Hello, what are people’s opinions on the Prusa I2? I want to build a 3d printer, sadly my Cube 2 doesn’t cut it.
I just took apart my i2 the other day. It was my first printer, and it was kinda decent sometimes and sucked others. I wouldn’t recommend the printer as something reliable. That may have been my inexperience, or the controller board I used. The RAMPS 1.4 had some issues with the heated bed. I got a few good parts out of it, but most of it was just kinda meh.
It was my first printer , I add a RUMBA Board , heated bed and e3d v6, if I change the bowden extruding part it will work fine .^^
Seriusly it prints great parts if you mod the half of the printer .
The original head every time stuck the filament cause They didn’t add fans to the very little heat sink.
I have the version without the new extruder .
I’d try something newer, easier to build and more stable. The makerfarm i3v (based on prusa i3) might be a good one.
I have an i2, and they were good in their day. Just labor intensive to build and maintain compared to newer models.
@Galen_Kemp you are going the right route going for a reprap. I would suggest an I3 if you want to stay with the prusas. It goes down a lot to what you want to spend. There was a post a couple of days ago about an aluminum extrusion ultimaker 2 on here or you could go the route of something like a smartrap. No matter what I would opt for something newer than the I2
I don’t know why the I2 appealed to me, but it did. I was eyeing off the I3 as well and would happily settle for that.
The time it would take to build wasn’t an issue for me, that’s half the fun I believe. It’s very frustrating to be limited with the Cube 2 in regards to tinkering with it. I have successfully made a bypass for the need of cartridges, but run into a problem regarding the quality of prints.
Ideally I want a machine that performs really well, that I can modify and adjust if need be.
@Griffin_Paquette an extrusion based UM2 clone sounds awesome. I’ll have to look into that. @Galen_Kemp Smartrap is another great idea, either the original smartrap or the newer wood box corexy like smartrap core.
@Eric_Duprey is right. I forgot about the smart core. I would go with that over the smartrap. It doesn’t seem to be a hard build and seems to print well.
And Eric yeah it is awesome looking. If you want I can send you the link to the UM2
I really like my Sells Mendel and my Prusa i2, but they are definitely height constrained. The original Sells Mendel extruder was designed to be short and mounted sideways… soon after we all upgraded to a geared extruder and mounted that at a 90° angle to what we used to, and suddenly the extruder was a big obstacle - it hit the diagonal bars.
I still very much like both, but I do pine for more print height. i3 or Taz provide this, but unfortunately require weird vitamin pieces (that frame or those extruded aluminum rails).
The TAZ is really nice btw.
The i2 is okay, I’ve printed hundreds of hours on it. But quality wise the mendel90 have outperformed it in every single aspect.
I have rebuilt my first wooden sells Mendel with i2 parts, and I think it will perform fine, though the max speed will be limited.