your print quality will be all the betterfor it. if you’re splitting hairs, you could arguethat the horizontal surface finish and retraction performance of the prusa aren’t as top classas some other printers out there - we found the same in our comparison.
but when you look at everything else thatthe prusa i3 mark 2 brings to the table, and
the cost of entry to get started, it’s easyto see why this printer earned our top marks. you can see our reviews of all the 3d printers,laser cutters, cnc machines and more in make: volume 54: our ultimate guide to desktop fabricationfor 2017. i’ll be on newsstands soon, check it out.
