First printer purchase

oggiet · 2 Feb 2021 at 10:23

Looking into getting my first printer and after doing a bit of reading up have eyes set on Prusa mini+.
Just wondering if there is any other models I should look at. Dont want anything too large, mainly for small projects and needs to be decent print quality out the box. Dont mind playing with it to get perfect settings but dont want to be spending all day either

oggiet · 2 Feb 2021 at 16:54

bulb66 said:
To be honest, if you have the budget for it go for a Prusa they are great printers and their support is super. Bit of a lead time of the Prusa's but worth the wait. You going for the mostly assembled or complete kit?

Thats exactly what I was thinking, great support is the main reason I'm leaning towards it and from what I've read auto levelling is very useful .......under £400 so its not really that much more compare to other decent models.
I' was thinking going for the kit (says 13 weeks) but assembled one says 8 weeks and its £40 more. Not really in a hurry so will just wait and get the kit.
Is their own filament any good or should I just order another brands when the printer arrives ?

oggiet · 2 Feb 2021 at 17:28

bulb66 said:
If I had the space I'd get another Prusa, I have a MK2.5S and it still prints great so the newer models will be great.

Their filament is good because they make it in-house so control the manufacturing but other brands are also as good so I wouldn't worry about using other brands, they have a lot of filament profiles setup in PrusaSlicer anyway.

I did look at the bigger model but think just too big at the moment, when we upgrade our house I will definitely look into it at the time. Good to hear from somebody that owns one of their printers, appreciate your input .......will pull the trigger and order this weekend. Meanwhile will research more into filament and see whats good for this particular model.

oggiet · 4 Feb 2021 at 14:35

Had contact with them and its total mess, will have to pay vat on import, on top of that will have to pay courier handling fee and credit card admin fee. Not sure what to do now, might wait a while and see if they will start reselling/shipping from within UK.

oggiet · 4 Feb 2021 at 15:53

bulb66 said:
I'm fairly confident they will not be reselling them in the UK. There are ZERO official Prusa resellers in the world. The thing is we have been spoilt by not paying the VAT/Duty on imports from the likes of China for a long time and now we have to, we are just going to have to suck it up.

You could contact the courier and see if you can arrange to pay the VAT/Duty before they do, that's why they charge a fee.

If only we were still in Europe ....

oggiet · 4 Feb 2021 at 17:23

deuse said:
Nothing to do with it.

Just been reading up and they might consider shipping from within UK depending how it goes over next few months. Apparently their supplier is situated in UK.

oggiet · 4 Feb 2021 at 17:28

bulb66 said:
Their supplier of what? Only one of their suppliers that I know is based in the UK is E3D and they only supplier hotends and not the ones used on the Mini.

They could let them be their reseller ?

oggiet · 4 Feb 2021 at 17:35

bulb66 said:
I honestly don't see that happening.

I'll just wait and see I guess, not in hurry. Can always get friend who live in Europe to bring one in when he drives next time.